[Closed] Cheap 3d printer kits - Experiences?

Stumpy, let us know how you get on with the control box fan replacements, i'm thinking of doing the same thing and it's hard deciding which fan setup to go with. Also thinking about the stepper dampeners but don't want to lose any detail/accuracy.

It's hard choosing a fang too. The one i have uses the existing fans but i think maybe one with a 5015 blower for the part cooling and a 4020 heatbreak fan might be the way to go.. although I'm not sure on adding extra weight to the x carriage, surely it's not good?

Stumpy, let us know how you get on with the control box fan replacements

Will do, but don't necessarily expect a quick turnaround! Have very little time to fiddle about with the printer, so have been putting up with a noisy fan for a while now...

It’s hard choosing a fang too. The one i have uses the existing fans but i think maybe one with a 5015 blower for the part cooling and a 4020 heatbreak fan might be the way to go.. although I’m not sure on adding extra weight to the x carriage, surely it’s not good?

My main issues are:
1) I really only print in PLA and am still unconvinced it's a good idea right near the hot end of the printer.
2) many of the fangs seem to rely on screwing into the PLA and there are many tales of people's fangs/hotends becoming loose after a while.

Again, it's something I'd like to do, but really struggle with finding suitable time.
I'd probably swap to one of the 5015 blower fans, but you need to be careful which one you go for as some don't seem to allow any speed control, so they are either on or off!

Automatic fan control is nicer but you can change the speed of pretty much any fan by sticking a cheap voltage stepdown in the circuit. TBH my cooling printer is pretty much always full speed or off anyway.

I printed my original one in PLA and it's been fine but yep definite room for issues with crushing and loosening- on my ender the entire thing ends up held on with 2 M3 bolts which is a bit suboptimal especially with 2 fans on it. But it does work, if you do it right, and with my one you can get an allen key to the bolts without taking the fan off so tweaking was easy while it was bedding in.

Going to redo it all in petg anyway but I've been suprised by how well the pla one worked.

I'm thinking of moving my CR10 mini on. It's not had much use and I'm not finding the time to model or use it.

If anyone is looking for a decent printer that won't break the back in the Midlands areas then drop me a line

Not exactly a PSA, but, 3dlac spray + glass + heated bed = PLA happiness. Sticks perfect, then when the bed cools it just comes off. No need to respray, no effort, just proper simple results, lovely.

@slackman, I'd be tempted if I was closer, nice machine that!

Printed some parts for the ender in petg which didn't go as well as I'd hoped, I think maybe I'm overextruding. I got functional parts but they're not pretty. But had some stuff I wanted to do for wargames terrain for a mate so switched back to PLA for a bit and ended up speeding the print speed right up and doing my biggest print yet, dead pleased. It's nothing to shout about really but 18 hours without a flutter. Just set off my first ever print over 24.

Hmmm. I'd also be tempted by the CR10-MINI if I had somewhere to put it! I'll have a think!

Not exactly a PSA, but, 3dlac spray + glass + heated bed = PLA happiness. Sticks perfect, then when the bed cools it just comes off. No need to respray, no effort, just proper simple results, lovely.

We use 3dlac on the Ultimaker at work and it is very good stuff. I'm convinced it's just repackaged hairspray though.

Slackman - sent you a DM re the cr10 mini

stumpy01

We use 3dlac on the Ultimaker at work and it is very good stuff. I’m convinced it’s just repackaged hairspray though.

It's made by a hairspray manufacturer (their branding is on the tin) but I couldn't find any of their products that's the same, I suspect it might genuinely be super-hairspray designed for the job. Makes sense really.

This thing is proving genuinely useful! Some scrote nicked the fuel flap from one of our transits. Did consider trying to print a new one, but it’s bigger than my print area, and more complex that you might think at first glance. If it happened again I’d try though, as a new one from Ford was £48!! When I came to fit it I realised they’d snapped part of the hinge mechanism too. Good learning experience modelling that, feel quite confident with Fusion now. And it fitted first time!
https://imgur.com/a/qbJeCE7

Got an Ender 3 for Xmas

finally got round to trying it out today

leveling wasnt too bad

did a an xyz cube, seemed pretty good

now browsing thingverse, hmmm

Cube looks good - the Ender3 seems like a solid machine, especially for the money!

Did you measure the x, y & Z dims? I think my first ones were coming out almost spot-on in X & Y, but Z was about 0.2 short.

I am not sure I like the sharp cubes for calibration purposes as you get an inevitable small bulge in the corners where the head changes direction, which can give you measurement error - IMO it would be better to have a small radius on the vertical corners & top face, with a chamfer on the bottom face.

now browsing thingverse, hmmm

Eeek! Lots to be distracted by! I've got several items 'collected' that I keep meaning to print - there's a fantastic jet engine model & someone has recently put a working large clockwork mechanism that I think would be a great showpiece.

someone has recently put a working large clockwork mechanism that I think would be a great showpiece.

