Rest in Peace, my poor Ol’ Prusa Mendel…

Unfortunately, I have some bad news concerning my Prusa Mendel 3D printer…

On May12th, 2012, my poor old Prusa Mendel is officially no longer working as a 3D printer and it’s electronics have been salvage for better things (like Bukobot prototypes).

The Early Days

Born on October 30th, 2011 (arrived by FedEx from MakerGear), my Prusa Mendel was the first 3D printer to fuel a new chapter in my life. Since my early days of 3D printing, my Prusa Mendel has been at my side, printing out useless things…and some actually useful things.

It was an exciting struggle for it to become the great 3D printer it was and it took some special finess to teach it how to extrude awesome plastics and then print out some cool 3D objects.

As we had our good days and bad, my trusty Prusa Mendel taught me that my only limitations for creating cool things was my imagination and a supply of plastics. So with this new found freedom and inspiration of new ideas, we decided to give life to a better printer…the Bukobot.

Unfortunately, this was the beginning of the end for my Prusa Mendel. As the Bukobot prototype started to take shape from the great plastic parts that my Prusa Mendel so delicately printed out, it wasn’t looking good for her and jealously was just around the corner.

My first Bukobot prototype next to it’s mother, the Prusa Mendel

The Bukobot was getting better and the design was getting more refined with every week that would pass by. After a few months, a couple more Bukobots were born with the help of my Prusa Mendel…and now the new Bukobot prototype, side by side. Soon after, the Prusa Mendel was slowly abondoned into the dark corner of the shop and was only called upon once in a while to do some PLA plastic work.

As the “Great Maker Faire” approached, time was not a lurxury and I needed my Prusa Mendel to sacrifice a few parts of herself to help prepare some prototypes for the event. Without hesitation (didn’t have a choice anyways) she gave up her best parts when needed. One thing led to an other and before long, my Prusa Mendel was crippled of it’s soul and electronics…

And so a few days ago, I had to declare my old trusty Prusa Mendel as expired… so sad…

Sorry to see you go my trusty ol’ Prusa Mendel 3D printer, I’m going to miss your cute triangles.

…OK, enough about the Prusa Mendel, but I hope you enjoyed the little story, it is true you know…

Since my new Bukobots have been working so great and been so reliable, they are the only source of my parts now!

The Bukobots are now officially my only 3D printers and they are working like crazy printing out all my parts. Evolution is such a cool thing! The Bukobots are here!