Buying a 3D printer
Re: Buying a 3D printer
Welcome to the Dark Side .......
Rik
Rik
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
I am not completely over on the dark side,I have yet to master Tinkercad, but I did manage to download some stl files for bogies and couplers into it from Thingaverse.
Once I master that, the universe (forget the galaxy) is mine.
Once I master that, the universe (forget the galaxy) is mine.
Graeme
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
You're going to love it.
Tinkercad is very simple is that most things are made up from a circle, a circle hole, a rectangle or a rectangle hole or a combination there of, there isn't much left after that.
Tinkercad is very simple is that most things are made up from a circle, a circle hole, a rectangle or a rectangle hole or a combination there of, there isn't much left after that.
The buck stops here .......
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
The Ender is nigh!!!
My printer has been dispatched and is in transit hopefully it will be before the weekend.
Then the question will fly thick and fast.
My printer has been dispatched and is in transit hopefully it will be before the weekend.
Then the question will fly thick and fast.
Graeme
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
Only one (question)? ........
You'll be lucky.
Rik
Re: Buying a 3D printer
The only shapes I've struggled to perfect are the fillets between boiler fittings (eg dome, chimney, safety valve) and boiler. I think they are easier in Fusion 360 ( but I've not yet got the hang of that)
Rik
PS - I'm going to remember this little trick when I next draw coach or loco roofs -
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
Umm I think I was supposed to type questions there.
I have enough to fill a small note book already.
Graeme
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
That is great, must have a go when the printer arrives.ge_rik wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 7:28 amThe only shapes I've struggled to perfect are the fillets between boiler fittings (eg dome, chimney, safety valve) and boiler. I think they are easier in Fusion 360 ( but I've not yet got the hang of that)
Rik
PS - I'm going to remember this little trick when I next draw coach or loco roofs -
So many things to play with and call it a learning curve.
Graeme
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
The Ender has come!!!
I have finally taken delivery of an Ender 3 V2, I had to wait till stocks arrived to fill my pre order.
I am slowly assembling it and should be up and running next week, if life would just stop getting in the road.
My first prints will probably some LGB type bogies, I found some stl files on Thingaverse, to replace the home made ones I have on 6 wagons at present.
I am thinking of using ABS filament.
Does anybody know what type of filament comes in the box with the printer?
I have finally taken delivery of an Ender 3 V2, I had to wait till stocks arrived to fill my pre order.
I am slowly assembling it and should be up and running next week, if life would just stop getting in the road.
My first prints will probably some LGB type bogies, I found some stl files on Thingaverse, to replace the home made ones I have on 6 wagons at present.
I am thinking of using ABS filament.
Does anybody know what type of filament comes in the box with the printer?
Graeme
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
It is standard PLA in the box. As you have an Ender 3, it is not enclosed and you may have issues printing with ABS. Trevor on here loves the stuff but that isn't the case for most of us, it is a bit of a black art to print with ABS, especially for first prints. I would go with the PLA to start and see how you get on and then decide. Just my point of viewGAP wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 6:48 am The Ender has come!!!
I have finally taken delivery of an Ender 3 V2, I had to wait till stocks arrived to fill my pre order.
I am slowly assembling it and should be up and running next week, if life would just stop getting in the road.
My first prints will probably some LGB type bogies, I found some stl files on Thingaverse, to replace the home made ones I have on 6 wagons at present.
I am thinking of using ABS filament.
Does anybody know what type of filament comes in the box with the printer?
The buck stops here .......
Ditton Meadow Light Railway (DMLR)
Member of Peterborough and District Association
http://peterborough.16mm.org.uk/
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
Well the Ender was assembled and the Z axis limit and bed levelling carried out; Pass sort of,
Next came the loading of the Creality slicer to my laptop; Fail (Did work on another one)
Then came the loading of the filament and getting it to flow through the nozzle; Fail (Nozzle was blocked, got that cleared)
Up next was to do the test print of the dog file that is on the SD Card; Fail (filament does not stick to the bed and all I end up with is a load of string).
At the moment the printer is in the shed being ignored till I figure out what I have done wrong (troubleshooting chart in the manual is of no help).
Any ideas/suggestions listened to.
Next came the loading of the Creality slicer to my laptop; Fail (Did work on another one)
Then came the loading of the filament and getting it to flow through the nozzle; Fail (Nozzle was blocked, got that cleared)
Up next was to do the test print of the dog file that is on the SD Card; Fail (filament does not stick to the bed and all I end up with is a load of string).
