Genuine Creality Ender 3 $144 with prime shipping
There seem to be several people jumping on the Ender 3 deal that’s available.
I purchased one of these as a gift for my cousin. Ill be setting the machine up, making some modifications to it to improve its reliability, repeatability and overall print capabilities. I wont only have this printer for a short duration, but this should help many get started and can serve as a place for other members to share and troubleshoot.
This will be very long, and I will continue adding to it. I look forward to hearing from others in the community as well
Okay, so you got a 3D printer. Exciting!
First and foremost, take a deep breath. You’re going to spend the majority of your first few weeks with the machine printing little cubes and calibration pieces. Leave those ambitions of printing that enclosure, belt guard or go pro mount anytime soon. Many people wind up having a bad experience with 3D printing because they underestimate what they are getting into. 3D printing has a very steep learning curve and is very challenging in general. Lets dive in to that:
First, 3D printing has a very steep learning curve. Period. This isn’t just about printing an object. Its about the proper assembly and squaring of the machine, filament selection, slicer parameters, environmental factors. This is a manufacturing process and is by nature complex. Do not misinterpret the name “printer” to mean it will behave anything like the click-print deskjet printer next to your PC.
Second, you get what you pay for. 3D printing has been around for a number of years but has only recently become affordable - this thread pertains to the ender 3, which is the most popular 3D printer and is now under $200. However, these machines are making linear movements in 4 axis’ at the same time, with accuracies of 0.02 mm in some directions. Enterprise machines have enterprise costs for a reason, quality of components. This is very important to understand as it will help you troubleshoot issues more quickly. These Chinese 3D printers have incredible capabilities and execute great prints. Where they fail, is in their repeatability. When you need to hold tolerances in the 0.01 mm range, cheap components create misalignments, loss of position and a general lack of rigidity that can prevent prints from even starting.
Now that you’re good and terrified, let me say this. 3D printing for functional and decorative purposes is really great and you should be looking forward to it. If you want to waste the least amount of money, time and get to printing cool things the fastest,
I recommend that you do the following:
-
Do your research. There is an endless supply of 3D printing information on the web. YouTube should be your place to start. The good thing for the Ender 3 owners, its super popular and will be the display model used in most of the content you find.
-
Join support groups: Ender 3, Creality and other 3D printing support groups dominate facebook. There is actually not a great forum for 3D printing that im aware of that caters to many users. There is a reprap forum, but the userbase isn’t very active. Facebook is the place to be.
-
Pick a filament and stick with it. There are many different types of filaments, the most common being PLA, PETG and ABS. Every time you change to a new filament you’ll have half a dozen calibration prints, parameter adjustments and other changes to calibrate, measure and change. This can be time consuming. Using consistent materials allows you to print more consistently and with less down time.
This means when you want to print something in ABS, you can just switch your saved presets to ABS and start printing. If you get a new brand of ABS, youre starting that whole calibration over. -
TAKE YOUR TIME. I cant emphasize this enough. Failed prints are a pain and are usually preventable by the proper setup.
Useful resources:
Teaching Tech Youtube - this guy is very active online, in forums and provides a ton of content for ender 3. Start here with your research.
I would also recommend downloading Ultimaker Cura and/or Prusa Slicer, research them a bit as well.
Things every 3D printer owner should have
Tools
- Digital Calipers - you need to be able to measure filament diameter and other things to at least .01mm.
- Elmers Glue - used to help the print stick and release cleanly from the build plate
- helpful print removal tool
- Allen wrenches - these things are entirely build from metric hex bolts (you’re eventually going to want some hardware to have on hand.
Filament - others will chime in here. These are just my current basics
- Geetech PLA filament PLA is a must have for getting started. Get at least a roll or two of PLA to start
- 3D Warhorse PLA + - I’m waiting on my second roll of this. But i believe its an ABS/PLA blend. It was stupid easy to print with and blew my mind how strong it was. Will report back further.
- Overture PETG - (previously AmazonBasics - I havent ordered PETG in a while, but this was the brand I used.
- Hatchbox ABS
Overture, SUNLU and Hatchbox are decent midrange filaments that are easy to get because they are available from Amazon. If you’re just starting out, get 2-3 rolls of PLA/PLA+ for the meantime to get started. I would recommend choosing PLA + over standard PLA
This should get people started with things to have on hand before it arrives.
Those planning to do upgrades, its always good to have a multitude of basic hand tools, electrical tools and wiring equipment.
My printer gets delivered Tuesday. More to come!
Bill