Discussion
airsafari87 said:
Prusa i3 MK3S
I've recently bought one as my first 3d printer and it is absolutely brilliant.
I had looked at the Ender 5 and a few others too, but the Prusa was impossible to ignore.
I bought it as a kit as well and built it myself.
I did look at the prusa but it's out of my price range. I've read good reviews on both & with the prusa v Ender 5 you seem to get what you pay for with a more out of the box solution but I'm okay with leading as I go.I've recently bought one as my first 3d printer and it is absolutely brilliant.
I had looked at the Ender 5 and a few others too, but the Prusa was impossible to ignore.
I bought it as a kit as well and built it myself.
I was also thinking of setting mine up in the garage but after reading more about it I think it's better to keep it indoors?
I've got an Ender3 V2, worked fine for me straight out of the box. The only issue I've had is PETG not sticking to the bed, the answer to that was a purple glue stick - currently using "Elmers" brand, but I read that the Tesco "Go Create" purple glue stick works just as well - not tried it myself yet.
From looking around most of the issues people have is not building the thing properly or fitting all sorts of "upgrades" that either don't work properly or need lots of fiddling around to get going. The only thing I've done is to upgrade the bowden tube so I can print PETG at higher temperatures.
Take your time building the thing and levelling the bed, with a bit of luck it'll work fine.
I use the stock Cura profiles, lots of people seem to use these https://www.chepclub.com/cura-profiles.html
I currently use Cura 4.6, have read that 4.7 messed up people's profiles so hven't upgraded, might be worth checking and if needed downloading 4.6
From looking around most of the issues people have is not building the thing properly or fitting all sorts of "upgrades" that either don't work properly or need lots of fiddling around to get going. The only thing I've done is to upgrade the bowden tube so I can print PETG at higher temperatures.
Take your time building the thing and levelling the bed, with a bit of luck it'll work fine.
I use the stock Cura profiles, lots of people seem to use these https://www.chepclub.com/cura-profiles.html
I currently use Cura 4.6, have read that 4.7 messed up people's profiles so hven't upgraded, might be worth checking and if needed downloading 4.6
mph999 said:
I have both the Ender 3Pro and a Prusa mk3S
If you can stretch to it the Prusa is leagues ahead.
If you can stretch to it the Prusa is leagues ahead.
Against the original Ender 3 and Pro it is - they were crude at best. But against the V2 it's really not. I think Creality have released the V2 to absolutely knacker everyone else, because there is very little point buying anything else right now. The new 32bit board is extremely decent, has silent stepper drivers, is open source and has dedicated ports for a BL touch etc. Glass bed is very good (can print PETG straight onto it) and spares are available cheap if required, it has proper belt tensioners and a much better display/interface than the original Ender along with a much more polished look in general with a hidden power supply etc. I really can't stress how good the silent steppers are, not just for noise but the reduced step count really helps with print quality.
The only issues with it are the plastic extruder, but you can buy a kit with a metal extruder, Capricorn PTFE tubing and some uprated bed springs for 20 quid which solves the only remaining problem with it. If you really want direct drive extruder than a 30 quid kit from Printer mods allows you to move the standard extruder. If you want a BL touch then a £50 kit and a firmware flash will enable auto bed levelling etc.
I ordered an Ender 3 V2 a few months ago as a sacrificial printer just to do some quick PLA bits on because doing them in the big Markforged wasn't practical as it was doing lots of long prints at the time. I've not really used it since as for quick models and bits the V2 with a 0.8 nozzle on it does it just as well!
It's obscene what £250 will get you these days, something that would do all the things that the V2 does with the print quality it can achieve three years ago would have been £10K+!
I’ve got the Ender 5 and whilst I’ve never tried a 3 I find the 5 great. From what I read the 5 is better because of the enclosed (stronger) frame which means you can run the print and travel speeds a little higher. When I purchased there was approx £30 between the two so it seemed worthwhile to get the 5, there is no a 5plus and a 5pro, the 6 also looks interesting when it gets released
When first setting it up it is worth spending time to print a few modifications such as cable strain reliefs / bed supports / lcd board cover etc. I’d also recommend a glass bed upgrade as I have never been able to get the standard bed fully level as mine seems to a little warped and no matter what I tried I could not get it fully level, the glass bed was added and it was levelled in 5 minutes.
For slicer I had always used Cura, but was never happy with curved surfaces as they always seemed to get small rough blobs on them, the latest 4.7 was even worse, having spent many hours and prints trying to tune out the blobs I’ve recently moved to Prusaslicer with an ender profile and prints are massively better, It seems that the way in which cura and prusaslicer compute the gcode for circular motion and movement is significantly different.
Also, bear in mind that no matter which slicer you use you may find that you need to tweak print settings for each job depending on the item being printed and its intended use.
As for garage vs indoors, it should be ok in the garage as temperature consistency is probably more important than ambient temperature. Mine is in a room next to the internal door to my garage, and last winter I had a couple of prints ruined because I opened the door mid print which caused the rapid cooling of a couple of print layers that then caused stringing and weak layer adhesion. It might be worth building or buying an enclosure if you have it in the garage though.
