Random 3D printing chatter

[Scougar]

@Cenedd oh lord, that sucks. Good luck.

@DHR what is your budget, what are your requirements?
Have you looked at the Ender 5 Plus? The only thing really need to upgrade is the board to make it quieter, but good aside from that.

I wouldn't personally go for another printer that doesn't have dual Z axis, if I was starting again.

 

[DHR]

@Scougar I was considering a 5 but dropped back again due to physical size. Budget wise I was trying to keep it under £250.

Requirements, ultimately it'll be more of a tool than a hobby, printing project cases for things, random bits etc.

 

[Scougar]

@Scougar I was considering a 5 but dropped back again due to physical size. Budget wise I was trying to keep it under £250.

Requirements, ultimately it'll be more of a tool than a hobby, printing project cases for things, random bits etc.

What materials are you expecting to print?

 

[DHR]

I'd assumed PLA in all honesty, but it's a completely new thing to me, every days a school day!

 

[Oh Ed not again.]

Has anyone attempted the Bear Upgrade for their Prusa?

I'm about 3/4 of the way through reprinting all the parts and things ready to do the swap when my hardware arrives from China, basically ended up building a whole new printer save for the electronics of the donor machine.

 

[ChrisLX200]

Just completing some upgrades on my Creality CR-6 SE, it's now got a microswiss all-metal hot end, the latest community firmware, and I'm about to fit this dual drive microswiss extruder plus better cooling with 40mm fans. Also a magnetic bed is in the post to me (hope it's better than the Prima one I fitted to my Artillery X1 which isn't very sticky).

 

[DHR]

@ChrisLX200 how did you find the CR-6 SE out of the box. I keep flipping between an ender 3 V2, ender 5 and CR-6 SE.

The auto bed leveling is a must for me so I'm wondering if spending that little bit more from the off and not messing with the BL levelling sensors would be a good idea?

 

[ChrisLX200]

@ChrisLX200 how did you find the CR-6 SE out of the box. I keep flipping between an ender 3 V2, ender 5 and CR-6 SE.

The auto bed leveling is a must for me so I'm wondering if spending that little bit more from the off and not messing with the BL levelling sensors would be a good idea?

Out of the box it always provided great prints in PLA and petg, very reliable. I've had it a while now (it was one of the first batch) and I just upgraded to the Community firmware which is a great improvement over the stock. I also wanted to use this printer for higher temperature filament so that's the reason for the hardware upgrades. Autolevelling works great. Had a blocked hot end a few times but there is a mod for the stock item which reduces the problem, and the microswiss all-metal upgrade is even better. I've printed flexible material through it but the TPU I used wasn't that soft so not much of a challenge, the dual gear microswiss extruder should enable softer material to work but it's still a Bowden system. My Artillery X1 is direct drive so I would probably use that for very flexible materials. I never tried an Ender 3 so I can't offer a comparison of my own but I would certainly buy a CR-6 SE again based on experience with it.

 

[DHR]

They're looking hard to come by at the moment under £380 @ChrisLX200 - found one for £300 but wasn't sure of the supplier

 

[ChrisLX200]

They're looking hard to come by at the moment under £380 @ChrisLX200 - found one for £300 but wasn't sure of the supplier

I see one on Amazon for £340 with a 2 day delivery, and that provides an instant return route if it's a lemon.
I just installed the microswiss extruder and now running a first print. I swapped out the fillament runout sensor for a 3D printed part and discovered taking the guts out of the stock item is not an easy task! There was a spring in there that went AWOL and I had to make a new one out of a ballpoint pen lol!

Edit: I noticed 3DJake has them for £300 right now, I've bought a fair bit of kit from them and they're a good company to deal with.

 

[LewisRaz]

I recently got this:


I have never done 3d printing before. Watching as many guides on it as I can. This is a used unit so firstly I need to check its all working and by the looks of it tidy up this wiring too.

Does anyone have any tips for someone starting out? Or good places to read up? Things I need to look for on a used printer etc. Cheers

 

[bulb66]

I recently got this:


I have never done 3d printing before. Watching as many guides on it as I can. This is a used unit so firstly I need to check its all working and by the looks of it tidy up this wiring too.

