Creality Ender 3 V3 KE/SE 10mm Rod Upgrade, Improve Bed Mesh, Fix Slanted Gantry, Unstable Print Bed

[@coreyappleby]

Just did this swap on my ke and it went pretty smoothly. Only issue was the two front factory screws had been tightened to the point I had to use an extractor bit to pull them out (not an issue really, since the kit includes longer ones.) Drastically improved my z-level and feels more stable now.

[@christopherismcaceas4868]

Hi. Nice mod. I didn't like linear rail upgrade as well. Yours is very easy to upgrade. Only thing I would do different, I would use grub screws to fix the rods in place(in front). Also silicone spacers instead of original plastic spacers. Spacers upgrade is huge for the mesh because you can tighten the screw as you need, they don't bottom out so you can fine tune and calibration holds longer. Again nice mod. Thank's

[@EmbraceMaking]

It's a good idea - I should be able to source those for the future!

[@dmax9324]

I can't believe that Creality continues to release a bunch of printers with clear issues just to save a few dollars for the consumer, but it leads to needed mods and consumer tinkering time. Some of these issues should just not be present on a budget printer anymore period. It's not designed for tinkerers, it's just cash grabbing.

[@EmbraceMaking]

Yes there are some simple quality checks that could have been done to prevent the majority of these issues and they could still offer the machine at the same low price. I think on these cheaper units they just get them out the door sadly. On the newer V3 core xz it seems much better put together.

[@oneanother1]

Why would you go from a solid aluminum frame to a hallow plastic base frame and weak z gantry, and people are buying them up like they are next lvl. Creality cutting too many corners, and have abandoned making good 3d printers.

[@kitchenbriks3685]

I can’t believe people still buy ender 3s or really any creality printers 😂

[@billy.the.maker.]

@@kitchenbriks3685 you so smart :D

[@Stinky0368]

To be honest, it’s a cheap printer. Whenever something is cheap there ARE going to be issues without a doubt, some just not permanent thought. When a cheap thing can be upgraded I see that as a very very good thing because that means you could possibly turn it into a print that would cost around $500

[@guerrerodelcamino]

My Creality works great, it's my first printer, it only cost me $240, I solved some problems by watching videos, like centering the Z axis, I also tightened all the screws, several were a little loose, I put some rubber on the legs for vibrations, I installed some washers for the bed level and some paper for the rods that had play, the best of all is that I have a good time improving the printer, that's the fun part, not just printing things, "Sometimes the destination is not so important but the journey" Me 2024

[@michaelstraughn3465]

Great video, I will certainly visit your web site and purchase the Y axis upgrade.

[@EmbraceMaking]

Thank you Michael!

[@Lensman64]

I've had 2 KE printers and not by choice. My first one was defective. It would not print a 1st layer so it was replaced. My current one has never achieved a "perfect" first layer nor any smooth prints. Close to smooth and close to "perfect" first layer but definitely something is wrong. I've exhausted almost all software calibration remedies and am moving back to hardware adjustments like belt and rod tensions. The main issue is that, when printing the same file back to back with no changes at all, the prints will be night and day. Also, I can make 6 decent prints in a row and out of the blue the 7th will be a disaster with absolutely no changes including filament. How does one troubleshoot something so random. After viewing countless videos and forums about the Creality printers I've come to the conclusion they have some ongoing quality control issues. I'm leaning towards a Bambu or Prusa but the Bambu is proprietary parts and the Prusa is a bit above my budget for what I'm doing now. My only alternative is to try and tweak my KE. That being said, thanks for this video. 😀

[@harrycee656]

Why doesn't Creality use jigs and alignment checks. It makes me question spending 1500usd with them when BL is out there. I think BL is good for making Creality to step up since the gap between Creality and Prusa was big. Now there is BL capturing the lower end of Prusa and the upper end of Creality.

[@EmbraceMaking]

For sure - I have an A1 that I am working on reviewing right now - I'm very impressed. Creality's higher end models seem like they do a much better job now than they used to. My K1C has been excellent and my K1 Max has also been very good. I have four Ender 3 V3 core xz and those have been really good too. The lower end models... hit and miss with the quality control.

[@socc3r7k1ng]

I wonder if anyone has tried replacing those plastic spacers on the bed with the Creality Silicone bed mounts. My only thought is that plastic probably wears over time due to all of the heat and could cause the bed to become less stable over time while the silicone bed mounts wouldn't have this issue. Probably a worthy experiment with only $9 in parts.

