We had an exciting addition to the showroom this month, the Prusa Core One!
So the print of the month is a brilliant excuse to give it a good run! Lets be honest, we have all seen a Prusa print PLA before, but seeing as the Core One is a fully enclosed machine, what I really wanted to know was how well it handled higher temperature materials. So for this month's print of the month, I decided to solve a problem in the warehouse, and design some scanner belt clips that I could make out of ABS and give the Prusa a good test.
The idea behind this project was that I wanted to come up with a solution for when picking orders and managing stock in the warehouse. It's often a pain to always have a scanner in your hand when lifting boxes and moving things around. This means you're always having to put the scanner down to do anything and once you have put it down, it's easy to forget where you have put it or get it mixed up with a scanner that someone else is using. So I thought the idea of making a clip that can be used to clip the scanner to your belt or the trolley you are using so it's always at hand when you need it and less likely to be misplaced would be a nice easy fix for the problem. I also thought it would be a good idea to make each clip out of a different colour, so that it's easy to tell which scanner is the one you were last logged into if you do ever need to put it down.
So with this in mind, I designed this simple clip to attach to the back of the scanner that can be used to quickly attach the scanner to your belt or a trolley and only uses a small amount of filament. The design only took a few minutes to make and was pretty simple and effective.
With the design finished, it was over to the Core one.
I'll be honest, I've never been much of a fan of Prusia machines, but I wanted to go into this with an open mind and honestly, I was quite pleasantly surprised. In terms of first impressions, I really like the style and build quality of the core one, it's a very nice machine. The user experience is very good, and general use of the machine feels great. The slicer software is good, although takes a bit of getting used to if you are more used to other slicers, but once you have got your head around the layout I can see why people like it so much. I wanted to use the Copymaster ABS, which isn't pre-supported in Prusa slicer, so I just used the generic ABS profile and only made minor changes and the results speak for themselves. The print quality of this machine is really fantastic for how little effort it took. I sent the print to the printer over wifi, which was a simple process as you would expect. There are a few features that I quite liked for the core one on higher temperature materials. Such as, when you start the print, as the core one does not have a heated enclosure, the printer will heat the bed first and allow the internal temperature to warm up. This ensures the ambient temperature is nice and warm inside before the print starts. The downside to this, is that it can take quite a while to actually start the print, but it does mean you're guaranteeing good quality as the printer wont start printing until it knows it's at the correct temperature. This is unlike similar machines of other brands, which tend to start straight away and if you want to warm the printer up first, you would need to do this manually. When the print did start, the first layer went down great and I found while it was printing that the Prusa is surprisingly quiet for how fast it is, which was a pleasant suprise. When the print was finished, the parts came off the bed nice and easily once it had a chance to cool down, and all that was left was to swap the filament over, print one of each colour and try them out on the scanner.
So, what's the verdict I hear you ask?
- Has the core one changed my opinion on Prusa machines?
Yes I think it has, the overall quality and user experience is brilliant.
- Would I have a core one?
Yes I think I would. If someone were to give me a core one and say that's your printer now for the next year at least, and I couldn't use anything else, I think I would be quite happy with it.
- Would I recommend a core one to a customer?
Absolutely! If someone asked me about them I would be very confident in recommending this machine both for beginners and experienced users providing their budget and requirements suited this machine, and it's definitely an option I would suggest to people in future.
- Is it good value for money? Or would I spend my own money to get one?
That…. Is a more complicated question.
One of my oldest reservations with Prusa machines is they are a bit overpriced for what you get, and the core one is better but still really no different. Finding a fast machine with a similar build volume and specifications these days is not uncommon around the £400 - £900 price range depending on features. So £1,138.50 does seem excessive. It is undoubtedly better than any machine at the lower end of that price range, but when you get to around £800, there really does not seem to be much that separates the core one from the competition and I really struggle to see where that extra £200 is going other than the brand name.
So is the strong Prusa pedigree enough to make the core one worth it? I guess that's a question only you and your bank balance can answer.