The 3D Printer Thread

[Ambleton]

My Prusa Mk3S printer has been running sweetly for the last 2 years.

Noticed the firmware was way out of date so updated it to the latest. Wouldn't calibrate at all and constantly threw up "thermal anomaly" error. Had to roll back to release 11.2 before it worked nicely again. It's not totally stock. I've replaced the fans, reprinted most of the plastic parts on the extruder in PC, put it in an enclosure and moved the power source externally.

Anyway, after dicking about with it for about 5hrs it's finally printing nicely again.

Lesson learned! If it ain't broke don't fix it!

[Dave.]

I did try a mirror early on in my printing days, but it was a temporary test and not something I pursued.

Mainly cos I fked up the cutting down of the mirror to fit and never got around to buying another one.

Must revisit that at some point if I can find one the right size.

[egomeister]

geeks said:

I didn't say it was good but just that it was standard, lets be honest though, for a hobbyist machine it's fine and if it wasn't one of the manufactures would have done something better. Getting it pretty level and then running ABL is how all of this is managed.

Sort of. It is pretty frustrating for a hobbyist if they are having to fight this kind of stuff just to get a print to stick and its only been in fairly recent times that the Enders have been typically supplied with a touch probe. Totally agree that getting it as level as you can and then running ABL is the way forward.

I'm never sure what to make of creality. On the one hand they have probably made 3d printing more accessible than any other company, but have probably put a good proportion of people off with frustrating things like this bed levelling scenario or the firmware confusion mentioned further up in this thread!

[egomeister]

Dave. said:

I did try a mirror early on in my printing days, but it was a temporary test and not something I pursued.

Mainly cos I fked up the cutting down of the mirror to fit and never got around to buying another one.

Must revisit that at some point if I can find one the right size.

You should be able to buy a glass bed for no more than £15, so I don't think I'd mess about with cutting mirrors etc

[geeks]

Ambleton said:

Lesson learned! If it ain't broke don't fix it!

I always liked "If it ain't broke, fix it till it is!"

egomeister said:

geeks said:

I didn't say it was good but just that it was standard, lets be honest though, for a hobbyist machine it's fine and if it wasn't one of the manufactures would have done something better. Getting it pretty level and then running ABL is how all of this is managed.

Sort of. It is pretty frustrating for a hobbyist if they are having to fight this kind of stuff just to get a print to stick and its only been in fairly recent times that the Enders have been typically supplied with a touch probe. Totally agree that getting it as level as you can and then running ABL is the way forward.

I'm never sure what to make of creality. On the one hand they have probably made 3d printing more accessible than any other company, but have probably put a good proportion of people off with frustrating things like this bed levelling scenario or the firmware confusion mentioned further up in this thread!

Completely agree on all fronts. Load cells are now sufficiently cheap that we shouldn't have to be doing Z offset stuff either. I think if you are happy with a bit of tinkering then the newer Ender stuff still offers really good value, that said I have a mate, he is a tinkerer but just didnt want another project but wanted a printer so I guided him straight to the Bambu stuff, he loves his P1S and still sends me pictures everytime he prints something off and I got him to do some ABS printing for me for some Christmas light stuff so its worked for me as well. I have to say his setup process was much nicer than mine, unbox, plug a few bit in and hit go. He was printing stuff off of thingiverse within an hour of it arriving. So things are improving nicely outside of Creality who just seem a bit stuck in the mud, there are like 10 different "Ender 3" models available now which is just stupid.

egomeister said:

Dave. said:

I did try a mirror early on in my printing days, but it was a temporary test and not something I pursued.

Mainly cos I fked up the cutting down of the mirror to fit and never got around to buying another one.

Must revisit that at some point if I can find one the right size.

You should be able to buy a glass bed for no more than £15, so I don't think I'd mess about with cutting mirrors etc

Yup - https://www.3djake.uk/creality-3d-printers-spare-p... but personally I would go for a magnetic PEI sheet or Garolite since I switched to that I haven't once put my glass surface back on - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122308278979?var=426654... this is the one I have super cheap and many hours of printing still looks brand new

[S6PNJ]

geeks said:

Oh and word to the wise, glass and PETG don't mix without a good spread of glue

I have an Ender 5 Pro with Creality glass bed and whilst it is not the stickiest, I can get PETG prints to stick and come out ok without resulting to anything other than the glass bed.

What I am currently having issues with is getting Linear Advance to work - enabled in the firmware but not working as per the teaching tech webpage I'm using / following.

I've also recently bought an Ender 3 Pro (with glass bed) that is now working well and has a noticeably smaller footprint - just trying to decide which to keep! Unless I keep one for PLA and one for PETG of course...

Incidentally, both are manually trammed, no ABL.

[Ambleton]

geeks said:

Ambleton said:

Lesson learned! If it ain't broke don't fix it!

I always liked "If it ain't broke, fix it till it is!"

That is usually my mantra tbh but this time I was just wrong.

[geeks]

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later.

One P1S with AMS ordered.

[Yazza54]

geeks said:

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later.

One P1S with AMS ordered.

Is that a P1P with an enclosure as standard? Iove my P1P

[OutInTheShed]

egomeister said:

Sort of. It is pretty frustrating for a hobbyist if they are having to fight this kind of stuff just to get a print to stick and its only been in fairly recent times that the Enders have been typically supplied with a touch probe. Totally agree that getting it as level as you can and then running ABL is the way forward.

