Celebrated Father's Day a little late this year due to travel. My wife bought an Ender3 Pro for me. Spent some time yesterday setting it up and doing some test prints. Works very well out of the box and a little set up. Can't wait for the order of filament to come in and start printing some useful things. Currently printing Barbie boots for my daughter, which was the first item on her list of things she wants me to print.
Nice! Post a picture of how the shoes turn out!
After a 2 hour print, the Barbie boot turned out really good except one small detail. You are not able to put the shoe on the Barbie. I think that it was supposed to be printed with a flexible filament (TPU). It looks like I missed that note in the description. I will have to order some before printing another pair. On to something else.
Here is the link in case anyone is interested: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3289181
Hi , if was to buy an Ender printer is there any reason to buy the Pro model or better to buy the Ender 2 and add extras to it that might be better than what Ender adds to make it a Pro model.
I am confused !
The standard Ender3 is the best value for the money. The upgrades in the Pro version are small not worth the additional money (in my opinion) unless it was on a very good sale. My wife got the Pro version at a very good price and was almost the same price as the standard. The differences are small and the standard works well. My vote is to go with the standard and upgrade the parts you want as you go.
I was able to break out my digital calipers to make something useful. A shelf on my daughter's desk was missing a shelf peg so I designed and printed one. Took a couple times to get it printed correctly due to bed leveling and needing to put in a support on the print. But I was able to get this printed with what I had left of the sample filament. Fit perfectly!
I just got my ender 3 v2 up and running and completed my first print, 20x20x20 calibration cube. The build was simple and straight forward taking less than an hour. To get printing I used the included slicer and basically changed nothing. The cube measured so perfectly I'm questioning the accuracy of my HF calipers, x and y were basically spot on and z was the most off at 20.06. the ender 3 v2 was $260 and gets the glass bed and 32 bit scielent driver board and some other printable upgrades, a tool drawer and some knobs. The printer is slightly louder than my laptop primarily from the extruder fan but I think I could leave it running while on conference calls so I look forward to running prints as I work from home. I don't yet have confidence to let it run fully unsupervised. I'm currently printing a mount to move the spool holder to the base and hopefully improve the angle of feed compared to the top mount that seems to result in a tight bend at the extruder. I'm so impressed with this printer out of the box, let me know if you have any questions about the v2.
In reply to xxsportscar :
I'm curious to hear more on the version 2's. I just used my Ender 3 to print an ABS shim for a fence post, end post, concrete footer. Worked quite well. I might revise the file and add an 1/8" overall so it looks more like a skirt, but otherwise working out great. Obviously full infill, thick walls, printed fast too at 75mm/s at 245 and 95 bed temp. Swiss hot end, capricorn tubing, blah blah blah. Couldn't be more pleased with how well it cranks parts out. Obviously printed in an enclosure (abs...). 6 hour print too. I was thrilled with how well it all came together. Printed at a 2mm layer height, .4 nozzle, etc.
Is it the right way to do it, probably not. But its how I did it for now as a temp fix to a fence that got taken out in a storm.
So I've had about a week of playing around with the v2. I've run about 0.75 kg of material thru it with pretty good results. From the sound of things the v2 is a bit more polished than the pro out of the box and how much that means to you depends on your skills and experience. The silent main board makes it quiet enough that I ran it pretty much continuously wile on conference calls 3 ft away and it wasn't distracting or a disturbance. The display is pretty friendly for selecting prints and tweaking settings while running. If your setting up a printer farm the pro is probably the Better option but as a relitive amature I'm glad I got the v2. I don't feel I'll be tempted to do anything besides print with it for a while.
GaryC83 said:I just put a microswiss all metal hot end on mine and some capricorn tubing. Cant bring myself to start really tearing into it yet as it has been printing so well for "stock".
I recently did the microswiss all metal hotend and direct drive extruder. So far I'm happy with it. Seem to get less clogs and print errors. For a test run I had to print a badge for the new tow pig.
I guess I can also join the GRM 3d printing club. I sold my xbox one a few weeks ago and ordered an Ender 3 pro.
Primary intent was to design and print some rc car parts (yeah another covid hobby this year, I'm up to 4 trucks now ffs), maybe sell a few parts to pay for filament or whatever, and finding stuff to print for the kids or around the house.
I have a long history with CAD so its been relatively easy to figure my way around in Fusion 360. White ones below are my design, gold ones are off thingiverse (I LOVE the silk pla filaments, easy to work with, look cool)
It's amazing how technology marches on.
5 1/2 years ago I picked up my first printer. It was $600 and was a kit.
it was/is awesome.
now, you get get that same quality, pretty much assembled, for $300.
Link to that build thread
looking back to that build thread cracks me up. It was a real build thread. But the folks at Makerfarm made it easy.
if anyone is looking to buy a printer today, I still wholeheartedly recommend a kit as you really learn how they work. That helps troubleshooting down the road. And now that I've owned more than one printer I can say, the quality of the components are much, MUCH better than what you find on the stuff offered. Y Creality. And I know, my current printer is a Creality.
Ordered an Ender 3 yesterday on a Prime Day deal for $164. So between my local Star Wars friends with printers and you guys, here we go. Supposed to be here Sunday. Gives me time to figure out where I'm putting it... (Already have a fairly large vinyl cutter on a cart, might order another cart.)
Anyone have any good tips for how to change filament mid-print without pausing the printer or modifying the print head? I was thinking about some way of gluing the end of one filament to the other?
Mr_Asa said:Anyone have any good tips for how to change filament mid-print without pausing the printer or modifying the print head? I was thinking about some way of gluing the end of one filament to the other?
They make tools/gadgets to do that but they are a bit pricey. I haven't had the need to do a color change mid stream yet to give it any thought beyond that unfortunately. To do it manually you'd have to be pretty precise with your measurements of just how much fillament you need before the color change but splicing one to another should just be a matter of heat and patience.
This was more that I started a multi-day print with not enough filament and wanted to try and just graft the end of one filament to the other when the filament ended.
In reply to JThw8 :
could you modify the print file to add a "tail" off the side ,
then stop the print in the middle of the "tail" and change the filament and then start the print .....
when finished just cut off the "tail"
OOPS , I thought this was that you wanted to change filament and not that you had to because you ran out......
Mr_Asa said:This was more that I started a multi-day print with not enough filament and wanted to try and just graft the end of one filament to the other when the filament ended.
Oh, I see where you were headed. I've had that happen a once or twice but I was around when it happened, I just chased the old filament down the feed tube with new before it could stop and kept hand feeding until it reached the feed rollers.
In reply to JThw8 :
I've thought of that, but the drive system for my extruder works best if you take all the tension out of the system and feed it by hand then reapply the tension. A flat face gets stuck kind of easily at the transitions between bowden tubes and after the rollers
Nicole surprised me with one heck of a Christmas present!
I guess this means I'm in the 3D printing club!
Nice! I got a Anycubic photon zero this year so I'm about to go down a different rabbit hole.
It's happening!!!! 
Just finished printing the Creality dog. Any feedback?
Tom,
Looking good. Are the layer lines nice and smooth? The issues I have typically stem from different filaments needing some tweaking to get good finishes.
Now try to make another keychain fob like the one you cnc milled to see if the settings hold up for things you make.
Benchy complete! Looks like I need to play with my retraction settings. 
You'll need to log in to post.
