Ender 3 Tips

For a long and healthy relationship

So I’ve owned a couple of Ender 3’s for a couple years, and do not get me wrong I love these printers. Their price of entry are amazing, and print quality out of the out of the box is amazing.
 
BUT I would be lying if I said haven’t hit my fair share of issues…
I would like to use this page as a small personal troubleshooting wiki. Containing the issues I’ve come across so far.
 
Right below is a shopping list of everything I mention in the guide. It is divided into important upgrades and premium upgrades

SHOPPING LIST:

Important Upgrades:

Premium/Extra Upgrades:

  • Aqua Net Hairspray for glass bed adhesion:
  • Capricorn Tubing: Captubing.com
  • Glass Bed Clips: $12.99 Amazon

Extruder Gear

This is a upgrade that I recommend applying right away. The screw that fastens the gear to the drive shaft of the motor, loosens very quickly due to the vibration of the printer. Also the teeth on the original gear wear very quickly.  The upgraded gear has last me many many hours of printing.

In addition I have add a small rubber band to add friction so it wont loosen as quickly. 

Glass Bed w/ Hair Spray

I am sure you have probably heard of this upgrade but I shall reiterate. This will help so much with first layer issues. Paired with hairspray for the adhesion. I highly recommend aquanet, because with most other hairsprays you will have deal white flakes everywhere.

To attach the glass you can use standard binder clips. But if you are looking to improve your build space then check out the premium upgrade of 3D printer clips (AKA picture frame clips) 

There is NO glue in the extruder

So I ran into a issue where no filament was coming through the nozzle. I ran a nozzle cleaner through multiple times, and that would fix the issue temporarily.

So I decided to take apart the hotend and see whats up. Well I found the PTFE tube was “glued” to the nozzle. At first I thought it was supposed to be like that. Well it is NOT.

That glue was actually filament residue from removing the filament as well as retractions. Which is accelerated by the the warping and spacing of the PTFE from the nozzle. 

Hotend Tubing Upgrade

If you can add this upgrade before you start properly using your machine this would be ideal. Because this upgrade is one of the keys to a long and healthy relationship on honestly most bowden extrusion machines. Not just the Ender 3/Creality machines.

 

Files (Also image source): Elproducts

Tutorial: CHEP