Ender 3 Pro

[vtcnc]

OK, I've had my Ender 3 Pro for about a solid month and have made several prints with it. I have to say that out of the box, I'm very happy with the unit. One of the things I didn't like was the magnetic print bed that is removable. It gets kinked and is difficult to clean without changing the texture of the print surface. Anyway, I bought a glass plate and it arrived today.

The adhesion is much better but I had to up my build plate temp by 10C up to 70C to get the thicker glass to hold a good temp.

I use Cura. Very easy and intuitive to use. I may experiment with others if there is a real compelling reason but right now I'm happy with the software.

One thing I've noticed is that rafts and brims are inconsistently printed. Sometimes they come out perfect, other times, NOT so much.

Example:

You can see the thin solid ring in the middle of the layer is the part I'm printing. The wider, less cohesive layers are the raft. Notice how in the South, East and North locations of the raft how the extruded bead follows the path well but once it starts travelling west and south again - the raft lines appear to lose steps or something.

Also notice the step in the rings. I can visibly see the machine jump when it gets to this spot. There is another print identical to this mirrored to the left of the extruder. The ring is on the SE side of the rings.

Weird. Any thoughts??

 

[MikeWi]

Rafts and brims have their own settings, so that could have something to do with it, but first things first.

1. Did you calibrate the steps for all steppers?
2. The extruder?
3. Determine the flow multiplier?

All of these things work together to either make a great print or screw it up.
How do you level the bed? Part of the print seems to be more flattened onto the bed than others.
Did that sketchy area adhere, or did it not stick down at all? I'm guessing you're using PLA, and 70 is what I use for a bed temp for that, so it should be good.

Anyway, that's what I'd start with, and we can go from there.

 

[rgray]

Looks like the bed is not level. Also looks like you could raise the bed a little.
If there is a "jump" in a certain spot that sounds mechanical. Might be something binding etc.

 

[samstu]

I'm with issues of level bed and first layer calibrations. It looks to me that the left rear of the bed is low on the picture.

I sent my Nephew an Ender 3 pro a couple months back and they reported back that it was easy to assemble but difficult to get right. It's really up to the builder to get frame pieces square as they are being assembled as the software can only compensate so much for build geometry. Distorted geometry could cause binding. So could a twist in a belt.

 

[brino]

Hi Bryan,

To me it looks like binding somewhere. I do NOT know the details of your machine, but I'd check the linear rails/rod and lead-screws for blemishes, bends, etc. especially near the "west" end.

This site:
https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/
has been very useful to me to help identify other printing defects.

-brino

 

[vtcnc]

Wow! Lot of great observations and replies...

Rafts and brims have their own settings, so that could have something to do with it, but first things first.

1. Did you calibrate the steps for all steppers?
2. The extruder?
3. Determine the flow multiplier?

All of these things work together to either make a great print or screw it up.
How do you level the bed? Part of the print seems to be more flattened onto the bed than others.
Did that sketchy area adhere, or did it not stick down at all? I'm guessing you're using PLA, and 70 is what I use for a bed temp for that, so it should be good.

Anyway, that's what I'd start with, and we can go from there.

I have yet to dig into the setting on rafts and brims. I will do the three steps you suggest first. Have no idea what the flow multiplier is but I will research that tonight.

I level the bed manually. The unevenness you and others are seeing is quality of the photo. It takes about 20 minutes to level this machine but once you have it there it holds level for quite sometime. The one problem I was seeing with the magentic base is that once you remove it you always were better off releveling. A real pain.

I am running at 70C because of the thickness of the glass bed. The raft tends to stick well at that temp. The areas that look sketchy are not adhering well. The extrusion thickness varies and looks segmented to me. Because of how this behaves, it doesn't adhere well.

Looks like the bed is not level. Also looks like you could raise the bed a little.
If there is a "jump" in a certain spot that sounds mechanical. Might be something binding etc.

I agree that the bed could be raised a little bit. The actual prints however didn't come out that bad vs. the rafts. I think you are onto something about the jump and binding because even though I was happy with the final print, there were some artifacts.

I'm with issues of level bed and first layer calibrations. It looks to me that the left rear of the bed is low on the picture.

I sent my Nephew an Ender 3 pro a couple months back and they reported back that it was easy to assemble but difficult to get right. It's really up to the builder to get frame pieces square as they are being assembled as the software can only compensate so much for build geometry. Distorted geometry could cause binding. So could a twist in a belt.

