Don't dismiss this information as obvious or basic. 6-7 years of 3d printing, 95 percent of issues I faced were addressed in this video.

@Kalvinjj

Жыл бұрын

True, the "mountain of ignorance" happens a lot for new people, and experienced ones forget the basics, kind of just thinking it was done already, or "it has to be more complicated than this".

@turtleman190

4 ай бұрын

In alot of cases the more experienced you are the less you actually know. You forget so much.

@user-gd8yr9mi5t

2 ай бұрын

So your to 3d printing or bought the idiot proof version.... Started on a Tronxy p802ma thats bolta and metal in a box have at it, Where as a Ender 3 is 75% done in the box build the frame tram the bed good to go in 60 minutes or less....

Great video awesome tips, for specific points. 0:22 Badly Levelled Print Bed 3:03 Dirty Print Surface 5:38 Worn Motion Components 9:27 Dead heat break fan 11:16 Worn Feeder Gear 13:20 Blown out (abraded) nozzle 16:18 Electrical faults 18:16 Lack of Thermal Runaway protection

@jordanjh611

Жыл бұрын

@@Gtmz53fxt56zxc maybe it wasn't when he posted the comment

@matheo4934

8 ай бұрын

Thanks

@aelius_audio

6 ай бұрын

Thanks

@fenerbahce2

6 ай бұрын

Thanks now i dont have to watch the video

Preventative maintenance is a must for any moving mechanism, especially if you don't want failures and down time. Having spare parts on hand will make problems seem less significant. No one should still have springs on the beds, silicone spacers or steel standoffs are far superior depending on the lack of, or type of ABL. Great video topic Angus.

@hyperspeed1313

Жыл бұрын

I disagree on not using springs. The Ender stock springs for sure should be replaced, but a stiffer set of springs can be excellent.

@aserta

Жыл бұрын

Springs work just fine, you just need to understand that if you've tensioned them where the coils are basically stuck together, you're gonna have problems. They should be tensioned to the least amount, at the highest level. If your setup doesn't allow for that, then you need to change it, lower the head, lengthen the bolts and shim the springs. They should also be quality springs, not Bic pen quality as shipped with 99.9% of the mid level brands of printers. I use the springs used for BB g*ns, they're about the best quality you can get short of dismantling old Xerox machines to get the springs used in the paper tray mechanisms. Silicone is a wearable item, and in time sags far faster than springs. You'd have a hard time finding 4 of the right durometer, IE to not sag fast because they're soft enough to actually do something. And finally, metal spacers are not a good idea. The whole machine is then tied to the bed. You've essentially transferred all the vibrations directly to your work surface. Unless you have the most rigid setup known to man kind, you're frakked. Basically this whole discussion is present in cars. Rubber vs silicone, steel spacers vs rubber spacers etc. It's been done to death.

@nicholasroos3627

Жыл бұрын

@@aserta plenty of printers have their beds rigidly coupled to the base that is nonsense

@LampDoesVideogame

Жыл бұрын

I can't stand silicone spacers. Red load die springs for me, thanks.

@SwervingLemon

Жыл бұрын

@@nicholasroos3627 You COULD do that, but it makes tramming on a bedslinger WAY harder. Biggest problem I've found from springs wasn't from the springs flexing in their intended axis but because there was no constraint to keep them from sliding around. As soon as I put spring collars on them so they were constrained in the x-y plane, have had no problems. I only ever re-level my bed when I clean it, which is almost never. I'm printing on bare aluminum and using aqua net as an interface. No adhesion issues. More important than how the bed is mounted to the Y-carriage is the quality of the kinematics for that axis. Enders and their clones, with that V-wheel BS, are especially prone to weird crap like this.

