Dialing in my max speed settings, no Klipper
Max extrusion volume: 50 mm3/s
Max acceleration: 3000 mm/s2
Max speed: 250 mm/s infill, 250 mm/s inner perimeters (combined every 2 layers), 90 mm/s outer perimeters (precision)
K factor: 0.007
Layer thickness 0.16 mm
PLA 240 degrees
I know I could bump up my acceleration, but on smaller and more detailed prints it won't save much time.
I'm modelling a parts cooler, and rather than designing entirely from scratch, my intention is to take a note out of Prusa's playbook. My focus is to keep the center of gravity as close to the rail as possible. While there's no room behind the rail, there's a lot of unexplored real estate under the rail.
Another point of focus is that while parts cooling from 2 directions is great, this is only useful in the X direction and largely ignores the Y direction of the bed. That's why I made them diagonal, which also assists in a less restricted and more even flow to both sides, when compared to other ducts that want to solve the same problem.
Lastly: this is not a shroud. This is based on a skeleton that leaves the hotend cooling fins as exposes as possible. In line with weight distribution and airflow, the mounting is designed to be as minimalistic as possible, and it will be easy to take apart without the need to recalibrate the entire head after simple maintenance.
Before I'm calling it finished, I'm curious to hear some opinions on this. I've stuck as close as possible to the Prusa XL parts cooler, which is known to be a fast and high quality printer (although this duct isn't nearly as advanced).
I want to spray paint a few accessories on my Hunter in the Rebel Blue colour. Does anyone know what widely available paint is the closest match? I wanted to go with Motip deep ocean blue but it seems a little on the dark side. Is Motip heat resistant colour "Ford" a closer match?
Tldr: would anyone be interested in a lightweight and minimalist fan mounting and ducting option? I'm intending to come up with a design and am open to brainstorming.
Alright so I'm following the path that many other original Ender 3 owners seem to be on: modding.
Going for speed and precision, you need better cooling which is commonly achieved with a Satsana with a 5015 parts blower. Additionally, a direct drive with pressure advance enabled (and input shaping if you're on Klipper) improves precision. You'll want to avoid heat creep with something like a heat breaker or a different hotend. There are a couple alternatives for the hotend as well as the extruder and its motor, all with pros and cons.
Even with stock parts you can do a lot if you know how and why. But I want to talk about something that may not be fully understood about fans by many: static pressure. Let me refer to this excellent page for the basics: https://blog.orientalmotor.com/fan-basics-air-flow-static-pressure-impedance
We have a capable 4010 axial fan hanging in front of the hot end. It does its job. But how do we mount it? In a shroud that rarely has fan openings on both sides of the hotend. So what do we get? Uneven cooling, if much at all. Result: heat creep. (Which is why I see the brown 4020 fan everywhere which is better for this, but imo it's a bandaid.)
Then we have this 5015 which is great with static pressure, and we make it go around 90 degree corners just to have it cool from both sides. Radial fans are great for this, but I think specifically the Satsana and similar tool heads don't get the most out of it, in spite of well designed fillets etc. If the duct itself produces more sound than the nozzle, that's a bit of an issue.
I happen to be familiar with a few Prusa printers that tackle this differently. They either blow straight from the back to blow as much air under the nozzle as possible, or the more expensive ones use a smooth duct with a horseshoe shaped nozzle.
The stealth burner, after burner, dragon burner etc address this with 2 5015 coolers and one bend right before the bend. They usually also have as few air obstructions around the hotend heat fins as possible, so that the smaller hotend cooler can push the hot air away as fast as possible.
The attached image is from a Prusa Core One gantry with Nextruder toolhead, and a parts blower that breathes straight into a horseshoe nozzle, fan mounting and ducting is really minimalistic.
Inspired by this, I'm working on a solution that handles weight and airflow better in general, and I'm wondering if I'm on the right track with this current train of thoughts. If anyone wants to weigh in, please feel free to leave a reply.
18+ tag for body horror and substance abuse
EDIT: I'm never sure if the recess for the fan wires should go left or right, or whether there's any significant variation between fans. Since I'm providing a cover plate I might as well make the slot wider to account for a greater variety of use cases, and situations where the wires need to run diagonally before they reach the top. Also lmk if I need to make a 4020 variant!
