Creality Ender 3

[davidhk129]

Received my 3D Ender 3 printer today as promised by Amazon.

Took me 3 hours+ to assemble. My first on assembling a 3D printer.
Amazon seller listing says: " Easy and Qucik Assembly: It comes with several assembled parts, you only need about 15 minutes to assemble 20 nuts well. "
B!S!
The scariest part is at the end when time to connect the electrical connectors. The diagram is anything but clear.
It was a miracle I had them all connected correctly. I am a "sane genius" ?

I am now testing it by printing a preinstalled model..... a dog, I think.
Don't know how long it will take. So far it is humming nicely.

 

[wafflejock]

Hah I think the filament sample they give will run out if you use it for the dog test but the one from a buddies machine here came out good still despite being multicolored. Agree the setup time with connecting all the wires takes some time, if you've done it 50 times I'm sure can do it in 10-15 minutes but for any regular person doing it the first time it's at least an hour of looking at things and getting them plugged in. Overall think ender 3 is a pretty good machine they can all have issues with the hot ends but you can always replace the entire hot end in the worst case (range from like $30-100) e3d v6 is pretty good but none I've seen are full proof and print all materials (maybe bondtech stuff but typically pretty expensive)

 

[davidhk129]

One strange puzzle...….
I have been using Cura 3.4.1
So, when I "add a printer" to Cura, the printer list under "Other" does not have Ender3. Creality CR-10 is on the list, but no Ender 3.
I manually entered Creality 3D Ender 3, and when I opened Cura and selected Ender 3, the "bed" diagram was in circular shape.
So, I added CR-10 as a printer and the bed diagram looked right. But I am not sure about this.

 

[wafflejock]

In the printer settings in the drop down I think you can change the shape and dimensions of the print bed for the most part setting about printer in the slicer just tell it the size of the bed for positioning items in the middle or around the platter and being able to let you know if something is too big when you slice it instead of having the printer just get stuck at some point. Other key things the slicer needs to know is the nozzle size and the layer height the rest of the details about motor step size and motor speeds and stuff is handled in Marlin (what pins on control board go to what stuff also handles thermistor values so it has a look up table of resistance against temp for a given sensor).

 

[davidhk129]

Thank you.
A little too technical to me since I don't know how to use the slicer and its settings.

 

[davidhk129]

Surprise, surprise.
It was a piggy bank I was printing. Not a dog.

A real surprise is ….. except at the base, there was no supports anywhere. The body inside is hollow.
Nice. Save a lot of material, not to mention time to print.
I like it.

 

[wafflejock]

Ooo nice yah on second thought think the dog came from some anet machine was funny the sample filament wasn't enough for the relatively big dog so he's half grey and half orange.

 

[davidhk129]

Here is another print from Ender 3 preinstalled gcode file :


Isn't it wonderful to be able to have a printed model that has absolutely no supports ?
The materials saved. Time saved on printing and on trimming out the supports.

Too bad not all models can be done without supports.

 

[wafflejock]

Yeah I always try to design my own mechanical stuff to not need supports at all it does make it much more satisfying to just pull a part off the bed "ready to go" without a bunch of extra cleanup work afterwards, some fine looking prints.

 

[RENOV8R]

One strange puzzle...….
I have been using Cura 3.4.1
So, when I "add a printer" to Cura, the printer list under "Other" does not have Ender3. Creality CR-10 is on the list, but no Ender 3.
I manually entered Creality 3D Ender 3, and when I opened Cura and selected Ender 3, the "bed" diagram was in circular shape.
So, I added CR-10 as a printer and the bed diagram looked right. But I am not sure about this.






View attachment 5201



View attachment 5202

Yes, the Cura software is the same for the Ender 3 & CR-10. You may want to update to Cura 4.1 though, the supports in 3.4 are terrible

 

[davidhk129]

Yes, the Cura software is the same for the Ender 3 & CR-10. You may want to update to Cura 4.1 though, the supports in 3.4 are terrible

I had 4.3 installed a few days ago, but I did not get to use it.

 

[wafflejock]

Yah definitely worth upgrading, slic3r is or "PrusaSlicer" is what I've been using lately but can be a big difference in the "interface" between the supports and the part that make it a lot easier to remove in a single or few pieces, still it's nice when something comes off the bed clean.

 

[davidhk129]

Question to all ……………...
Is there a magnetic bed plate available for Ender 3 ?
I know there is "glass" plate bed. But I need to use clips to hold it to the heating platform.
A magnetic one would be nice.

 

[davidhk129]

Never mind. Found it. Now deciding which to buy.