54
Newbie questions (lemmy.kde.social)

Hello there! My friends gifted me an Ender 3 printer, and I achieved my first successful print today! I have a few (probably stupid) questions:

  1. I will store it in my garage, in a shelve among other things. It is quite dusty, so I'm thinking of building a plexiglass hermetic box to keep it while powered off. Would it be a problem to keep it closed also while printing? This would change the type of box I'll build, because there is not much space and I'm trying to save the most of it
  2. How do I store the filament? I (currently) have only one filament (black PLA), so I see no need to remove it from the printer each time, but leaving it "connected" (I don't know how to say it) will not allow me to store it in a different way the printer is stored. Do I need to store it in special ways or can I leave it connected? (And bonus question, what is the correct word to say it?)
  3. If I don't move the printer, how often should I calibrate it?

Sorry if these are basic questions, I'm taking my first steps into this magic world... Thanks in advance!

top 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] rambos@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

Enclosure will protect printer from dust and it will also keep the ambient temperature more stable. Dont make it hermetic sealed, better add few holes on the front and few on the back for example. I have a low rpm fan with dust filter because I mostly print PLA and in long prints (12h+) temperature can go a bit too high if there is no airflow at all. Keep in mind that enclosure should be removed sometimes for mintainance, removable sides is what you should look for.

You can leave filament on the printer, but if you dont use it for a long time it could get wet and then you have to dry it. Keep the rest of the spools in plastic sealed box or bag and put some silica gel inside.

Full calibration should be done once, but fine tuning when you face some issues or when you change to different brand or filament type. It depends how well the printer is assembled and how experienced you are, it can take only 5 min every few months, but begginers can spend days sometimes.

Extra tips: clean your rails and wheels whenever you can (once a month at least) for dusty garage. Get a kitchen sponge, drill a hole in it and guide filament trough the hole to remove any dust before extruder.

Welcome to the most fun hoby and happy printing!

[-] Rognaut@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

This guy's giving out good advice.

[-] tubbadu@lemmy.kde.social 1 points 11 months ago

Thanks for the great answer! The enclosure should have holes while printing, but is not necessary when it's powered off, correct?

I'll grab a kitchen sponge!

[-] rambos@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Correct and sounds like the best of both worlds

I'll grab a kitchen sponge

You can just cut 30x30 mm peace and zip-tie it over filament 😉

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago
  1. Keeping dust and debris out of it while not in use is a good idea. However, if you are printing in low temperature materials such as PLA, TPU, and probably also PETG you should not run your printer in an enclosed box. The heated bed plus the waste heat generated by the hot end, etc. in a sealed environment can eventually become enough to soften the filament while it's still in the feed path, which will cause problems. Your PLA prints will also get saggy and noodly if the air temperature inside the box remains elevated above the material's glass transition temperature for any significant length of time. (The peanut gallery can argue in the comments just how high the temperature needs to be, but it's better to just not risk it.)

1a. This is not applicable to high temperature materials such as ABS, polycarbonate, or nylon/PA. For these materials you will probably need to run the printer in an enclosure to maintain a stable air temperature, but you probably won't be messing with these materials soon... or ever.

  1. When not in use you should store your filament in an airtight box, by preference with some manner of desiccant in there with it. Silica gel is what most people use. The reason being, all polymers are hygroscopic -- that is, they absorb moisture from the air -- and moisture in your filament will alter its physical properties making it more brittle and less flexible. "Wet" PLA tends to snap without provocation... including in the middle of a print job. Also, moisture in your filament will be boiled off inside the printer's hotend and essentially cause the extruded material to froth and foam which will produce lousy print quality or even outright print failures eventually.

2a. It's also a good idea to invest in a heated filament dryer, or jerry rig your own. This will allow you to drive moisture out of spools of filament that have absorbed moderate amounts of moisture to revive it, and is outright necessary for some super hygroscopic materials such as, again, nylon.

  1. Any time you change the nozzle, do anything that might alter the thickness of the build plate (adding kapton tape to it, for instance), change out the build plate for a different one, mess with your belt tension, undo any of the hardware that mounts the hot end/gantry or anything attached to it such as a z offset sensor (if you have one), crash your nozzle into the bed due to manual operation error or g-code fuckup, or if you notice any first layer adhesion problems or any other mystery print quality issues that don't appear to have any other cause.
[-] TwanHE@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

If you do get an enclosure printing abs will probably be just as easy as pla. People overstate the difficulties but it's really not that difficult of a material to print as long as you can get 45°C+ air temps which is more than doable with even a cardboard box and the heat of the bed.

It might actually print nicer than pla on an ender since abs relies less on a good heatbreak and part cooling. Both of which are the stock Ender's biggest weak point imo.

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago

While we're on the topic of newbie questions. I've been running my elegoo pro 3 off and on for a few months now. How will I know when to change out the nozzle? Meaning, are there symptoms of a bad nozzle I should look out for?

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Yes. So, there are two general failure modes for nozzles which are either drastic and catastrophic or subtle and gradual.

You can have a sudden catastrophic nozzle issue most commonly by getting it clogged with something -- dust, grit, metal debris, or any other material that won't go molten at your printer's extrusion temperature -- usually settling on it from above. Printers with totally exposed filament paths like my old Qidi X-Plus are really bad for this, because crud can just fall right into the feed hole in the top of the hotend or even stick to the filament via static cling and get pulled right into the extruder along with the filament. If that happens you'll notice sudden underextrusion.

