I managed to find the greatest deal ever on a used 3D printer. I’ve already got a new screen with updated firmware, a new hotend kit on its way today, and I am planning on replacing the bed with tempered glass at some point (I am nervous about ordering it online). I’m also getting the enclosure because my apartment is very small.

All told, I will have spent about $175 CAD for the whole thing and I’m pretty chuffed about it.

Is there anything else I should be doing or getting to make this thing epic?

This is my first time using a 3D printer, and it has taken a little time to learn. I will happily take any advice you have to offer.

I’m editing to add that I appreciate the comments and advice, and I’m following everything all of you are telling me. As a late adopter, enthusiasts like you are a goldmine, and I am super grateful for your help!

  • squaresinger@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    2 days ago

    Step 1: DO NOT DO ANY UPGRADES. Get your printer working, get familiar with printing.

    Step 2: Once you are comfortable with your printer, pick a single upgrade and do only that. Reassemble the printer completely, print something, get comfortable.

    Step 3: Once you are comfortable with the upgrade, repeat step 2 until the printer is good or you get bored with upgrading.

    Every friend of mine who did “all the upgrades” at once ended up with a pile of garbage that they didn’t get back together and that I had to painstakingly fix for them.

    Do only one at a time, and make sure you get good with your machine before doing upgrades.

    Also, start with the small and simple upgrades before taking on the difficult ones.

    • discomatic@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Oh, absolutely lol I have my first print going now and I’m not doing anything to it that I don’t have to do… yet. It took me most of the day to figure out my firmware wasn’t functioning.

      I had to replace the hot end because the tube was jammed and I couldn’t get the filament out. And I had to buy a screen because I’ll be damned if I’m plugging a random piece of hardware into my PC hahaha

  • sylver_dragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 days ago

    I’d suggest looking into some sort of auto bed leveling upgrade. My previous printer (Monoprice MP10 Mini) had the bed leveling sensor fail and be non-replaceable. The amount of futzing with first layer setting was a nightmare, even with a glass bed. My new printer (Creality K1C) does automatic bed leveling with a load sensor and the difference has been night and day. Most prints, I can hit start and not have to fight anything (except TPU, holy hell TPU has been a fight). The sensor won’t guarantee perfect first layers, but goddamn it’s a lot easier to get something reasonable.

  • root@aussie.zoneEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    I have and still use an Ender 3 V2.

    One of the many upgrades which i think makes the most improvent / quality of life upgrade is the Z level probe. Either a BL touch or a CR touch will work. It helped me tram the bed as well as built a mesh of the bed.

    “Professional firmware” is also a good upgrade. Lots of improvements over the stock Creality firmware.

    Once you have been printing with it for some time and feel like tinkering a bit more, “Belted Z” mod for the Ender 3 v2 is another upgrade I did which was really great. It replaces 1 lead screw for 2 belts on each end of the X gantry to prevent sagging.

    I also recently upgraded from the stock ender glass beds and replaced it with PEI sheets. I get the choice of either textured or smooth beds and the prints pop right off. No need to wait for it to cool down or having to pop it in the freezer. LOL

    • MysteriousSophon21@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 days ago

      This fix is absolutley essential - it prevents filament leaks between the bowden tube and nozzle which can cause major clogs and inconsistent extrusion (the bane of every ender owner’s existance).

    • discomatic@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      I haven’t printed anything yet. Just did the hotend replacement and my bed is apparently overheating now. Wheeee.

  • TootSweet@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    My first printer (that I still have and use) is an Ender 3 Pro. My second is an Ender 3 v2 Neo.

    The Ender 3 Pro doesn’t have a Z-probe or autoleveling. Just a Z endstop. When I got that V2 Neo, my whole world changed. I could use the whole bed without adhesion issues now!

    So I got the CR-Touch upgrade kit for my Ender 3 Pro, and it now works just as well.

    A Z-probe is definitely on my “cannot live without” list of features for any printer I get in the future.

    I usually prefer the stock beds, though, and I don’t necessarily know whether warped (like, not just “not flat” but actually not planar) beds are when talking about the glass beds. That said, if you have issues with not being able to use the whole bed without adhesion issues in some parts of the first layer, I’d strongly suggest a CR-Touch.

