I Got A New 3D Printer Thread
- Thread starter DazzlerFan
- Start date
Starbase101
Sr Member
After using printers having auto-leveling, I cannot imagine going back to one where it's done manually.
DazzlerFan
Sr Member
6 hours and 2 minutes later, my first print is done. This is way too much fun.
I can’t wait to start slicing something.
justanuthercap
Sr Member
Here's my first large print on the Ender 5 Plus. Shoulder armor.
This has had NOTHING done to it. Highest quality setting.
Same piece printed on my Duplicator i3 at it's highest quality. You'll also notice it had to be cut in half to fit the print bed.
Kicking myself for not getting the Ender 5 plus sooner! Granted two different brands of filament, but I've gotten NOTHING as nice as the print from the Ender on any filament I've used.
This has had NOTHING done to it. Highest quality setting.
Same piece printed on my Duplicator i3 at it's highest quality. You'll also notice it had to be cut in half to fit the print bed.
Kicking myself for not getting the Ender 5 plus sooner! Granted two different brands of filament, but I've gotten NOTHING as nice as the print from the Ender on any filament I've used.
Did you have much trouble getting it to print that good straight out of the box? I'm considering an upgrade in printer and I like the price point of the 5+ considering the print volume...
justanuthercap
Sr Member
I had some issues at first, but they were all related to it being in the garage and too cold an ambient temp. Filament was shrinking too fast and pulling up the edges. Other than that, i just used the settings I was using for my duplicator and moved it indoors. Haven't had a need to tweak anything yet. Printing a helmet right now so we'll see how that goes. Kind of a torture test.
DazzlerFan
Sr Member
Fantastic! Looks great! Can’t wait to hear how your helmet turns out.
DazzlerFan
Sr Member
Having fun searching for STLs and playing around with the settings in the Creality Slicer. I’m definitely learning a lot. Thanks to the multitudes of talented modelers out there who offer their models free for personal use. I’m looking forward to getting into modeling my own things. Here’s some stuff I’ve printed:
Captain Proton’s Raygun
Captain Proton’s Raygun
I technically got my Prusa Mini a bit before Christmas, but I'm very much still learning. Currently the biggest thing I'm trying to learn is how to calibrate things for different brands of PLA. I have had excellent luck with the Prusament PLA I have, but the Atomic PLA has been proving a little more difficult to work with. By all reports, it should be a high quality filament, but the results are a lot less consistent. I've been playing with extrusion multipliers and temperatures, but I'm still not totally happy. I'll probably try something like esun PLA + before long just to see if I have better luck with that.
My favorite thing about having a printer is that it changed my mindset on what can be made and fixed. I've always been someone to DIY things, repair them instead of tossing/replacing, etc. But being able to throw together something in Fusion 360, print, and quickly iterate until it's right has been a game changer. Plus, I've been able to replace things that have proven impossible to find, namely the freaking clips for my vertical blinds. I swear my place has some weird proprietary blinds that aren't sold anywhere online, but given a half dozen tries, I was able to come up with a replacement clip that prints easily and works perfectly. Designing and printing a fix is now one of my go-to reactions and I love the feeling of self-sufficiency that comes with it.
My favorite thing about having a printer is that it changed my mindset on what can be made and fixed. I've always been someone to DIY things, repair them instead of tossing/replacing, etc. But being able to throw together something in Fusion 360, print, and quickly iterate until it's right has been a game changer. Plus, I've been able to replace things that have proven impossible to find, namely the freaking clips for my vertical blinds. I swear my place has some weird proprietary blinds that aren't sold anywhere online, but given a half dozen tries, I was able to come up with a replacement clip that prints easily and works perfectly. Designing and printing a fix is now one of my go-to reactions and I love the feeling of self-sufficiency that comes with it.
justanuthercap
Sr Member
By the way, I don't want anyone to think I'm saying there's no issues with the Ender 5 plus. The autoleveling... I can't get it right to save my life. I've been leveling manually. And I've only printed the two shoulders so far both with the same PLA plus from 3D-Fuel.