I printed 100,000+ hours on Ender 3s in 2020 and had almost all of these issues. PTFE cooking is a big one, and not obvious. Capricorn is awesome, but still only lasts 2-3x as long as standard. You can usually just cut a few centimeters off the end rather than replacing the whole thing. Stainless steel feed gears are a very worthwhile upgrade. A 30mm Noctua fan on the heat sync can help with noise and lasts way longer than stock (may need a buck converter). If you're pinching pennies you can try and clear a clogged nozzle with a torch or lighter. Heating to red hot can usually get foreign materials out. But nozzles are cheap, just replace them frequently. Set your Z height so that the springs are very tight to reduce the chance they loosen. Oh! And one really tricking thing was getting cracks in the extruder tension arm. An aluminum extruder assembly can help with this if you don't just go direct drive. So many hours, so many face shields. :-S

@paintballercali

Жыл бұрын

Yeah learned a lot printing as many face shields as fast as possible. They seem kinda silly now but at the time it was urgent.

@urgamecshk

Жыл бұрын

@@paintballercali maybe to you

@paintballercali

Жыл бұрын

@@urgamecshk we learned they where useless not sure what your going for.

@debbiestimac5175

Жыл бұрын

Heat Sink. FTFY.

@charleschristianson2730

Жыл бұрын

@@paintballercali No, they were always stupid.

This has been happening to me the past few days and I literally just posted on r/ender3 about my issues a few hours before you uploaded this! Thanks for the info, Angus! It's like you read my mind!

Thank you so much for this video. I've watched a ton of videos trying to find out why my prints are having so no longer sticking to the bed. While many of them did mention leveling, they did not say that a regular releveling was necessary. So thank you!

Thank you for all of the information. I have ran many types of machines and you have pointed me to many different suggestions to repair my ender 3 Pro. Never would have thought of them.

Great video as always. Swapping out the original bed springs with the smaller diameter yellow ones found in several kits made the biggest improvement for me. Way less releveling of the bed with those. I also like the idea of using a piece of Capricorn tubing in the lower part of the hot end.

@dirkstrider8783

Жыл бұрын

I'm glad to hear that someone else has gotten good use out of those yellow springs, I swapped my springs at the same time I added a bltouch to my ender 3 and have had trouble "quantifying" how much those yellow springs help 😅

Hey another great video! Everybody in the 3d printing community should know these things. And while all this information can be found on KZread, putting it all in one place like this is awesome! And this is a very good video that not only long time 3d printing doods can find useful information from; but this video should be seen by ANYONE who wants to get into 3d printing or has just recently started the hobby

well done, all topics directly to the point. Thanks. Greetings from the Galilee.

Great summary of post initial print issues. Always enjoy your insights and experiences.

Gave my printer a servicing before starting a long print this afternoon, then sat down to watch some KZread and saw this video -- perfect timing! 👍🏻

Thanks angus! I've been printing for several years and while some of this stuff I knew was causing problems I didn't have exact words as to why but now I do!

You were a huge help to me. Found a worn extruder gear, something I hadn't even considered. Slapped on a new dual gear extruder I had sitting around and I'm back in business, thank you!

Great video sir. I like how most of the possible issues you name you described how to spot if it’s the issue and how to fix. I wish I had this when I first started learning but even now is a nice reminder.

Again as always, great information to help get better quality printing! Great video Angus!

Drying filament and tightening belts/assemblies is my guess for this 20 minute video but as someone who's had 2.5 printers for 3ish years without these issues I'm looking forward to learning what other things I can look out for / prevent proactively instead of reactively! Thankfully my CR6 SE is an absolute workhorse who gives me zero issues even after all this time abusing it

Great video! Been battling quality issues for months, thanks for you tips!

I’ve been a nerd about printing and well versed in it. Got that ender 3 deal over a year ago to challenge myself to design and print upgrades to modify this thing to death. One of my best printers

Thanks Danie, good hints and tips as always. :)❤

Thank you for the couple of tips I haven't thought about. Brilliant!

