Creality Ender 3 & 3D Printing

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Sun Feb 27, 2022 1:05 am

With all the projects I am working on, one constant is the need for good enclosures. While there are a lot of good options out there, all of them obviously require modification to fit your specific needs, but we live in the 21st century darn it!

So, my wife and I are very seriously looking at getting two new tools for our respective hobbies. She's looking at a Cricut Joy, and I am looking at the Creality Ender 3 3D Printer. At a $200 price point, and with such a massive amount of support and mods available, it just seems like a good place to start for the small prints we would use it for. In my case, custom enclosures and parts for my projects. Though, my wife and daughter would also use it. We're in the progress or rearranging our apartment to better accommodate our hobbies, so within the next few days I have a feeling these new tools will be on their way.

That all being said, do any of you own 3D printers, and if so, what one, and what do you think of it?

KennethWilke · Post by **KennethWilke** » Sun Feb 27, 2022 2:00 am

I just picked up my first 3D printer, a Kingroon KP3S. I can't say I know quite enough to give it a good comparison to any other machine, but a good buddy of mine who is an a bit of a 3D printing enthusiast recommended it and it seems to have incredible quality for it's price (~$220 USD).

Prior to pulling the trigger on the purchase I saw this video which made me feel pretty confident in my choice:

Similar to what you mentioned, this one is well supported and upgradable. My buddy recommended upgrading the hot end and extruder... Both of which I bought but haven't installed yet since I'm still getting familiar with the base machine, stock prints have been great so far!

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Sun Feb 27, 2022 4:45 am

The deed is done... ?

Wish me luck. lol

Scott Robison · Post by **Scott Robison** » Sun Feb 27, 2022 12:30 pm

May the force be with you.

AndyMt · Post by **AndyMt** » Mon Feb 28, 2022 10:23 am

Good choice - I own a Creality CR6-SE. Not the Ender 3 mainly because of it's slightly bigger print volume, the touch screen and most of all: it's auto leveling mechanism. The rotary wheel for controlling the menus drove me crazy with the Prusa i3 I had before - as did the leveling procedure. So I wanted to get rid of that.

Be prepared to change the fans to reduce noise. Although both the Ender 3 and CR6-SE can be considered "silent" - at least compared to the old Prusa I had before...

I'm very happy with this 3D printer. It's a lot of fun to print little parts to improve stuff in the apartment, fix broken things etc. And of course my retro inspired computer case...

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Mon Feb 28, 2022 5:29 pm

Yeah, once I have it setup and working, I'm going to look at an auto-leveler(BL or CL Touch) and a different flex-plate if I don't like the included one. We'll see.

Depending on my printing needs, I may upgrade the hotend as well.

So many options.

Right now I'll just stick with the stock config and PLA and see if it works for my needs.

What 3D design software do you use? Apps like Blender are well outside my current skill-set, and not needed for simple prints like my enclosures, yet...

So I'm messing with Microsoft 3D Builder, got it mostly all figured out, a nice simple and to the point app.

Messing with designs, moving them to the slicer, and seeing what breaks while I wait for the printer to arrive. ?

AndyMt · Post by **AndyMt** » Tue Mar 01, 2022 7:56 am

I'm using Blender, went through it's very steep learning curve a few years ago to design models for Kerbal Space Program. I agree it's very hard to get into, but once you've mastered it it's very powerful.

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Sun Nov 06, 2022 11:19 pm

After several months of owning my Ender 3, I makes me wish I had got one sooner! It's probably one of the best investments I've made over the past several years.

My 3D design skills are slowly improving, still using Microsoft 3D Builder for most simple things, and I'm in the process of learning to use OpenSCAD. Both apps are great for the stuff I print the most, things to support projects I'm working on.

It's come in really handy for my Z80-MBC2 build, my daughter has come up with a few things to print, and I have finally got to the point I'm actually printing things I want, not just what I need. ?

I found this very simple little insert for a Mario "?" block candy tin to turn it into an SD card holder. I have a couple of those tins sitting around, so I modified the design a little to shorten print time and make the cards stick out further for my larger hands, and Bob's your uncle! I have a cool place to store SD cards! I love finding simple ways to reuse old things, so I thought this simple little print was a great idea. I just wish I had thought of it first.

I have some small Pac-Man Ghost tins, a Pac-Man arcade cabinet tin, and 2 Mario Mushroom tins, I wonder what I can use those for? ?

Original Project: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1765326