Hmu if you need any potentially useful advice! I’ve messed up a lot of prints and settings.
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I currently own a Creality CR-10S and a Prusa i3 MK3. I also bought an Ender-3 for my dad as a gift so I have experience with that model as well. Iv’e previously owned a Printr-Bot as well.
The CR-10S is awesome for build volume, and I still use it often. Some must have upgrades for the CR-10(and any low/mid end printer) are the Auto Bed Lever sensor(ABL) and a PEI sheet on top of mirror tiles(from the hardware store). After some fine tuning, iv’e been able to get really good results from my CR-10. You really can’t beat the price for value here.
The Ender 3 is an awesome budget printer. After installing a PEI sheet and ABL my father and I are getting great prints out of it. It’s an awesome rig for the price.
The Prusa MK3 is my go to printer. It’s solid and reliable. I love the flexible magnetic build plate. I can not print for a month, fire it up and it puts out perfect prints every time. Iv’e used it to print ABS, FLEX, SEMI-FLEX, PETG, PLA, NYLON(only once), Wood Filament and probably many others. Heat up time is super fast, print times are twice as fast as the CR-10 and Ender 3. You can tell the difference in quality when you compare parts printed on the prusa compared to the other 2 printers. The thing is also DEAD SILENT, you may not even know its printing when it’s in the same room.
PRINTR BOT – This was my first printer, it was super reliable, and built pretty nicely. I ended up selling it because it just became outdated, and printrbot really didnt keep up with the market/price. It never came with a heated bed, build volume was tiny. Adjustments for the height were difficult to input(it had no controls, just a usb port. When it was printing, it printed good, it was just too difficult to setup for each print.
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Nice write up! I definitely agree with you on the Creality CR-10S. Its build volume and print results our almost on par with higher end printers offering the same services.
I’d like a crash course on the do’s and don’t s during the design process for better printing. I have yet to print anything but I have started designing. So I still have to learn how to ready things for print.
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Makers Muse has some really good videos on that sort of thing.
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Yah there’s honestly not much you need to stay away from but adding fillets or rounding out sharp corners helps since the machine can’t really make an instant stop and change in direction. This also helps with how the materials warp as they cool, sharp corners will be more likely to lift off the bed. If you have holes in parts ideally want to print with them facing up/down so it just leaves an empty space, basically think of modelling everything as a cup with the open side facing up ideally to avoid need for supports but with MK3 or any other well tuned printer removing the support material is typically pretty easy and can be done by hand or with needle nose pliers (slic3r slicer does a particularly good job with this, when I used cura in the past it made supports that were harder to remove).
Would add good to print 2D 1:1 drawings to compare sizes and keep printer tolerance in mind, a 3mm screw probably needs a 3.4mm hole to pass through without being screwed in. Slicing sections out of your model to test print parts that need to fit hardware or other parts will save a lot of time.
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Just ordered a cr10s. Looking forward to playing around with it.
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Last question how many walls do you use? 6?
It varies quite a lot depending upon the design.
One of the biggest reasons is infill and gaps.
If you have an item with areas that becomes solid at 10 walls thick, and you were to have 6 perimeters, the perimeter wall from one side is going to meet the wall from the other, and you typically have gaps.
So I’ll often do fewer perimeters in order to avoid unwanted gaps, particularly when I’m printing solid parts, because infill does a better job eliminating gaps than perimeters do.
Most often though, I’m printing 4 perimeters. That ends up being about 3.5mm thick, which is quite strong.
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4 walls here as well for the exact reasons mentioned above.
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Is it worth getting the Ender 3 Pro over the Ender 3? What are the advantages of the Pro?
Honestly no. It comes with a glass bed and a “quiter power supply”. You can get the same glass bed for cheaper than the other model off Amazon. Also you can’t hear the power supply over the printer.
Personally, I highly recommend Ender 3. Upgraded mine with auto bed levelling and flashed it with Marlin firmware. Stuck it in an enclosure and basically only print ABS with zero issues. The a common problem with Ender 3’s are crappy printbeds, so I swapped out mine to a Prusa magnetic sheet. (not in the photo)
Also, get a Raspberry Pi and install OctoPrint on it. Will make your 3D printing life so much easier.
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What sensor are you using? Doesn’t look like a classic BLTouch. Did you follow any guide?
Ive decided that I’m getting an ender 3. What upgrades are a must to make it Esk8 solid?
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Depends on what kind of stuff you want to print with it. If you don’t have any plans of printing flexible material(TPU) or high temperature material(Nylon), then existing setup already works great! However I can still make 3 recommendations that will save you all future troubles
- Bondtech/trianglelabs extruder
- High temperature blue capricorn tube.
- Glass bed. Even a $2 mirror, cut to the right size, works great.
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Some TH3D EZABL cheap knockoff. Can’t find the link to that specific one atm, but eBay is the source.
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I actually believe that for Esk8, almost everything should be printed in TPU except for cell compression modules. It’s just so durable and has the added bonus of dampening vibrations too.
Sainsmart TPU is definitely the only way to go though 
@Bobby I have a link above with what I use and would 100% reccomend it all. If you don’t go for a direct drive with the extruder connected straight I to the hotend you may have a fair few problems later when you want to print exoctic stuff. If it all sounds confusing start with the basic stuff and get comfortable with printing PLA and then start upgrading 
PETG/Nylon: Wheel guards, pneumatic wheel hubs, pulley, direct drive adapters, enclosure, bindings
TPU: bumper, enclosure, truck riser, bushings, esk8 light mounts
I recommend getting ender 3 and the recommended upgrade parts but not replacing it right away. It important to get good prints from standard and then upgrade when needed. That way you learn the important bits that makes a printer good and also makes debugging bad prints easier.
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If the wallet is looser, then the Original Prusa i3 MK3 is the way to go.
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