New Ender 3 User Part 3 - Upgrades & Slicer Settings - Chris's Basement

[@ogmaker]

Chris, I've been sending folks to watch this series as it contains awesome "get started" info no matter what kind of printer you are starting with. I just got a ZYLtech Gear V2 (Think CR10S clone). What a mess! I decided to step through the series as it was my first bowden (I have a Prusa MKS3 and a Lulzbot TAZ). After just this walkthru I am getting really nice prints. Thanks again for your clear guidance.

[@ChrisRiley]

Awesome Bill, that is really great to hear that this is working for others.

[@FilamentFriday]

Nice explanations Chris.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Chuck! As you probably know, this stuff is kind of hard to explain sometimes. :)

[@coreymac2381]

Excellent tutorial! It’s nice to see a Prusa slicer tutorial for a change. I gave one of my Ender 3s to my friends 12 year old grandson. Your Ender 3 series has been a big help to him.

[@ChrisRiley]

Awesome to hear, glad it has helped him.

[@puneitsingh]

This is the best guide I have come across so far. The other popular ones are good but not as good as you. Thank you so much. I am going to go through all your videos.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thank you so much! Glad you like the content.

[@madmike8406]

Another Great Video Chris, it should help a lot of folks. This is going to be “must watch” series for new folks starting in 3d printing. Also timely as most newbies got their Ender3 for Christmas!

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Mike! These next couple were kinda hard to put together, I hope it helps a lot of people.

[@cityfiedredneck6841]

I have my first 3D printer on the way (an Ender 3) and just ran across your channel looking for more information on getting started when it arrives. This series is very well put together. Very informative and well spoken. Thank you! I'm looking forward to the next episode. Still undecided which slicer to use. But will most likely be either Cura or Prusa (or both). That said, I have an idea for another video for this series but would be useful with any machine. I don't really see anyone giving their opinions on how to decide on wall thickness, infill amount, infill type, etc. The basics of what one needs to design a decent part, so to speak. As a complete beginner, I can see myself using a ton of filament on over built designs. Or completely wasting it on under built designs. Anyway, use it or lose it. I'll still be watching.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks for watching, some of that will be in the next video for sure. Stefan over at CNC Kitchen has a lot of good stuff like that.

[@Dazwell]

I'm switching to PrusaSlicer after watching your video! Can't wait for part 4 to fine tune it :) Thanks as always for your awesome videos. You make them so clear to understand.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks DJ, I am glad you like the videos, hopefully I can get this fourth one done soon!

[@shaunmorrissey7313]

Excellent series Chris, keep it comming😀

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Shaun, will do!

[@markferrick10]

Great video as always. I am really interested in tuning out "the printer inconsistencies" @18:55 in the video. Please cover that in your subsequent videos.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Mark, yep, hopefully, we will sort all that out.

[@MartinZeman3D]

​@@ChrisRiley Have a fun. You kinda can't solve this problem. :) You can have perfect wheels or linear rails, but the result will be the same. It's just because of the filament diameter incosistenci. ;)

[@ChrisRiley]

@@MartinZeman3D We will do our best! ;)

[@MartinZeman3D]

@@ChrisRiley Looking forward to seeing it ;)

[@maximilianodegue7673]

Hey man! I hope you keep going with the series! Getting my ender 3 tomorrow and can’t wait to play with it

[@ChrisRiley]

I will do my best! Enjoy your ender3.

[@meltonpieman959]

Chris, it is so good to find someone who expalins the setting up of the Prusaslicer so clearly. I have always used Cura but the layout of Prusaslicer attracts me (Cura is really so complex that it gets hard to not save temporary chages over my basic setups) and I have started to tinker with it following your steps - looking forward to the next edition! PS if you get to the retraction settings can you also suggest the best values for a direct drive on the Ender 3 Pro? David

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Melton, hopefully, we can get all this figured out. I can see what I can do for the direct drive setting.

[@toms.3977]

Awesome info Chris. Love all your vids even on stuff I don't own. Really. Take care!

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Tom!

[@3dmedicvince449]

Chris, I have a friend who's been struggling starting out with his Ender 3 and printing and I just sent him links to all 3 videos in this series so he can get better advise from the videos and watch at his pace rather than exchanging messages. As always great content and great source of knowledge for everyone needing help. There should be a list of people to follow included with each printer and you'd be in the top 10 of people follow! See you at MRRF2020

[@ChrisRiley]

Vince, thanks man! I hope these videos help them out. I am just here to learn like everyone else. I will see you there!

