I got a 3d printer - Creality Ender 5

[KnightRid]

Ok, so now what...LOL

An early Christmas present was everyone going in to get me this and some filament. It arrives today

I may email you Apoptosis cause I was thinking about setting the camcorder up (camcorder....it is something that is not a cell phone so if you are under 20 you have no idea hahahahhaha) and maybe recording my experiences with the unboxing, build, etc....from a noob standpoint.

I think it would be fun but might not fit with the Legit Reviews site format since me on camera is so unlegit while I stumble around trying to figure out how to do anything with a 3d printer.

Any tips (Bubba you should consider moving close to me so I can have you over to teach me everything) on how not to screw up too bad? Easy software to use to create complex designs to print? Conversion programs to take something simple like the LR logo and turn it into a 3d printable object? Is it decent now a days to use a cell phone to scan an object in 3d? (They used to have apps, not sure if they do anymore or not)

So many questions, so little life left.

[bubba]

For the more technical modeling, Autodesk Fusion360. It free for hobby work. Yearly renewal.
For more free form modeling, blender.

Meshmixer is also good for fixing or slicing up existing STL files.


IF you want to stick with free, then start getting your brain wrapped around Cura for the slicer. If you want to spend a little money, Simplify3D. Both have ups and downsides, S3D's biggest is the $130 price tag, but prebuilt profiles are a big help.

avoid ABS unless you build an enclosure. If you need tough, PLA+ or PETG. For now, I would stick with PLA when getting up and going. Easier on the wallet. COEX and Zyltec are in the midwest, us made, good, and easy on the wallet.

http://www.zyltech.com/pla/
https://coexllc.com/

Get your printer tweaked with calibration test.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1278865
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1363023
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:763622
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1545913

Handy visual trouble shooting. See how things look, and compare to the guide. Gives hints as what to change. https://www.simplify3d.com/support/prin ... eshooting/

Do these with ever color and brand. You will start to get a feel for it. BUT every brand will behave different, and humidity will throw things off as well.

Keep the filament sealed up. If its out for a few days, bake it or put it in a dehydrator to get the moisture out.

Look up Octoprint. Some like it as it allows for remote babysitting of the printer. Until you get a few rolls under your belt I would not run it unattended for long.

Pick up some spare nozzles. The brass ones can get damaged easy when starting. Once you get good, spend some money on hardened steel ones from Micro Swiss.

Don't print anything that needs to go over 240c on the hotend with the stock. The tube in the hotend is teflon, will start off gassing at 250c. You get to where you are printing stuff that needs to get that hot. Get an all metal hotend. this is where the modding sickness starts.

Others with the 3D printing affliction https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/

places for models
https://www.thingiverse.com
https://www.myminifactory.com/


welcome to the sickness

[KnightRid]

WOW, thanx! BENCHY!!! lol I like the little tug boat.

now, about that moving of you to here thing....

I got some Hatchbox PLA and 3d Warhorse PLA+ to try - wont be here till Monday but printer is here. Now if I can ever get this damn remodeling stuff the wife wants done over with then I can actually play.

I picked up some muslin bags to put kitty litter in a 5 gallon bucket with the filament for humidity (learned this with cigars). I may end up getting some Silica Gel Desiccant Beads but for now I am going to try the kitty litter since I have some (no cat but for cigars lol).

Came with 5 extra nozzles and a glass bed upgrade - also the upgrade kit for the mainboard and hotend are coming. Coupon on the page with the printer for 60% off upgrade and 30% off Bowden tubing

Printer - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PFTL28K/ - scroll down for coupons
Upgrade - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZDQWTQ6/
Bowden tubing - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V46S7L3/

[bubba]

I have 2 now. Powerspec 3D pro 2 (micro center flashforge clone) and a Creality CR10S Pro.

Both have been upgraded to micro swiss hotend. I don't use the powerspec too much anymore. Too friggen loud. The 32bit stepper drivers on the 10S Pro are dead quiet. I changed out all the fans so can hardly tell it's running. The powerspec sings like an old scanner. Can hear it 50ft away lol.