I've been looking longingly at Bosco Lau's magnetic mount shroud, but wasn't a big fan of how it was put together. It may be reliable, but I'm a nuts and bolts kind of guy. Lo and behold there's a remix by G-Mezor for a bolted version for Ender 3.
I remixed that version to make a few modifications that I found suitable (removing vent openings that are covered by the 5015 fan anyway, a smoother fan duct, and removing a BL Touch bracket since this should fit with original brackets) and made a nifty little fan cover that doesn't really cover the fan. The idea is to make the shroud look more like a finished part, to that end I also added the Creality logo (embossed). The circular opening is a nod to the Vortex shroud which was Lau's previous attempt at a magnetic shroud.
If anyone is interested I can add a link to Printables. This cover should fit any version of the original shroud that doesn't deviate too much, just mind the 4010 axial fan wires.
Another possible benefit is that this one should work with the Unitak direct drive conversion carriage or any other direct drive mods that sit higher.
Mods: pei build plate, BTT skr mini E3 V2 main board with TFT touch, cr touch bed sensor, 5015 parts blower, aluminium extruder, Satsana light fan duct, direct drive with stock e-axis stepper, silenced 4010 fan cover
One thing I hate is ordering large spools for small prints, 1kg basically lasts me forever. However I did notice that filament for 3D pens are sold for less than $2 per 10 meter and it comes in assortments.
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I know it's 3 to 4 times more expensive, but if I bought that many colours in 1 kilo spools they'd probably expire anyway before I used them halfway.
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It's the same 1.75mm PLA unless I'm missing something, who else does this?
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I'm trying to get my Ender 3 close to the performance of more recent printers. Talking about dialing the printing speed up to 11 with as little quality loss as possible. With a Satsana fanduct and 5015 blower fan conversion under my belt, the next logical step appears to be direct drive to reduce retraction times.
This never made sense to me because you want to reduce the weight of the print assembly as much as possible, but given the retraction gain it might be a worthwhile trade-off. Pancake style steppers seem to be a popular choice.
What are the experiences with good drop-in pancake style extruders that can also handle higher speeds? Can anyone recommend a good model?
Picture because that's why.
Satsana mini with 5015 fan and CR touch. First thing I'm doing with this is... Print a new and more precise version 😄
Like everyone else, I want to try and get the best out of my printing experience, I'm getting pretty good results but I'm curious if I'm missing something obvious. Here's what I did:
- I added the BL Touch with firmware upgrade
- It already has a mini skr v3 mainboard + touch tft
- I switched the glass build plate for a textured PEI one
- I'm currently printing a Satsana for my 5015 parts cooler
- I adjusted speed settings in my slicer, and enabled dynamic speed and cooling
- I finetuned my Z-offset and bed corners so that it's printing a simple disc on 4 corners and the center consistently, with a well defined first layer
- I increased my first layer thickness to 0.24 and set squish compensation to 0.4
My Benchy could look a little better, but it prints in 2 hours at 0.16mm layer thickness and 15% gyroid infill. I'm expecting the Satsana to fix most overhang- and rippling issues, along with the dynamic speed and cooling. I will also use a guitar tuner app to adjust my belt tension to ~70 hz (it already has the belt tensioning screws).
Does it make sense to print outer perimeter first or reduce infill/perimeter overlap, or should that not be necessary when the other settings are properly dialed in? From which overhang angles do you use supports? (I have organic supports starting at 15 degrees) Is Prusa slicer the best choice, and do you use different slicing profiles for PLA and PETG?
I'm sorry if all these questions have been answered before, but I'm looking into a wholistic approach and am wondering if my finetuning journey is similar to that of other users, or whether I'm overcomplicating the thought process or simply miss something obvious. I have looked into Klipper, but was unable to flash my printer successfully with the appropriate firmware.
"Holy sh*, look what I can print!"*
You've bought an entry-level printer. Maybe it's brand new, maybe you picked it up off Facebook Marketplace for the price of a night out.
You print Benchies. Calibration cubes. A headphone holder. Something for the missus. Maybe even your first self-designed model.
The machine whirs, plastic appears where there was none before, and it all feels like magic.
"Well... that doesn't look right."
As you tackle more complicated prints, reality starts to set in.
First-layer issues. Random spaghetti monsters. Overhangs that look rougher than your hair after a punk rock concert.
You blame the printer. You blame the model. You blame the filament.
