Ender 3- Five Things I Wish I knew Before Buying

In this video I break down the five things I wish I know before I bought my Ender 3 3D printer. When you are buying a 3d printer for the first time, there are a lot of unknowns. Here I try to answer some common questions and help you get a quick start when receiving your ender 3.

[Smedleydog]

You have a lot of good information for newbies.
I have a few upgrade suggestions for anyone getting into 3d printing and considering the Ender 3 model. 1 and 3 are cheap and almost necessary in my opinion.
1. Replace the original bed springs with silicone rubber "springs". Once you get the leveling set, they won't change. You may want to check it once a week, but after they initially compress, they pretty much stay put.
2. If you are still concerned about bed leveling get a BL touch or a CR touch auto bed level. I believe that all of the Ender models now come with a 32 bit motherboard and adding a touch sensor is fairly simple.
3. Consider changing to a a Capricorn PFTE bowden tube because it can withstand higher temps than the original white tube. The white tube degrades after a while and can cause binding of the filament and clogging.
4. If you want to print a lot of PETG or anything that takes more heat than 240C, get a bit-metal heat break. I suggest the one from Slice Engineering. It's a direct drop in and it will allow you to turn the nozzle temp up to (claimed) 450C with no degradation of the bowden tube from heat.
5. If you think that you might want to print flexibles like TPU, convert to direct drive. Creality makes a conversion kit that's relatively inexpensive, there's also a Micro Swiss conversion or there are other complete extruder/hot end/nozzle replacement options. Direct drive extruders have a much shorter filament path and there is no compression of the filament that causes print issues and clogs.
6. Consider a hardened steel nozzle. If you want to print anything abrasive like carbon fiber reinforced filaments it's a must or you will be changing brass nozzles a lot. I've been using the same steel nozzle for almost 2 years.

To me, half the fun of 3d printing is upgrading/customizing your printer.

[ed]

bed leveling is one of the biggest struggles for beginners. Ender 3 or 3v2 are still great value for 3d print farms or people who had some experience. I highly recommend Ender 3 S1 for slightly higher entry point but it eliminates lots of hurdles for beginners.

[andyb]

Very ineresting video. I did the same thing many years ago. After using a less known printer (didn't work well), I bought a Ender3 V2 which worked great! I did the same learning then upgraded to BL touch, diferent bed springs, aluminum extruder housing, Jyers software, magnetic bed plate, etc. It worked great so I bought a second one and did the upgrades to it also. After I went to an Aviation Maintenance Conference last March and heard the FAA rep talk about using 3D printed parts I had to find a different printer. I ended up buying a QIDI Q1 Pro (good value). I gave my Ender 3's to my son and grandson. The Q1 Pro is going to be a new learning because of the slicer you use, but hey what heck. Anyway, thank you for the video, interesting and you msounded like me when I got the Ender(s). Good looking garage!!

[joycedimaggio]

I was just talking to some young students about 3D printing. Thanks for the info!

[campbellmorrison]

Excellent video thanks, I'm about to start with one of these I was given so its great to get some practical input rather than just the manual

[farhadsaberi]

I just changed my nozzle to 0.8mm. Have to tweak Cura settings for 0.8 mm nozzle as well. I use it for non-toy prints that don't require tiny details. My prints are now 2.5x faster.

[mbrad]

Good video for me as a noob, really been thinking about 3d printing for awhile and now I'm prepared to invest in one... great info👍

[cohall]

I like your honest summary. Thanks for sharing.

[MalakyoftheOSR]

Great video for someone interested in 3D printing. These are the same things that tripped me up when I got mine.

[enosunim]

Yes, this is a good start for 3d printing, and have big potential too. If you have hands growing from the right place. But it can be used in unmodified state too.
I bought Ender 3 two years ago and would buy it again. It is very easy in modification, and there are a lot of instructions and upgrades. Only choose wisely what you do = )
If you go into upgrade path better buy second printer for time saving. So you can easily reprint upgrade if something does not fit.
My first upgrade was autooff feature, you can use printbed to switch the switch which will cut off the power. = )

[michaelzarutsky]

Preach on, brother :o) The first ever item I printed was the Benchy boat. It was pre-loaded on a micro SD card that Creality shipped with my V2 Neo ("Cura"? What's that??? I didn't know squat... ;o) So, shove tha card in and select "Print"... And then walked around the blasted thing for 2 and a half hours watching it grow. Magic :o)

[johann-space]

great info for a beginner just getting into 3D printing. thank you a lot!

[MRrwmac]

Chad, This was an excellent video for us neubs. I’m thinking about about buying an Ender 3 v3 se and your video was a perfect! Thanks!

[trance_trousers]

The Ender 3 V3 SE has recently been released and it has a ton of improvements and upgrades over the original Ender 3, and indeed a lot of other similar 3D printers. It has auto bed levelling with a strain gauge to automatically set the Z offset, plus a Sprite direct drive extruder and dual Z axis lead screws. It really does look like the perfect beginners 3D printer, and for a ridiculously low price too - £189 delivered in the UK! I'm tempted to get one myself to use alongside my Ender 2 Pro.

[ericgildelamadrid]

so for CR-PETG i set the temps at 250c for the nozzle and 90c for the bed

[makedaevilmage]

I started printing with my Ender 3 a little over a year ago .. things I wish I knew back then; Bed leveling with a feeler gauge (0.2mm) is so much easier than with a piece of paper ... and I have much beter first layers after leveling with a feeler gauge. Also, how much noise the fans make ... I got the printer in my bedroom where I also watch TV ... but now I had to turn the TV up. After a while I just replaced the fans with Noctua fans. Also decided last week to start try printing TPU, which I found out is much easier with a direct drive setup ... so, I modded the printer to a direct drive setup. Ofcourse this also means you run into other problems ... like how to manage the new cable setup ...

[vkczkzm]

I like the Ender 3 but sometimes when I print the filament gets stuck and knoted. I see that you have a tool on it. Dose that help?

[signummotors]

Just started off with 3D printing, great tips, wish I'd watch it few hours before... :) Got there anyway, but would be less painfull. Thanks for sharing!

[huzbum]

I'm new to the hobby and I have the V2 Neo with a CR touch and self leveling bed, but I had to level it manually when I first put it together. There is probably something I don't know, but why would you try to level it while printing? I set the z-offset with a couple sheets of paper, then continue to use the paper as a feeler moving the nozzle position and using it as a z-height reference.

I had the same problem with my first print (which was PLA). It was stuck too well. I couldn't get it off. The problem was nozzle height. I had the nozzle too close to the bed. It actually slightly etched the bed.

Personally, I don't like fusion 360, and I don't like the way they are nerfing the free version, so I use FreeCad and Blender. When I'm modifying an existing design, it's best to use Blender, or import it into blender and touch things up, then import into FreeCad and do precise work. If I'm designing from scratch, I just start in FreeCad. I'm not very good at modeling yet, but that's what I found to be the simplest to work with.

I get nervous about printing un-attended too. I have a couple IP cameras monitoring it, and I installed OctoPrint on a Raspberry pi so I can control it remotely. I also hooked it up with a smart plug, so I can cut power from my phone. It works out pretty well. Most of my prints take about 8 hours, so it's nice to be able to start one on my lunch break at work, relaxing in bed before going to sleep, etc.

I think I might pick up a fire alarm and put it over the printer, then use an Amazon Echo with a routine to cut power to the plug if it hears the alarm.

[mydogworriesalot]

I need to make my own stuff missing parts for stuff can I run a dual extruder with the same filament to speed things up, with 2 nozzles ?