Overview
3D Printing is an interesting and fun ongoing technology that shapes, and will continue to shape our world. In this post I will not talk to much about the technology aspect of 3D Printers, but a guide to get into the world of 3D printing as an individual on a budget.
In this post I will primarily be going over the Setting Up/Assembly, Tuning, Printing, and Extra information regarding specifically the Ender 3 Pro. The reason I choose this printer for this post was primarily because of the open source factor the Ender 3 Pro delivers; While being open source, this printer is serious regarding print quality if configured properly, and has large room for upgrades/future improvements. Also regarding a budget, with a price tag of $239.00 it's hard to compete.
Ender 3 Pro
"The Creality Ender-3 Pro is an affordable FDM 3D printer, there are many good reasons to drop money on this machine.The first reason is obvious: its extremely low price!Second, the Creality Ender-3 Pro 3d printer offers features that you don't find in more expensive 3D printers: a decent build volume of 220 x 220 x 250mm, a magnetic bed, a power recovery mode, and a tight filament pathway that makes it easier to work with flexible materials."
Setting Up/Assembly
The tricky part about any 3D printer is that a little bit of assembly is required, however if the directions are followed correctly than it's pretty easy! The setting up of your printer will also help you better understand how it works and if interested there are many Ender 3 or 3D printer upgrades/accessories on the market.
Bed Leveling/Tuning
- Clean off and wash the bed of the printer.
- Turn on Ender 3 Pro.
- Preheat the nozzle and bed of Ender 3 Pro (PLA temps suggested *200F *60F)
- Clean off print nozzle and purge filament (if filament is loaded).
- Navigate to the "prepare" menu and click "auto home".
- Once homed than turn the large leveling wheels counter-clockwise to lower the bed or clockwise to raise the bed. The bed and the nozzle should have a distance of about a piece of paper
- In the "prepare" menu navigate to the "move axis" menu and utilize the "move Y" menu to about +225.0 or until the nozzle is directly under the back left corner of the printer bed.
- Repeat step six (turn the large leveling wheels counter-clockwise to lower the bed or clockwise to raise the bed. The bed and the nozzle should have a distance of about a piece of paper)
- In the "prepare" menu navigate to the "move axis" menu and utilize the "move X" menu to about +220.0 or until the nozzle is directly under the back right corner of the printer bed.
- Repeat step six (turn the large leveling wheels counter-clockwise to lower the bed or clockwise to raise the bed. The bed and the nozzle should have a distance of about a piece of paper).
- In the "prepare" menu navigate to the "move axis" menu and utilize the "move Y" menu to about +15 or until the nozzle is directly under the back left corner of the printer bed.
- Repeat step six (turn the large leveling wheels counter-clockwise to lower the bed or clockwise to raise the bed. The bed and the nozzle should have a distance of about a piece of paper).
Afterword's go ahead and re-home your 3D printer and load in your filament!
Printing
After all the above steps are completed you are now ready to print! On the micro USB included with the Ender 3 Pro there are some sample prints/STL files pre-loaded on the Micro USB.
The pre-loaded STL files are a great way to test out your 3D printer, however if you decide to print something else there are a multitude of other websites available with free 3D printer .stl files. One of these websites that I would recommended would include, https://thingiverse.com. To do this, you will first need to download some 3D printing software/CAD software to prepare your prints. "Ultimaker Cura" is a great software and is what I personally use however there are many more on the open internet that are free to download.