Nothing makes sense and everything is complicated.
Your failed-print bin is filling up faster than your trophy shelf, and you're frantically tightening belts and re-leveling the bed for the fifth time this week because surely this is the adjustment that fixes everything.
"So THAT'S what that setting does!"
You dive headfirst into slicer settings. You spend evenings reading forum threads from 2019. You have long discussions with AI about pressure advance, acceleration limits, cooling strategies, and whether 0.28 mm layer height is technically cheating.
Soon you have a print profile to beat all others. Then another one.
Every setting is the result of a painful lesson. Every number is the finely tuned answer to that one tiny imperfection you've noticed in almost every print.
"Don't tell me what it's designed for. Tell me what it CAN do."
You understand your printer's limitations now. You look at newer, more expensive machines with envy. Then you realize you can upgrade your current one instead.
It starts innocently enough. A better mainboard. A bed probe. Maybe a direct-drive conversion.
Before long you're printing custom fan ducts for a dual-5015 cooling setup and calculating airflow ratios like you're preparing a NASA launch.
Your Ender 3 has become the Ship of Theseus: nothing is original anymore, but somehow it's still an Ender 3.
"The firmware is holding me back."
Every mechanical component has been optimized. The printer is faster and more reliable than ever. But now you know that 16 probe points are enough and 25 is excessive. You know the second blower fan deserves its own dedicated output. You know the print head doesn't need to lift that high before homing.
With slicer settings conquered, firmware becomes the final frontier. If the warranty isn't void yet, it will be shortly.
Time to remove the guard rails, compile custom firmware at 2 AM, and send that puppy to infinity and beyond.
"I just need a small bracket."
You own four printers. Three are disassembled. One is halfway through a 19-hour print.
You spend six hours modifying the machine so it can print a part that would take twenty minutes to print on a stock machine.
You are finally living the dream.
Little bit of fun with a Xiao ESP32 and a Neopixel strip.
I used the buttoncycler demo code, and hid the button under the ornament in the hilt. The blade is polycarbonate with some privacy window film and a hardware store U-channel.
The design of the 3D printed hilt is entirely my own, and inspired by a Japanese wakizashi. The one in the rear includes a 800 mAh li-po pouch style battery soldered to the charging pads on the MCU.
The one in the front will be a desk prop for myself, and of course my young daughter also wanted one which I decided to build more like a functional toy in a theme that would appeal to her.
Disclaimer: like many other objects this prop *could* be used as a weapon, but you'll find far more effective means on other subreddits if that happens to be your interest. Do NOT use as a weapon, this is not its intended purpose.
Benieuwd hoe andere motorrijders hiermee om zouden gaan.
Ik zat achter een auto die niet lekker doorreed, en er was geen goede mogelijkheid om in te halen. Dus blijf je daar geduldig achter. Nu zat er achter mij een bestuurder die iets minder geduldig was, en laat het nu net een bedrijfsbus van mijn werk zijn. Eerst zit hij al te kleven, en een paar minuten later probeert hij te passeren over een doorgetrokken streep, ziet dat hij het niet kan redden en drukt mij praktisch van de weg af om er weer tussen te komen. Hier is geen beeldmateriaal van.
Natuurlijk maak je dan een mental note van het kenteken. Vraag 1 is natuurlijk of je dit bij de baas zou melden, het blijft een momentopname maar het kan wel indicatief zijn voor routineus gevaarlijk rijgedrag. Dit zou je uit kunnen leggen als een bedrijfsrisico, vooral wanneer hij hiermee een collega het ziekenhuis in kan helpen.
Vraag 2 is of je zou willen weten wie die brokkenpiloot is... zou je de bestuurder confronteren als hij in jouw kennissenkring zit? Of zou je de schouders ophalen en proberen om het achter je te laten?
(Voor context: ik heb dit wel gemeld bij mijn baas, maar nog geen terugkoppeling ontvangen.)
Not the butler that Bruce deserves, but the one that he needs.
Replies can take longer when I'm out for a ride.
The design for a thing I'm gonna make for myself.
The 3D printed hilt will hold a small microcontroller, a clear acrylic sheet and a black u-channel to hold a neopixel RGB strip. The brass looking flower will cycle RGB modes. I'll mostly have fun turning this into printable parts since the code for this already exists as an example in Arduino.