At the moment the printer is in the shed being ignored till I figure out what I have done wrong (troubleshooting chart in the manual is of no help).
Any ideas/suggestions listened to.
Graeme
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
First thing to check is the nozzle height above the bed. If the gap is too big, you end up with exactly what you've described ( we've all been there, done that...wanna buy a T-shirt? ).
2ndly, I don't know specifically on Enders, but have you got warming on for the build plate? It is often said that PLA doesn't need a heated bed but I've found a temp of 60 deg for the first layer and drop to 50 deg for the rest of the print helps good adhesion.
Third thing is that you could try Pritt Stick, smeared on the bed. I don't personally like doing it although it does help. The reason I don't like it is that over time it builds up and you get a very rough print surface.
Philip
Re: Buying a 3D printer
I agree with everything Philip has suggested.
Bed-levelling is an acquired skill and takes a few goes to get it right. Does Ender suggest using a sheet of paper to act as a feeler gauge between the nozzle and the bed? Getting that right can take a few goes - as you adjust one screw you find it has altered another you have already done and so you may need to go around each of them two or three times making fine adjustments.
The Pritt layer only works if you are printing directly on to a glass bed. Does the Ender come with a removable magnetic mat? They're supposed to be very good for the first 50 or so prints and then begin to lose their effectiveness and so you may then end up printing directly on to the glass. I don't think Pritt will work on top of the mat, but others may correct me.
I remove each old layer of Pritt with a wide chisel before putting on a new layer. This avoids the build-up of Pritt but does add another chore to the printing process (and can create a lot of dust which I then Hoover away).
Rik
Bed-levelling is an acquired skill and takes a few goes to get it right. Does Ender suggest using a sheet of paper to act as a feeler gauge between the nozzle and the bed? Getting that right can take a few goes - as you adjust one screw you find it has altered another you have already done and so you may need to go around each of them two or three times making fine adjustments.
The Pritt layer only works if you are printing directly on to a glass bed. Does the Ender come with a removable magnetic mat? They're supposed to be very good for the first 50 or so prints and then begin to lose their effectiveness and so you may then end up printing directly on to the glass. I don't think Pritt will work on top of the mat, but others may correct me.
I remove each old layer of Pritt with a wide chisel before putting on a new layer. This avoids the build-up of Pritt but does add another chore to the printing process (and can create a lot of dust which I then Hoover away).
Rik
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
Phil and Rikphilipy wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 6:29 amFirst thing to check is the nozzle height above the bed. If the gap is too big, you end up with exactly what you've described ( we've all been there, done that...wanna buy a T-shirt? ).
2ndly, I don't know specifically on Enders, but have you got warming on for the build plate? It is often said that PLA doesn't need a heated bed but I've found a temp of 60 deg for the first layer and drop to 50 deg for the rest of the print helps good adhesion.
Third thing is that you could try Pritt Stick, smeared on the bed. I don't personally like doing it although it does help. The reason I don't like it is that over time it builds up and you get a very rough print surface.
Z axis end stop was adjusted 3 times so nozzle was about 1mm above plate.
The "leveling" with the printer paper was done at least 10 times, I spent nearly 2 hours trying to get a print started.
The bed was preheated to 60C with nozzle at 200C, a setting in the Ender "prepare" menu
The bed seems to be closer than 1mm to the plate.
If I adjust one side of the plate till it is "just right" when I move over to the other side the nozzle hits the plate till I adjust the opposite side, the same for the front to back adjustment.
I just go round and round and adjust each one in turn over and over as any change of one screw throws out all the others.
Graeme
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
I don't know anything about types of printer other than the one I have. But printing with ABS requires specific conditions: bed plate heated to 100 degrees C, extruder at 230 degrees, and a FULLY enclosed build area. I suggest that the printer you have is not suitable for printing ABS.-steves- wrote: ↑Mon Sep 20, 2021 1:12 pmIt is standard PLA in the box. As you have an Ender 3, it is not enclosed and you may have issues printing with ABS. Trevor on here loves the stuff but that isn't the case for most of us, it is a bit of a black art to print with ABS, especially for first prints. I would go with the PLA to start and see how you get on and then decide. Just my point of viewGAP wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 6:48 am The Ender has come!!!
I have finally taken delivery of an Ender 3 V2, I had to wait till stocks arrived to fill my pre order.
I am slowly assembling it and should be up and running next week, if life would just stop getting in the road.
