I would have a hard time recommending a 12" i3V. I have easily spent another few $100 on mine to get it to print well, not including the time and frustration of it all.

IMO here are a few things you will need to do at a minimum to make it print well.

1. Get an aluminum Y bed.

2. Swap the mechanical heat bed relay to a solid state relay and enable PID to combat heat bed warping and or replace the entire heat bed assembly with something more rigid.

3. Make alternative mounts for the Axis home switches and mount then with something other than Zip ties.

4. Purchase and print the parts for auto bed leveling, otherwise you will constantly fight with Z homing issues.

5. Reinforce or replace some of the wooden frame parts with aluminum to combat frame warpage/flexing.

The makerfarm experience almost turned me away from 3d printing because of all the issues that I had with it. As I have said in other threads I know that a 3d printer kit will need some tinkering to get it to print well but IMO if you assemble the kit properly based off the instructions you should end up with a printer that prints fairly well using the parts that came with the kit. That wasn't the case for me and being inexperienced with 3d printing it has taken me 8 or 9 months to get this thing to finally produce good prints.

From what others say it seems like the smaller i3v printers don't suffer from many of the issues that the 12" printer does so maybe you would want to go with a smaller version and after you have a good grasp on 3d printing and tuning upgrade to the larger one.

But my suggestion is if you can swing the extra cost would be to buy a pre-made printer that you can pull out of the box plug in, install filament and start printing with. Once you have a working printer you can always use it to start building a larger printer.

Quote Originally Posted by tfast500 View Post
So I am new to 3D printing and would love to get one soon. I am very interested in the 10" or 12" Makerfarm Prusa Kits because of the build volume. Most printers I have found come no where close to the size / costs. Keep In mind I only started looking. I have skimmed these forums and see that there is a decent community for these printers also another plus to me.

Since I am completely new to this can I get some recommendations. I want to know if there are differences in performance between the 10 and 12 inch kits. (What do you have and what would you buy if you where buying a new one? Different brand of printer?)

Also this kit gives me other options to choose from however not knowing anything about each option im not sure if it is necessary or what I need for my prints. I plan to create many things for my RPi and my RC hobbies.

Options:
Interface: Full graphical interface vs standard is this necessary? what about RAMPS vs RUMBA? The price difference isn't an issue if its better.

Nozzels: 40mm e3d-v6 Hot end, J-Head Nozzle, Hexagon Nozzle (no clue how any of these perform I assume I would upgrade this over anything else?)

Extruder: Standard Greg's Hinged Extruder (1.75mm & 3mm Filament) - just going with the standard on this one

Aluminum or Wood Heat Bed Mount - I also assume I should just upgrade this also since I have read about warping wood beds.

Any help suggestions or comments would definitely be appreciated or if you think I am in over my head please reply