A while ago I had an Ender 3 Pro which I upgraded with a BL-Touch and self-printed parts. It worked great and was reliable but not something I would call plug and play.
Is there a clone that’s relatively plug and play? I don’t mind assembling but don’t want constant readjustments.
Not really. You’re talking about mass produced versus direct production. The real value is in the software. While it is possible to find excellent devs to hire as subcontractors, they are very expensive and only work for a short time on products that are mass produced. As soon as they check all the required boxes they are done and get paid. The schedule is rushed, the requirements are poorly constrained and stupid changes get made in the middle. This is what all mass produced goods are like in practice. It isn’t about a company or product. It is only about profit. Direct production involves full time staff for everything. The devs don’t get paid as much as subcontractors, but given enough time there is no comparison. A full time dev can polish and tune their work orders of magnitude better than what goes into mass produced junk. The software is where all of the really polish comes from. Comparing hardware specs is a fallacy promoted by a mass produced goods culture. I have both types of printers, there is no comparison between my MK3S and KP3S
I understand where you’re coming from, but I can’t justify paying the Prusa tax lol. Don’t get me wrong, I would consider getting one, but my usage just isn’t that high.
Regarding your development point, there are several open-source projects like Marlin or Klipper that are free to use for 3D printers. Even Prusa uses a variation of Marlin as the base for their firmware, though they modify it to fit the needs of their printers.
I’m not entirely sure about this one but couldn’t they simply use Prusa’s firmware if its a 1-1 clone, eliminating the need for additional development costs?
Prusa constantly updates their stuff and it is often pushing the limits of the hardware. This has made every cut price clone obsolete by the time they come to market. This is a moving target. That is the business strategy to avoid clones trying to undercut Prusa. The clones also have no resale value just like all of the mass produced junk and even more so for proprietary. You actually own a Prusa, even the right to buy or sell it second hand. You own it for life and no one can take that away. It is the lowest depreciating option you will find. From that perspective, it is the cheapest option you can buy.
Marlin, RepRap, and Klipper are just baselines. If you’re doing one yourself Klipper is the only way that makes sense. It is a ton of work. This is like saying "I have a broken down Mercedes and I can get a Chevy 350 crate engine for $1500. The amount of time and effort in between those two are far more than anyone realizes without experience. The results speak for themselves when you look at how many people have prusas and actually use them to print things that are not printer hacks.
Klipper literally took me 15 minutes to set up wtf are you even on? I’ve used prusas and many other printers with klipper or marlin and honestly I like Prusa the least. The price makes no difference to me, and I don’t need “support”. I’m not some moron buying something I don’t know how to use. So maybe for someone who has no clue what they’re doing and wants to set something up quick / have every answer spoonfed to them, Prusa is the way to go. But frankly, the only good thing about Prusa is their slicer. And the forks are better than the stock slicer anyways.
Prusa is not as good as it used to be. I can get prusa clones for 1/5 the price that perform exactly the same.
Even configuring klipper firmwares for my custom voron builds doesn’t take too long…
Dude it’s not that serious.
But lets compare:
The price for a MK3S+ just by itself is 719€
The Sovol SV-06 costs 228€
Prusa constantly updates their stuff and it is often pushing the limits of the hardware. This has made every cut price clone obsolete by the time they come to market. This is a moving target. That is the business strategy to avoid clones trying to undercut Prusa.
If I can get last years “flagship” for a fraction of the price I’m going to choose the Sovol.
