So i have been looking at a few budget 3d printers. Specifically the creality ender 3/3 pro.
I’m not sure i actually want an expensive 3d printer, but no one I know has one for me to mess around with. I dont know what im going to do with it. Yeah i do, print things!
Well, the creality ender 3 pro is cheap (who doesnt love that) and has a huge community base on reddit. The Ender 5 seems to be the big brother of the ender 3 with no bed slinging (does that even really matter!?) BUT I cant seem to see a difference in prints from the 3 to the 5 off youtube.
The 5 and 3 seem to share many parts, so what warrants the extra cost? And at that point should i just suck it up and get a prusa mk3s?
The prusa mk3s seems to be the holy grail of a “budget” 3d printer, and is at the VERY top of what i want to spend. Seems Reliable and will give you good prints for years, and I see mentions of great customer service. But again its way more $$ to the ender 3. Not so much more $ then the ender 5 plus, but still more.
Are 3d printers a “you get what you pay for” scenario? So many options… Whats your take? Better options?
A few months ago, I decided I wanted a 3D printer to play with.
I watched lots of YouTube videos and the mostly positive reviews convinced me to get an a Ender 3 Pro. I’ve been very pleased with it and I’m enjoying the 3D printing process.
I’ve printed about 40 items so far, with only a few failures. Most were my fault due to incorrect settings in Cura. I caught the issues early during the prints and was able to stop and restart after correcting the issue.
About half of my prints have been existing designs from Thingiverse or Yeggi. The other half were simple designs of my own created in Tinkercad or Fusion 360.
The ‘Tomb of 3D Printed Horrors’ channel has the best Ender 3 Pro assembly guide I found, and lots of other good videos about the Ender 3 Pro.
The ‘CHEP’ channel has lots of useful information. Chuck continually tweaks and experiments with Cura profile settings for the Ender 3 Pro to improve print quality and make use of new features. His profiles are available for download and I use them with great results.
A few other 3D printing YouTube channels I recommend are:
Maker’s Muse
Teaching Tech
Just Vlad
Proper Printing
I like tinkering and enjoy the design aspect of the process. It’s an awesome feeling to hold an object in your hand that existed only in your mind and on your computer monitor a few hours earlier!
I’ve had an Ender 3 for almost an year and done many upgrades: upgraded springs, flexible bed, dual 5015 fans, metal gear extruder, BLtouch and silent board. Most of the upgrades are not really necessary, but are really useful, especially the silent board. I had decent prints from the start, but printers like the prusa mk3s come with most of the upgrades that make the printer really convenient to use, albeit at a cost. With the Ender 3 you get a budget printer that works fine, but you have to do your own research on forums if you need support. I’ve compared my prints with a friend who has the mk3s and there isn’t a significant difference in print quality, in fact I have somewhat cleaner prints because I have the belt tension tuned right
If you are not comfortable with tinkering, then any 3d printer is probably not a good idea. While the mk3s is well supported, if you order it as a kit, the assembly is much longer than the Ender 3, and you can still run into issues when printing files that have lots of supports. One advantage that mk3s is that it’s direct drive, so it is much better suited for flexible/TPU filament.
I have an Anet A8, but if I was to buy another one, the Ender 3 would be my choice. Not that the A8 gives bad prints, in fact I’d say most of my prints are fantastic, but the Ender 3 has more metal parts and the menu knob looks easier than the buttons. A8 are only £69.99 on eBay, but out of the box there are safety concerns. There are Ender 3 clones on eBay for less than £120, but not knowing what version they are, expect to upgrade parts and firmware.
When my 3D prints fail, it has always been down to the bed levelling. Upgrading to an automated bed leveller is a must. I’ll be retrofitting one to my A8 in the next few days.
I print onto glass, held in place with some small bulldog clips. For really difficult prints I take the glass off and give it a light dusting of hairspray, then re-level.
My only other suggestions are to print a temperature tower (for thermistor calibration) and keep your filament dry.
I’ve been big into 3D printing for about 9 years. I owned the FormLabs Form1, Form1, XYZ’s DaVinci 1.0, and currently a FFCP Creator Pro. Previously I only owned one at a time, but I have been looking into adding a backup Ender3, Ender3 Pro, or Prusa MK3S. I have settled quite comfortably on the Ender3 Pro a DIY enclosure. A well designed enclosure is a must for ANY filament, no matter what the internet says. Trust me. As for Ender3 Pro upgrades, don’t do it. Just get your machine carefully adjusted and the upgrades won’t be worth it. A Creality Ender3 Pro can be had for about $206, but be careful you are buying the official one, as all bets are off with the clones.
i have cr10s, pretty happy with it, made a flashlight for the ol contest using it, my printer is pretty much stock, except custom build enclosure. and insulating the bed. i figured how to level the bed correctly, and never felt the need for auto level. thou i went thru lots of troubles to make sure the bed is perfectly flat, cuz it has no level knob in the middle, and stock glass came warped.
however the printer also has some limits, stock hardware\firmware is not suitable for printing nylon, polycarbonate, or other material that needs 300c hotend. if i wanted to print those, i’d have to spend few 100s to upgrade,
I’m relatively new to 3D printing. I bought my first one, an Ender 3 Pro, last June. It’s been great so far. I’ve designed and printed tons of things… mostly helpful household odds and ends.
