modi123
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2006
- Messages
- 7,694
I picked up a: SainSmart x Creality Ender-3 PRO 3D Printer from woot over black Friday. Figured the entry price point was low enough for me to tinker with, and not something I would be angry at if I left on the curb. ($155)
Assembled it over Christmas, and have been dickering with it ever since.
Upgrades to it:
- Creality 3d upgrade kit of new springs, better tube couplers, metal extruder, and capricorn tubing. ($20)
- BIGTREETECH SKR Mini E3 V1.2 (new main board) ($35)
All the upgrades have gone in.. the mainboard has better firmware support and silent steppers so a plus.
The springs were super to keeping the manual bed leveling less of an issue, couplers to keep the tube in, metal extruder because the plastic one will wear out with filament rubbing on it, and tubing for heat/retraction issues.
I also picked up some digital calipers and ferrules crimper but the latter was overkill as the pro's power supply and mainboard were pretty rock solid.
I use Cura for my slicer. Never thought how much time it sucks to print. .that may be the death of my love for this project.
https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura
My boss picked up a Sovol3d on his friend's recommendations. It has a lot of nice upgrades for an Ender3 over mine, and wouldn't be a bad entry model.
https://sovol3d.com/collections/3d-printers/products/sovol-sv01-direct-drive-extrusion-3d-printers
After a lot of futzing, swearing, and drinks I think I have this thing tuned in for PLA. The cube and level verifier helped quite a bit.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1278865
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3235018
Oh geeze, and yes.. CALIBRATE THOSE ESTEPS! That seemed to be the last blocker to get this really humming.
https://letsprint3d.net/how-to-calibrate-the-extruder-steps-ender-3-5-cr-10/
Things I've printed:
The makerbot fidget gear was especially a great moment. After failure and failure and more failure I finally have things tuned enough withing tolerance to print functional gears - in their housing! Super neat.
I am off to inspect 'OpenCad' to see what I can come up with on my own.
Assembled it over Christmas, and have been dickering with it ever since.
Upgrades to it:
- Creality 3d upgrade kit of new springs, better tube couplers, metal extruder, and capricorn tubing. ($20)
- BIGTREETECH SKR Mini E3 V1.2 (new main board) ($35)
All the upgrades have gone in.. the mainboard has better firmware support and silent steppers so a plus.
The springs were super to keeping the manual bed leveling less of an issue, couplers to keep the tube in, metal extruder because the plastic one will wear out with filament rubbing on it, and tubing for heat/retraction issues.
I also picked up some digital calipers and ferrules crimper but the latter was overkill as the pro's power supply and mainboard were pretty rock solid.
I use Cura for my slicer. Never thought how much time it sucks to print. .that may be the death of my love for this project.
https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura
My boss picked up a Sovol3d on his friend's recommendations. It has a lot of nice upgrades for an Ender3 over mine, and wouldn't be a bad entry model.
https://sovol3d.com/collections/3d-printers/products/sovol-sv01-direct-drive-extrusion-3d-printers
After a lot of futzing, swearing, and drinks I think I have this thing tuned in for PLA. The cube and level verifier helped quite a bit.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1278865
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3235018
Oh geeze, and yes.. CALIBRATE THOSE ESTEPS! That seemed to be the last blocker to get this really humming.
https://letsprint3d.net/how-to-calibrate-the-extruder-steps-ender-3-5-cr-10/
Things I've printed:
The makerbot fidget gear was especially a great moment. After failure and failure and more failure I finally have things tuned enough withing tolerance to print functional gears - in their housing! Super neat.
I am off to inspect 'OpenCad' to see what I can come up with on my own.