[KnightRid]

I have 2 now. Powerspec 3D pro 2 (micro center flashforge clone) and a Creality CR10S Pro.

Both have been upgraded to micro swiss hotend. I don't use the powerspec too much anymore. Too friggen loud. The 32bit stepper drivers on the 10S Pro are dead quiet. I changed out all the fans so can hardly tell it's running. The powerspec sings like an old scanner. Can hear it 50ft away lol.

LOL - Is the Creality better all around or is the PowerSpec better but just way too loud?

I was looking at the 10 series for the size but wanted to stay cheaper so it would be within range for Christmas and be able to get some filament.

I still have not even gotten it out of the box. Wife keeps finding more projects for me to do that take forever. It's like, "WOMAN, don't you know I want to play dammit"

[bubba]

They both have their ups and downs.

The powerspec has louder steppers due to the driver board. So get the stepper whine. Think Floppiton music on YouTube lol. It is also direct drive, this is both and up and a down side. Up, is that is direct drive. So little easier to dial in the feed/retracts. Since the drive is only a few mm from the hotend the filament can't flex in the feed tube. Down side, all the weight is on the head. So going fast is harder. This is mainly the mass having to start and stop without out overshooting. This is doubled since the powerspec is a dual head so I can do multi color prints. The print volume is also small, 8.9" x 5.7" x 5.9", but all enclosed so I can run ABS if I need it.

The CR10S Pro is much MUCH quieter, but its big. Print area is 12" x 12" x 15.5" (300x300x400mm) the printer foot print is 20" x 21" x 26" without out the spool on top. So takes up some space. I bought a 36" square food prep table to put it on. The size is nice though so I don't have to split models up to fit the small foot print of the powerspec. I could print a helmet in one piece if I wanted to. the CR10 series is also a remote drive bowden setup. So the filament drive is off the head. The head can move faster due to the less weight, but getting it dialed in is harder since filament can flex in the bowden tube. So things like Nylon and ninja flex are a no go without direct drive.


If I ever wind the lotto, I will pick up a Raise 3D Pro2 Plus https://www.raise3d.com/pro2/ and a SLA printer from Form Labs. Their new 3L looks amazing.

[KnightRid]

My first print - after some problems! Seems the bowden tube (correct name?) was not fully inserted into the nozzle so it built up plastic and cooled to block everything....ugh I resized all to 480 for filesize purposes.

And for some reason they are rotated....Took them with my phone rather than a real camera but should be good enough.

[bubba]

Don't forget the bottom. The text shows how perimeters and small gap fill looks.

Can't make out the text on the back of the boat from the small images.

over all looks good.

Now do the XZY cube and see if you are dimensionally accurate.

[KnightRid]

Here's a laugh for ya...

I printed the xyz cube. Looks good. Then I realized I don't have a caliper to measure it LOL I used a ruler on my cell phone screen and it looked around 20mm....

Loading filament is the biggest pain in the ass of the whole process! I think I will just print with 1 color and never change till the spool is all...sheesh

[bubba]

I don't even bother with different colors anymore. I paint everything I print so just I stick with one color.

[KnightRid]

Since using all the white that came with the printer, I switched to block filament from 3dWarhorse - now I cant get it to stick to the bed. Also it doesnt start printing right away cause of drippage causing a void in the nozzle (from what I read - yea, I can read a little bit lol). I cant for the life of me figure out how to "prime" the nozzle before printing. Every place I look says that would solve the void problem but it is a mystery as to how to do it on the Ender 5.

I might remove the 3dwarhorse filament and put the hatchbox in to see if the filament could be the problem. Hate to do it cause filament loading is the biggest bitch of all. Bed leveling is a pain but not too hard to do, just sucks that is has to be done all the time! I am trying to print some bed supports out but that is when I started having the adhesion problem.

3D printing takes a lot of patience and learning ;) Also you have to have enough time to babysit and fix things for a while till you get it dialed in. Remodel is so close to being done and with winter coming, I should have plenty of time soon.