Checked the level and I'm not sure I can get it any more level, but I will keep tweaking. I did wonder if the belts were binding for some reason. While I could see it jump at the extruder, I couldn't quite pinpoint if it was on the X or Y belts.

Hi Bryan,

To me it looks like binding somewhere. I do NOT know the details of your machine, but I'd check the linear rails/rod and lead-screws for blemishes, bends, etc. especially near the "west" end.

This site:
https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/
has been very useful to me to help identify other printing defects.

-brino

Thanks for the link @brino. I'm going to do the calibration steps Mike suggests above, refine my leveling and then print a test to see how it goes. Tonight might just be a raft settings night. While I'm denying a lil' bit that the bed is out of level, I'm going to double check just in case. I just can't see how it would change so dramatically over the course of a 1" long arc, looking perfect on one side of the circle and crappy on the opposite side but a moment later. Maybe I'll re-print and show you the side by side rafts on the print so you can see what I mean. That's why it smells more like a calibration and/or binding issue of some sort to me.

Thanks everybody again for the keen insight.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Hi Bryan,
i'm a total newb at 3d printing.
i just got the Ender 3 on Monday and i noticed the very same tendency when creating a brim.
i also purchased the glass bed,
one thing i found to be a PITA is re-level the bed for the glass after using the stock, non-magnetic, sheet (on the latest units)
i had to level the glass twice, and adjust the travel speed, then my brim adhesion improved.

i have not raised my bed temperature to compensate for the glass
i do, go through the prepare loop, and preheat the bed and extruder before i attempt to load the slicer package.
i use the crealtiy 1.2.3 slicer (cura powered)

i'm using black PLA
i don't know if colors affect settings.
i do know, different plastics , abs, and pvc can be used-all with different characteristics and nuances

 

[vtcnc]

Hi Mike,

I've done/am doing essentially everything you are doing. I have found that while the machine is easy to level, it is tedious and for some reason doesn't always stay level. Haven't quite figured out why yet.

I have the magnetic sheet that came with the Ender 3 Pro, it was working really well at first, but then started to kink and one time, didn't sit flat and had a slight bump off the heated bed beneath that I didn't notice. That sealed the deal for a glass bed.

I'm using Cura but upon @MikeWi prompting, have been investigating changing the whole setup of firmware and software and moving to a Klipper setup. I'm not 100% sold on this yet as I haven't finished researching it to see what it will take - time, money and patience.

Having an injection molding background, pigments do not tend to have a noticable effect on resins unless they have fillers such as glass, but that is different than a pigment.

Thanks for the reply. I'm going to tinker around this weekend with the step and extruder calibrations and spend some quality time understanding bed leveling and dialing it in and see where that gets me.

Bryan

 

[stioc]

I'm chomping at the bit to buy a 3D printer. Narrowed my choice (price and popularity based) down to the Ender but I keep hearing issues with the bed or the glass bed. Is the glass bed supposed to help or better to stick with the older (or non pro) model without the bed issues?

 

[Pierre52]

Guys I have been 3D printing for a couple of years and for me it took at least 6 months to get some consistent results. I am on my 2nd printer which was largely made by my first printer. Some observations:
1. 3D printing is a big learning curve with all the inherent frustrations but you will get there with time and persistence.
2. The Ender 3 is probably the best entry level printer available at the moment. That is a common statement by most of the influencers on You Tube.
3. As someone else suggested, Simplify 3D has an excellent troubleshooting guide on their website.
4. The majority of problems stem from an imperfect 1st layer and the majority of imperfect 1st layer problems stem from a bed that isn't "perfectly" level. Remember that the layer height is usually only .1mm to .2mm high so it takes very little to get a bed out of level.
5. It is often a good idea to secure a printer to a perfectly flat surface as lack of rigidity in any axis will influence bed level in relationship to the print nozzle.
6. To me, the pictures from the OP are a classic case of a bed out of level and the print nozzle starting too high above the bed.
7. In the terms of some experts, a good first layer must have a small degree of "squish". In other words it should be slightly oval rather than round.
8. There are some very good 3d printing tutorials on You Tube. I would recommend the following:
a. Tom Sanladerer
b. 3D Printing Nerd
c. Makers Muse
d. 3DMN
e, CHEP