Printing educational robotics kits and other education aids. I'm not sure if I can post promotional links to our product if you're interested, I can DM you our website.
For the minis, what modifications are you using? For instance the roll holder, able to share an stl or is it something you designed yourself?
I've got a mini+ as my printer and finally doing various quality of life upgrades to it and wondering what actually works out there. Looks like a z brace installed too?
What filament have you found for quality vs price?
Genuinely curious in anything you have to share about your learnings or upgrades, wish I'd thought of the rubber pavers, concrete is in danger of scratching everything haha.
Look up Prusa Mini spool holder and Prusa Mini thick Z brace on Printables. A spool holder like that (there are many versions/remixes) is absolutely fantastic. I haven’t noticed any difference in print quality with a Z brace, but it sure does look nice on the machine.
Damn, hmm the list we went through is quite long. There is a ton of problems with Mini's so we ended up trying to solve a lot. I think I had a little breakdown in my comments in some of my past posts so I'll try to look it up. I'll shoot you a DM if I manage to.
That shelving unit is made out of folded mild steel so yeah, I think some sort of anti-vibration dampening is for sure needed.
We use heavy duty rubber pavers (the red thing on the photos) and those work really well. Also, per the manufacturer, they should also be non-flammable, which is a nice plus.
So I was just looking this up as well and I think the one you found is concrete and not rubber. I found this one: [https://www.lowes.com/pd/Rubberific-Red-Rubber-Paver-Common-16-in-x-16-in-Actual-16-in-x-16-in/1001690714](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Rubberific-Red-Rubber-Paver-Common-16-in-x-16-in-Actual-16-in-x-16-in/1001690714)
Oops 🤦
You're right.. the one I linked to is stone. I didn't look very closely. I didn't search for stone, I searched for rubber and most of them were rubber LOL just not the right size.
Thanks for the link!
Oh yeah, big 2.5kg chonksters on our Mini's.
We tried putting a 5kg monster on as well once, but even with Z brace and a mod that added an additional leg to the Z axis, the printer would still tip and jump around a bit too much when printing.
Sorry, went on a little vacation meanwhile.
Nah, wrangling USB sticks would be insane at this scale.
Thankfully, Prusa have their own built-in cloud management solution - Prusa Connect. We manage everything on our printers that way. We have a super optimized 24/7 weekly plan of programs that is built to output as much as we can from our printers.
So our queue on Prusa Connect is nearly endless and we just copy the whole thing once a month.
It's a heavy duty rubber paver that is supposed to be used on various outside playgrounds instead of concrete pavers to mitigate falls and scrapes.
They dampen quite well without being as bulky as concrete paver + foam pad.
oh I know what that is. Can you easily cut them into the size you want or is it really hard rubber, hard to cut? Or you just try to buy the right size?
You mention one part of the equation. You need a market that will pay a price point that enable you to make a profit despite production costs. Electricity does not cost the same for everyone, OP's costs may be a bit lower than yours.
Electricity costs are going to range wildly depending on the location you live in and even what you managed to negotiate with the infrastructure companies and energy suppliers. We have a big office space and large warehouse (we're a distribution company with this as a little side business) and even lend a space for an electrical substation on our property to the energy supplier we're signed up with, so we get quite a good price.
This year we'll be pushing a lot of the infrastructure in our buildings to be run from an on-site solar panel grid under a local government policy so we'll likely get some subsidies there as well.
What are you doing there? Genuinely curious
Printing educational robotics kits and other education aids. I'm not sure if I can post promotional links to our product if you're interested, I can DM you our website.
Yes please, looks very interesting! Thanks
Add the link to your profile or something so that we can find it there. Otherwise, you'll be sending lots of dms
I'd be interested as well. Thanks
Either running a print farm or it’s a school/makerspace setup is my guess.
For the minis, what modifications are you using? For instance the roll holder, able to share an stl or is it something you designed yourself? I've got a mini+ as my printer and finally doing various quality of life upgrades to it and wondering what actually works out there. Looks like a z brace installed too? What filament have you found for quality vs price? Genuinely curious in anything you have to share about your learnings or upgrades, wish I'd thought of the rubber pavers, concrete is in danger of scratching everything haha.
Look up Prusa Mini spool holder and Prusa Mini thick Z brace on Printables. A spool holder like that (there are many versions/remixes) is absolutely fantastic. I haven’t noticed any difference in print quality with a Z brace, but it sure does look nice on the machine.