[bubba]

Now you understand what I was saying how different brands/colors print different. The new brand may like a slightly lower print temp if its oozing that much.

Priming can be fixed a coupe ways. Set there, preheat, then use control box to manually feed some filament, then as you move over to start the print, clean off the drip.

add a "purge line" to the startup gcode. This also gives you a little time to "live adjust" the Z for better sticksion. yes thats a word lol.

This is my start up script. You wont need the M420 if you dont have auto level. This will print a 130mm line in the Y axis.

Code: Select all

G28 ; home
M420 S ; call on the auto level gods
G1 X20 Y25 F1500 ; avoid binder clips
G1 Z0.4 F3000 ; get ready to prime
G92 E0 ; reset extrusion distance
G1 Y120 E10 F600 ; prime nozzle
G1 Y150 F5000 ; quick wipe

3rd way, add couple of skirt outlines. This does the same thing as the purge code in away. It will print an outline at some offset from the part. I use 5mm. This also gives a bit of a pre-warning that your bed is out of level. You can watch it go around the part, and if some sections are not right you can address it before your deep in the print. Also gives time to do the z live adjust if needed.

If you havent, pickup some elmers glue sticks. The big fat ones. Give your bed a thin coat before you start a print. By the time the bed warms up the glue is dry. Gives a little more grip to the bed.

[KnightRid]

I do not have auto bed level but would love it! I saw they have the bl-touch to make it auto leveling so maybe down the road...

So I just save that code as a .gcode and slap it on the micro sdcard and run it? Without the m420 line of course. Or do I put this at the beginning of the gcode it makes for me in the slicer so it all runs together? Total NOOB man, you should run away from me immediately lol

I think the biggest thing I have to learn is, like you said, temp settings and such. I have been using the creality slicer with the auto settings and it seems ok for most items but when I tried to print the bed supports they just cracked apart because of not enough infill.

I actually tried the skirt outlines thing but was having problems with the pla not sticking and just creating a wiry mess at the nozzle end and then when it did start to stick that mess would just grab ahold of the lines and drag them off anyway. Thats why I was thinking of a priming type thing that would prime it away from the print and then start printing. I removed the 3dwarhorse filament for now and out the hatchbox on to see how it acts. I did find the option in the menu to change filament! Very nice as it backs it out and then when you load the new (after 6 hours or so UGH) it will pull it in.

I got the upgrade kit yesterday also so I want to try and install that sometime soon.

Think I am going to call my video - A stumbling bumbling idiot gets a Creality Ender 5 - LOL Fits pretty well

Is there a way to upgrade firmware without buying the arduino or anything? It seems insane you have to buy other stuff just to upgrade.

Wish I could print food cause I'm hungry

[bubba]

I would get access to the firmware. Need that to turn on features like Thermal Runaway Protection and add things like the BL Touch.

TH3D sells a kit for $16, here is their "how to" for the boards with 1284p chipset.

https://www.th3dstudio.com/knowledgebas ... o-i3-anet/

You would also need an Arduino to fix a failed flash, basically unbricking a board.

Arduinos are fun too, the programming language used is C and C++. Can do some fun stuff with it. That just opens up another rabbit hole or projects LOL.

[KnightRid]

Arduinos are fun too, the programming language used is C and C++. Can do some fun stuff with it. That just opens up another rabbit hole or projects LOL.

You are seriously going to get a visit from my wife if you don't stop giving me more rabbit holes to jump into LMAO

So last night I had it running and was printing good. Went to bed. This morning there is a tightly would looping of filament bunched up before the extruder (cold where the gear is to pull the filament through the bowden tube) and no indication of what the hell happened.

20191109_060841 (Small).jpg (82.47 KiB) Viewed 17390 times

Ugh so now I have to try and check to see if something got jammed or maybe the filament broke just in the right place so it didnt go in the bowden tube but around the gear.....no idea yet. Just so weird how everything started out really good and now I cant do a thing

[bubba]

So it was before the bowden.. pure guess, but I would say the PLA was brittle or had a nic/score in it, that caused it to break, and the end started to curl between the feed tube and the drive gear.

