Damage Control, post version 2! Bought an Ender 3 off Facebook Marketplace for my son — still can't get a successful print after weeks of trying. Video included. Please help!
Many apologies folks. My poor Reddit skills are only outmatched by my poor 3d printing skills. I originally posted here and here (I will be deleting these here soon). But, of all the great information I thought I'd prepared for the community, only 2 barely helpful images came through. 😅😅😅
So, round 2, trying this again. Praying that everything coming through this time.
Originally intended post below:
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Hey Reddit folks! We could really use some help from people who know these printers better than us.
I bought a used Ender 3 off Facebook Marketplace for my 12-year-old son. He's been excited to get into 3D printing, but we've been struggling for weeks and he and I are getting pretty frustrated. We've got a video we're sharing in hopes someone can spot what we're doing wrong.
What we know about the printer:
- Bought used off Facebook Marketplace
- Some of the printer's own parts appear to have been printed on this very printer (so presumably this was working before)
- The filament came with it and is likely old — unknown age
- We're running it in a basement kept around 40% humidity
What we've tried so far:
- Bed leveling (many times, including the paper method at all four corners.)
- I think I got decent at this because I did see an improvement where the initial line printed on the board started to stick well... as opposed to before where it was spaghetti'ing
- Tightening the eccentric nuts under the bed to fix a wobble we noticed in the back, but I don't think this did much
- Temperature experimentation — we've tried nozzle temps up to 240°C and bed temps up to 80°C
- Factory reset (Initialize EEPROM) to clear any bad settings
- Messed with the Z offset, and a few other settings, and then reset
- Removing and then putting the PEI plate back
- Applied Elmer's purple glue stick to the bed to help adhesion
- This seemed to help
- We tried printing a simple cat with no supports, and also tried the Tugboat print.
Where we are now: Releveling definitely helped — we can get the first strand to stick to the bed. But the print eventually goes mushy and we can actually see the nozzle pushing into the filament instead of laying it down cleanly. It's like something falls apart mid-print.
Our suspicions, not based on experience:
- Could the filament be too old or moisture-damaged? (It came with the printer, unknown age)
- Is there a setting we're completely missing?
We've attached a video — any help at all would mean a lot. My son has been patient but it's been a long road and we'd love to finally get a successful print. Thank you in advance! 🙏