Budget 3D Printer Build and Mods: Ender-3

In reply to minivan_racer :

No, but the toothed gear on the stepper motor did not change, so the feed rate should have stayed the same. I do need to check the calibration though, as I have heard they can be off out of the box.

In reply to bgkast :

I realized after I said that, that you didn't have the dual gear version.

We love our Ender 3 as well. My son got it for Christmas 2018 and it's been a ton of fun. We are on our 4th spool of PLA, mostly printing toys and gadgets. He barters them at school (we don't allow cash sales). Below is a pic of a great non-support Eiffel Tower we printed. We use the free CAD software ONSHAPE to design stuff, but mostly pull the free models off of Thingiverse.

I considered adding a direct drive extruder, but I don't want the weight on the moving extruder and probably won't be printing flexible filiment much.

I was able to get the settings dialed in to print reliably.  The issue was the fan kicking on with the seond layer, overcooling and clogging the nozzle. Shutting it off and upping the temperature resulted in this:

Unfortunately it wasn't designed to be flexible so it just falls off the phone.

I also printed something I designed: an adapter to mount extrusion mount parts to the spool holder that I made in fusion 360. The spool mount will move off the printer for the enclosure mounting. It's the part in black here:

FWIW this thread was catalyst to "poor" decisions on my point.  A few months ago SWMBO said we should get a 3D printer, just because she saw something about them and thought it was cool.  I couldnt think of anything Id want to make with it nor could she.  But the discount discussed in this thread made me pull the trigger and with 24 hours and some Thingverse browsing I've already found little parts and brackets to make for the chicken coop Im building and I gotta say the Ender 3 was pretty painless, it was printing the little test dog within 20 minutes of assembly, "dial in" was minimal.

Tonite I printed a door handle for the door to the chicken coop :)

This makes me want to start 3d printing even more now... 

The Lack stack enclosure is nearly done...

Nicely done!

Mine is still in progress.  Just need to finish cutting a couple of panels and the wiring for the lights.

This makes me want one too. Not a clue what I would make with it but I'm sure I would find stuff...

Are these parts durable? I always imagined them being fragile and kinda flimsy. I imagine it largely depends on the quality of the print. 

Just in case any of y'all want to learn how to design in 3D using Fusion 360, here are the tutorials I run my Drafting students through:

https://www.gwellwood.com/subjects/drafting/fusion360-level-1/

You don't need to go through all of them, but they go a long way to get you pretty proficient.  For everything else, there's Google and YouTube.

SkinnyG said:

Just in case any of y'all want to learn how to design in 3D using Fusion 360, here are the tutorials I run my Drafting students through:

https://www.gwellwood.com/subjects/drafting/fusion360-level-1/

You don't need to go through all of them, but they go a long way to get you pretty proficient.  For everything else, there's Google and YouTube.

Thanks , if I get  a 14 days "time out"  I will have something to learn :)

that and bring me a sewing machine to learn that too ......

And if anyone in the LA area does 3D printing , let me know I have some extra PLA

In reply to spandak :

I don't think I've ever run into anything that was fragile and flimsy unless it was designed that way.  I've seen a 3D printed "nail" hammered through a piece of wood.  It was nylon, but it went through.

spandak said:

This makes me want one too. Not a clue what I would make with it but I'm sure I would find stuff...

Are these parts durable? I always imagined them being fragile and kinda flimsy. I imagine it largely depends on the quality of the print. 

It can be whatever you want it to be, it is very design and material dependent though.

Since the printer prints by layers, you can alter the strength of the piece by how you orient it on the printing bed.

using ABS, PETG or even some of the exotic filaments like Carbon Fiber or wood can have even more strength in certain circumstances.

Since people use them to make mounts for CNC routing machines, there is plenty of strength to be had.

spandak said:

This makes me want one too. Not a clue what I would make with it but I'm sure I would find stuff...

Are these parts durable? I always imagined them being fragile and kinda flimsy. I imagine it largely depends on the quality of the print. 

I've been bending 1/8" steel plate with 3d printed PLA press brake dies lately. You can do just about anything with this tech if you design accordingly.

I spotted bgkast on Thingiverse. How many other dorks are over there?

I'm currently printing a Benchy, after putting in some spring guides in my Ender 3 Pro.

With the completion of an overly engineered (the best kind of engineered) spool holder, and the front doors the Lack enclosure is done.

It also features mood lighting:

All in I think I have about $120 and 72 hours of print time into the enclosure. A rough breakdown is below:

3 IKEA Lack tables at $10 each, $30

Plexiglass, $30

LED Strip lights $25

Magnetic double door latch $9

Hardware $15

Filiment $10 estimated

Happy with how it came out. It quiets the printer down, and keeps the heat in and dust out.

In reply to RealMiniNoMore :

Fancy seeing you here! 

Yeah.... this is not helping me not want one.... They are on sale still too....

bgkast said:

With the completion of an overly engineered (the best kind of engineered) spool holder...

In reply to RealMiniNoMore :

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2908177

I used the remixed rollers that use bearings. I had some issues with the gear pieces being tight on the base, but the Dremel fixed the issue.

Well, now that I've got some time I dialed everything in a little better and am getting some nice prints.

What should I print out now that I can monitor these prints all day?

In reply to Mr_Asa :

Model cars, slot cars, RC cars. 

FYI - There's a large 3d printing community making badly needed medical supplies.

With the whole State under a stay at home order I've had some more time to print! I had wanted to try a new part cooling duct for awhile, and was debating between the Hero Me and the Petsfang Bullseye. Ultimately I went with the bullseye as it seems to be the best option using the stock fans.

I switched back to ABS to print it. The mounting bracket printed great, but I had some issues with the duct. The shell is relatively thin and has some good overhangs on the top.The first try was perfect until the end of the print where I developed a hole in the top.

I tried again with a smaller layer height, but then had warping issues where the part was built on the support. My third attempt printed OK but had a crack due to layer adhesion issues. I used acetone and clamps to repair it and it turned out good.

Before installing the duct I printed a test piece, then printed the same piece again with the new duct using the same GCode. The part on the left with the yellow dot was printed with the stock ducting. Both used the default cura PLA settings.

There wasn't a huge difference between the two, the stock ducting does a great job.

Stock

Bullseye Duct

Most of the blobs on the overhang test are sclicer setting issues, as you can see they are the same with both prints. I noticed that the printer was starting the layer on the back side of the overhang where there was nothing below it.

In any case the new duct at least looks cool. I also printed an Ender Dragon insert and tried a filiment change on it so that the dragon was a different color.

I had the Bullseye ducting have that exact same issue on the top left edge.

I haven't attempted it again, but I will when I'm done with some other stuff