3. Prusa i3 Mk3 use & maintenance

The best printer in the world will eventually drift out of spec far enough to impact your prints. It’s important to master basic care and maintenance for consistent print results.

These notes are focused on care and maintenance of the Prusa i3 Mk3-series printer. I am using the original i3 Mk3 hardware configuration. Most of these notes apply to later versions with minor exceptions.

Note

These notes are based on my experiences with the Prusa i3 Mk3 and Artillery/Evnovo Sidewinder X1 printers. If you are using a different printer, please verify the hardware details are similar.

Prusa i3 Mk3 3D printer use, maintenance & cleaning

• 3.1. Troubleshooting extruder and hotend problems
  • 3.1.1. Common symptoms
  • 3.1.2. Overview of the Prusa i3 Mk3 extruder and hotend
  • 3.1.3. Common extruder and hotend problems
  • 3.1.4. Hardware and mechanical extruder and hotend problems
  • 3.1.5. Slicer settings
  • 3.1.6. Heat problems
• Clearing filament jams on the Prusa i3 Mk3
• 3.2. Troubleshooting bed adhesion
  • 3.2.1. Causes of poor bed adhesion and first-layer problems
• 3.3. Cleaning the PEI flex steel print sheet
  • 3.3.1. Understanding the PEI sheet and adhesion
  • 3.3.2. The riddle of adhesion
  • 3.3.3. A touch too much
  • 3.3.4. Cleaning the PEI print surface
  • 3.3.5. How do I know my PEI surface is clean?
  • 3.3.6. Cleaning materials
  • 3.3.7. Dealing with over-adhesion
  • 3.3.8. Testing bed adhesion
  • 3.3.9. Part removal
• 3.4. Live Z calibration
  • 3.4.1. Understanding Live-Z
  • 3.4.2. First layer, Live-Z, and print startup sequence
  • 3.4.3. Understanding Automatic Mesh Bed leveling
  • 3.4.4. Mastering Live-Z calibration
  • 3.4.5. Calibrating Live-Z
  • 3.4.6. Variations on the Live-Z calibration print
  • 3.4.7. Other tips
• 3.5. Dialing in printer settings
  • 3.5.1. Printer calibration
  • 3.5.2. Extruder Calibration
  • 3.5.3. First layer calibration
  • 3.5.4. Filament calibration
  • 3.5.5. Test prints
• 3.6. Changing nozzles
  • 3.6.1. Recommended tools
  • 3.6.2. Preparing for the nozzle swap
  • 3.6.3. Old nozzle removal
  • 3.6.4. New nozzle prep
  • 3.6.5. New nozzle installation
  • 3.6.6. Live-Z recalibration
• 3.7. About the PINDA warmup procedure
• 3.8. Why you don't want to use a Rasbperry Pi Zero with OctoPrint on the Prusa i3 Mk3

See also

• The Prusa blog entry on Prusa i3 3D printer maintenance

• The Prusa blog entry on Mk3 troubleshooting

• Calibrating hotend maximum volumetric rate

Contact and feedback

You can find me on the Prusa support forums or Reddit where I lurk in many of the 3D printing-related subreddits. I occasionally drop into the Official Prusa 3D discord server where I can be reached as bobstro (bobstro#9830). You can email me directly at projects@ttlexceeded.com.

Last edited Aug 30, 2021. Last build on Oct 22, 2021.