Prusa Core One

Background

I’d bought a Creality Ender 3 Pro during COVID, and it was one of my most fulfilling projects. Upgrading the components, hooking it up to Octoprint, replacing the main board after some terminals melted, custom firmware, etc. I found all the work to be extremely fulfilling. I think it was this crux of “there’s real world fundamentals I’m learning” and “there’s actual utitility here in the parts I’m printing”. Unfortunately, the printer did not make the move to Boston. In the interim, I had time to reflect on what I wanted for my next printer. Working on the printer was fun, but it detracted from the overall goal I believe FDM is heading: printers as common household items, making functional parts, no different in ubiquity than a drill or a socket set. Looking for high-quality printers “that just work”, there’s two main options: Bambu and Prusa. Prusa immediately appealed to me. They’re right at the interseciton of “people who want to tinker and deeply understand their tools” and “people who want printers that work extremelly well”. I’m not a fan of Bambu’s attempt to form a “walled-garden” ecosystem, and the fact that their printers are not meant to be disassembled, repaired, tinkered with in the way Prusa printers are. It was a price delta worth paying IMO.

Kit Assembly

The kit came in one giant box, and took me about 1 week to complete. This was by no means a race, as I took my time between other obligations to do 1-2 works max per day. I’m extremely glad that I chose to do the kit vs the fully assembled printer, as the time investment of assembly is a huge payoff in understanding how to fid the printer moving forward.

Results

The Prusa Core One is honestly such a workhorse. Being able to spend my time designing parts instead of tinkering with the printer itself has made the printer into what I think FDM should eventually become for everyone: a product, not a project.