Wish this video came out a few months ago. I've been mad at my printer for a few months and just replaced the hot end and now it works like a dream

I just ran into that heat break fan issue a few weeks ago. Started getting a ton of clogging out of nowhere, with the filament end mushroomed out just like you showed. Then I noticed the fan was getting much stiffer than it used to be, and remembering how the heat break works it occurred to me the filament might be melting too high up if it wasn't getting enough cooling. Another thing I ran into recently was the nozzle tip wearing down. Since I have a BLtouch I don't have to physically check clearance under the nozzle very much, but periodically my first layers would stop working right and I'd look for something to tune to get them back. Noticed the texturing on the stock bed was wearing out, replaced it with a nice PEI plate. Deep cleaning it after every few prints, printing almost everything with a brim, glacially slow first layer acceleration, built a semi-enclosed acrylic shroud around the printer to keep drafts out... One thing that perplexed me for a while was that I had to baby step the Z offset down a little every month or so, on the order of .3mm or so over a year, at a fairly consistent rate. How is that even possible?? Then I got the nozzle completely clogged up with a failed print that went for a good hour before I caught it and decided to replace it (blob of filament smeared all over the outside surface, silicone sock was getting pretty deteriorated too). Looking at the new nozzle next to it I noticed the old one was worn down very visibly from the original tip. By roughly the amount of accumulated Z offset change I had observed up to that point. As a hobbyist who genuinely enjoys learning how to troubleshoot and modify systems (and not someone running the machine to make money) it's really interesting how all the different failure modes can pop up.

Incredibly useful information for a beginner like me. Thank you!

All of these tips helped! Had almost all of these issues today!

You are one of my favorites on this topic. Just entertaining and educational at the same time. Cheers.

Thanks for the tips. I am at almost 2 years with one of my printers and starting to have issues. At least now I know what to check.

The having to level less when using a flex plate is, for me, one of the best arguments to use a flex plate. Great point! I still like the self-release plates more (seem a bit more reliable and flat), but still.

Hey man this video was like a sent from heaven!! I was literally just about to look for smth like this cuz I have been running into issues with nozzle and belt. And they are the exact things you were talking about! There nozzle is half clogged and my belt is too tight!! Thank you so much man your content is incredible

Great video, thank you for sharing all this.

Thank you so much for making this video ❤

This is an excellent video. Thank you! My header fan is making that screeching noise and also, I’m seeing lots of blockages. Time for a decent replacement. Super happy you made this video :)

Thank you Angus, love seeing informative videos again :)

Thank you! I think I have to check the heat break fan on one of my units, that's the only thing that makes sense! Awesome! Thanks!

Wow, great info to know and perfect timing. It’s the algorithm gods. I’m still new and learning as I go and currently experiencing all the issues. I’ve had my ender pro 3 last holiday season and finally set it up about 4 months ago. I swiped out the regular PLA for a silk and have not had any success with it yet. I just got a metal extrusion replacement and stronger nozzles. I’ll add these steps to my tool bag and cross my fingers and toes, lol. Keep up the great videos very helpful.

@bardib2021

Жыл бұрын

Did.any of these problems duplicate w yourself?

Great video as always 👍 Good points Thanks for sharing your expirences with All of us 👍😃

Very good video! well explained. Thanks for sharing!

Watching this video I just realized my nozzle is blown out! I have been racking my brain trying to find what's wrong because it seems like under extrusion but I have been printing with that filament fine before and now it is so clear... thanks man great video

thank you for pointing out the heat break fan issue, my Ender 3 V2 has been making that same noise but I didn't think anything of it because it always fixed itself when it reached 80 or so degrees. now I know it should be replaced sooner rather than later

Thanks for the vid , printer has been driving me nuts but have it sorted now after following your suggestions.

Great video! Informative and important!

This video does make me appreciate my prusa a bit. Many of these exact problems addressed and overengineered; * A fancy bed that keeps forces away from the bed. * A fancy fan that likely will outlast the printer. * Hardened feeder gears. * Rods that are a little better than the wheels(but not without problems) And a printer that just keeps chugging along. But all of the coolest stuff is on the Ender platform.