The Swiss-watch with escapement mechanism thing that’s on the featured section?

That's the one!

Here's a few things on my list to print:

Jet Engine
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1327093

Gyrotourbillon
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2820444

Dremel Table Saw
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2365532

Star Tracker for night photography
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:974906

This is my most successful (very boring) upload; a small test piece to trial support settings:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2823038

I've only uploaded 3 items so far & am reluctant to put loads of stuff on there after seeing how many people seem to just use it for downloading stuff to sell on Etsy or eBay.

Also, since uploading that test piece it's been downloaded >2000 times, but only 2 people have bothered to post makes of it. I try to post makes of every part I download & subsequently make.
I've seen it appear on loads of 'how to' videos on Youtube.

Did you measure the x, y & Z dims? I think my first ones were coming out almost spot-on in X & Y, but Z was about 0.2 short.

I dont have any calipers, but it seemed very close on my rule

I bought slackman's CR10 Mini off him at the weekend.

Tried some prints yesterday, and need some advice to work out what went wrong on the final one. First print I didn't put any pritstick down so the print dislodged and sprayed PLA everywhere. Second print I managed to tangle the PLA filament into a knot so it ended up printing air. Third one worked, but I broke the head off the model when trying to pull it off the piece of glass, wasn't being particularly aggressive with it either.... so i'm thinking the layer didn't join properly - here are some pictures:

[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

Kind of looks like the layers haven't joined together properly - i just used the default for PLA setting. Not sure what the brand of filament is, as Slackman gave me it free. It's black, and it's PLA.

Any ideas?

Ewan Member

I bought slackman’s CR10 Mini off him at the weekend.

Tried some prints yesterday, and need some advice to work out what went wrong on the final one

Where did you get the model from? Was it on the included USB pen? If so, delete it & try something else.
That cat model isn't called decapicat for nothing - seriously, google it.
Creality released corrupted/faulty gcode for that model & caused people no end of grief who spent ages trying to work out why the print kept failing. You've done well to get the head to print at all!

Try a Benchy & see how you get on.

Did you measure the x, y & Z dims? I think my first ones were coming out almost spot-on in X & Y, but Z was about 0.2 short.

That's quite common and not necessarily a fault. It might simply be due to squashing the first layer onto the bed (which PLA likes).
You could test by printing something 40mm high and see if the disparity is still 0.2mm or scaled double. If doubled to 0.4mm, then it needs calibrating.

You can actually compensate for the squished first layer in some slicers, but I don't tend to bother.

There is also a compensation setting for 'elephant's foot' where it prints the first layer slightly smaller in the X and Y dimensions so that you don't get that squished-out bottom.

That cat model isn’t called decapicat for nothing – seriously, google it.
Creality released corrupted/faulty gcode for that model & caused people no end of grief who spent ages trying to work out why the print kept failing. You’ve done well to get the head to print at all!

Yeah, i'd read about the headless cat thing, but i downloaded this from thingyverse and the comments were full of people saying that the cat had a head in this one.

That said, it is weird it seems to be a single poor layer, will try and print a benchy. Is there a 'standard' one I should download the gcode for?

You could test by printing something 40mm high and see if the disparity is still 0.2mm or scaled double. If doubled to 0.4mm, then it needs calibrating.

Funnily enough, I stuck this on Thingiverse for just that purpose, although annoyingly got my axes muddled up, so it needs re-orienting on the bed to print correctly

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2837841

That said, it is weird it seems to be a single poor layer, will try and print a benchy. Is there a ‘standard’ one I should download the gcode for?

There is really only one Benchy, although many people have created versions.

This should be it:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:763622

Generally you download the stl file & then create the gcode yourself using Cura, or some other slicer software.
I might have a sliced version I could e-mail you, as I also have a CR-10 Mini but it won't be until this evening at the earliest.

Drop me a message with your e-mail details if you want me to have a look and see what gcode i have ready sliced.

Re: Decapicat (yours doesn't look like the traditional shifted layer one).
If it was just one poor layer, then look at your z leadscrew for any debris - same with the wheels that slide up the verticals.
Also check where the gantry goes up the vertical supports and check that screws aren't fouling anything. One of the plastic coloured inserts on mine was rubbing against a screw, so I shaved it down a bit.
Same for the wires and bowden tube - make sure it couldn't have snagged on anything while Z was travelling up.

Other things that can trigger it: Sudden change in ambient temp. Sudden change in nozzle temp - some people complain that the CR-10 (don't know about the mini) can't hold temps stead).

If you do print something else, check at the same z-height for any weirdness.

Ok good tips thanks!

Just to follow on from Alex's post...