I'm never sure what to make of creality. On the one hand they have probably made 3d printing more accessible than any other company, but have probably put a good proportion of people off with frustrating things like this bed levelling scenario or the firmware confusion mentioned further up in this thread!

Creality sell an awful ot of printers to print farms.

The auto bed levelling must put an fair amount of processing load onto the motherboard?
Every 2D action becomes a 3D process?

Strangely, bed levelling is about the only thing that's not an issue with my cheapo kit A8 clone.

[geeks]

Yazza54 said:

geeks said:

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later.

One P1S with AMS ordered.

Is that a P1P with an enclosure as standard? Iove my P1P

Yeah that's the one, only minor differences that come with being enclosed. Big benefit for me is the AMS. Will get an E3D obxidian hot end for it in the not too distant future as well (well when it comes back into stock) as there are few CF prints I would like to do at some point as well. I know there are some cheap knock off hot ends that flow well and have hardened nozzles but I would rather keep to official upgrades and also the E3D nozzle has a donation system for things like the SMRRF foundation etc built into it's licencing fee.

[Dave.]

egomeister said:

Dave. said:

I did try a mirror early on in my printing days, but it was a temporary test and not something I pursued.

Mainly cos I fked up the cutting down of the mirror to fit and never got around to buying another one.

Must revisit that at some point if I can find one the right size.

You should be able to buy a glass bed for no more than £15, so I don't think I'd mess about with cutting mirrors etc

“They” ( ) say mirrors are flatter than generic glass beds….

[Russ35]

On my Ender 3 (not used since buying the P1P) I used Ikea Lots mirrors.

It was £7 for a pack of 4, 30cm x 30cm x 2mm thick, so needed trimming to fit.

They don't appear to do the Lots any more but they do some called BLODLÖNN that appear to be the same, although cannot see anything about thickness. These are currently £5 for 4

[Yazza54]

geeks said:

Yazza54 said:

geeks said:

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later.

One P1S with AMS ordered.

Is that a P1P with an enclosure as standard? Iove my P1P

Yeah that's the one, only minor differences that come with being enclosed. Big benefit for me is the AMS. Will get an E3D obxidian hot end for it in the not too distant future as well (well when it comes back into stock) as there are few CF prints I would like to do at some point as well. I know there are some cheap knock off hot ends that flow well and have hardened nozzles but I would rather keep to official upgrades and also the E3D nozzle has a donation system for things like the SMRRF foundation etc built into it's licencing fee.

I haven't had any issues with hotends, what's the supposed upgrade? I've changed to a hardened version from bambulab but only cos I've been printing a lot of PA-CF

[geeks]

Yazza54 said:

geeks said:

Yazza54 said:

geeks said:

Well it was bound to happen sooner or later.

One P1S with AMS ordered.

Is that a P1P with an enclosure as standard? Iove my P1P

Yeah that's the one, only minor differences that come with being enclosed. Big benefit for me is the AMS. Will get an E3D obxidian hot end for it in the not too distant future as well (well when it comes back into stock) as there are few CF prints I would like to do at some point as well. I know there are some cheap knock off hot ends that flow well and have hardened nozzles but I would rather keep to official upgrades and also the E3D nozzle has a donation system for things like the SMRRF foundation etc built into it's licencing fee.

I haven't had any issues with hotends, what's the supposed upgrade? I've changed to a hardened version from bambulab but only cos I've been printing a lot of PA-CF

There is no issue that I am aware of, it's just an upgrade for abrasive filaments and it has a higher flow rate than the Bambu hot ends which is a plus.

E3D are a very well known UK 3D printer parts maker (hot ends, extruders, nozzles etc etc). Company was started by this guy https://www.sanjaymortimerfoundation.org/about-san...

[geeks]

Its here, so far pretty impressed, AMS is cool. Can recommend

[Russ35]

Watch some videos on how to dismantle it, as you need to at some point.

It’s not hard, I can probable do it blind folded now.

[M1K3]

Purchased a bambulab x1 carbon and AMS a few weeks back, loving it so far. Second AMS arrived yesterday, ultimately I can see myself running 4 AMS. I have no need for 16 colour prints but....

[geeks]

I'm at about 200 print hours now. Had my first AMS issue last night filament had snapped inside the PTFE that feeds into the manifold. Took two minutes to strip and remove. Have had this issue with Esun PLA+ (specifically the black filament) before but not in the AMS I always put it down to moisture as it would stop doing it when dried, looks like that was the issue again as I took my desiccant pods out that I had printed and the orange beads were all black, frustrating as I have only ever used fresh or dried filament in there, looks like fresh stuff needs more drying before I load it up. Might now look at a dual spool dryer.

[Russ35]

I use mainly Esun PLA+, seems to go brittle very quickly.

I had an issue recently where it had snapped in the AMS. I managed to get the pieces out, but still had issues.Checked every thing on slot 4, nothing stuck in the feeder or the PTFE tube. Then swapped the feeder with one of the others still did the same. Then discovered that none of the slots would actually feed out of the AMS.

On further investigation I discovered that as well as the 4 individual feeders there is another one at the back of the AMS where the 4 PTFE tubes meet. So had to dismantle that and found a small piece of filament stuck in the gears.