Ender 3 most effective upgrades

[Ollie_B_2000]

Recently picked up an Ender 3 v2 and spent some time doing small upgrades (springs, hot end fix) same getting things dialled in. Just wondering on what people's thoughts are on the next most impactful upgrades would be.

Thoughts are circling around:

• BL-Touch
• Direct drive extruder
• New board to take advantage of linear advance
• Upgraded hot end
• Run out sensor
• Noctua fans all around (love me some silence)

I know a few of these are more important when writing with different filaments which I'll definitely get around to eventually but just PLA for now.

 

[Joe Jones]

I can see the benefits of a BL-Touch but after figuring out how to get the leveling right along with Mesh Bed Leveling I haven't had the need to re-level after 20 prints....only did because I moved the printer to a new enclosure.

Direct drive 'seems' like a good idea but I hear it's only necessary for flexible filaments like TPU.

I've recently applied the hot end hack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCxO17XZtw) to help with printing at high temps and avoid clogs and other issues when printing above 220-230+.

Run out sensor is something I want to do, can't be babysitting a nearly finished spool whilst working.


One of the best upgrades I've done so far is to build and flash Marlin to enable the mesh bed leveling....and of all of them that one is free!
Something I look at is the Ender 3 series are the bottom of the range (and so far I would say are extremely capable), but spending £30 on a BL-Touch, £60+ on a dd extruder, £30+ on a hot end, etc....doesn't make sense on a £130 machine...shoulda just got something better in the first place.

 

[Ollie_B_2000]

Some good points, everything's going well so far so going to hold off on further upgrades until I start with flexibles.

I've flashed marlin already but unfortunately you can't get mesh leveling in the v2 as there is no menu for it. Apparently there is an older custom version of the bios someone made but I'd prefer something a little more up to date. Who knows I may even try to build a more up to date version that includes the bed leveling addition.

Still haven't gone for any marathon prints yet as paranoid about leaving it so long unattended. I believe there's an octoprint mod that can detect failed prints.

 

[Distracted]

I’ve seen it mentioned that a decent Bowden is quite capable of printing flexible filaments these days. You may want to do some testing first to see if the upgrade is needed.

 

[Ollie_B_2000]

I’ve seen it mentioned that a decent Bowden is quite capable of printing flexible filaments these days. You may want to do some testing first to see if the upgrade is needed.

Good call, thanks for the tip.

 

[Haze]

• BL-Touch - would not bother - as other have mentioned, you only need to re level the bed if you change something, not dont mine over 2 months
• Direct drive extruder - i brought one, and half fitted it, not have any print issues, so holding off on this
• New board to take advantage of linear advance - dunno what that is and can print anything i need
• Upgraded hot end - holding off on this too, think stock one is fine for normal materials and printing
• Run out sensor - there is a reason have loads of left over rolls would not risk it getting this low in the 1st place
• Noctua fans all around (love me some silence) - i hear some negativity around doing this, as quieter normally means slower, and then more heat

Would 100% install a metal feeder though, i did have a n ebay all metal one, but have changed to an EZR feeder, as it can do flexables

 

[dhill]

I've had my Ender3 v2 a couple oif months and have done the following;

BLTouch - Great bit of kit, and takes aware any stress of bed levelling.
All metal extruder - The plastic one can break and cause problems.
Capricorn bowden tubing - With the above, the filamanet seems to feed through so much easier.
Aluminum bed levelling wheels - Can with the yellow bed springs, more asthetic than anything.
Yellow bed springs - Most people recommend swapping the standard bed springs for these, and for the cost it's a no brainer in my eyes.

Have just started messing around with Octoprint on the PC this morning to see if it's worth getting a Raspberry Pi as a dedicated Octoprint box. Things like The Spaghetti Detective/ Print Nanny seem very useful to have, and the Bed Visualizer is pretty nifty as well. Need to play with Octoprint some more before I make a final decision though.