If you still have the filament that was left in the bowden look at what would have been the extruder end of it. Was it a clean break?

[KnightRid]

So it was before the bowden.. pure guess, but I would say the PLA was brittle or had a nic/score in it, that caused it to break, and the end started to curl between the feed tube and the drive gear.

If you still have the filament that was left in the bowden look at what would have been the extruder end of it. Was it a clean break?

So I took it apart last night and it seems like it was my fault (of course). I did not seem to have the bowden tube the whole way down in the hotend (where the plastic squirts out) and it left a gap between the bowden tube and the nozzle so plastic kind of built up in there and then cooled, blocking the filament and causing the backup. That is twice I have not had the bowden tube down tight (unless it is working loose somehow)...gotta remember to check that.

Got glue sticks...didnt try yet.

FYI - TPU filament - https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Pri ... B07H9KNPNL - $40 for 3 rolls - they said i t seems like amazon is clearing out the amazonbasics stuff. Also read it is a bitch to print with so it is a good thing I do not have the funds right now or I would make my life even more complicated LOL

[bubba]

Yeah, don't even think of using Flexible's on a bowden setup. There are people that run dedicated setups just for it due to the needs to print the stuff.

As for the bowden tube not set against the nozzle.

heat up everything, take the nozzle off and coupling. Shove the tube through the heat break to get the throat cleaned out. Pull the tube out, put coupling back in. Put the nozzle back on, but half to full turn from tight.

Make sure the bowden tube end is clean, cut square, and not smooshed (still round). Hold the tube up to the hotend to get a feel how much is needed to get to the nozzle. They shove it in until it hits the nozzle, then give it a little more of a nudge. Now tighten up the nozzle.

After that and it comes loose, swap out the coupling. Its not biting into the tube. The tube will have a distinct mark where the coupling had a hold of it.

[KnightRid]

Changed the motherboard out yesterday (or mainboard I guess) and HOLY CRAP it is a LOT quieter!!!!! I couldn't believe it. Amazing upgrade!

Bowden tube they sent was way too short so waiting for a response from them about it. It is a good 4-6 inches short just to reach the max distance.

Replaced the extruder mechanism also (the part that draws the filament up in the tube) and it is a billion times easier to get filament in! Only problem with that was the one part was either too long or the screw was too short so I had to use the old plastic part instead. It is the extrusion pin that goes into the extrusion clip and then a screw goes through that and attaches to the motor. The one that came with was noticeably longer and it did not sink down in far enough to let the screw hold on the motor. Waiting to hear from them about that too.

Glue seems to be working really good, except for printing the damn bed supports. I have tried 4 times now and they have all stuck great until a few hours in and then they just pull off and make a mess. Thought they would help with the problem but if I cant get the things printed out, I will never know

Also with this new motherboard there is nothing to disable the XY steppers just to disable them all. I have to go through the menu and move the different axis' using that in order to try and level the bed (what a pain). I guess I really need to get one of those arduino things and make sure the firmware is right and has all the thermal protection enable and such.

[KnightRid]

Got the bed supports printed..... https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3927974 - Only thing I did different is I put them on the INSIDE of the bed because my bed has the slats in it rather than being solid. If its solid you have to do the outside.

TIP - If stuff is not sticking use a RAFT!!!!!!

now that they are printed and on, I leveled the bed and havent touched it since. AWESOME supports IMO.

Been playing with all kids of things and the main thing I noticed is that it takes A LONG TIME to print anything! lol my lord.

Next step is to try and learn a program to actually draw things myself to make rather than downloading other peoples works. I did print my garden plastic stake things

Oh and I want to try and print PETG - got 1 roll of that to see how it does but i have to get used to settings temp and such first.

Forgot - Bubba this new silent motherboard already had a bootloader on it cause I could hook it right the the computer and update Marlin to 1.1.9 so I guess I don't need the Arduino and stuff right now...Have to check to make sure the thermal protection is on by default to.