One of the plastic coloured inserts on mine was rubbing against a screw, so I shaved it down a bit.

I don't think that the Mini shipped with the plastic go-faster stripes as standard, if that's what you mean. I could be wrong, but have never seen one (and I watched plenty of youtube reviews before buying) and my one came without.

some people complain that the CR-10 (don’t know about the mini) can’t hold temps stead).

Could be an issue; but I'd be surprised at PLA temps, based on how my Mini performs.
Mine won't hold temp when you get up to PETG + higher temps. It hunts around like mad. Needs that capacitor re-work on the main motherboard. Gearbest sent me a replacement board, but it's the same. I keep intending to mod one, try it out & if it works mod the second one.

My longest print so far was 27hrs & that had no obvious issues relating to temp fluctuations.

Ewan - did you scroll through the layers for that part in Cura? You can often see areas where prints might go squiffy based on hoe the layer view looks. It should be easy enough to look at the layers around where the failure occurred & see if the gcode does something a bit weird.

Regarding Alex's comments about checking the Z-screw - I don't generally agree with making tons of mods to a machine until you know how it performs as stock, so you understand what affects any changes will have......but having said that, there is a z-screw mod that allows you to wind the z-screw quickly and it's definitely worth doing.
Here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2534990

That Jet Engine looks really good!

... Didn't realise it was going to be so big.. Mine shows about 60 hours to print, if I had a build plate big enough to print all of them at once! 😮 I won't be printing it. 🙁

I didn't look through cura - i litterally downloaded some gcode and hit go 🙂

I'll take a look tonight. Is the issue with the print head common to the CR-10 or a quality control issue? I was hoping to upgrade the head and print in ABS and Nylon eventually. Figured i'd work out whats what with PLA first tho.

I’ll take a look tonight. Is the issue with the print head common to the CR-10 or a quality control issue? I was hoping to upgrade the head and print in ABS and Nylon eventually. Figured i’d work out whats what with PLA first tho.

It's related to voltage regulation on the motherboard - but that's about as far as I can tell you - electronics is far from my strong point.
The fix is to get some suitable capacitors soldered onto the motherboard. TH3D offer a repair service, but only in the US.

See this link here:

https://github.com/printsmith/Melzi-1.1.2-2.0-Temperature-Fluctuation-Fix/blob/master/V1.1.2%20Fix/V1.1.2%20Fix%20Tutorial.md

My board looks like the one in the second pic down - the one with the white plug in the centre which is outlined in red. Supposedly swapping that plug out for a suitable capacitor fixes it.
I wasn't going to do it until had a back-up, so I managed to get a replacement board from Gearbest, so if I make the mod & it buggers something up i have a back-up.
My issue is, I am only printing in PLA so there's no real incentive at the moment. And to remove the board will mean labelling it all up & taking my time over it, which I just don't have.

We print in nylon at work, which isn't too bad to use apart from you really need a dry box to keep it in while printing. It absorbs moisture readily & you will get really bad results with wet filament.
Not tried ABS, but most people online who use ABS generally build an enclosure around the printer to keep the temps up to stop it warping.

You might need an all metal hotend when printing the higher temp filaments as the PTFE tube in the CR10 hot-end is only good up to around 245 deg. C. Above that it degrades & will give you issues.

Yeah i'd read I needed a new temperature proof bit, and I was planning on printing some corner bits for an enclosure. Is it to keep the temperature up, or just steady? I have a load of insulation from my camper build I could use potentially. Had figured I'd need a dry box, but those don't seem megabucks.

That fix on the motherboard looks easy enough, i'll pull mine apart at some point and see which variant of the board I have.

Need to get component printing with normal stuff first. Dave chucked in a reel of PETG as well, though that might be impacted by this capacitor issue.

Yeah i’d read I needed a new temperature proof bit, and I was planning on printing some corner bits for an enclosure. Is it to keep the temperature up, or just steady? I have a load of insulation from my camper build I could use potentially. Had figured I’d need a dry box, but those don’t seem megabucks.

I think it is to keep the temperature of the whole part elevated. ABS shrinks a lot as it cools & if the part cools unevenly it can warp or just pull itself apart.

You also need to get the bed temperature up to ~100 degrees C. which I think can be challenging on the Creality printers without an enclosure.

From what I have seen, people have made enclosures from virtually anything - including just sticking a cardboard box over the whole thing.

ABS also gives of quite a lot of fumes from what I understand. It is a good idea to have some kind of ventilation in place.
There is a plastic called ASA, which has similar properties to ABS but gives of a lot less fumes apparently.

Do you really need to print ABS? Not something I've done personally, seems like there are loads of disadvantages (fumes, warping, needing enclosure, environmental impact) and you'd be better served by PETG or even HTPLA maybe?