Great Video, and I strongly agree, ALWAYS check if your printer has thermal runaway protection! Especially if you leave the printer unattended. I just had my Monoprice Select Mini V2 do a thermal runaway, luckily I was sitting at the work bench where the printer is, so I caught it before it could catch fire, but the whole hot end assembly an PTFE tube was already smoking. The smell was horrible, too. I guess the thermistor lost connection, because it was happily heating and showing 153°C, while smoking like crazy. My more frequently used Artillery Genius Pro has thermal runaway protection, but I am a bit concerned to leave it printing while I leave the house now. I don´t want to imagine what could have happened with the Monoprice if I hadn´t been there to stop it...

Thank you sir. I learn something new every time I watch your videos.

This knowledge is invaluable, especially for newbies to 3D printing like me…. Thank you so much for giving your time to making this video. 🙏🏽🙏🏽💯💯👌🏽👌🏽

I'm hearing that exact noise from my heat brake fan when it fires up, good to know it's better to get on that sooner than later.

Thank you so much for this video!!! I have was about to dropkick my printer out the back door when found this. I went through all the hard ware and found a piece of threaded rod where I thought was a bolt. this held a concentric nut on the gantry that was able to vibrate and tighten ovr time. thanks a million again.

This was litterly the best video I’ve seen on 3d prints tysm

I picked up 2 of the ender 3 pros using your discount code! thanks alot man!

Great advice ... thanks Angus.

This is an absolutely amazing video. Literally the morning after I watched it, I was able to solve someone's issue by sending this link.

Hello, I live in Perth Western Australia, so far I haven’t had any issues with humidity. Have a great Christmas and new year.

Thanks Angus. Good suggestions. I have a Makerbot Method X printer. The only time I have had issues was with Metal Filament printing. worked fine for a week and then the filament became brittle and the extruder Teflon tube cooked. Fortunately it is easy to replace in the Labs extruder I was using. It is not easy to dry the filament as it can become too hot in normal dehydrator. I might try to dry slowly at a fairly low temp. I have put off metal filament printing until summer.

Excellent video, thanks. Something that caught me out for ages...twice. is a blown pololu for the extruder. It wirked enough to extrude tests but too weak to maintain a print, often diminishing after the first layer. I'm pretty sure it was where I used to pull the filament out of the feeder when changing rolls causing a back emf and blowing up the controller.

Very helpful video. Thanks!

Always a great topic to touch even every now and then , never forget the basics ty for your great work good sir ❤️🙏🏻 we are all one

Get out of my head Angus! This is the exact video I needed to see right now. It sure feels good to know I am not the only one... Feels even better to have some possible solutions to pursue. Thank you!😃

Thank You very much for the ideas on troubles with printing, and what to look for. I had a thermal run away , and it really shocked me when the alarm went off. I started over with the same print, and at the exact same place and time, it happened again. I re-sliced my print, and tried it again, and it never happened again. There must have been a glitch in the g code is all I can figure. I really learn a lot of good ideas from your videos. Thank You again. Michael

I also took the $99 Ender 3 Pro deal. It got me into 3d Printing, I love it.

Thanks so much from Canada

Thank you! Thank you! And once again, Thank you! My printer was printing, how to say in, not good and after 2 months, you are my printer saver :D The ptfe tube was litteraly turned to charcoal

Thank you for your knowledge and great presentation skills. Your video helped sort ('help sort'!? It was ALL you, I just followed your advice), so I'm enormously grateful.

Very Useful, thanks for the video.