[@802Garage]

Mike from NeedItMakeIt has also been developing mods for the Ender 3 V3 KE to try to fix its various short falls. After figuring out there was awful bed shake at the corners of the print bed, ruining quality, he made a pretty solid rod and bed mounting upgrade too. There were big issues with the alignment of the rods and how loose the bearings were on them. He has other fixes and upgrades to help with quality as well. However, the extruder still has fundamental flaws leading to quality issues. Creality really needs to get back to basics and make better printers if they don't want to be constantly ridiculed.

[@billy.the.maker.]

what is wrong with the extruder?

[@802Garage]

@@billy.the.maker. Small dual gears that aren't supported on both sides of the axle, primarily.

[@billy.the.maker.]

@@802Garage and what is happening? I own Bambu A1 and Ender 3 KE and really I don't see any difference in prints. Maybe you got broken one? Try too give it back and take new one. Or maybe people are so "sick" of china stuff and only criticize all of them products. I understand that Tesla, Bambu is amurican but you know that 99% parts of them is from china? :D

[@802Garage]

@@billy.the.maker. Nope you've got it all wrong. This isn't even my analysis, but an aggregate from a ton of people who even design and build 3D printers. I'm also not opposed to Chinse products in general. Almost all consumer 3D printers are made in China. Bambu Lab is not American. They have a business location in Texas, sure, but the development and production is still Chinese. I'm actually not a Bambu fan boy, but the A1 extruder design is superior for pure quality. It is a large single gear extruder. I actually like Creality, but they do make mistakes on their printer designs and rush releases. The K1 series for example has had numerous issues including the extruder.

[@802Garage]

@@billy.the.maker. For most consumers, the quality difference is negligible. For discerning people who want really perfect prints, the extruder design makes a big difference. I recommend the videos "What I've learned about dual gear extruders and how to patch them, maybe" by MihaiDesigns and "DUAL-DRIVE Gear EXTRUDERS SUCKS? (GALILEO 2 vs ORBITER V2 & P1S vs A1)" by PRINTING PERSPECTIVE. They will explain far better than I can here.

[@rekcahx99]

$60 Dollars!!!? What are the rods made of gold-plated Unobtainium ?👽🤪

[@EmbraceMaking]

They're $50 - you might be seeing the full price in the KZbin listing, I'm not sure if they show promo sales. I might decide to increase it to 60 in the future.. normally I'm not one to find it necessary to justify my price - maybe it seems like a lot on the surface but I don't have the luxury of buying things in the 10000s and enjoying massive volume discount. The rods require machining (they aren't just plain 10mm rods) so I'm not paying for just regular rods, there is a labor cost in them plus shipping a box of stainless rods to me costs hundreds of dollars due to the weight. By the time I divide it out I pay $9 per rod and there are two in a kit... the multi jet prints are also very expensive - almost $7 each, also two of those - so roughly $32 in cost already, and then the hardware, packaging + the labor I have to pay someone to do the heat inserts, pack the product / handle them / store them / maintain inventory. I can't do it all alone or I would never be able to make anything new or make videos. I'm now down to about $10 left per kit which some of that goes towards all of my other operational costs - and depending on how you pay with paypal or credit card I get dinged another 3-5% fees plus the taxes I pay on any profits. Hopefully you can see how it adds up quickly... on the promo price I'm walking away with very little profit and I have a small platform - I'll be lucky if I even manage to sell out my inventory.

[@Shayeta]

Raw material cost is really low, they're probably machined to be straight within 0.01mm and that's why they're expensive.

[@JonathanEleini]

Yeah, I messed up. I took the spacers out of mine and after finding that the two right ones were longer, I sanded them down to match the left ones. Crap! Are there metal ones I can buy?

[@jeffwhite9001]

9:15 correct me if I'm wrong, so if they just sort of push in like that with what seems to be like not much force then when it's all assembled simply pulling up slightly on the bed will pull it off the bearing, so even just simply removing the magnetic bed plate could possible pull off the whole bed??

[@stevejacoby9236]

My V3 KE doesn't have the two screws in the front. Does your 10mm rod kit take that into account?

[@EmbraceMaking]

Interesting, are there holes for the screws and they're just not installed? Send me an email through my website: embracemaking.com/pages/contact and we can figure it out, I'd love to see some pictures.

[@stevejacoby9236]

@@EmbraceMakingI sent you an email and I can send pictures. There are no holes whatsoever in that spot.

