3D Printer Club

[FoulOnWhite]

Mine is still chugging along. I did buy a very nice bondtech LGX extruder for it, but tried it and am not yet experienced enough to get it to work properly. With iit on, it does not bond the layers properly, the filament is not consistent, blobbly, awful. Soon as i take it off and use the imo crappy original, it prints fine. I'll just have to keep trying it. Was trying to make mine direct, but the printed brackets i found are not brill, it does fit where the original one sits but just cannot seem to get the settings right for it.
https://www.bondtech.se/product/lgx-large-gears-extruder/

 

[silentbogo]

Mine is still chugging along. I did buy a very nice bondtech LGX extruder for it, but tried it and am not yet experienced enough to get it to work properly.

I think the biggest problem with v2 is bowden. With all the headaches I had with this printer, almost 90% of them are due to extruder, or because of retraction (e.g. also extruder).
On small parts it works just fine, but as soon as you need to print something big or complex - you get issues. Without retraction you get a hairy mess, and with it - you get seams, or worst of all - nozzle clogs or ripped filament. Past 2 weeks have been a nightmare, and that's in addition to x- and y- axis that aren't straight(at first I thought it was hotbed, but that wasn't the case).

My very first printer was an ender-3 clone, but it had direct extrusion and ran klipper. It wasn't as problematic as a store-bought printer. Still runs at my friend's print farm 24/7. Just did maintenance on it a few weeks back, when one of his workers managed to burn RaspberryPi and blow all fuses on a control board.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

My prints can be very nice, no stringing at all, and very nice consistant layers with it stock. I just thought i would try converting to direct, but cannot get the settings right for the LGX, then tried swapping it for the original extruder, and same problems.
Here is a pic showing how good my prints can be-

It can be very good, imo, i have seen worse than this, it is not bad for a bowden. Maybe i should just leave it alone?

Here's a little print of a dying light figure, need to scale it up, but it did not do too bad with a 0.4 nozzle really. might see if i can get a 0.2 nozzle working

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Just experimenting with a cover for the bottom I/O on my board.

 

[silentbogo]

It can be very good, imo, i have seen worse than this, it is not bad for a bowden. Maybe i should just leave it alone?

But that pretty much sums up its problems - it can either be very good, or very bad.... or both at the same time.
Pretty sure there is a reason they went with direct drive on their entire Ender3 V3 lineup.

Yesterday I finally fixed most of my extruder issues, unclogged the hotend and a nozzle, and started printing again. Still can't print anything larger in footprint than a hockey puck, but at least I can squeeze 2-3 smaller objects on the bed if I avoid the problematic area. As soon as I'm done printing my current batch of parts, it's probably going off to the auction, so I can at least partially recoup my next printer. Eyeing a V3 KE, which isn't that much more expensive.

Though, I still have plans to build my own custom CoreXY machine. Something a bit simpler than Voron 2.4. Probably a Trident with a slightly smaller build volume, so I can fit it inside my server rack and enclose with plexi. PRebuilt machines and kits are getting cheaper too. Went to my friend's print farm a couple of days ago and he was showing off his new printers. He bought a pair of TwoTrees SP5's and an Ender-6. The first ones weren't even that expensive. Just a tad above $450. The speed and accuracy on both is crazy comparing to my piece of junk.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

But that pretty much sums up its problems - it can either be very good, or very bad.... or both at the same time.
Pretty sure there is a reason they went with direct drive on their entire Ender3 V3 lineup.

Yesterday I finally fixed most of my extruder issues, unclogged the hotend and a nozzle, and started printing again. Still can't print anything larger in footprint than a hockey puck, but at least I can squeeze 2-3 smaller objects on the bed if I avoid the problematic area. As soon as I'm done printing my current batch of parts, it's probably going off to the auction, so I can at least partially recoup my next printer. Eyeing a V3 KE, which isn't that much more expensive.

Though, I still have plans to build my own custom CoreXY machine. Something a bit simpler than Voron 2.4. Probably a Trident with a slightly smaller build volume, so I can fit it inside my server rack and enclose with plexi. PRebuilt machines and kits are getting cheaper too. Went to my friend's print farm a couple of days ago and he was showing off his new printers. He bought a pair of TwoTrees SP5's and an Ender-6. The first ones weren't even that expensive. Just a tad above $450. The speed and accuracy on both is crazy comparing to my piece of junk.

Mine was not too expensive, £300, and i know there are better ones, but it does print pretty well. I get no stringing, and not really any problems with it. It was my first printer so did not really have a clue about other brands or types when i got it. I really got this for its 300x300x300 print size, as i looked at others and imo the print size was too small.The thing i am printing now is over 250mm long. For my next one i will look into it more.
Here is v2 done, really pleased with the quality of the print
V2 fits so well under the bottom NVME heatsink too, just got to work out how to fix it in place. Thinking maybe magnets somehow, any ideas?

 

[Fokker]

Mine was not too expensive, £300, and i know there are better ones, but it does print pretty well. I get no stringing, and not really any problems with it. It was my first printer so did not really have a clue about other brands or types when i got it. I really got this for its 300x300x300 print size, as i looked at others and imo the print size was too small.The thing i am printing now is over 250mm long. For my next one i will look into it more.
Here is v2 done, really pleased with the quality of the print
V2 fits so well under the bottom NVME heatsink too, just got to work out how to fix it in place. Thinking maybe magnets somehow, any ideas?
View attachment 334831View attachment 334832View attachment 334834

Put a base with some relief for double sided VHB tape and use that to mount it. It's how I've mounted various things in my case.

I started with an Ender 3 V2. I now also have a Sovol SV-06 that I need to finish flashing to Klipper and setting up to work with a Creality Sonic Pad. I should be able to go from ~1h45m to ~30m for a Benchy without losing any precision/definition.

I've made pieces here and there, but I want to start printing CF Nylon for automotive applications. So when I was looking at the cost to upgrade the Ender, I found I could flash the Sovol with Klipper, and it made more sense to drop $200 for the SV-06 since it came with an all metal hot end, direct drive, and leveling sensor (upgrades I was going to do).

If I could stop dragging myself into other projects, I'd finish the flash/setup (maybe this weekend).

 

[FoulOnWhite]

Another pic showing just how good a fit it is.

 

[Frick]

First test for the storage solution for a board game (Civilization). Just testing the machine out and getting an idea of what the design should be. The final solution will make more sense. High speed. It came out a whole lot better than I thought it would.

Creality Ender V3 SE BTW.

 

[FoulOnWhite]

First test for the storage solution for a board game (Civilization). Just testing the machine out and getting an idea of what the design should be. The final solution will make more sense. High speed. It came out a whole lot better than I thought it would.

Creality Ender V3 SE BTW.

View attachment 335054

It's always worth experimenting with different filament too, mine likes some and not others.

 

[Frick]

It's always worth experimenting with different filament too, mine likes some and not others.

I won't be doing that, I have the stuff that came with the printer and the bog standard stuff I bought at the same time (Flashforge PLA Pro, bundle deal when I bought the printer). If it does not play nice with the printer I will return to my previous sentiment that 3D printing is not yet ready for avarage consumer use.

 

[Frick]

So anyway today I realized you can preview 3D files in the Windows 10 file manager. Hyper useful!