Pretty sure I’ve encountered at least half of these in my travels. For leveling, I check the base regularly, along with a probed 3-point tilt at the start of every print. The print surface is a tricky one; I use a PEI magnetic sheet, and that picks up oils like it’s stocking a car mechanic. Regular IPA spray/wipe passes, and a less regular dish soap wash, are my sequence there. Motion components haven’t really been an issue for me so far, nor has a dead heat break fan, however I do use one of those red aluminium clone dual gear extruders; I did replace the centre bolt that the outer gear runs on with a cut-down short-thread M3x35mm bolt. This means the gear is turning on and against a constant-radius surface, instead of against screw threads. (The 35mm is the correct length to take off around 14mm of the 18mm that is threaded, leaving the rest to sink into the tapped hole without coming out the other side, and the balance being the shaft for the gear.) Also ensure that the idle gear runs smoothly against the top and bottom surfaces of the extruder arm; if it’s scraping, it will wear away the aluminium and move out of alignment, causing inconsistent extrusion. The one I have has some copper washers in between these surfaces. Moisture in the filament has been a huge issue for me; the ambient humidity sits around 68% in the room where my printer is. A well-sealed dry box helps, and I recently got a dehydrator to use for the same purpose. I took the opportunity to upgrade the heatbreak to an all-metal one in order to avoid having burnt PTFE ahead of going into PETG printing, as I’m not wanting any of those off-gas chemicals. In the same vein, my printer has a (working) smoke alarm mounted in its enclosure; hopefully it never gets used. That’s on top of the thermal runaway protection already in the printer. One other thing I do is coat the heater cartridge in a small amount of thermal compound when installing it to aid the transfer of heat into the heat block, increasing the efficiency of the heating. One other thing I’ve done is to move the printer electronics and power supply outside of the enclosure, to try to avoid heat shortening their lifespan. This means extension cables, and more inline connections, meaning more potential points of resistance. I lost my first printer motherboard to a badly tightened power terminal; make sure they’re solidly screwed down where appropriate!

Thanks! I learned several new things.

Replace your bed springs with those silicon spacers. Works much better than springs and provides more tension against the bed screws so they don't undo themselves in my experience.

Some notes on my recent Ender-3 Pro from MicroCenter: 1. The extruder gear, and all gears, for that matter, are press-fit onto a round stepper shafts. Can't replace the brass extruder gear without a puller or something. 2. The electronics cooler's fan is wired to the same rails as the part cooler fan ... that is just WRONG. Stepper drivers are not being cooled, unless blower fan is on. 3. The heatbreak cooler fan is the awful sleeve type, as described in this vid. Starting whining on startup after one day of use. The replacements I have on hand are 12V, and this unit is 24V (sigh). Must order some better ones. 4. The MCU on the controller board is not an STM32, but rather a GD32F303RET6. A clone -- chip shortage. The stock (github) Marlin Creality upgraded/modded firmwares will not work (last I checked). Was able to compile Marlin, but that is an adventure. 5. My rotary encoder knob seized. Weird. Never experienced that before. This one may just some freak accident on my part.

@two_number_nines

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like pure garbage. my 300$ leftover stock (so old google search can't find it) printer is better in every aspect mentioned. It took my extruder fan a year to start making noise, so I just removed it and now make sure to not let printing speeds go too low and have transitioned to ABS anyway, so extruder heat doesn't make much of a difference. I just keep an eye not to let the extruder motor overheat.

@BigfootPrinting

Жыл бұрын

That checks out with the ender 3 experience I know. Finding faults and modding it from day one, slowly realizing you traded money for a full time job just to keep it running smoothly due to design shortcomings.

@Kalvinjj

Жыл бұрын

@@BigfootPrinting heh, guess they're extra hit or miss then, cause (knocks wood) ours at work bought as a cheap extra has been a reliable workhorse pumping parts in quality that humiliated the older big and (substantially) more expensive machine. Granted the older beast is old and up for an overhaul. The idiosyncrasies like the board fan tied to the part cooler is true tho and hell that's stupid. Even more stupid given the fact they let the hotend fan run 100% of the time anyway, tapped into the 24v, but didn't do the same for the motherboard. I hope we got the STM32 board...

@Kalvinjj

Жыл бұрын

I suggest you adding a little buck converter inside the motherboard housing to give you 12v too, in case you run into this 12/24v issue again, or availability of the 24v parts is lacking. Not like it would be a financially wise thing (usually the 12 and 24v parts are the same price after all), but might add a layer of practicality in maintenance.