My first prints will probably some LGB type bogies, I found some stl files on Thingaverse, to replace the home made ones I have on 6 wagons at present.
I am thinking of using ABS filament.
Does anybody know what type of filament comes in the box with the printer?
Trevor
Re: Buying a 3D printer
1mm seems a very large gap to me - the height should be no more than the thickness of a sheet of paper.
I'm sure you've probably already tried this but there are a few videos on YouTube about bed levelling specific to the Ender 3 - eg - https://youtu.be/_EfWVUJjBdA
This chap seems to know what he's talking about.
It does sound as if you're having more of a problem than should normally be the case. Once the bed has been levelled, it does get easier - I promise...
If you're still running into problems I could pop round to see my mate who has an Ender 3 to see if he has any specific advice.
Rik
I'm sure you've probably already tried this but there are a few videos on YouTube about bed levelling specific to the Ender 3 - eg - https://youtu.be/_EfWVUJjBdA
This chap seems to know what he's talking about.
It does sound as if you're having more of a problem than should normally be the case. Once the bed has been levelled, it does get easier - I promise...
If you're still running into problems I could pop round to see my mate who has an Ender 3 to see if he has any specific advice.
Rik
Re: Buying a 3D printer
I think there is your problem. My m/c (Qidi) came with a thin piece of plastic on which is printed "Levelling paper". I've just checked with micrometer and it is 0.25mm thick, so your 1mm sounds very much too high. For reference a piece of Tesco best printer paper came in at 0.11mm. The major cause of print problems I've found, is getting that gap right. Too big and you get spaghetti, too small and it smears and even drags the nozzle on the bed.
Thats sounds fine for PLA in my experience.
As I've said above, but you need to know what it is. Find a piece of 0.25mm plasticard and use that.
I think there was some discussion of this a couple of weeks back. If memory serves, you have 4 levelling screws on the Ender? I only have 3, which brings its own problems but they are different to a 4 screw version, so I can't really suggest the best way to tackle it.GAP wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 8:29 am If I adjust one side of the plate till it is "just right" when I move over to the other side the nozzle hits the plate till I adjust the opposite side, the same for the front to back adjustment.
I just go round and round and adjust each one in turn over and over as any change of one screw throws out all the others.
Philip
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
There are 2 preheat settings on the Ender3 V2 PLA and ABS which is why I am looking at ABSTrevor Thompson wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 9:28 amI don't know anything about types of printer other than the one I have. But printing with ABS requires specific conditions: bed plate heated to 100 degrees C, extruder at 230 degrees, and a FULLY enclosed build area. I suggest that the printer you have is not suitable for printing ABS.-steves- wrote: ↑Mon Sep 20, 2021 1:12 pmIt is standard PLA in the box. As you have an Ender 3, it is not enclosed and you may have issues printing with ABS. Trevor on here loves the stuff but that isn't the case for most of us, it is a bit of a black art to print with ABS, especially for first prints. I would go with the PLA to start and see how you get on and then decide. Just my point of viewGAP wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 6:48 am The Ender has come!!!
I have finally taken delivery of an Ender 3 V2, I had to wait till stocks arrived to fill my pre order.
I am slowly assembling it and should be up and running next week, if life would just stop getting in the road.
My first prints will probably some LGB type bogies, I found some stl files on Thingaverse, to replace the home made ones I have on 6 wagons at present.
I am thinking of using ABS filament.
Does anybody know what type of filament comes in the box with the printer?
Trevor
Graeme
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
Yes it has the preheat settings, as does my Ender 5 and my Ender 6 (the 6 is a mainly enclosed printer) but I still wouldn't go with ABS as they are not FULLY enclosed. Just stick with PLA or PLA+ for now (I always use PLA+) and if you want more, then try PETG and see how you get on with that.
As mentioned, the first layer height is absolutely critical for everything.
The buck stops here .......
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Re: Buying a 3D printer
Also it can be worth winding the levelling screws down tighter before you do the levelling as the board can move otherwise.
Never had an Ender 3 myself, but I am assuming you have to set the Z offset like the Ender 5 and then save the settings?
Never had an Ender 3 myself, but I am assuming you have to set the Z offset like the Ender 5 and then save the settings?
The buck stops here .......
Ditton Meadow Light Railway (DMLR)
Member of Peterborough and District Association
http://peterborough.16mm.org.uk/
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Member of Peterborough and District Association
http://peterborough.16mm.org.uk/
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