8/13/2019 – USED ENDER Printers back in stock! I’ve bought 3.. they help you fix ’em!
Ender 3 Pro $185.00 OBO!
Ender 3 $155.00 OBO!
CR-10 259.00 OBO!
See how I stencil!
I’m military so I get to tell the story how I want.. and military stories start out like this..
So no shit, there I was….
surrounded by orders for the Whiskey Stash V2. Each one takes 2.5 days to print with 0.4MM. I have a big order due the middle of next month and pretty sure they will go as fast as I can make ’em.
So I quickly ordered 2 Creality Ender 3’s (this is a great budget printer that has just the height required for my 105MM rounds) a bunch of Dikale Filament because is is relatively inexpensive and works well. And a handful of .5MM and .6MM nozzles so we can put some hustle behind this muscle.
I also modified my Whiskey Stash V2 to “Version Steve” so it will print better and faster with a 0.6MM nozzle. Sorry, that’s a trade secret. The goal is to get a total print down to less than 24 hours and ramp up production.
Worse than long print times.. sometimes they fail; bad adhesion, failed flux capacitor or 3D Printer indigestion. When that happens, your out a lot of filament which equals money.
I had tried this before, but my heart wasn’t in it. What I had noticed is the bottom layer lines were not connecting. But this time, I had to make it work and we all know, most everything on the Internet is a secret until you find it.
So my rig is a highly modified Creality CR-10 with upgraded Dual Z-Axis and kung-fu grip.
I am running Cura, version 3.0.4. It works for me and every time I upgrade to a new version I find they change some print settings and I wan’t to go back to printing territory. Quit it Cura!
Initial prints of the Basic Stringing Test resulted in decent towers but loosely connected lines or gaps between lines on the bottom layer. I didn’t take pictures but as I do, I will post them. As I increase the initial line width, the bottom layer improved but then I had issues with stringing because of retraction. That was solved by running hotter.
What you want is the settings I used, and why I used them and what the overall benefit is. There is a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about math and wider line widths than the nozzle, forget all that.. it did not work for me.
To get a 0.6MM Brass Nozzle to work well if this configuration you need to heat up the hotend or the retraction settings cause stringing.. lots of stringing.
Originally I was using MM measurements for wall width, then I dug into shells.. it’s simpler and it is what happens anyway.
How to enable hidden settings in Cura.
You will have to enable some hidden print settings in order to accomplish this. Below is a walk through.
Hover and click the gear in the Print Setup window.
Display Setting Visibility
Search for the setting you are looking for…
Here are my Cura Settings (Bold Items are the big takeways)
Layer Height: 0.3mm
Initial Layer Height: 0.25mm ( I want to smash the first layer to the printbed) (must be enabled in Cura Setting Visibility)
Line Width: 0.6mm (same diameter as the nozzle)
Initial Layer Line Width: 140% (must be enabled in Setting Visibility)
Wall Line Count: 3 (resulting in a strong 1.8mm wall) (must be enabled in Cura Setting Visibility)
Top/Bottom Layers: 3 (must be enabled in Cura Setting Visibility)
Top/Bottom Pattern: Lines
Infill Density: 10%
Infill Pattern: Grid
Infill before walls: unchecked (must be enabled in Cura Setting Visibility)
Printing Temp: 212 (hot for PLA but you are pushing more through and if it is not hot enough, it will not have time to heat the filament after retraction; result is stringy)
Build Plate Temperature: 60C
Retraction Distance: 6.5mm
Retraction Speed: 25mm/s
Print Speed: 60mm/s
Top/Bottom Speed: 30mm/s
Travel Speed: 120mm/s
Fan: 100%
Build Plate Adhesion: Brim
Brim Width: 8mm (this allows me to ensure the print will start well)
Print Sequence: All at once (because it’s a default)
Why I chose these settings?
I need to print faster and still get the same quality. Initial tests resulted in interior walls showing through the exterior walls. Hence the unchecking of infill before walls. Now no walls show through.
3 Shells allows a strong thick wall to be created.
The Brim allows me to make sure the extruder is printing correctly and remove any boogers.
You will have to increase your heat for a thicker nozzle, I am using a stock CR-10 hotend.
Overall benefit to using a larger nozzle.
Faster prints
Stronger walls
Smoother exterior walls
Downsides
Lower resolution
Can’t print smaller parts
Pain to change nozzles
Uses more filament – in my case
Remember, print first, ask questions later.
There is a ton of other useful stuff on Makersteve.com and more coming every week.
Be sure to check out my Ultimate Build Guide for Creality Ender 3
If you find this useful, please consider purchasing products through any of the links on the page, it’s free to you and I get a little something for my time. Or, just go shopping at Amazon or Ebay or Gearbest.
You can also support me through Patreon with as little as a dollar a month.
Happy Printing,
Steve
This is super super helpful, im going into small batch production with my printers and have been having a difficult time nailing quality and speed.
It’s working… Double checked all my numbers on Cura (using Ender 3) and it cut my project of 23 hours to 20.5 hours. Time is time. Thank you for the help!