Creality Ender 3, setup, mods/improvements and how-tos [serious]

Alpacaslapper · January 12, 2020, 8:56pm

Also UPGRADES!!!

Alpacaslapper · January 13, 2020, 12:01am

Tried to print some compression packs. Lifted on The third layer . I’ll get it eventually.

Is hairspray any better then glue stick?

mishrasubhransu · January 13, 2020, 2:46am

Try one of these:
Bring nozzle closer to the baseplate
Use brim
Use raft
Use an enclosure

Skunk · January 13, 2020, 2:46am

I had better luck with a glue stick than hairspray but I have heard the opposite from others.
And then my other friend highly recommends painters tape over both of those.
So far glue is my favorite.

Alpacaslapper · January 13, 2020, 3:15am

How are the brim and raft removed? I have to cut and sand?

mishrasubhransu · January 13, 2020, 3:23am

i cut brim off with a exacto knife and I remember using them for NESE modules before I had an enclosure.

Raft should just break off. Just like supports.

Darkie02 · January 13, 2020, 10:45am

I just peal it off some times little bit left behind I trim with a scalpel Easter then removing the object from the bed. Rafts don’t leave a very nice base so I avoid them or end up sanding

mishrasubhransu · January 14, 2020, 3:28am

Umm, if the z gap is tuned properly and fan is blowing at 100% then it snaps off clean. I don’t see a reason to avoid it. Except that you waste a bit of plastic.

I especially use them while printing wheel hubs and gears because I get a perfectly flat surface and 0 warping or distortion.

It even works with nylon, which is hella sticky. I had no cooling fan so a bit got stuck. But you can see how clean the bottom is and no elephant’s foot. I always used to have that if I didn’t use raft.

Friskies · January 14, 2020, 4:20am

We have a post somewhere about ender 3 upgrades. Pretty much everything I have done so far I would highly recommend. I’ll post it and some links later. I would highly recommend TPU as a filament but it is not the easiest to work with; especially when you are using bowden and not direct drive. I would personally not recommend trying to print tpu with DD. Sainsmart tpu is magical though and is it has the perfect flex for use as risers/shock pads and adhesion is second to none. As for structural prints I would probably go for PETG, it can string a bit but it is very durable and can handle higher temps. I usually prefer semi transparent filament too as they seem to have better strength than the solid counterparts.

Tbone · January 16, 2020, 8:21pm

I keep getting warping on my PETG prints and think that I need an enclosure. When you make an enclosure for the Ender 3, are you moving the electronics outside of the enclosure?

Venom121212 · January 19, 2020, 1:45am

Holy shit that skr bigtreetech board is nuts. Plug and play with my ender 3 and it is WHISPER quiet. It’s freaky quiet. No more robot whining noise all the time

I had to redo the estep calibration but it only takes 2 minutes. Buying another for my second printer immediately.

I like the new marlin firmware options too:

can preheat bed and hotend at the same time according to preset
quieter button press beeps
you can digitally extrude by 10mm now (used to be only 1mm)
others I’m forgetting

DEEIF · January 19, 2020, 5:26am

@Venom121212 whenever I print stuff that ends in a 90° straight angle (Board Bumpers etc) the outside and inside two walls are easy to separate but the other ones are not.

Any ideas on how to fix it?

Venom121212 · January 19, 2020, 1:45pm

Try increasing flow as a quick test. 108% area should do.

Have you done an estep calibration?

Itsmedant · January 19, 2020, 1:53pm

Yea man it’s a great board!

I still havr to fix my heated bed but I’ve been printing PLA perfectly without it so there’s no rush.

Now I gotta get a bowden tube coupler for my Capricorn tube…so pissed that I can’t find the spares!

I really want to buy a bigger printer soon…I have been printing bigger things but it gets annoying having to slice them up and do them one by one

Venom121212 · January 19, 2020, 1:56pm

Agreed. I like this size for 99% of things but can imagine myself having a massive one later.

DEEIF · January 19, 2020, 2:54pm

I’ll try that!

… I fell really stupid but how?

Itsmedant · January 19, 2020, 3:21pm

You gotta use a controller software like pronterface.

Set it to extrude a certain length of filament, measure how much actually came out, and adjust it till it’s perfect.

There’s some good videos that show you the math to do…it’s pretty easy

Venom121212 · January 19, 2020, 4:23pm

Quick and easy way:

Preheat hot end to your normal printing temp.
Mark 120mm away from the entrance to the extruder on your filament.
Go in your printer settings to prepare → motion → move axis → 1mm (10mm if it’s an option) → extruder.
Move this up to 100mm exactly. Don’t go past it, don’t make the knob go in reverse. 100mm is key.
It will slowly extrude what it thinks is 100mm. It likely will be a bit off.
Measure from the extruder entrance to your mark. Ideally it should be 20mm (120mm marked - 100mm extruded). Let’s say you measure 25mm instead for example.
Your actual extrusion is 120mm minus whatever you measured in step 6 (my example was 25mm remember). In this case, actual extrusion would be 95mm.
(desired extrusion) / (actual extrusion) = correction factor.
(100mm) / (95mm) = 1.0526
Go into your printer settings again and find control → motion → and find the default esteps/mm value your printer is set to. I think the default is 92.6 esteps/mm.
Multiply your machine’s esteps/mm by the correction factor from step 8.
MAKE SURE YOU HIT STORE MEMORY

Mobutusan · January 19, 2020, 7:18pm

What PETG settings are working for you? Bed/extruder temp, layer height, infill, cooling/fan settings? I tried a couple simple prints with PETG, and they didn’t turn out great, so I’m trying to figure out what I’m missing.

Venom121212 · January 19, 2020, 7:25pm

Same here. I had shit adhesion with petg and gave up on it after a while.

Might be time to take another stab at it.