When first setting it up it is worth spending time to print a few modifications such as cable strain reliefs / bed supports / lcd board cover etc. I’d also recommend a glass bed upgrade as I have never been able to get the standard bed fully level as mine seems to a little warped and no matter what I tried I could not get it fully level, the glass bed was added and it was levelled in 5 minutes.
For slicer I had always used Cura, but was never happy with curved surfaces as they always seemed to get small rough blobs on them, the latest 4.7 was even worse, having spent many hours and prints trying to tune out the blobs I’ve recently moved to Prusaslicer with an ender profile and prints are massively better, It seems that the way in which cura and prusaslicer compute the gcode for circular motion and movement is significantly different.
Also, bear in mind that no matter which slicer you use you may find that you need to tweak print settings for each job depending on the item being printed and its intended use.
As for garage vs indoors, it should be ok in the garage as temperature consistency is probably more important than ambient temperature. Mine is in a room next to the internal door to my garage, and last winter I had a couple of prints ruined because I opened the door mid print which caused the rapid cooling of a couple of print layers that then caused stringing and weak layer adhesion. It might be worth building or buying an enclosure if you have it in the garage though.
Edited by dterry on Monday 28th September 22:08
bobski1 said:
Would you go for an Ender 5 over a 3? I'd like to get the biggest bed possible.
I think the prusa is too far out my budget.
Where is the best place to buy an Ender?
What's the reason for the larger bed? Only reason I ask is because once you get to a stage where you're using the entire build area print times become daft, unless printing with a bigger nozzle. I think the prusa is too far out my budget.
Where is the best place to buy an Ender?
My ender 3 is currently printing a pair of 100x85x90 feet, it's going to take 19 hours.
Depends on what you're printing obviously, but something to consider.
If it I was looking for printers at the moment I'd have a look at the Biqu B1 too.
https://youtu.be/vW4DaWCd0Xs
bobski1 said:
Would you go for an Ender 5 over a 3? I'd like to get the biggest bed possible.
I think the prusa is too far out my budget.
Where is the best place to buy an Ender?
I'd hang on for a month if I definitely wanted a 5 and see if there is a 5 V2 with the control etc. from the 3 V2 on it. The motion engine is a little different on the 5 but a lot of the V2 upgrades can carry over and the new screen/control on the 3 V2 is really worthwhile.I think the prusa is too far out my budget.
Where is the best place to buy an Ender?
You really need to size the printer to suit what you want to make. A big bed is only an advantage if you need to make big things and then you are probably into large nozzles and associated extruders etc. If your parts are only large in one axis then it can make sense to have a larger bed on a small nozzle etc. If this was my first 3D printer I'd go in with something little and low cost to learn the basics on.
Amazon is a good bet for Ender stuff as it's generally in stock with Amazon, delivered accordingly and backed up with the usual Amazon customer service.
Crafty_ said:
From looking around most of the issues people have is not building the thing properly or fitting all sorts of "upgrades" that either don't work properly or need lots of fiddling around to get going.
I think people miss the fact that these are still CNC machines at the end of the day so nailing them together without so much as a measure or worse modifying them with little in the way of tools or measuring gear is only going to see them not work very well. Mine is on linear rails for the Y and X axis which for repeatability doing the same print again and again is a huge step forwards over the nylon rollers but trying to get this setup shimmed up and correct without at least having spent some time swapping vices on a mill to understand how to make things bolt up flat and confirm that is a loosing battle!
from the other 3d printer thread (https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=95&t=1823425&i=0) I posted this back in August last year about the power consumption of my Ender 3 (not that modified at that point).
Me said:
Just sat doing nothing it uses 10w
Heating the hot end to 205 it starts at 57w then drops of till about 54w when it gets to 205deg, to maintain the 205 its using 35-38w
Heating the bed to 55deg it starts at 305w then drops to 294w at 40deg, 284w at 50deg, 280w at 55deg. It then seems to do a cycle of 10w for about 14secs and then does a 4sec at 275w
Heating the hot end to 205 it starts at 57w then drops of till about 54w when it gets to 205deg, to maintain the 205 its using 35-38w
Heating the bed to 55deg it starts at 305w then drops to 294w at 40deg, 284w at 50deg, 280w at 55deg. It then seems to do a cycle of 10w for about 14secs and then does a 4sec at 275w
I have an ender 3 (with silent board/stepper upgrade) and a Prusa Mini.
The mini was easier to get started but I learnt a lot from the ender and is my default printer.
The Mini is now a bit flaky with hot end jamming (I need to replace the ptfe tube) whereas my tuned ender just prints!
If you just want to print, the Prusa kit is great. If you want to have a cheaper printer and are willing to learn - the Ender range is best.
It is nice having two printers as I can print mods for the other - if you print modified parts for one printer, print two of them!. It is really frustrating to break a custom part and have no working printer to print another part!
The mini was easier to get started but I learnt a lot from the ender and is my default printer.
The Mini is now a bit flaky with hot end jamming (I need to replace the ptfe tube) whereas my tuned ender just prints!
If you just want to print, the Prusa kit is great. If you want to have a cheaper printer and are willing to learn - the Ender range is best.
It is nice having two printers as I can print mods for the other - if you print modified parts for one printer, print two of them!. It is really frustrating to break a custom part and have no working printer to print another part!
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