I’m with goshdogit on this. The Ender 3’s (and Pros) are great machines, and some of the best YouTube channels are CHEP, Teaching Tech, and Makers Muse.
I really appreciate everyones guidence on this. I ended up getting an ender 3 pro, and this thing is freaking awesome. I did infact watch tomb of 3d printed horrors build video, and chep and 3d printer nerds videos, which made assembly simple.
I expected every print to fail at the beginning, but so far its been up and running for just shy of 48 hours. already ive printed the test dog, cat, and pig. After that a rear drawer for the ender 3 (by power supply), and printed the storage cubby by the lcd. Im currently printing some filament guides because people that upload on thingiverse are awesome, but I wish the sites search engine was better.
This is a whole new world… And I’m like a kid in a candy store. Thanks Again!
I printed a few small accessories for the Ender 3 Pro such as clips to route the display’s ribbon cable, a knob for the extruder, and CHEP’s bracket to relocate the filament spool to the lower horizontal support, thing # 3303879. I skipped the articulated ‘cable chain’ for the bed’s wiring that many folks seem to like.
You should check out this flashlight clip, thing # 15267. It was my first exposure to ‘parametric’ 3D modeling. In short, it’s a set of instructions used to create a model. Instead of manipulating the model graphically, you tweak variables to alter the dimensions and other characteristics, then ‘compile’ the model.
I’m still on my first spool of ‘Overture’ PLA filament, and I’m happy with it. It gets good Amazon reviews and was on sale for $15 when I got it. MicroCenter’s ‘Inland’ house brand filament also gets good reviews, if you happen to have a store in your area.
EDIT: BLF’s simple editor doesn’t seem to like Thingiverse’s links, which include a colon. I removed the links and provided the ‘thing’ numbers instead.
I’m glad you love it
I’ve had an Ender 3 Pro in my shopping cart for 2 months at $240, just waiting for it to go back on sale. Last night at 3 am it finally did, but it sold out before I woke up. AHHH.
The sale was for $199.
It was supposed to be on sale at $199 for 5 days, but instead they created a SECOND listing at $240, and let the $199 one run out of stock immediately. Jerks.
And now you say they are still playing games with price.
I decided to order for $240 yesterday. But after taxes and fees it really cost me $270.
I doubt it’s really tax free anywhere. I ordered from their official AliExpress store. If you have used that lately, you know they say the total is only $240, no tax or fees shown.
But at the last screen when they process your payment they add $20 tax and $10 fees.
I have had my ender 3 for about a year and half now. I run a print or two a week and only one thing I would get the glass print surface.
Things to remember are.
let the bed heat fully before starting, and still give it 2-3 more minutes.
Find out what temp your prints like to print on the bed. Mine likes 70 Degrees for the bed and 207 for the nosel.
Print adhesion can be problematic. And sticking to well can be just a pain in the ass.
Models are not perfect, so Don't always blame your printer.
Always check your print bed settings before you start every print.
Going around and around checking the print head distance with paper will become second nature. You will get faster at it. I found folding the paper in half so double thickness works better for my printer, experiment to find your best settings.
Don't underestimate your printer. Mine can be scary accurate.
Your printer will have limitations.
Filament, depending where you live will have longer/shorter life out of storage.
Shrinkage when your print cools off will happen.
Don't leave your printer unattended. (Get a web cam and a laptop if you need to.) There are stories of thermal runaway that could result in a fire.
HAVE FUN!!!
Print a lot of fun things and practical things and then just print what ever catches your fancy..
So I ordered from their US warehouse, and it was marked as shipped immediately after I placed my order. There is no signs of the shipment being received by UPS even 2 days later. I assume they falsely mark it as shipped to prevent order cancellations. That’s pretty smart, considering they lowered the price the day after I placed my order.
@joshk
I paid 268$ off of eBay (tax and shipping), but its the newest version (pro) with a glass bed and biltac (magnetic bed), a bag of different nozzles, and spare .4mm nozzle.
This model also has the meanwell power supply, silocone sock on the nozzle, AND thermal run away (v.1.1.4 board & I tested it). So if its the newest version with everything listed, its a great deal. The sale prices i found were never on the newest version.
Also I just printed a skeleton key for my interior (mortise) doors out of pla… IT WORKS! Who woulda thought.
I take it you have a Kossel? How’s accuracy and precision on that thing? Have you tested it? I imagine it makes prints that look good… But I bet in practice the limits of accuracy are going to be worse than Cartesian.