    I had to upgrade the mobo on my Ender 3 Pro for the CR-Touch. Not sure whether you might have to for the V2, though.

      • TootSweet@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        So, basically, when you auto-home, that lets your printer calibrate itself with regard to the position of the print head on the X (left-right), Y (forward-back), and Z (up-down) axes, right? For each axis, it just keeps moving in the negative direction until it hits a switch. (An “endstop”.) When it hits the endstop, it considers that “zero” for that axis.

        For the Z axis specifically, you have a couple of different options where you can put that switch. You can put it on the frame of the printer and position it such that when the print head moves down, the bar that the print head is on hits that switch at roughly the right place. That’s a “Z-endstop”. Or, you can put the switch on the print head so that it can be moved not only up and down but left and right and forward and back. That’s a “Z-probe”. (The “CR-Touch” is a specific brand of Z-probe sold by Creality.)

        With a “Z-probe” your printer can take Z-axis calibration values not just for the arm that the hot end rides back and forth on, but for multiple different spots on the bed. (Typically in a grid pattern.) So, for instance, it can check the front-right corner of the bed, the front-center, front-left, middle-right, middle-center, middle-left, back-right, back-center, and back-left. Once it’s got values for all those spots, it can do some math to get a good approximation of the “shape” of the bed.

        Your bed ought to be close to flat, but typically beds – or at least stock beds; again, I’m not sure about the glass beds – will be subtly parabolic or hyperbolic or something. (Like, shaped like a bowl or a hill or a Pringle chip or some such rather than truly flat.) So if you have a Z-endstop and can’t do calibration at multiple points on the bed, then your printer can only act under the assumption that the bed is flat. If your bed is actually (for instance) bowl-shaped, then the print head will be closer to the bed when the print head is far to the front-right, back-right, front-left, or back-left than it is when the print head is closer to the center. In that case, the best you can do is just kindof manually calibrate your Z-endstop offset until you’ve got the most reasonable compromise between too far from the bed when you’re near the center and too close when you’re near the extremities.

        (Sidenote: It’s not 100% true that you can’t get your printer to account for bed curvature if you only have a Z-endstop rather than a Z-probe. From what I’ve heard, there are ways to manually “probe” your bed to get figures for the shape of your bed and then give those figures to your printer’s firmware to get your printer to account for bed curvature that way. But it’s a big pain and may have to be redone a lot. It’s been a while since I’ve looked into that option, but I think it may also have required rebuilding the firmware and stuff. As I said, big pain.)

        But with a Z-probe, the “auto-leveling” process, when it probes the bed in a grid, it can build a model of what shape the bed really is. And then as it prints, it can follow the curvature of the bed as the print head is moving in the X and/or Y direction in order to stay a very consistent distance from the bed, rather than getting further or closer to the bed (or perhaps it’s better to say the bed is getting closer and farther from the print head) as the print head passes over “hills” and “valleys”.

        When your print head is too far from the bed, it doesn’t adhere well and there’s increased risk of the part coming off the bed mid-print. When your print head is too close to the bed, you run the risk of underextrusion, clogs, and first layer expansion. But with a Z-probe, it’ll be better at making sure you get the best of both worlds, and not just on part of your bed. On all of your bed.

        The Ender 3 V2 appears to come with a Z-endstop, not a Z-probe. (Just looking at the image on Creality’s official page.) So if I got an Ender 3 V2, I’d add a CR-Touch immediately. (That said, again, the glass beds may have less issue with bed curvature, so it might not be so worth it with your glass bed. If you’re successfully using most to all of your bed and not having adhesion issues or first-layer expansion, there’s definitely no need to worry about it. But it wasn’t until I got a Z-probe that I understood just how reliable my printer could be and how little first-layer expansion I could expect from it.)

        One thing to note. Bed curvature with a Z-endstop won’t matter so much once you’re a few layers in. It’ll cause issues with the first two or three layers, but by the time you’re up to five or so layers, it’s not really an issue any more. Most of the issues I had with bed curvature with a Z-endstop before I got my second printer were that the print failed within the first few layers. Usually by popping off the bed rather than adhering as it should.

        • discomatic@lemmy.caOPEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          Wow, thank you! It’s currently auto leveling but I get the feeling from what you wrote that I should have done way more manual leveling first. Oop.