re: The Official 3D Printing Thread

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A lot of bad in there too though, never underestimate the horny weebs.

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true. No doubt there are some bad models on there. I get what you are saying about modeling as a skill and I agree, but the learning curve is as steep as the as the breadth of project specs. For instance, one could learn to make a damn good model of a 7x2x10 tray in a matter of hours with Fusion 360 and calipers. Whereas developing the chops to model a print in place articulating widget that requires no supports would take a lot longer to acquire the skills for. So, if you are a hobbiest interested in model my advice would be to dive right in.

Asking for a little help here. 3D printers are outside of my skill set BUT my son who is in Engineering and uses them often wants one for fun.

He asked for a Ender 3 Pro but I’m debating on getting the 5 Pro for a few hundred more based off of Amazon reviews. Which would you choose for yourself?

Thank you.

What does the 5 Plus do for him over the Pro?

Is there a better place to purchase these than Amazon? Looks like 5 Pro is $399 or 5 Plus is $599.

Regular Ender 3 checking in. Go with either, it really doesn't matter. A few basic upgrades I would suggest ordering and having ready before you assemble are:
1. Real Capricorn tubing and fittings for the extruder and hot end. Order direct from Capricorn as there are many fakes on Amazon etc. Here is what you need, capricorn tube and fittings kit.
2. Aluminum extruder as the plastic one it comes with isn't rigid enough and will eventually break or wear away at the entry hole. This looks like the one I got, but there are a few different offerings out there Aluminum Extruder.
3. BLTouch is a must-have. It really turns the printer into something you can walk up to, select the file to print, and walk away. No hovering over the machine for 30 minutes leveling the bed and watching the first layer print while making adjustments. Make sure you get a legitimate BLTouch as there are imitations out there that people have a lot of issues with. This is also IMO the hardest upgrade since it involves editing and installing software onto the machine, which is not exactly a straightforward process if you have never done something like it before. There are some videos and writeups out there, but IIRC I was not able to find all the information I needed in one specific place. Maybe that has changed a little since I went through it. The juice is more than worth the squeeze to get this setup though. TeachingTech on youtube had all the info I needed I think in 3 different videos he did on the setting up the BLTouch. HERE is the kit that I got, but I did not use the USB dongle thing it comes with to flash the bootloader. I used an Arduino instead. The included mount worked on my Ender 3 and since the Ender 5 has the same hot end I'm assuming it will work on that as well, but I could be wrong.

i upgraded my hot hotend to the microswiss all metal. I thought the hot end fix with crap. I have the EZR truder that i havent installed yet because im printing so well right not. i font want to mess anything up.

It starts to back feed at the extruder motor and causes the print to have less material come out.
The issue is the tube feeding into the metal tube. I’m not sure if it is retraction set too high but when I stop the print and pull out the tube you can see the deformed filament at the end of the tube. I’m used to having an extruder heater with a metal tube that has a pfte tube in it that doesn’t move. But this is on a direct drive extruder that doesn’t have the feed tube that goes inside the hot end tube.
I looked at that micro Swiss.

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pull out the tube you can see the deformed filament at the end of the tube.

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This is caused by the push connector fitting in the hot end having too much play in it. When the extruder extracts it is able to pull the tubing up a little due to the play, which allows the filament to get into they newly created gap and what you saw it the result. The fix is the Capricorn fittings I mentioned above which are better quality. You can also buy or print little clips that go between the plastic insert of the push connector and the metal base to remove the wiggle room. Here is an example of the clips you can print on Thingiverse: LINK

I'm going to try and use the threaded metal tubes that I used on my custom machines. I haven't tried it yet so I am not sure that the threads will match. I sure hope so because it has a PFTE liner in it that doesn't move. The filament feeding tube should stop at the top of the metal tube. But this is just my theory.

Nice, I'm interested to see the video. I think I saw somewhere those bolts in the hot end are an artifact of assembly or something and not only not necessary, but recommended to be removed to help prevent heat from leaching.

I won’t be able to offer any tips on raspberry pi. I have been wanting to learn the system. These other guys may have some expertise on that.