Bloop
Sr Member
I've had an Ender 3 for over a year, though I haven't been using it as much as I wanted. One thing I'll mention is to take care of your filament. I found out recently that PLA will absorb moisture which can lead to bad prints (poor quality and brittleness). It probably isn't a problem if you go through spools of filament quickly, but my filament was over a year old and had problems. I was still able to get some OK prints from the old filament by increasing the print temperature, but it's better to avoid those potential problems. There are "dry boxes" that you can buy or make to not only store PLA in a moisture free environment, but they also have nazzles to feed the PLA directly from the dry box to your printer so that you don't have to expose it to moisture until it prints. Even using just a zip lock bag, preferably with some desiccant packets, to store your unused filament should help.
EDIT: I wanted to add that PLA, once printed, doesn't have the same problem of absorbing moisture as it does before printing. The print process cures the plastic so that it'll remain strong long after.
EDIT: I wanted to add that PLA, once printed, doesn't have the same problem of absorbing moisture as it does before printing. The print process cures the plastic so that it'll remain strong long after.
DazzlerFan
Sr Member
I’ve been storing my open PLA in “Amazon Basics Vacuum Compression Storage Bags”. These come with a hand pump. I toss in two silica packs with each pla spool. I did have one bag that wouldn’t stay air tight, so your mileage my vary
Starbase101
Sr Member
I store my opened filament in Zip-Lock freezer bags (thicker plastic than the regular bags) with at least one silica packet inside. I've also got a filament dryer (PrintDry™ Filament Dryer – PrintDry™) which holds two spools and has portholes for feeding filament directly to a printer. The dryer can also be used to "recharge" silica packets. An Elegoo Saturn is finally on order!
DazzlerFan
Sr Member
Had my first print that completely went crazy In the night last night.
Part of the (Bladerunner) barrel came off the bed and moved about four or five inches. The filament went everywhere.
I had the bed at 75c (normally I do 60). Print head was 180c. Not sure why it lifted and moved.
Part of the (Bladerunner) barrel came off the bed and moved about four or five inches. The filament went everywhere.
I had the bed at 75c (normally I do 60). Print head was 180c. Not sure why it lifted and moved.
TazMan2000
Master Member
Had my first print that completely went crazy In the night last night.
Part of the (Bladerunner) barrel came off the bed and moved about four or five inches. The filament went everywhere.
I had the bed at 75c (normally I do 60). Print head was 180c. Not sure why it lifted and moved.
View attachment 1412770
180 degrees Celsius? Are your layers bonded well or do you get a cracking when you put stress on the part? I would go with 200 degrees Celsius. If the temperature isn't high enough the lowest layer will not bond well to the base. Also, subsequent layers will not bond well to each other and not 'trowel' well, which may cause the nozzle to hit the last layer and knock your object off of the base.
TazMan2000
DazzlerFan
Sr Member
I’ve not had an issue with cracking on my previous prints, but I noticed that there were some places where the layers didn’t bond on this print.
I’ll up the heat on the next try and see if it helps. Thanks for the advice.
Starbase101
Sr Member
Most PLA I print with (usually MatterHackers Pro) calls for 205C and 210C for the first layer. Depending on your print bed surface, Elmers glue stick works great for holding PLA to the build plate and cleans up with just water.
Supe
Member
Sometimes going too hot on the print bed can make things worse as well. It can cause blistering on initial layers, and sometimes warping of the lower layers, which it looks like you have on the rafts. I pretty consistently run 45-50C on the print bed with purple glue stick with PLA's that tend to run on the low end of melting temps. If you're getting decent results at only 180C on the extrusion temps, then 75C may well be too hot for that material. Some folks have better luck with hairspray than glue stick, but I prefer to not have my entire office covered in sticky residue, and have had no issues with the glue stick.
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