[Closed] Typical Machine Lifespan  

Re: Typical Machine Lifespan

My XYZ printer needed a small repair after 1340 hours, another one is running fine at 1220 hours, but am guessing it might need the same repair.

I have read many people print a lot with the Prusa.

Let me try to get this question answered? How many hours do you have on you Prusa I3 mk2, mk2s or mk3?

Re: Typical Machine Lifespan

Let me try to get this question answered? How many hours do you have on you Prusa I3 mk2, mk2s or mk3?

Too many thousands of hours to count. 3 years 24/7. You do the math. But I really don't think the Prusa is for you.

Peter

Re: Typical Machine Lifespan

I guess I should add to my question, does the PRUSA track total hours printing ?

And again how many hours did it print for you before you had to change parts ?

Re: Typical Machine Lifespan

I guess I should add to my question, does the PRUSA track total hours printing ?

Yes. And No.

And again how many hours did it print for you before you had to change parts ?

No idea, although I can tell you that it was a lot longer that my Chinese i3, which was basically DoA and required some soldering on the board before it would work. But really, this is not the printer for you. There would be way too much fussing around. This is only a hobby machine, and you are obviously looking for some professional kit.

For some of us, the tinkering is fun.

Peter

Re: Typical Machine Lifespan

I guess I should add to my question, does the PRUSA track total hours printing ?

The MK2 (at least) tracks hours of usage if printing from the SD card. If printing via USB (for example, using OctoPrint) you'll want to use the PrintHistory plugin.

And again how many hours did it print for you before you had to change parts ?

I've only got 700 hours on my printer over the last year or so. I'm using the IGUS RJ4JP bushings on my MK2. It is time to replace them.

The latest version of the Prusa Printing Handbook has some good guidance in chapter 12 regarding maintenance.

https://www.prusa3d.com/downloads/manual/prusa3d_manual_mk3_en_3_03.pdf?2

John

Re: Typical Machine Lifespan

John, thank you for the information. It is very helpful.

Re: Typical Machine Lifespan

Thanks to John, and his posting of a link to the manual, and a little reading, I found out that the printer I ordered will give me a total time of Printing. So now my challenge to everyone reading this, is to see how many hours you have on your printer, and post it here.

I'm curious what I can expect from this wonderful printer that will be here in 5 to 6 weeks. 🙂

Re: Typical Machine Lifespan

Unfortunately, the machine stats can be off or reset. After a firmware update, mine jumped to 75 days of printing (got it in late March) and about 2.7Km of material. The material is close, but I haven't run the printer that much.

Re: Typical Machine Lifespan

Unfortunately, earlier firmwares did not have this facility and when they did, they only recorded prints via SD card, and then firmware upgrades cleared the stats and nobody really knows anymore 🙁

Peter

Re: Typical Machine Lifespan

Assuming my firmware has always been recent enough to keep accurate logs, I just passed 2000 hours.

My Y-Axis bearings are gone; way past gone. Interestingly, I added a rubberband tensioner and print quality, despite rattling bearings, improved to like new performance. I will be adding a better tensioner solution when I replace my 4 row bearings with 6 row bearings this weekend. No more degradation over time.

Tensioner is simple: a rubberband from a corner of the platen to a bearing running on the right slide bar; the idea is to keep a constant torque on the plater so it can't rotate or jiggle as the load bearings and rods wear.

X-Axis and Z-Axis bearings appear to be okay. I will be disassembling sufficient to inspect and add real grease to the balls and rotate the rods 45 degrees. Going with a moly-base rather than lithium base. It should help with any rod wear.

ps: After a few minutes of looking, seems a Synthetic PTFE grease might be better... lol. So many choices.

RE: Typical Machine Lifespan

Peter,

Thanks for your reply, I have found several things about Prusa that tells me you are right, and wrong. the hour counter is full of S%$^, the quality of the prints is so much better than my XYZ printers. And the color change is better than me timing when to feed the second color 🙂 :). 

The Prusa is easier to take apart to fix, but why do I need to fix it so much?

Who wants to do the mk3 to mk3s upgrade? I do, but will wait,so it can't see all the filaments I use. Might buy a monoprice to use up old filament rolls.

PRUSA love to hate it, but what else is there? PRUSA is like marriage, one day everything is fine, the next day the police are taking you to jail for assault.

RE: Typical Machine Lifespan

My machine has over 1600 hours and going strong.  I have had to replace the power supply (free upgrade) and extruder (jam).