Ender 3 V2 Status and Recommendations..

3d Printer Reviews
1

I just watched your review of the new Ender 3 V2 and was wondering what your current feelings are about the printer. I’m fairly new to 3D printing and would like to get a printer that will give me something that will print well as I learn more and do a good job. I do have an Artillery Sidewinder that I got about a year ago but I have had issues with it from the start and it never worked very well. Have you found any problems with the printer in your continued work with it? Are there any upgrades that you’d recommend be done to it fairly quickly? Appreciate any info you can provide. Appreciate your videos and any help you can provide. Thanks.

2

OK, I’m not Irv (DrVAX), but I am even newer to 3D printing than you, and I have a few observations: [LIST=1]

  • I would look to getting the Sidewinder tuned up before looking at a new printer. From what I've seen, every printer in the hobbyist category that includes the Artillery & Creality printers needs to be dialed in before it will produce really good prints. There are a number of people on this forum who have a lot of experience and would likely be able to help you.
  • If you really want a plug-n-play printer, you will have to spend a great deal more that what these printers cost. Flashforge and Craftbot printers come to mind. They fall into what I call the mid-price range: $4,000 to $10,000 (Flashforge and Craftbot also produce very high end printers in the $40,000 to $100,000 range). Naturally, such printer come with extensive support from the company.
  • If you really want a new printer, I would look at dual extruder printers. I consider not getting dual extruders to be the biggest mistake I made when buying a printer. In fact, I recently backed a Kickstart project for an inexpensive dual extruder: [U]https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jgmaker3d/jgmaker-artist-d-dual-extruder/description[/U]. DrVAX (Irv) has also backed the project. [/LIST]
    • 3

    Thanks for your input. I’m an an EE and into tinkering, that’s part of what got me into trouble with the Sidewinder. I took it a bit too far. I don’t need, nor can I afford a plug-and-play printer. I certainly can and probably will get the Sidewinder going again but at the moment I need a printer that will work. I’m looking at the Ender 3 V2 and the BIQU B1 which seems like a really nice entry level printer with a lot of add-ons close to built-in. Again, making changes is what I did with the Sidewinder even before I really learned it well and that’s not what I will do again. But having a printer that is built well and prints reasonably well from the start with the ability to put some easy add-ons on later makes sense to me. Just trying to get more info if the Ender 3 V2 makes sense (guessing there may be some good prices on Prime Day this week).

    4

    I completely agree that messing with a printer before getting the stock version tuned in is not a great idea. Unfortunately, with my Ender 5 Pro, I tried to get the stock version working and nothing worked. It turned out there were 2 flaws: a fatal firmware bug, and an incorrect value for the Z Axis steps/mm. It took more than a week for me, as a brand new user, to figure out the issues. I assume my experience is not typical.

    I still don’t think printers in this class will print well right out of the box, but a day or 2 or tuning should lead to good prints.

    5

    Since you are an EE, @Sealyons, I would like to ask if a PWM motor control could be used to dim LED light strips? I’m thinking of a controller like this: [U]Amazon.com I’m designing a lithophane lamp and would like to be able to control the brightness so it can be adjusted to optimise the viewing of different lithophanes.