Does anyone have any tips for someone starting out? Or good places to read up? Things I need to look for on a used printer etc. Cheers

I got one of those a few months ago to play around with (a back to basics kinda deal). First thing I'd say is to just check wires are in good condition and plugged in correctly.

You'll probably want to update the firmware at some point as unless it's been done with well out of date.

You'll also want to sort a part cooling fan and duct as I assume you'll be printing PLA to start with.

Feel free to ask anything thing you're unsure about.

 

[LewisRaz]

I got one of those a few months ago to play around with (a back to basics kinda deal). First thing I'd say is to just check wires are in good condition and plugged in correctly.

You'll probably want to update the firmware at some point as unless it's been done with well out of date.

You'll also want to sort a part cooling fan and duct as I assume you'll be printing PLA to start with.

Feel free to ask anything thing you're unsure about.

Thanks for your reply. Ive been messing around with it as much as I can and everything seems to move and heat up as it should. I have levelled the bed as much as I can using a piece of paper but I am sure that will be an adventure once again when I come to try printing something.

Do you have a link or anything to the firmware? I have no documentation with this and have not managed to find this exact one online.

Cheers!

 

[bulb66]

Thanks for your reply. Ive been messing around with it as much as I can and everything seems to move and heat up as it should. I have levelled the bed as much as I can using a piece of paper but I am sure that will be an adventure once again when I come to try printing something.

Do you have a link or anything to the firmware? I have no documentation with this and have not managed to find this exact one online.

Cheers!

It moving and heating up is a good start.

Unfortunately Geeetech are pretty rubbish at maintaining an up to date firmware so it's something you'll need to do yourself but honestly it's not that hard and a good thing to know how to do.

Luckily for you one of the best 3d printing YouTubers did a series of videos on this very printer. Here's a link to it have a watch. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB_0YGFjbOnZ1qlU0ovn2pDc0X9mZVpkN

 

[LewisRaz]

It moving and heating up is a good start.

Unfortunately Geeetech are pretty rubbish at maintaining an up to date firmware so it's something you'll need to do yourself but honestly it's not that hard and a good thing to know how to do.

Luckily for you one of the best 3d printing YouTubers did a series of videos on this very printer. Here's a link to it have a watch. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB_0YGFjbOnZ1qlU0ovn2pDc0X9mZVpkN

Thanks for that, a good lot to watch there

 

[ChrisLX200]

CR-6 SE now has micro swiss hot end and extruder installed, works well albeit the supplied plastic knob for the extruder came off within a minute or two and I replaced it with a machined Stainless steel and aluminium one. Also upgraded the hot end and cooling fans with Sunon 40mm - they were supposed to be quiet but they whine like a *****. Have some others I will swap in when I get chance.



Also bought a filament drier - mainly for printing with NylonX but here it's being tested out with some PLA and PetG. It's not exactly silent but a lot quieter than the printer so it doesn't matter

 

[DHR]

Received a CR-6 SE today on your recommendation @ChrisLX200 , not ready to set it up yet but looking forward to it.

Know there have been issues with the firmware and that so not sure whether to go straight to a community one and learn from there or not?

 

[ChrisLX200]

Received a CR-6 SE today on your recommendation @ChrisLX200 , not ready to set it up yet but looking forward to it.

Know there have been issues with the firmware and that so not sure whether to go straight to a community one and learn from there or not?

There's no downside to the community firmware it offers many more functions and is stable. First time you upgrade you have to disconnect the TTF screen lead from the PCB but after that future upgrades don't require you to do it. Loads of YT vids walking you through the upgrade. Enjoy your printer!

 

[Scougar]

Ordered some titanium heat breaks for my delta printer. Of course they are about 4 to 5mm shorter... Urgh /facepalm.

Now got to figure out what I can do about it for my V6 clo e on my qq-s pro. Some slightly longer threaded nozzles would help lol.

 

[LewisRaz]

Well my first calibration cube is quite the mess:






I am not sure even where to start from here!?

Any advice appreciated