[@Peaches_NZ]

I've just got my KE a couple of weeks back and it also doesn't have the front grub screws, so thinking the newst versions don't have them

[@MG_LIFE_LBS]

MY PEOPLE!

[@Schradermusic]

My 3V3 KE doesn't have the two screws in the front that tighten down the Y rods... How do I go about getting the play out?

[@EmbraceMaking]

Your original rods have play in them? I have had a customer who did the upgrade and does not have the screws and they reported back with my kit that everything worked out fine. The fit of the holes on the frame should be snug.

[@chasingthefish9042]

My ender 3v3 se always prints the first layer under extruded but the rest of the print is perfect. How do i fix that?

[@LukosiuPro]

what about speed, did it improve the max print speed (accells) with Resonances test? my Se only is stable at 3k, I dont know about stock ke, but stock se is 3k max without any artifats or other issues.

[@jimmoore1121]

I bought and installed this with the silicone spacers, and it made a big difference. I realized the lower support bed is bent too far out of spec and needs to be replaced with something better that's truly flat.

[@EmbraceMaking]

Thanks for the feedback, really glad it made a difference!

[@Missterpaja]

What parte did you use to replace/fix that?

[@Umbertosf2]

What is the name of the software you use in the video to see the leveling of the plate thanks

[@0shue0]

I need it too, did u find it ?

[@potatoatk]

Cool mod, $60 delivery to Australia though 😥

[@EmbraceMaking]

Send me your address / shipping details through my website here and I'm sure I can get you a better quote. Thanks! embracemaking.com/pages/contact

[@FinnRenard]

Yet another Ender 3 iteration. They fix 1 thing and new problems arise. At this price there are plenty of better options.

[@EmbraceMaking]

Yes on this machine there are still issues that need resolving that some QC could have fixed - the price is attractive but it's still a hobbyist machine that needs attention in some areas. I'm hoping that newer machines aren't shipping like this but I'm not holding my breath... the V3 core xz seems like they paid a lot closer attention to the quality though.

[@davidwilson4190]

​At$ 229 from Microcenter... I considered it a pretty good deal but if I throw much more money at it then I could have bought myself a flashforge 5m... it does pretty well for a bed slinger My 5 m. that I also own out does it and quality every time and speed ​@@EmbraceMaking

[@Ki-lr6ub]

What a lot of people in these comments aren't realizing is the V3 KE still prints just fine out of the box for the majority of people, at high speeds. All of this modding, while beneficial to people who want to tinker, is just chasing the dragon for moderately better prints. These can be had for $180-$200, what do you expect?

[@FelipeGonzalezHerrera]

A better option would be to STOP BUYING CRUELITY PRINTERS! Not even their flagship printers comes without problems, they even shipped K1 printers with bad extruders.

[@leonyltupasan]

really?

[@FelipeGonzalezHerrera]

@@leonyltupasan yep. I have one of the biggest printer farm in my country and have a very reputable repair shop for 3d printers. The most horrible problems even from the box comes from 2 brands: Cruelity and Artillery with cruelity getting the worst.

[@christopherismcaceas4868]

@@FelipeGonzalezHerrera Support sucks as well.

[@FelipeGonzalezHerrera]

@@christopherismcaceas4868 support is non existent. A few years ago I've bought a brand new cruelity CR-10 Smart wich was supposed to be their flagship at the time, that POS fried the board right before ending the first print. As it was under guarantee I took it to the seller and had to wait 3 month to get a replacement board just to wait 3 more month because it arrived with the SOC burnt sealed in the box from the factory. Why I had to wait for the replacement? Because cruelity asked ridiculously big "minimum" orders for resellers to ship them parts, so the f*cking board wasn't available in the whole continent! (South America by the way). I know that because a friend of mine was the only official reseller for cruelity in my country and I saw the mails with the exorbitant MOQs.

[@rekcahx99]

@@FelipeGonzalezHerrera The reason you mostly get Creality products in for repair is because Creality outsells all others 5 to 1 due to their affordability, amongst many other things. So, with that in mind, of course repair centers would see more Creality. That is nothing to say of the dependability. For every 1 printer you have in your shop, there are 500 others that are working great. If their printers were soooo bad, then why do they sell so much? It's not because of naivety or ignorance (like Apple buyers) why everyone owns a Creality printer. It's because of price and that you get a pretty good printer that works great for the normal person. "Mic Drop!"