"ABS also gives of quite a lot of fumes from what I understand. It is a good idea to have some kind of ventilation in place."

Not really tbh, you might notice a slight smell if you've got it running open in a room but in an enclosure, you notice a smell when you open the door but that's all. No need for ventilation imo, not on a diy machine anyway

But an enclosure does make all the difference for printing without warping. It really depends what you're printing- ABS is great in a lot of ways as you can acetone polish it, it glues well, it's pretty heat resistant- PETG has some hangups of its own including not really being able to paint it (if you care) and it being pretty hard to glue to and remove supports from.

FWIW I've had zero problems with removing supports from PETG or gluing it (with superglue). The best tip I've picked up for using supports recently is to always make sure they're at 45 degrees relative to what you're printing, makes them WAY easier to remove.

@Ewan

The PLA is this stuff: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B073PB9XWY/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
and the PETG is:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MG5QQY9/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Cheers Slackman.

Had a bit more success last night - was a bit naughty and changed multiple variables at the same time:

- Tried printing the cat again using the same gcode. It broke in almost the same point and i noticed the print had stopped binding together at the top, so cancelled the print.
- The print not binding together and a bit of chin scratching made me think that one of the problems was that the feed reel was on top of the machine - this gave a fairly sharp angle into the feeder tube. So i dismounted the reel and mounted it to the side of the machine on top of the control box - this now gives a straight line into the feeder thingy.
- I also downloaded he STL(?) file and shoved it into Cura and resliced it using the defaults of PLA on the CR-10 (doesn't have the mini, but i'm assuming they're essentially the same other than volume).
- I then printed the cat again (my version) - at this point I noticed bed temp and hot end temp had both increased by 10 degrees over the original gcode - now printing at 200 degrees and 60 degree bed temp.
- The cat worked, so I also printed the benchy thingy. That seems to have come out ok, tho i've not had the calipers out yet to check the measurements. The name plate at the back doesn't seem to have come out at all - not sure if that is the nozzle size or the layer height that's done that (think i used 0.2 - the middle setting in cura).

[img] [/img]
Note that the top layers didn't stick together, i think this may have been a feed issue due to the position of the spool. Also see that it snapped in the same point as the last one.

[img] [/img]
Success! Can not rip this ones head off despite trying.

[img] [/img]
Note artifact on the side of the boat towards the bottom and the middle - looks like little bumps - not sure what's caused that. There is something similar on the other side but not in quite the same place.

May try and print some upgrades for he printer next.

Re: the comments above about ABS, i was thinking of using it for UV resistance so I can use it on the outside of my camper van, or at least places it will be exposed to strong (And hot) sunshine. Ultimately I want to get nylon working once I upgrade the hotend.

Good that you're making progress!
If you want to try my cura PLA profile, it's here. No promises 🙂 Keep it separate and you can always switch back. (it's for the CR-10).

You'll have to alter some of the things you normally decide 'per print' like support, infill, brim etc. If you were just using a default Cura profile, you should notice that the time estimates are much more accurate with this as it's got correct jerk/acceleration figures.

Cool will do - is it obvious how to load it?

I think so! - I don't want to open Cura right now because Adobe Premiere is eating every last drop of cpu

I'll have a look later. Will feedback!

Ewan Member
Cool will do – is it obvious how to load it?

Simple. Open Cura>Preferences>configure Cura>Profiles & then import.....you can save it as a new profile.

Super thanks

Anyone use a cheap ip cam for monitoring? What you got? Same question for wifi plug.

Love the look of some of these silk/satin filaments, gold etc. Any recommendations?

Well 2nd print is running

Might have got a bit ambitious....

Printing a 💀 flowerpot been running overnight & still only 1/3rd of the way through.
Should have checked a bit closer, its more skull than pot

It's ok wife's birthday is on Friday, so should be ready by then !

papamountain

Member
Anyone use a cheap ip cam for monitoring? What you got? Same question for wifi plug.

I use an old Android phone with a camera viewer app. It only works over the house wi-fi though, but I'm generally at home when prints are running.

It’s ok wife’s birthday is on Friday

A bright orange skull flowerpot. I'm sure she'll love it! ;o)

I also bought her a new steam mop

I am a smooth operator

Anyone use a cheap ip cam for monitoring?

Love the look of some of these silk/satin filaments, gold etc. Any recommendations?

Same as zilog... Pi3B+ & Pi Cam, running Octoprint with a Pi touchscreen. I don't have a WiFi plug for the printer, but it seems like a good idea, especially if you need an emergency stop. I also use Telegram plugin so it sends me a message & photo when it starts/finishes/pauses, you can set it to send updates during a print too. You can also send commands via Telegram to pause/stop/etc.

How have you mounted the pi cam to pi and pi to the printer? Any pictures of the set up?