The Shop > CNC
First 3d printer - Ender 3 pro
Pete.:
I just took delivery of one of these yesterday - a Creality Ender 3 Pro. Came well packed with clear simple instructions (pictures, actually), all the tools you'll need to build and use it plus a SDcard in a tiny USB reader, which comes with the user manual and other software.
I had to adjust the z-axis motor mount with a small packing spacer cut from card plus I drilled the mounting block to get better adjustment to make the screw align properly with the z-axis rail. A minor niggle but worth mentioing. Apart from that and having to solder a cold joint on the DC power lead which made the wire come off the connector it went together well and is surprisingly rigid for what it is.
Operating instructions are sparse and since I literally know NOTHING about 3d printing except what I've learned in the last day I had to take a look online to clarify some of the settings. Thankfully, there's a huge amount of online support. I had read online that they come bundled with Cura slicer but mine didn't, instead it came with Crality's slicer which is specific to their machines (but can output other types of Gcode). I couldn't use Cura anyway as my PC is 32 bit, which also means I couldn't use Fusion 360 as I planned. Currently I'm using sketchup to draw 3d items and exporting them as .dae files for the slicer.
I printed some test prints to prove the bed levelling was good. I found that the bed plate was not truly flat but apparently that's because it was cold and they flatten out when heated. I also found that the default heat of 45 degrees for the bed and 195 for the nozzle were too low for the PLA and the tests prints were not sticking. I turned them both up 10 degrees and the alignment tests came out great so I kicked off a test print from the card. That came out far better than I was expecting so I was very pleased.
Attached is a pic of the machine busy working on my first own-made print, and the test print, a high-res dog that was already on the card ready to print.
Pete.
Pete.:
My very first printed design. It's a replacement for the brass table coolant drain for this surface grinder, or at least it would be if I had drawn it right. I'm going to re-model it to fill in the gaps and print it again.
Absolutely nothing wrong with the printing side of it. The machine printed an excellent raft that came away cleanly, and the part is well defined with nice sharp edges and dimensionally good too.
Brass_Machine:
Pete,
Congrats on the Ender 3 Pro. They are awesome little machines.
Eric
Pete.:
--- Quote from: Brass_Machine on December 08, 2019, 09:48:03 AM ---Pete,
Congrats on the Ender 3 Pro. They are awesome little machines.
Eric
--- End quote ---
Cheers Eric,
I see that you also have one. Do you print much on it? I can see this one running almost constantly if I'm honest, at least for now. I hope the 2kg of PLA I ordered turns up soon as I've nearly used up the sample spool that came with the printer.
awemawson:
Excellent Pete, glad you got it going. If you run out of PLA over Christmas I can probably find you a spool.
Will it handle ABS and PetG filaments?
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