@GnuReligion

Жыл бұрын

@@Kalvinjj Thanks for confirming that the compartment fan is wired wrong. At first, thought that I just could not find the right place to plug it back in. Lots of consternation. Would be quite easy to burn out a board if running a job that needs minimal or no cooling. Is the hotend fan on a PWM pin? Would like to slow it down to a dull roar. Hmm, have not explored the pins.h yet. On the PLUS side, yes, it does indeed print well, stock, out of the box. And the touch probe was a breeze to wire up on the JST 2.54 5-pin mobo connector.

What a timing for this video. I've just started getting problems with getting the first layer to stick.

As usual, great vid. Thanks.

Great video. I've had several of those problems and it can be very frustrating trying to analyse.

Always excellent!!! Thanks!

Tip for the bed leveling. Changing your springs to silicone springs/bushings allows to be slightly more rough on your bed without throwing it out of level. Now that and being gentle should allow you to basically set it once and forget it.

@cavinrauch

Жыл бұрын

​@@Gtmz53fxt56zxc I wouldn't say it's needed. However it does stop you from having to relevel the bed constantly. As for the sagging I can't say I have experienced this at all and I have been using them for over a year now. What you can also do it print out some in TPU as the bed won't go above 100C in normal operation. If these work out for you then spend the money on the silicone ones.

Great video thank alot man. Extremely underrated.

Can we get a part 2 THIS was really helpful for me to point out problems That didn't even know existed?

Perfect timing! Man, you had me rolling with that intro. Great video sir, thank you 😁

HA! I've always wondered if those belt can lengthen over time. Finally an answer!

nice to see you again. great content.

for newbies, it is more than likely your nozzle if you had trouble learning how to properly level your bed. Mine was sanded down pretty far and all jacked up and I didn't realize that wasn't normal wear and tear until I actually compared it to a new one. Replaced and now its printing perfectly. I have an ender 3 neo btw. Also, I don't know if its just my printer, but you will certainly want to get dual z screw no matter what anyone tells you. I had a problem where the other side would slowly sag over time and when you started using your printer again all of your z offset settings became worth less and you had to re-level the bed.

Did I learn anything? No. I knew all of those. But you had be double check my printers and I identified 3 things that needs to be changed / adjusted. It's always nice to watch your videos. Thanks Angus

As for the bed getting out of whack due to adjustment knobs turning itself ever so slightly due to vibration during printing or contraction and expansion may I suggest screwing on a wing nut just below the adjustment knob which when tightened against the knobs, act as lock nuts to the knobs. In doing so the adjustment knobs remain in the position you have previously set for much longer. Cheers and thank you for all your educational and very useful videos.

This was really useful and I have a bunch of things I can now check because I've been having trouble with it basically not spitting out any filament during printing so maybe I can finally get it back up and running now. (once I have time at least)

Glad I saw this hopefully it will help.

Thanks Angus! Some chapters in this one would be great.

I stopped printing after a heat brake issue when printing with PETG. Thanks for the video I now know how to fix my printer.

Angus, you have been a source to goto for all my printer needs since i started this hobby years ago. Thank you sir for all your patience and will to share your findings. ;) good ppl are far and few. Im leaning towards you beeing one of these dying breed of humans. Good luck to you sir and may you live long and prosper. XYZ to you from Norway. PS. I use fans from noctua. never failed me.

My 2.5yr old Ender 3 with no maintenance is somehow, still incredible -- haven't had to level in 18 months (silicone ftw) & OG plastic extruder too!

Very useful information, thank you.

Another tip: the screws that attach the gantry to the printer's base can loosen up over time and cause the gantry to move while printing. Make sure they're always tight (add thread lock if needed). Additionally, printers that don't have extra stiffness rods like on the Creality CR-10 or CR-6 Max can have inconsistent layers due to the gantry flexing in the Y direction. Fortunately you can buy these rods separately and install them on many other brands (I put them on my Artillery Sidewinder X1 and now my walls almost look like they were injection molded).

