Struggles with Creality's 3D printer Ender 3 V3 SE \ stacker news ~DIY

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Struggles with Creality's 3D printer Ender 3 V3 SE

1911 sats \ 12 comments \ @cyphercosmo 24 Jun DIY

It’s been about two months since I got this printer. I wanted to learn without falling into the trap of spending a lot of money on yet another gadget. I always struggle when deciding to go on new adventures. Often I spend a good chunk of money on some tech and end up not getting the investment back. So I started adopting a bit of game theory, rewarding myself with better tools as I engage and learn about them. That way I spend less up front, since I don’t buy the best stuff at the beginning. It also lets me minimize my costs when it does not pan out and start from the basics, learning and building my way up.

Having said that, this 3D printer, the Creality Ender 3 V3 SE, is definitely not the best, even though it got an award last year. As I dove into different projects, my success rate fell below 50%. That happens for various reasons, and I’ve been trying to educate myself on the causes and solutions. My main hurdles so far are humid filament, poor bed adhesion and the need for brims and supports. These are a few examples, the list of issues is long and varied.

I’ve been really frustrated because some projects fail over and over, even after various adjustments. I adopted techniques like baking the filament and storing it in vacuum bags. I also invested in a dryer box and sensors to detect clogs, runout and tangles. This is all work in progress, so I might update you if this post sparks any interest.

Lately I have been exploring OctoPrint and Klipper. My idea is to run Klipper as the printer’s firmware on a Raspberry Pi alongside OctoPrint. I might also try Obico’s Spaghetti Detective, although that seems to need more computational power. I may have to host it on my gaming PC to leverage the GPU and detect tangles without buying specialized hardware.

The biggest decision right now is whether to double down on this setup.. add some mods, try open-source software and so on, or to sell it, minimize my loss and pick up something off the shelf like the Bambu A1 or another more modern 3D printer.

If any of you have knowledge and experience with this journey and these challenges, I will appreciate your contribution!

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632 sats \ 2 replies \ @freetx 24 Jun

I taught myself 3d printing, starting with a Creality Ender 2. (which I have since moved on from, now I use Elegoo Neptune 4). I am by no means an expert....literally everything I know has been from just trial and error (lots of error).

The biggest jumps in my knowledge came from getting 2 identical printers. I needed 2 since I was starting to print higher volumes of prototype parts for work (we mainly use it for cases for little embedded boards).

Having two identical printers taught me many things: For one I now don't believe "filament humidity problems" are nearly as widespread as people think. I say that because two identically sliced models can behave vastly differently on two identical printers using the same spool of filament.

I would say the problems break down like this: 60% of time its bed-leveling problems, 30% of time its printer adjustment problems (belts too loose or too tight, alignment problems, etc), and only 10% of time is it filament.

The real problem with 3D printing is relatively minor changes related to hardware produces big changes in print outcome (especially as model grows larger and larger....small models can print fine of misaligned printers but fail as it gets bigger). Further a model may print fine on one area of bed, but fail on another area of bed because of mechanical / alignment issues....

I think lots of times this happens: You convince yourself that you have a "filament humidity problem"...you excuse the printer because you say "I printed that small case yesterday and it printed fine"...so you start the process of drying your filament.

In the meantime, environmental conditions change (its warmer or colder or the printers heated up or whatever or you print in different orientation or different area of bed, etc), then you print again and you get better results so you think "you see, it was the filament".

Hot Take: Unless you are printing highly hygroscopic materials like nylon, PETG, TPU, etc its most likely NOT a humidity problem. I think the 3D printing "industry" hypes humidity problems simply to sell gadgets. (For the record I live in a relatively high humid environment).

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @cyphercosmo OP 24 Jun

Damn, thank you for the answer, this was more educational than a lot of research I've been doing.

My biggest takeway is that the "industry" is still infant so problems will be solved over time as new features, I say this in the spirit of adjacent industries like photography that used to have a huge entry barrier and nowadays a person with little photography knowledge and a phone can take great pictures or videos. So the complexity is usually abstracted away as technology matures.

That also means there is lots of opportunities in this space to help address these issues like the guys from Obico (creators of Spagetthi Detector) are doing, pretty cool stuff!

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @cyphercosmo OP 24 Jun

EDIT: Obico, former Spaghetti Detective is the name of the service. It can be found here: https://www.obico.io/the-spaghetti-detective.html

I have no affiliation with them.

385 sats \ 2 replies \ @RDClark 24 Jun

It sounds in alignment with your stated goal up top. You are putting in the work and being rewarded with knowledge. First layer adhesion and various orientation to manage supports or overhangs are the learning rewards for the hobby that said its up to you on what you want to get out of it. I promise the nicer printers struggle when you push them too. I know people that bought expensive printers to print a few pla items and quit at the first few issues. It sounds to me like you are on a great learning curve. Depends a lot on why you picked 3d printing.

120 sats \ 1 reply \ @cyphercosmo OP 24 Jun

Honestly I'm just a tinkerer, I like to do cool stuff and it often pushes the boundaries of my primary education which makes me really happy, but that also means I'm often the newbie in different fields trying to learn my way.

Thank you for the words of encouragement, the post was a bit of a rant but mostly just an attempt to connect with people who share the same interests and struggles ❤

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @RDClark 25 Jun

Keep sharing. I think the efforts are awesome

225 sats \ 1 reply \ @rblb 25 Jun

I have a Creality Ender 3 V3 KE, so not exactly your model but they should be pretty similar. Great printer in my experience.

My suggestions:

Try to print slower, if you get better success rate you might need to do something to fix vibrations.
Try to increase the bed temperature
Use a good slicer that supports the printer officially (i use Orca Slicer nb. get it from github, there are some fake websites out there)
Some filament will leave some residue on the bed that causes other prints to not stick properly, wash the bed with water and a microfiber cloth
Replace the nozzle, make sure there are no clogs
Try to print this and this

I've found also that some filaments on amazon are just bad, i had good experience with anycubic and creality PLA and PETG.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @rblb 25 Jun

On the contrary I had a lot of issues printing somewhat complex models with esun PLA at high speed.

Not saying it is totally worthless, since it comes in some very pretty colors, and i managed to use it for lots of projects.

It is just hard to use and needs some tweaking, better supports, cleaner bed, sometimes glue. Just stick to other brands if you want to make your life easier.

165 sats \ 3 replies \ @Signal312 24 Jun

I'm thinking about getting a 3d printer as well, I have lots of projects in mind.

I also have the problem of getting tools, and then not using them. So here's what I figure - I'll use the makerspace nearby (with good 3d printers) 3 times. If I've done that, and am still interested, I'll get a decent 3d printer.

What causes you to not want to get the Bambu printer? I believe that's one that the makerspace nearby has. Is it too expensive? I haven't looked at costs yet.

94 sats \ 2 replies \ @cyphercosmo OP 24 Jun

You should, be warned it's like going into a rabbit hole, it has A LOT of depth. Like, yeah you can download cute models and gift people or start a shop, but it can be more than that like engineering devices that blend with electronics, or even to improve people's lives.

Check out this picture of a carpal tunnel syndrom aid printed by someone I know when they were going through a painful moment, when a doctor saw it they decided to also get a 3D printer so they could do it for patients.

I just love the idea you can do so many great things with it, how can we not be excited and leveraging it as much as possible.

It's not that I don't want to get the Bambu, I'm just pacing myself, after all spending money is a small part in any endeavor and you can always spend lots of money, often without a clear need, so pacing spending with learning is my way of practicing low-time preference, if that makes any sense.