Budget 3D Printer Build and Mods: Ender-3

Add me. Just because of this thread.

In reply to Nofive_0 :

Help me diagnose what's up with my ender.  The only mods I've done were the leveling springs and a glass bed.  Oh yeah, and a hardened nozzle.

I've been doing some low volume prints and still working on some pipe bushings (have an odd euro / chinese straight pipe fitting I need to adapt to NPT).

I ran out of pla on the last print and restarted the print using some pla with "carbon fiber" mixed in.  I've had hit or miss luck with it in the past (thus the hardened nozzle). 

Finished the carbon fiber print and it was really stringy.  I grabbed it to rub off the fibers and the whole thing peeled apart:

Honestly,  WTF.  I thought it might be moisture (it was not in a bag) so I switched to plain pla, changed the nozzle, leveled & started over.  Now I get and hour or 2 into a print and the layers begin to peel.

I'm thinking it's probably the extruder gear but no idea otherwise.   Anyone see this before?

In reply to Kendall_Jones :

What temp are you extruding at? Seems like a heat issue to me. 

That looks like a textbook case of delamination. 

Print a benchy with it, but bump the temp up 20 degrees?  Alternatively, look up the brand of filament and see what print settings people like.  Should get you a rough idea that will let you dial it in after.

Side note, looks like you have glue on the bed to help adhesion?  With the right settings you shouldn't have to do that with PLA and a glass bed.  The carbon fiber might throw that off some though.

Print temp set at 200 for extruder and 50c for the bed.  Did back to back with pla and the pla/cf stuff.  Same g code; just ran out of pla, put the other stuff in and get this crappy print.

Never had any luck with bonding to the glass unless I use the glue.

Looks like a hotend temperature issue to me. 
 

My printer is a few years old now and is just a reprap built from cheap parts. I noticed the other day that if I printed anything taller than a couple inches things would go wrong. I figured out that my z axis threaded rod on one side has a section where the threads are pretty much gone. I am questioning if I should tear it apart, inspect the parts and replace things as needed or buy a new, better, less homemade printer. 

I bought a new hot end, nozzles, and metal extruder setup & started printing the same parts.  They came out picture perfect & I wound up reprinting everything I had already done. 

Then I made this but broke it getting it off the bed:

In reply to Kendall_Jones :

I like that design. I've printed a couple wrench organizers so far to try out. Got a link to that one?

Anyone have an Ender 3 they want to part with or know where to get one for a reasonable price that is in stock in the US?  I need to acquire 1-2 more Ender 3s to keep up with my Etsy store.

From what I have heard they are still shipping at a normal rate from Creality.

In reply to bgkast (Forum Supporter) :

I looked on their site and it looks like they aren't shipping from the US warehouse until May 15th.

AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Kendall_Jones :

I like that design. I've printed a couple wrench organizers so far to try out. Got a link to that one?

It has a 12 & 8 wrench version.  The 12 is too big for the ender 3 bed.  Its from germany so you know its good ;)

Schraubenschlüsselhalter

Kendall_Jones said:

AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Kendall_Jones :

I like that design. I've printed a couple wrench organizers so far to try out. Got a link to that one?

It has a 12 & 8 wrench version.  The 12 is too big for the ender 3 bed.  Its from germany so you know its good ;)

Schraubenschlüsselhalter

I like it, thanks!

Soo, where is good to buy PLA right now?

In reply to AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) :

Zyltech or JMO Techology are both USA made, offer bulk discounts and quick shipping.

In reply to RacetruckRon :

I got Zyltech last time, but they don't have much PLA right now. I'll check out JMO

In reply to AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) :

JMO doesn't have a lot of colors right now but I ordered 5 rolls of their gray PLA last week and have been loving it.

Finally! Now to see if I can figure this thing out.

First thing

First useful thing.

First oops. The filament was going to run out half way through and I swapped it for my big roll no problem but must have jostled the bed or something. The second half was out of register.

Fixed! I tried again and they came out perfect. These are cable tie things to get a droopy USB for the cat feeder out of sight under the countertop.

In reply to RacetruckRon :

Just ordered 5KG from JMO. 

Still waiting on printed Miata dipstick handles...