3D printer noob here.
I’m using an ender 3. Seems to be working fine untill the last month where the extruder stepper motor seems to skip/tick when pushing the filament into the bowden tube. I then bumped up my temp from 200 to about 240 and it made it better but it does skip once in awhile.
On that note, any recommended settings for PLA+?
I’m on this! I had binding issues specifically with really rough filaments and really waxy filaments (both pla+). Normal, semi-matte feeling filaments print great (inland is my favorite and never ever has an issue).
Try using a 0.6 nozzle. I just switched from the stock 0.4 to a 0.6 and those filaments will bind/tick significantly less and still print fine. I have a good profile of settings I like to use I can send over shortly.
Thank you @mishrasubhransu for all the help again, he got me set up originally with this recipe.
I see, i don’t have a smaller nozzle so off to ‘add to cart’ i go!
Should i spend a bit more and get a steel nozzle?
No brass is good, I think you need a larger nozzle. Ender 3 stock nozzle is 0.4mm. I recommend 0.6mm.
The only paid upgrades I’ve done and consider necessary are:
glass bed from Amazon ~$20
metal extruder kit from Amazon ~$12
upgraded PTFE tube ~$13 for a length of it
Microswiss hotend only if you want to print fancy filaments like nylon
Everything else has been small 3d printed upgrades for convenience.
There’s a guy in YouTube whose channel is called teaching tech. His voice sucks but he does a lot of good ender 3 specific videos with good detail. Definitely do the bullseye fan upgrade. I recommend tightening the bed level springs almost all the way before starting the initial leveling. I’ve found it helped a lot with not having to re level all the time. Firstly tweak the Cura settings a bunch. It’s daunting, there are so many settings and lots of them are hidden by default. Here are some main ones I set:
Print Layer heights: 0.12, 0.18, 0.24, etc for a 0.6mm nozzle (increments in the diameter of your nozzle basically). I like 0.24 for speed, 0.18 for quality.
Infill pattern: cubic (changed to this because this supports the Z-axis more)
Print temp: 210-218C for most pla or pla+
Bed temp: 60C
Retraction Distance: 6.5mm, my other machine did better at 6.4mm (4mm for micro Swiss).
Retraction Speed: 25mm/s
Print speed: 60mm/s (or as per filament)
Combing mode: within infill (seems to get less artifacts on outside walls)
Find the setting for slowing down the print speed on the bottom layer. This one really helped my prints to stick better. I print the first 2 layers slow and first one with fan off for a good stick.
Ironing is a cool feature that makes all face up edges get a nice smoothing over. I turn that on with 10% flow for a clean finish.
When that glass bed cools, things don’t even pop off. They detach themselves.
I highly recommend you get the bondtech dual drive or it’s clone from triangle labs. Will never have extruder issues again. You can use it with your bowden setup.
If you are okay with little bit of electrical wiring and connection do the bondtech+direct drive setup. Nothing like it. You can print Nylon TPU and pretty much anything that you like.
I second this.
Glue stick and pva glue should only be reserved for nylon. Because cleanup is not as easy.
I use 210c on the extruder and 60c on the bed when printing with pla+
Ok. I have been using hair spray, but it has gotten all over the place. It works well, was just looking for a cleaner solution.
I take the plate off the bed to do mine, auto levelling though so I could understand why you might not want to do that
So j only use it once in a while(every 10 print or so). But I do spray a layer of IPA, which dissolves the hairspray residue and spreads it uniformly, in a way recharging it. Try that.
Also when I do spray hairspray, I use cardboard box cutout to restrict where the spray goes.
IPS: isopropyl alcohol.
Wuuuuut, never thought about that - cracking idea!
I know a lot of sites recommend superglue for pla prints. I’ve been using gorilla glue gel and it’s been working pretty well. I went to restock today and noticed a loctite alternative for plastics. Being a fan of loctite, I opted for it. Plus it was almost twice the volume for a buck more and made sense.
Anyone use this stuff?
Yes, greatest shit every.
Works like a charm for me
What build plate temp and flow rate do you guys like for petg? I’m using bowden and the top post doesn’t have that section yet.
I am using 0 fan speed for the first layer. 100% at layer 2. Any suggestions welcome.
@mishrasubhransu, I’ve searched this forum and thingiverse with no luck finding an stl file for those beautiful wheel hubs you have printed here. Is this a file you can share with me?
I haven’t shared them, because I might sell them in aluminum at some point in the future.
But even then, these can only be printed in Alloy 910 filament of stronger. These hubs printed in regulay filament will break right away.
For regular filament, check the eLofty thread, there is a hub model there.
Got it, yeah, I’ve downloaded those files, and was just collecting all my options before I chose what to print and play with.
I have been printing NESE 2s4p modules on an Ender 3 and have started having some issues that I need some help with. I printed 3 or 4 with decent results, but the last print the corner came up and I had to abort the print. A couple thoughts I had: 1) PETG needs to be dried. I am not sure this leads to adhesion issues or not. The prints still look good otherwise. 2) I need a better build plate. I am still using the stock ender 3 plate with binder clips and just use IPA to clean it. So far, that has worked well for PETG, but these parts are bigger than other things I have printed in the past. What build plate do you recommend for Ender 3? I am US if that makes a difference for suppliers.
Glass plate. Even mirror glassplate will do. A thin layer of hairspray every 10 prints or so.
But before every print I just redissolve all the residual hairspray and spread it around uniformly by just spraying a thin layer of IPA.
