3D Printing - Whats it all about?

Hi @Ademission and @flounder

Well the printer is on its way, hopefuly delivered by the weekend.

Wanted to ask which sites /forums you found the most helpful with down to earth practical guidance in getting set up and ongoing with your printers ?

Have read that FB has the most content, but some say its more about doing updates to the printers than actual printing help ?
Plus we do not use FB so wondering if its worth joining ?

Also been looking at Reddit which also seem to have a lot of content but more like a normal forum.

Seems a good few for the Ender 3 on Ytube as well...

 

Hello ricky101,
Congratulations on taking the plunge. I assume its the Ender 3 V2 you went for?

I didn't join any forums but watched an awful lot of YouTube videos. After doing this for a while you soon learn who the experts are and I would say that there are solutions to every problem (someone has always been there before). When you build your printer, there are a few things to be careful of: -

1. Make sure the frame is not tweaked. With the printer on a very flat surface, slacken the bolts and re-tighten.

2. Detach the belts and move the head side to side paying attention to smoothness. Adjust the tension on the v-rollers by the hex adjuster until the point of no slop and no sticking points along the travel. Repeat for the Y axis. Same with the lead screw. Remove it and adjust the rollers associated with vertical movement in the same way.

Re-assemble and tension the belts.

Re-insert the leadscrew.

3. Bed flatness is very important (this is before levelling). Use a steel ruler diagonally across the bed in both directions, and look for a gap under it. Shine a torch or poke a piece of paper under the ruler to show any gaps (important). Pack any low points with post-it notes under the glass until the gap has gone and the bed is perfectly flat. It surprised me that glass would bend in this way but this technique sorted the problem.

4. Use the adjustment wheels to level the bed after doing the home manoeuvre. When all points are just nipping a piece of paper (with the nozzle), adjust the z-offset parameter to set the nozzle height above the bed. The printer should print with a slightly flattened circle (filament cross section). If it's very squashed or will not stick to the bed then re-adjust. Plenty of YouTube videos about this.

5. On your first print, set the nozzle temperature to the mid-point of the range specified on the filament reel. This is usually around 205C to 220C with PLA. I suggest setting the bed temperature to 60C to start with. This is done in your slicer (Cura).

6. For everything else, use the default values for the Ender 3 V2.

Well, that's the basics. Try some models from Thingiverse to start with, something not too ambitious until you gain some confidence in your setup.

Let me know if you have any questions. Above all else, enjoy the learning.

Best regards

Ademission

 

I'll second the youtube thing. There's a couple I follow which I find I'm able to watch, because they don't BS, also all3dp.com is quite informative. Reddit I found goes off on a tangent and I hate having to re search my research!

 

Hi Guys,

Yes its the V2, at the price could not afford to miss.

Ideally it was to have been a winter type of project but as we are still in a kind of lockdown, ie just being careful and not going out much, think it will still get plenty of time spent on it and hopefully able to recover some lost brain cells from the long lockdowns, if you know what we mean.

We also got the V2 'bundled' with a 1kg reel from Creality which caused more discounts so in effect the reel cost just £7 !

Thanks for the detailed set up info and we have a slab of 11mm laminated glass to act as the flat bed plus some decent tools for checking flatness and squareness of the frame etc.

Wonder what you think to this guys way of building one, see it at 2m 10sec in, where he emphasizes getting just the one rail square.


Think like you most assemble the whole frame then as you say, slacken and adjust until free movement is gained, as I have found in this one at 18m 00s in, though probably takes a bit more time and patience to get it all smooth.


thanks again