When working on my new printer (CR-10 S5), I ordered a PEI sheet since I heard that was the best sheet for 3d printing since it had the smoothness of glass and the grip for 3d prints. I had found one on Amazon for about $90, which was the right size for my printer, which was 20×20 inches. I also got a cut piece of glass from lowes which cost about $14, including the cost for cutting in-store.
When it arrived, I had two options: mount it on top of the glass, put clips to clip it under pressure, or buy transfer tape to apply it to the glass. Since I didn’t have the suitable tape for the glass bed, I used clips, but unfortunately, I only had one clip that was big enough to hold the sheet and glass together. I looked it up and found a similar question on Reddit from someone wondering what kind of alternatives could you replace instead of using clips for the hotbed. A user recommended that you use blue painter’s tape since it is heat resistant, which made sense since many people used painter’s tape before using bed surfaces was popular since it was heat resistant. The material was textured to grip the filament. Most other tapes have a softening point when heated up and don’t stick.
I ended up using painter’s tape for holding the PEI sheet to the glass bed, and so far, it’s working great, which is an excellent alternative for not having to go out and buy more clips.
I had an issue when installing a DDX (Direct Drive Extruder) to my ender 3. It was not stable. The extruder kept wobbling, and I could quickly move it up and down, which was not normal. I tried tightening most of the bolts holding the mainframe of the extruder mount to the belt, but none of it worked. I googled it and found out that there is a bolt underneath the bottom wheel. It was slightly hidden. When tightened enough, there was no wobbling on the extruder. Be careful. Don’t tighten it too much. It can cause extra strain on the belts.
This helpful video helped me to find out the issue:
In my last blog post, I wrote about getting a new 3D Printer, the CR-10 S5. As of this moment, I am awaiting the arrival of the Pei sheet coming in the mail. So I thought I’d take this time to work on my smaller printer (the Ender 3), which I had upgraded to a DDX (direct drive extruder.) Since I installed it, I hadn’t actually started a print and wanted to see how well it worked. It didn’t work at all. It was not extruding enough filament. At first, I thought it must be the nozzle, probably clogged. So I swapped out the nozzle and tried another print. Still, it wasn’t extruding enough filament on the layers. Then I thought maybe it was clogged, but just higher up in another part of the hotend, so I got a couple of super-thin needles that fit into the nozzle and forced out a bunch of filament. Since so much extra filament came out, I thought for sure that was the issue.
After reassembling the DDX mechanism, I tried another print, but still, it continued to print in an almost dotted fashion. So I went to the Reddit forum: R/3DPrinting and posted about my printer and my issues. also, I tagged this photo with the post:
The helpful user recommended that I change my E steps to 415, which I had not done. E Steps, to put it simply, are the amount of movements the motor makes to move the filament into the extruder. Different motors produced by various manufacturers need to be tuned to the right amount of E steps. For example, my issue was that my printer was under extruding. Which meant that the motor was not pushing the right amount of filament into the nozzle. The ender 3 had the wrong amount of e steps set to extrude it. So every time I set to extrude 100 mm of filament, it extruded 33 mm of filament, which is way off (this article explains it way better than I could, I recommend reading it for more info). So I set the E steps on the screen to 415 as he suggested, and I started another print. It worked flawlessly, and I successfully got a finished 3d benchy.
Overall the reason I took so long to figure out the issue was that I didn’t do my research and look up documentation on how to set this up. The prints need to be tweaked a little more to look better, but im still satisfied with the results.
As I try to figure out how to work my new machines and fix issues, I often post Instagram stories on my Instagram page.
Recently I bought another 3d printer from a friend of my brother (Caleb). The original printer is a Creality CR-10 S5. This printer is the largest in the CR -10 series lineup, with a print size of 500x500x500 mm, which is massive compared to the average 3d printer.
CR-10 S5 3D Printer (500x500x500mm)Ender 3 3D printer (220x220x200mm)
I bought the new printer for about $340. The printer, when sold new, is about $700, but since the original owner had fully customized it with upgrades and it had to be tweaked with a couple of issues. The original owner had upgraded almost every part of the printer. For example, he upgraded the extruder to Direct Drive Extruder (DDX), which means it has the motor for driving the filament into the nozzle that is closer and attached to the same frame as the extruder is mounted. Another upgrade he made was to install a new chassis for the bed Y-axis (which is in the image below), which the upgrade makes the stability more reliable.
X Y Z Axis’ on a 3D Printer
I had an issue with his Y-axis end-stop switch because it was too close to the stopping point where it triggered and was telling the printer the incorrect way. For example, when it was moving the Y-Axis motor, it hit the switch, which meant it thought that the bed was more forward than what it was supposed to be, so the motors would start grinding, tiring to move the bed further forward even though it was hitting the end. I was able to fix this by finding a simple switch holder for the Z-axis (all of the switches are the same type), and I edited it in fusion 360 to fit the same chassis that the old one was mounted onto. I then printed it on my Ender-3. I also attached a piece of aluminum which I cut to connect to the bottom chassis of the bed. Once I got the parts attached, I had to adjust the limit switch location to get it just right.
When moving the 3D printer, I have to disconnect about ten cables to the motors, switches, extruder, etc. When I plugged back the extruder motor into the mainboard, an issue I had was that it just didn’t respond at all. I was able to fix this by unplugging and replugging the cord to the mainboard, but I’m still not quite sure why I had this issue in the first place since the pins were touching.
I also purchased a BL touch since the board seemed slightly warped when heating the bed from the middle. The BL touch is easily the best and cheapest upgrade for many printers that don’t come with auto-leveling. The way it works is it has a small plastic piece that “probes” the board to see how far away it is from the bed and does this in a 3×3 pattern on the printer, so you don’t have to manually turn the knobs to level the bed which can be a long and painful process.
image credit 3pdblog.com
The last upgrade that I am currently dealing with is the bed build surface. The original surface that the original owner put on was not of the best adhesion and had several large bubbles, which can be an issue when printing. So after some research, I found that the best overall material is PEI which can be pretty stick when the adhesion is in mind. But the only problem is since my build plate area is so large (500×500 mm or 19×19 in), it’s hard to find the right size for it when the average printer is in the 100-300mm range. I eventually found one for a reasonable price on Amazon for about $84
Although I first needed to get a glass bed for a flat surface after trying to find one for my printer was sad to discover that they are either nowhere to be discovered or at least another $60. So I saw a sheet of glass that was 24×26 inches on home depot for about $13, which combined with a glasscutter so I can fit it to the correct build plate size will come out to be around $20. which is considerably cheaper than purchasing a dedicated glass build plate for my printer.
Overall I still need to spend hopefully only one more thing to get this fully working and get clean prints off for the future. I post a lot of updates on my Instagram page. Follow if you want to see more videos of the process.