@WhiteWolfos

Жыл бұрын

What rods are you using for your X1? Would you be able to share a link? I have awful lines when I print tall stuff out for my kids and would like to see if rods can fix the issue but I'm having a hard time finding correct parts.

@mururoa7024

Жыл бұрын

@@Gtmz53fxt56zxc Not all plastics can be vapor processed, and most of the time you'll still notice the layer wobble even after smoothing. Better take care of that gantry, it's easy and cheap to do.

Thank you Angus.

Thank you so much I really need to know what is causing my crappy prints

You might have saved my printer with your tip at 7:15. I did a lot of PETG printing and it always worked. But a few months ago I had severe extrusion issues, even though I never really changed anything. I tried changing the nozzle, change parameters, play around with bed leveling and nothing worked. I'll definitely try this! Great video!

@GraveUypo

8 ай бұрын

ah, i had this same issue some time back. 95% chance swapping that for a new one will fix your issue. my old tube simply wouldn't let filament go past a certain point

Easiest fix for the burning PTFE for most Creality printers is to get one of those dual metal heatbreaks that move the location where the tube connects to further up and out of the heater block and into the radiator. It's worth it to get the dual metal one as an all steel one will cause heat creep and clog up with PLA after an hour or two of printing. This makes your standard Creality hotend into an all metal one without much effort and I haven't hat to change tubes since!

Living in Arizona I don't really have an issue with Moisture and filament. Great information. I have a Tevo Tornado (Gold) with the glass bed and I just spray some Aquanet unscented on it and the PETG sticks great and releases when it's cool. A little IPA and a rag cleans it off and I keep it clean. My printer is 3 yrs old and working great. Thanks for the info to help me keep it that way. The BLTouch helps with the leveling.

I’ve had this problem and this video show up, thank you so much!!!

Mate - I love that video. As a 73 year old newbie your commentary is most informative. Keep up the good work. If you come to WA please come and sort out my ender 3!!

The PTFE one happened to me and I was so confused. I was trying to change filaments and it was stuck on the carbonized PTFE. It was completely black and smelled horrible. Luckily I figured it out and it works great now.

You are lucky to still have a chain like MicroCenter down under. In many nations all similar chains have gone bankrupt within the last decades. It's a shame, thinking how much fun it was to just go there and browse between all the stuff ..

@harvey66616

Жыл бұрын

MicroCenter still has locations in the US too. And yes, we're lucky to have them. Sad to see the other brick-and-mortar places gone, like Fry's and even CompUSA (boggles my mind that I'd even think that, never mind write it down). I wish I had a MicroCenter near me, but I have enjoyed visiting the ones in LA and Boston while traveling.

@DCA001TUBE

Жыл бұрын

I can't find a MicroCenter in Australia? They don't even ship to australia?

You're a beast, thank you for this.

i had the worn feeder gear issue, plastic parts giving, burnt PTFE, clogged nozzle, bad bed level, dirty surface... basically all of these. - I now unscrew the nozzle and the PTFE and clean the inside of the heating element before every print. that is the most common problem and it's better to be safe than sorry. It's more often than not that i find a huge clunk of mixed filaments partially clogging my hotend. - i used to take off my glass printing bed every time to give it a shower with detergent under running water, but lately it's not been an issue at all. last 10 prints were done without any cleaning (other than scraping left over plastic. - i used to have an uneven heating of the glass bed, but i solved that with thermal paste between the print bed and the glass. it's surprising how "wavy" the ender 3 bed is. the paste is clearly filling some big "holes". i've only had to do it once though. still using the same paste after years and the issue is still gone - The burnt PTFE completely prevented the filament to extrude after a certain point. i think my feeding gear was worn because of this, actually. anyway, i recommend replacing every pastic part in the feeder mechanism with metal ones. plastic parts are unreliable and they will eventually break too. but be sure not to order a shitty kit like i did at first, that didn't even have a thread for the PTFE tube to be inserted in. and i'll recommend sticking to PLA. it's just easier and more reliable than PETG. petg is more trouble than it's worth

Extremely useful video! Thanks a lot!