Ender 3 Pro

I think I got my Ender 3 Pro about a week before you. How are you liking yours? I've done a lot of messing about with mine, and feel I can generally get good prints, but it has taken some tinkering around. I think some of my "improvements" took me in the wrong direction. What slicer program are you using? I went with Cura, there are tons of settings to play with and figure out. Youtube has helped.

Rick

I'm loving the Ender 3 Pro, before getting it, I was prepared for hours and hours of tuning to get anything look anywhere close to decent, but it all went really smoothly, I mostly followed youtube videos from Makers Muse, Teaching Tech and watched some Filament Friday videos. As for the slicer I went with Cura, it's free, and at least for now, works great for me, I'm just starting to explore it and add plug-ins and stuff like that. I haven't set up OctoPrint yet, as for the other upgrades, one I really recommend is the filament guide, I used one that I found on Thingiverse, but designed my own adjustable one with bearings later.

I am currently printing a drag chain for the X gantry, and will do one for the bed as well and after that I will do the screen cover. I'm still playing around with the printer and doing some small upgrades, it's in my bedroom so I'm currently only printing with PLA but my plan is when I have it all set up so I can remotely monitor it, to make an enclosure for it and put into my garage, so I can print other stuff like PET-G and so on. Also as time goes on, I will probably be switching to an all metal hot end and upgrade the PTFE tube. Here are some of the prints I've done, some are from Thingiverse, some I designed myself, like the car suspension and the screwdrivers:

This is something I wanted to a long time, to convert my gas powered RC car to an electric, I printed out new wheels as well as motor mounts and some other components, it turned out pretty good.

This is just a screwdriver handle with few magnets on the inside to hold the metal part, I put a screw on cap on it to keep all of the things inside, I love love this thing.

One thing I also love a lot is the vase mode or in Cura, spiral contour for printing vases and planters. I printed out some for my mom and grandma, they love them!

I love the printer, it really opens up another world of possibilities for me when it comes to making stuff. How do you like yours for now? Also, have you tried any other materials except PLA, or PLA that glows in the dark, wood PLA? I'm curious to try out some new materials, and am also looking at options to upgrade it to a direct drive so I can print flexible materials.

Milos

Wow!

You have really been busy! Nice work on the r/c car parts.

I've only used PLA so far, and probably will until I can get the printer moved to my art studio. It's in my family room right now. I'm also planning on setting up Octo-print and maybe add the direct-drive. I installed the upgraded blue PTFE bowden tube, but went back to the original and just upgraded the fittings. The blue tubes tolerances were super tight and caused some binding problems for me.

I've just mainly printed add-ons for the printer and some knick-knack type things, but I'm ready to try some bigger prints. I'm really liking the vases you did.I have some rainbow filament I bought to print for my daughter that might look cool.

Rick

Thanks, the RC car is a work in progress, with a lot more plans! You got any direct extruders in mind? I'm planning on getting a dual gear bowden extruder, found it pretty cheap, I saw some people have been printing flexibles with it. Thanks for telling me about the PTFE tube, that's one of the things I was planning to do, but I didn't know it can cause issues like that. Vases with rainbow filament sound like they will look really really good!

Milos

How are you getting along with your printer? I had to step back from mine for a bit as I was getting pretty frustrated with it. I kept having extrusion issues. I'm not sure I have it 100%, but I'm back to printing. Right now it's ear-savers, since we're required to wear masks in public here. PlusI thought it would be a good way to get the kinks worked out. I have a BMG style dual gear extruder coming tomorrow, and hope to get a direct-drive setup soon, it's on backorder.

Rick

Would be keen to find out how your new extruder works out for you. The Ender 3 Pro is the first printer I've owned that has worked straight out of the box. The mechanicals have worked perfectly since day 1, and bed adhesion has been really reliable.

I also bought the blue Capricorn Bowden tube, but haven't felt the need to install it yet. It's standing by for the occasion that the original tube fails.

The major changes I have made are the electronics, mostly in pursuance of silence. I was looking at bulldog extruders, but the stock one seems to be working fine for now.

What extrusion issues are you having?

It's going good so far, I had my first clogged nozzle, but managed to clear it out. I just got a LACK table from IKEA which I plan on using for making a small enclosure for the printer, and then modding it to try out other materials besides PLA.

I'm sorry to hear that about your printer. What kind of extrusion issues are having? Can you upload some pictures of walls of the print where the issue can be seen? Those ear savers, really are ear savers, I had some 3 tests and without the ear saver, it hurt substantially after the test, the mask was on the smaller side.

I'm really interested in your results with the new extruder, my plan now is to get the dual gear extruder, from some videos on that extruder it looked really promising, because it had a cut piece of tube right against the gears, so it could probably be used with flexible materials which I would really like to try. Also found a lot of people printing out a bracket for converting the stock extruder to a direct drive set up, so I am thinking of going with that.

I still haven't installed the extruder as I'm waiting for a direct drive mount that the US postal service seems to have lost. I really wanted to install it all at once.

As far as the Capricorn tube, it didn't really work for me for printing PLA, the inner diameter was just too tight and caused lots of drag. I do use a short piece in my stock hot end, between the nozzle and a printed washer under the tube fitting. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's easiest explained if you watch this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCxO17XZtw

I don't seem to be able to post pics, I'll try to get that figured out and try again.

Rick

Hey look, pictures!

Here's some of the under extrusion problems I've been having. I think most of it is due too retraction settings, although I was having some problems with clogging until I redid my hot end. I'm still tinkering around with it, but took time to print a bunch of face mask ear-savers, which I had no problems doing.

Rick

I posted some pics of the bad prints in another post here. But also, here's pics of the ear-savers I'm making along with some of my better prints. The bench is at 200%. My daughter loves it. The black ear-savers I'm giving out to people that need them, the orange are for my daughters school, orange is one of her school colors.

I haven't installed the extruder yet, I'm waiting on a direct-drive kit that the US Postal Service seems to have lost somewhere between Florida and Texas. I would just install the extruder first, but I'd like to be able to work out all the bugs at once.

I have the Creality enclosure, but haven't put the coving on it yet as it's not needed for PLA. I just have the tubular frame set up and it holds my LED lighting. I'll be sure and post my experience with the extruder when I install it.

Rick