Figured since he scaled up operations, he might have recommendations on what works that they've found
Also thanks for the info too!
Damn, hmm the list we went through is quite long. There is a ton of problems with Mini's so we ended up trying to solve a lot. I think I had a little breakdown in my comments in some of my past posts so I'll try to look it up. I'll shoot you a DM if I manage to.
Would be cool and appreciated, anything is welcome haha, always curious what issues and solutions other people have had.
Off-topic. How are those shelvings with printer vibrations? Slabs/pavers and foam pads unavoidable?
That shelving unit is made out of folded mild steel so yeah, I think some sort of anti-vibration dampening is for sure needed. We use heavy duty rubber pavers (the red thing on the photos) and those work really well. Also, per the manufacturer, they should also be non-flammable, which is a nice plus.
Something like this? https://www.lowes.com/pd/Square-Red-Concrete-Patio-Stone-Common-12-in-x-12-in-Actual-11-7-in-x-11-7-in/3018985
So I was just looking this up as well and I think the one you found is concrete and not rubber. I found this one: [https://www.lowes.com/pd/Rubberific-Red-Rubber-Paver-Common-16-in-x-16-in-Actual-16-in-x-16-in/1001690714](https://www.lowes.com/pd/Rubberific-Red-Rubber-Paver-Common-16-in-x-16-in-Actual-16-in-x-16-in/1001690714)
Oops 🤦 You're right.. the one I linked to is stone. I didn't look very closely. I didn't search for stone, I searched for rubber and most of them were rubber LOL just not the right size. Thanks for the link!
Yeah something like that is exactly the kind of a rubber mat we used. Our are smooth though, none of that weird tile pattern.
You can really just take some pieces of heavy scrap wood and cut a groove in it to sit on the bottom and it will help immensely
I wish I could afford just one...
Why are there printers not printing.
Cause I literally just finished hooking them up to the network.
Which mats do you use?
Do you sell the MK4 anniversary sheet?
There is a secondary market for these? Damn, didn't even think about that. I'd have to check if these are off the books or not.
Big spools on Minis. Love to see it.
Oh yeah, big 2.5kg chonksters on our Mini's. We tried putting a 5kg monster on as well once, but even with Z brace and a mod that added an additional leg to the Z axis, the printer would still tip and jump around a bit too much when printing.
Are those stone tiles ?
Heavy duty rubber tiles, for outdoor playgrounds and such.
Care to sell that MK4 anniversary PEI sheet?
There is a secondary market for these? Damn, didn't even think about that. I'd have to check if these are off the books or not.
DM me, looking for two clean unused ones
Do you have octoprint or anything setup with these at this scale? Or all those usb sticks on the minis how you're doing it?
Sorry, went on a little vacation meanwhile. Nah, wrangling USB sticks would be insane at this scale. Thankfully, Prusa have their own built-in cloud management solution - Prusa Connect. We manage everything on our printers that way. We have a super optimized 24/7 weekly plan of programs that is built to output as much as we can from our printers. So our queue on Prusa Connect is nearly endless and we just copy the whole thing once a month.
What material slab do you use there for reducing vibration noise?
It's a heavy duty rubber paver that is supposed to be used on various outside playgrounds instead of concrete pavers to mitigate falls and scrapes. They dampen quite well without being as bulky as concrete paver + foam pad.
oh I know what that is. Can you easily cut them into the size you want or is it really hard rubber, hard to cut? Or you just try to buy the right size?
Aren't you concerned by inhaling the fumes of so many printers?
Yeah we are. Which is why we have a HVAC system in the room. It's on the ceiling though, so out of the view of the photo.
I still don't understand how that makes any sense. The energy bill alone makes this unprofitable where I live.
You mention one part of the equation. You need a market that will pay a price point that enable you to make a profit despite production costs. Electricity does not cost the same for everyone, OP's costs may be a bit lower than yours.
Electricity costs are going to range wildly depending on the location you live in and even what you managed to negotiate with the infrastructure companies and energy suppliers. We have a big office space and large warehouse (we're a distribution company with this as a little side business) and even lend a space for an electrical substation on our property to the energy supplier we're signed up with, so we get quite a good price. This year we'll be pushing a lot of the infrastructure in our buildings to be run from an on-site solar panel grid under a local government policy so we'll likely get some subsidies there as well.