Hi All
I have an Ender 3 v2. Is setting up a Direct Drive worth it?
It would depend on if your going to print with something other then PLA. Even then you can upgrade to a all metal hot end and print with most other filaments. I would at least upgrade the extruder to a all metal one (what i did) and capricorn bowden tube and Pneumatic Fittings with all metal teeth (like this one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PS3NH82/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and maybe even a hardened metal nozzle (like this one Amazon.com)
But the best upgrade i have evver done to my printer (ender 3 V2) is a BL Touch (like this one Amazon.com)
Ok thanks for the input. I think ill look at the BL touch.
How about the bed spring upgrade? It seems I have to level my bed every day. I don’t understand why it keeps going unlevel.
I upgraded the springs to these https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MTGXYLW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 but that was before i got the BL Touch. You will not have to level your bed again if you get the BL Touch
I have little to no expertise about extruders, but just to throw out some other info, @woodwaker_dave favors the OmniaDrop extruders. You can see videos about his experiences on YT: [U]https://www.youtube.com/user/woodwaker1/videos[/U]
I agree with you as far as the stock hot end goes but a all metal hot end (like this one https://www.amazon.com/Micro-Hotend-…xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==) fixes a lot of the problems that i was having with the stock one on the ender 3 V2. Found on the stock hot end the bowden tube was getting to hot and causing major clugs. The all metal one doesn’t have the bowden tube going down to the nozzle so doesn’t get hot like all the stock one.
According to http://th3dstudio.com, once you have your bed leveled, you can use solid mounts instead of springs, so the bed never gets out of level again: [U]https://www.th3dstudio.com/product/cr-10solidmounts/[/U]
Yep that is my next upgrade i need to measure the distance on the right front left front and back right. The back left on the ender 3 V2 has the cable strain relief for the bed heater on that screw so its size will be different then the other 3
th3dstudio has them grouped by printer model.
Yea i saw that but not paying $25 for bed mounts
I do agree they’re fairly costly. I was wondering why. I suspect it’s the combination of materials, which I can only assume are set to minimize any shrinkage or expansion of the mounts themselves.
They 3d printed them from ABS and press fitted metal selves into the opening.
I may just remove my z-axes limit switch as it is not needed anymore then bottom out the springs (tighten them all the way) then raise them so that they are level with the back left spring (the one with the bed heater cable attached to it). That should keep the bed from moving very much.
Yeah, when you install a BL Touch, its sensor cable plugs into the Z Axis Limit Switch socket on the controller, is that right?
No the cable plugs into the BL touch connector (5 pin connector) then in the firmware they disable the z-axes limit switch. At least thats what they did with the Smitch3d firmware
Usually people want to upgrade to a bowden system as it supports faster printing with less ringing.
Printing with bowden is harder as you strictly need to setup the retracting perfect or you get stringing. A good example are signs with different letter colors. The kind where you swap filament at a certain layer. With a non bowden no problem, but with a non proper bowden setup you get stringing between the letters and a far more unclean look.
I have two sets of the Ender 5 solid bed mounts from TH3D that I have removed. They are a good system, the problem is the Ender 5 is not a good choice for these. Even with the bed mod, the front dips due to not being supported. The solid be mounts replace the springs with a specific spacing on all corners. With the springs you can level the bed and compensate for the front dip.
I suggest that if you want to make a change order some stronger springs. I got 24 for $8 on Amazon, https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HNK48RQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Here is a graphic display of my bed after manually leveling from Octoprint . The EZABL will fine tune any differences. It works very well, especially if it does not have to compensate for large errors.
This shows that I am low in the back and right on in the front. The back is off by -.0166 or less than .2 mm
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Octoprint will also produce a grid of the probing point values. I have a 5 x 5 grid - the above numbers show the actual measured values.
It would depend on cost and how well it was done. I accept the problem since there are ways to compensate for it. (ABL system). I get great prints from all of my Ender 5s. I think you need an Ender 5 Plus in your stable, it has the dual Z from the factory, and they did a very good job. I use mine mostly when I need the extra bed space, it works great and I can actually print gcode on it that was produced for the Ender 5 ( it just prints off center)
Unfortunately, the 5 Plus is a little out of my league.
I understand. I’m lucky that I’m retired and this is my hobby and I can spend a lot of time and resources instead of golfing or going out. I was very lucky and had a friend that had too many printers and gave me a stock Ender 5 last night. Now I have to figure out what to do with it.