 

[andy_mk3]

My top upgrades:

• BL-Touch - Makes life so much easier. But I would advise anyone to master manual bed levelling first.
• Raspberry Pi with Octoprint - Game changer in terms of usability. Control your printer remotely, no messing with SD cards. A ton of plugins to choose from and some nice safety features like being able to shut power off from the printer in case of thermal runaway caused by a MOSFET stuck closed.
• There's quite a few printable upgrades like filament guides, spool holders and fan covers which are nice to have.
• TFT35 Touch Screen is a handy upgrade.
• Upgraded mainboard is a more advanced upgrade but equally as nice, offering a lot more features, especially including better stepper motor drivers.

 

[Joe Jones]

I've just put together a Pi running Octoprint and a small 3.5" screen.

My printer is in an enclosure out in the garage so not having to move files on a SD card is great....just dump them to a shared folder on the network and Octoprint picks them up automatically. I've got a webcam set up which is going to be a huge bonus as I won't have to physically go out and check on things all the time (I had a roll of filament that would jam quite often).

The 3.5" screen was a bit of a faff to get working. Started with Octoscreen but the resolution scaling just wouldn't work with the screen I had. Ended up going for Octodash which is working nicely. The screen doesn't offer a lot more over the stock controls really...I could probably use my phone and navigate the Octoprint gui quite easily.


For £35ish (already had the webcam) I'd say it's quite a good investment on an Ender3 for the convenience. If my printer was in the house I probably wouldn't bother though.

 

[andy_mk3]

If my printer was in the house I probably wouldn't bother though.

My printer is the opposite end of my desk, it's still a god send I have a camera too which is ideal to watch while in another room.

 

[Tobamory]

Nice to see more these discussions going on, so for me here's what I upgraded
Currently I have 5 printers
2 x Ender 3 pros
Geetech A20 ( given to me by Geetech)
Prusa MK3s
CR10MAX

On the enders I have fitted

SKR MINI e3 V2 32bit
TFT 35
Both are running Marlin 2.xxx
BLtouch
Microswiss but I use Bowden, didn't find the direct drive added much
I did start off with Glass beds, but over time I hated them as more often than not I had to pop them in the fridge to get the prints off, I eventually went for Spring steel sheets on all my Printers bar the MAX, they are a godsend.
I do have Octoprint but I honestly don't see much value in it other than the bed levelling mesh it creates, the Camera is ok, but I prefer to use SD cards as there faster and there isn't any reliance on Octoprint staying active, not that its crashed. And I actually sit in the same room as them so not much of a hassle, and having 5 printers I can only really manage one anyway which is more often the MAX when its doing massive 3 day prints.

The Prusa was a pain to build, litrally every nut and bolt, but it has to be said faultless machines and soo easy to level, the other benefit is the linear rails it has supporting the Z Axis, when you see the amount of issues people have with dual Z axis rods you relise Mr Prusa actually thought about this thing, but that being said I don't find them quiet even on stealth mode, noway near as quiet as the gold old ender, once the enders are dialled in there good..

 

[mikedigitales]

Good to see there are some other new Ender 3 owners here - I've just had a 3 Pro delivered, along with a few basic upgrades to swap in when building it next week. I picked up a kit including the Capricorn tubing, metal MK8 extruder and bed springs - I read and watched a bit before buying the printer and these sounded like sensible 'mods' to fit from the off. My first roll of filament arrived today too, went for some green Geeetech PLA to get me started. I'm building the shelving for it to live on this week - so hopefully I can get the printer put together next weekend

 

[Tobamory]

Geetech PLA is good I find it works well, I also use Sunlu and Amazon Basics
If you want cheap Good PLA try 3DFQ UK based site, my only issue with it is its tolarance is only 0.06, where as sunli and Geetech is 0.02/0.03 doesn't sound a lot but if your running Capricorn and the Bowden connecters are not tight as a nut, it can blow them off.

How I circumvent that is I still have the old white Bowden tube, so if I'm printing big stuff and want to use Cheap PLA, I swap the tubes over

Out of 3 of my printers all running Capricorn it blew 2 off ... so I ordered some Redrex white tube from amazon, for the times I need a wider bore in the bowden