Underextrusion is just not enough material leaving the nozzle. Or in extreme cases, none at all. It's particularly noticeable on your first layer, where you can visibly see that the lines of material are not thick enough and eventually start to not touch each other anymore.

You can also roach your nozzle by crashing it into the build plate via manual control, getting your Z offset really wrong, sending mangled g-code to your printer, or as I once did by not realizing there was something stuck under the build plate causing it to sit higher and grinding the nozzle against it for an entire layer pass. Your nozzle is typically brass, and your build plate is typically steel... or glass... and in either case the build plate wins and the nozzle loses.

Over time you'll eventually get burned molten plastic permanently baked into your nozzle and no amount of wiping, picking, or brushing will get it off. If this blocks the nozzle outlet it will cause problems. This happens over time, and the more dialed in your print settings are and the less stringing your printer produces the longer it'll take to happen.

Gradual failure usually happens from just plain wearing the nozzle out. Having molten plastic forced through it will eventually erode the nozzle and slowly enlarge the hole in the end of it until it doesn't produce the same extrusion width anymore. This will happen much faster if you use a soft nozzle (brass, copper) and abrasive filaments, which include not only composites with reinforcing stuff in them like chopped up glass fiber or carbon fiber, but also glow in the dark filaments (the glowy material is an abrasive powder), white filament (colored with titanium dioxide, which is an abrasive powder), glitter filaments (loaded with abrasive particles), wood effect filaments (filled with... you guessed it), or any other novelty material with some kind of particulate gumf in it.

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

Thank you for explaining it so thoroughly. I'll keep a look out for changing extrusion levels because I use the white pla, it probably has titanium oxide in it. My printer came with quite a few extra nozzles, I'm just afraid of fucking up the printer when I change it the first time so I'm avoiding having to do it.

[-] TwanHE@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Even if you do wear out your nozzle slightly it probably still works perfectly fine if you change nozzle size/line width in the slicer. I printed a bunch of cf-asa on a brass nozzle since my hardened steel one hadn't arrived yet. Started out as a .4 but became a .8 nozzle after about 500 grams of printing.

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 months ago

That's good to know, I guess I have to start measuring the width now. I didn't even think to get one of those measuring devices. Thanks.

[-] TwanHE@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Don't need to measure, just increase the size by .1 when the extruded lines aren't flattened out by the nozzle anymore. It's not a foolproof strategy but might save you from wearing out multiple nozzles instead of 1

[-] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

Thanks again, very helpful.

[-] tubbadu@lemmy.kde.social 1 points 11 months ago

Thanks for the great answer!!

[-] Erasmus@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

I think the other user pretty much nailed it about the enclosure. Unless you are printing materials that require high heat it is not necessary.

Now if you are in a very dusty environment you might consider one just to avoid the hassle.

However you also may want to look online, there are some simple and fairly inexpensive pop up enclosures that work very well. I have been using one for a while now with mine and I print ABS pretty regularly. I just tore all the electronics out of my printer and printed a control box for it (external) to the outside of the enclosure.

[-] tubbadu@lemmy.kde.social 1 points 11 months ago

It is a pretty dusty environment, and when it's raining it may also get pretty high humidity, so I was thinking of a sealed enclosure to protect while it is not used, with a removable front side when it's printing to avoid overheating the air inside

[-] wwwgem@lemmy.ml 3 points 11 months ago

I will not reiterate the great things others have said but I've used old windows to create an enclosure for my printer and it definitely helps with the prints. Also since you're a new user and have an Ender 3, I would recommend you to take a look at thingiverse.com and printables.com - if not already done - for great tweaks to protect your printer but also to find great things to print.

For your printer, you may be interested in cable guides, filament guide, spool roller, fan duct, bed lock (they will keep your bed in place so you will not have to deal with bed tramming anymore before your bed leveling sessions)...

Finally, although a little bit off topic, if you get bored to walk to your printer to watch the prints and would like to add some level of safety in case anything goes wrong I would highly recommend considering octoprint.

[-] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago

I'm not OP but thank you, I will be saving this comment for future use!

[-] wwwgem@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

Glad it can be useful.

[-] tubbadu@lemmy.kde.social 1 points 11 months ago

Thanks for the answer! The first thing I printed is indeed a tool holder I downloaded from thingverse. I don't understand very well the purpose of the bed lock: it basically avoid the "calibration screws" to accidentally "unscrew" while the printer is working?

Octoprint seems very very VERY interesting, but sadly in my garage there is no internet connection :(

[-] wwwgem@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago

I don't understand very well the purpose of the bed lock: it basically avoid the "calibration screws" to accidentally "unscrew" while the printer is working?

You are correct. The screws will move a little bit when you print which will result in your bed being unleveled after few prints and you'll have to recalibrate your printer. This hack will eliminate that so you will have to level your bed less frequently (because as others said, leveling your bed will be needed for other reasons).

this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
54 points (100.0% liked)

3DPrinting

15647 readers
63 users here now

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: !functionalprint@kbin.social or !functionalprint@fedia.io

There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml

Rules

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS