Entering the 3D printing circus

[FSAddon_boss]

Yup, finally bit the bullet and after 5 years of thinking about it I bought an Ender-3 Pro.

First project (in learning how to do it) will be my gauge bezels for the not-so-round gauges in my wooden panel.

Ultimately I hope to print parts of 1:35 scale models....

[Bob Reed]

Its a learning curve for sure! Stay with it and you will get good results. Once you know your machine you will be surprised what you can do. Take most of what you read online about setting up the printer and throw it out the window. 99.9% of everything that goes wrong with a print is the level of the bed to the nozzle. Keep in mind most beds are warped or will be as you are constantly heating and cooling the thin surface. You will have to use some give and take in the leveling but like I said once you know your machine. Oh and don't waste your time with auto levelers its just not worth it. Have any questions ask away I have been printing for some time.

[FSAddon_boss]

Have any questions ask away I have been printing for some time.

Thanks Bob, appreciate it !

[ame]

I wrote about a potential solution here:

https://www.cockpitbuilders.com/index.php?topic=7836.msg56161#msg56161

[blueskydriver]

Hey Francois,

Here is the best YT guy I've ever watched and I learned everything about 3D printing on the CR10 from him.

He explains things thoroughly and does not techno hype it, and he also covers the Ender 3 really well....

https://youtu.be/YUkSeMqEatc

Welcome to the insanity of 3D printing 

John

[FSAddon_boss]

Thank you !!!!     

[N4208T]

Congrats Francois.  You will love 3D printing.  There is definitely a learning curve but the printer you chose is an excellent platform to learn and the advice above is good advice though I, respectfully, disagree with one statement.

I agree you need to learn to manually level the bed and keep it level but I like using an autoleveler.  You do not use it instead of manually leveling the bed but after you have done the manual leveling.  I found, for me and my prints, it was well worth the investment.  I put an EZABL Pro on my Tevo Tornado (essentially a CR-10) and have been using it for years.

My other printer (Anycubic 4MaxPro) is completely manual but, for whatever reason, is rock solid and stays level once it is set up.  Go figure.  That one also has direct drive ... but that is another discussion.

Enjoy and don't be afraid to make mistakes.  Best way to learn the ins and outs of 3D printing.

Steve

[blueskydriver]

Here are some things that I found:

1. No matter the 3D printer, the Slicer program is the heart of the learning, so pick an easy program too start with.

2. Whatever the material you use to print with, moisture is the biggest problem and will cause lots of headaches that you might think are due to the printer or slicer program.

3. If you use PLA at first, buy a cheap Meat Dehydrator and use it too dehydrate the PLA roll at 45C for 12-24 hours before you use it. This will remove the moisture.

4. Also, buy a cheap food vacuum sealer bag kit and store your dehydrated rolls in sealed bags after dehydrating them.

5. If you buy brand new sealed rolls from a supplier dehydrate them anyway, as they're usually full of moisture.

6. Keep your printer in an area where the ambient temps don't fluctuate much; environmental temps will affect the print.

7. Try leveling your bed with it cold and with it (and nozzle) heated up to working temps. That way you'll know if there is a major difference in the leveling. For example, if one bed spring is expanding a little bit too much when it's heated it'll throw of the leveling; whereas, you wouldn't know this with a cold bed. When this happens you'll think it's everything else; thus, checking it cold and hot is important.

8. Pace yourself, as you will get frustrated from time to time. Start out with printing the example they provide on the USB stick and print a handful of them. And, give them away as gifts, that way you'll have people who will appreciate your work right away.

John

[FSAddon_boss]

Thanks John !!! 

[ame]

One more tip. Buy a Raspberry Pi and install Octoprint, then connect it to your printer. Octoprint manages your printer for you, and means you don't have to keep your PC connected when printing, or keep swapping SD cards to run new print jobs.

[Jason L]

I've had my CR-10 for several years now and have a love / hate relationship with it.

1. Bed leveling

2. Extruder calibration.  There are videos online on how to do this, but you want to make sure that if your slicer says extrude 10mm of filament, that it is actually moving 10mm of filament.  I found mine was off.  A lot of variables can play into this such as filament thickness inconsistencies, etc.

3. Ambient temperature / filament temperature - your room temp can affect how hot/cold the whole system runs.  Also different brands of filament have different recommendations for what temperature they want the extruder to be at.

As you can see, there are LOTS of variables.  I've found I pick away at it for a while until I get frustrated and then take a break.  My CR-10 will knock out 4 or 5 prints perfectly and then I'll have a couple that are complete failures.  I still don't know why. LOL.

[blueskydriver]

Speaking of the Slicer Programs, there is a lot of debate about which is better with camps on either side. However, when I started out, I looked for the NOOBIE or new person factor of the program.

What I found is that Simplify3D was the best "for me". Why? Because they have a lot of tutorial videos that explains things in laymen terms. In other words, you don't need a double PhD in 3D Engineering or one of your kids too be a MIT star student too help you...LOL!

Seriously though, take a look at these videos here:

https://www.simplify3d.com/support/videos/

Kind Regards,

John

PS do watch the YT videos on SanTube 3D's channel. I started watching him and got Simplify3D in the beginning, and now I have 4 CR-10 3D printers....

[FSAddon_boss]

Thanks everybody !!!!

[Bob Reed]

Here is a idea of just some of the small things possible with a 3D printer. It would have taken me forever to do this without my printer. I made the mount for the pots, the bracket that got glued to the TQ arms and the control horn for the pots.

[_alioth_]

I absolutly can't live without a 3d printer now. I purchased it for cockpit building and now I use it for everything.

Some examples:


Full build of circuit breakers


do you need an speific lever?

3d design:

3d print, sand, and paint:


or just an absolute encoder support to replace a synchro resolver...



Arturo.