3D Printer

[Jareth]

With my 30 year career with Creo and SolidWorks some might have thought I might have already had a 3D printer, but it was not until yesterday that I got one
It’s a Creality Ender 3 V2, it only has a “220 X 220 X 250“ print area so if I want to make some of the larger parts I will need to learn about the tolerance it’s capable of in creating dovetail joints.

Here is a quick sample. Not so sure about quick though, it took 3 hours.

 

[r3drckt]

I got the ender 3 pro a few months ago to make parts. Still learning my way through solidworks (gotta love their military discount on their full software suite). Hard to remember all of the capabilities even with their tutorials and the training classes available on Udemy (paid for by the Air Force).

If you don’t have one yet, I highly recommend a BT Touch to auto level your bed. It was a huge PITA to get it setup (and I gave up for a week) but finally got it working and it has made all of my PLA prints work like a dream.

 

[Jareth]

Yes I already have a BT Auto level on it’s way, I think I spent two hours messing with trying it get the bed perfectly level.

My issue maybe was with the ABS material I bought?
.

 

[r3drckt]

Nah manually leveling is a huge pain. I did the same thing as you and you can never get it just right it seems. I got it close and then let the auto level just detect the rest. The creality slicer also sucks. And all of the guides online on installing the BL Touch are next to useless because they utilize the old v1 board with the extra pins to code. I ended up following a guide on YouTube that provided the Marlin firmware with the needed coding for the ender 3 pro. He had links to the other firmware as well that he compiled for other versions of the ender series.

 

[r3drckt]

And using the firmware with BLTouch firmware from the Creality website didn’t work for me either. I turned it on after doing the update and it kept trying to go past the X axis stop and just kept clicking

 

[Peregrinus]

Yes I already have a BT Auto level on it’s way, I think I spent two hours messing with trying it get the bed perfectly level.

My issue maybe was with the ABS material I bought?
.

Abs is hard to work with in general, my cousin has been 3d printing for about a year now and he still has issues, I know alot of guys make full enclosures for the printer because even a cool breeze from a central air unit can mess up abs prints

 

[r3drckt]

Yea that's a huge drawback of the Ender series as it's open frame. Printing in the winter has been difficult to say the least.

 

[Jareth]

The few horror stories of houses burning down steered me into also purchasing a fire resistance enclosure that will keep the enclosed area nice and warm

.

 

[jamesm]

In my experience, if your bed needs enough adjustments that you need an auto leveler, you have other problems.

For ABS, you will most likely need an enclosure to maintain the air temps.

If you are looking for a better quality slicer, look at Simplify3d. It’s a little pricy but it is sooooo much better than any other slicer I’ve used in the last 15 years....

 

[Jareth]

In my experience, if your bed needs enough adjustments that you need an auto leveler, you have other problems.

Thanks, I’ll take a look at Simplify3d.

Only problem I have is inexperience, the bed I’m sure is fine

 

[CodyP]

Definitely need an enclosure for abs as others have said, but there are other superior filaments out there that are easier to print with. Abs is kind of outdated. Polymide CoPA for 1 is a great high heat durable filament. There are a few upgrades that can take your printer from ordinary to extraordinary many of which you can actually print on the printer. In order off the top of my head for the more or less "best" upgrades:

1) Raspberry pi to run octoprint - buy pi and print case (also a camera to go with this)
2) BLTOUCH auto bed leveler -buy probe and print mount
3) Glass be - Borosilicate is the best because it can handle going from hot to cold and vise versa quickly- buy
4) Upgraded hotend- I went with the dragon because it's an upgraded version of the e3d v6 with single handed tool change. You need this if you're printing abs or materials that require high heat. Look up all metal hotend. - buy hotend, print mount
5) Upgraded extruder -I went with a BMG extruder clone - buy
6) Upgraded main board if yours doesn't already have it-buy
7) zaxis motor spacer -print
8) z axis knob - print
9) cable chains - print
10) better bed level springs/knobs -buy
11) LED lighting- buy/print
12) Upgraded hotend fan and part cooling ducts - this can fall anywhere in the middle depending on your upgrades

There's tons of stuff out there that makes prints better and easier. It's not included in the instructions but look up assembling the ender 3 correctly and all about the eccentric nuts on your gantry. Most people overlook this and have trouble with the first layer. You've got to make sure your x axis bar is perfectly level with your bed or you'll always have issues with leveling. Once you see a video showing how to do it right you'll want to take your printer back apart and put it together correctly. Octoprint let's you visually see how level your bed is with bedvisualizer. 3 hours seems like a long print at first. Give it a month or so and that'll seem like a heartbeat. Ha!

 

[OptimizePrime]

If your bed is 300x300 you can use an ikea mirror to use as a level bed. Bump your bed temps an extra 10deg to make up for it and you'll be good to go. Use a glue stick for adhesion and windex to clean up

Mirror + BLTouch is about as good as it can get

 

[Waterdriver]

Add a micro swiss all metal hotend. It will expand your capability to print materials that are stronger and can withstand higher temps. Decrease your retraction to prevent jamming in the heat break.
Material brands can make a big difference on successful prints, ABS being a difficult one to use.
Try PTEG. Its typically as easy to print as PLA but has higher strength and heat resistance properties.
I've tried several brands and using Zyltech prints pretty well and inexpensive. Low to no part cooling fan for best results. A little stringing but good layer adhesion.