What it is
The creality ender 3 v2 is my first and so far only 3d printer. At the time of writing I have it for only about two weeks but in this time I spent a lot of time tinkering and optimizing my printer and of course printing.
Because there is already a lot of stuff written about this printer from people much more experienced than me, I'll not write another test or review. I also cannot really say if the price difference from ender 3 v1 to v2 is worth it, but from what I've read and watched it looks like the answer is "yes". I can just say I'm still happy with my choice and I would buy the same printer again any time. Instead I'll try to tell you how I setup and modified my printer, so that if you're a beginner like me, you can benefit from what I learned.
What I did
I build the printer from a kit and then I modified and extended the printer with some parts that I bought and some that I printed myself. I discarded some modifications, for example a filament guide which I no longer needed after I placed the filament to the side of the printer. Other extensions I regard as rather fundamental, like the new bed springs or a raspberry pi to run octoprint.
How I did it
Building and setting up the 3d printer
This video from Tomb of 3D Printed Horrors guided me in building the printer. He also proposes some updates in the video (which I did, as you can see in the next section).
Calibration and bed leveling
At the beginning you probably don't need to calibrate your printer that much (at least mine printed fine with the factory defaults). But you absolutely have to do bed leveling! If your bed is not level, your filament will either not stick to the build plate or your nozzle will bury into it (or both!).
Because calibration and leveling are rather large topics that apply to all 3d printers not just the ender 3, I made separate articles/bites for those: 3d printer calibration & 3d printer bed leveling
Modifications I made to the Ender 3
I made some modifications to the printer since I build it. Can you spot the differences in the picture above?
Here is what I've done:
New metal extruder & PTFE tube
I exchanged the extruder for a metal version and exchanged the ptfe tube (the feeding tube going from the extruder to the hot end) with capricorn tubing, which is supposed to be the best you can get (for installation help see these videos: Upgrade the Ender 3 V2 Extruder & Upgrade the Ender 3 V2 PTFE Tube and Couplers). I also replaced the springs holding the print bed with the more firm yellow ones. I also replaced the couplers as proposed in the video, but as far as I can tell my printer already had "updated" couplers, so that didn't seem necessary. So far I think it's a solid upgrade, but apart from the springs probably not strictly necessary. For all this I used this set from amazon: Creality Upgrade 3D Printer Kit.
Raspberry Pi for Octoprint
I bought a Raspberry Pi 4 (2GB version) and installed Octopi (an Octoprint image for the Raspberry Pi).
Octoprint is a really useful Software that lets you watch and control your printer remotely. Thats useful for safety reasons (if you have to leave your printer while it's still printing) and also convenient (you no longer have to copy your models to a sd-card and carry it to the printer, instead you can upload it to octopi/octoprint via the network).
To keep the Pi save and attach it to the printer I printed a case which I combined out of these two models: thing:3723561 & thing:4284081. I wanted the rail mount of the second version, but I didn't want to install a fan (which isn't necessary for the Pi 4 any more). So I copied the raspberry logo cutout from the first design to the one with the mount and slits for the raspberry camera cable: thing:4646121.
Installed a camera
One of main features of octoprint is that you can watch your prints live while you're away with a webcam and make sure everything is ok (And you can also make cool timelapse videos!). Because my octoprint runs on a raspberry pi, I bought a raspberry camera (make sure that you get a ribbon cable that is long enough) and printed a camera case & holder attached to the print bed (thing:3233086 & thing:4133263). If you want to attach the camera to the vertical arm of your printer instead of the bed, you can print this arm: thing:2886101 - but don't use the case from that thing, I did and I broke my camera because it fits really tight, too tight for my taste. I recommend mounting the camera to the bed if you want to make timelapses, because it looks much better (the print is "fixed" and the nozzle seems to be moving around).
New filament spool holder
I build my own spool holder, to have the filament enter the extruder from the side, not from above. The model is pretty specific to my shelf and setup but if you want to use or modify it, it is here: thing:4646099 & tinkercad
The black plastic tube that was part of the original spool holder fits onto this, so that you don't have to waste a lot of filament to print the long tube itself.
What I learned
- Building a 3d printer is fun and not that hard.
- You cannot print without levelling the printer bed!
- The filament spool is best placed to the side of the printer, so that the filament enters the extruder in the "right direction"
- When you connect a raspberry pi via USB to the ender 3 it will power the enders motherboard, turning on the display! You can prevent that by putting a little piece of tape over one of the outer contacts in the USB plug (the outer contacts are just power & ground, data is transfered by the ones in the middle).
- You can spend a lot of time tinkering and improving your printer - not all of it is necessary, don't forget to actually print!
- Some modifications & extensions really save you time and frustration (like new bed springs & octoprint).