[@belenhedderich3330]

Always love your videos. Hope your finger is healed. Keep then coming!

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks! It seems like my hands are always burned somewhere. LOL

[@gazgadgets]

Nice work Chris - One of the best beginner tutorials I've seen. Thanks

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Gary!

[@thehappyextruder7178]

Another video full of great info, Thanks for posting Chris !!!

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Ron!

[@JohnOCFII]

This is an excellent series!

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks John!

[@byseven]

Awesome video again.We are looking forward to see the next one. Maybe stringing ? Thanks

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Felipe, yep we get into retraction in the next one.

[@kraemrz]

Well explained Chris 😁👍 Great as always

[@ChrisRiley]

Thank you!

[@dansteffee9759]

Its like you read my mind , I was hoping someone would go over some slicer setting ... Good Job

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Dan, more to come.

[@havenview]

"There's a lot of tutorials about Cura out there...so maybe going through Prusa Slicer may be better" Great decision Chris, doing something different. I don't use PS (I'm OK with Cura) but to take on the stuff that others don't shows true support for the hobby and the community and is really interesting to watch.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Steven, fingers crossed I can make it work. ;)

[@OldCurmudgeon3DP]

Will edit this post as I watch... (done now I think) :) I think you were a bit rough with the strain relief bracket when swapping that spring. I've seen more than a couple pictures on FB where the solder connection wasn't up to par and "manhandling" the wires might cause an electrical issue. I made a simple spreadsheet comparing 1.75 vs +/- 0.08 (I got a roll of 1.68 from eSun last year). The % change in volume was interesting and I think could be noticeable in the layer consistency outside of +/-0.03. Yeah, sometimes I chase accuracy too much in these cheap devices. You probably won't want to keep marlin as the firmware setting. There's something I needed to do in PS that using marlin prevented; I don't even think it was a really advanced feature. Have to check FB to see what it was. The PS group there clued me into it I think. I noticed you started the video with Expert enabled for your settings. I may have missed it, but you didn't mention that in the first half of the video. Heating the hotend (will get there sooner than the bed) with the bed could create a long tail of ooze hanging off the nozzle that may not clear itself during the purge/skirt line. Not a problem if you're at the printer when you start a print as you can just swipe it off just before the bed gets to temp and G28 starts. 13:31 Oh man, as many times as I've seen the setting tooltips I've never noticed the placeholder. Awesome info. 17:30 It messed me up on first layer for several prints until I realized the setting I was changing was relative to layer height NOT nozzle diameter which seems very counter-intuitive. Just so happens it's the setting you mention here. You can define it directly as a width in mm, but if you use % then it takes LAYER HEIGHT as the base value instead of NOZZLE WIDTH. You left it at 0 which defaults to 200% of layer height. 19:10 the scope really shows the pulsing of the extruder hob (or maybe the stepper) as you scan across the layer. E steps should generally be set in whole numbers from my research across several YT videos and FB groups. It may be trying to squeeze the last ounce of consistency out of the system though and maybe too deep for this series.

[@OldCurmudgeon3DP]

Oh yeah... found it. PS will put accel and jerk settings in the start gcode which will override your machine defaults if you have Marlin selected as the firmware type. I was told to use reprap/sprinter instead so it wouldn't do that.

[@ChrisRiley]

Just after reading this first one, I think you should be the one making these videos. I think you have done more test then me. LOL A lot of the stuff you mention is in the other 45 minutes of this video, to break it up to keep myself sane. More to come. I do appreciate your insights.

[@woodwaker1]

I think you spend as much time watching you tube as I . We both watch a lot of Tim's videos. We are both old!!

[@markvreeken]

Nice one some good info here. Thanks mate keep up the great work

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Mark!

[@kopgamer]

Hello Mr. Riley! I love your videos, learned much from them. My only complaint is when I need to come back for to watch adjusting something, it's hard to find from all of your videos. I knew I've watched you adjusting extrusion / check filament using a digital caliper but finding this video took some time. :) But you put ton of great stuff in one video; not like others changing a bowden tube for 10 mins to get advertised.

[@ChrisRiley]

I wish it was easier to find stuff in videos too. We are working to go back and idex all the older videos to make it a bit easier.

[@dleivam]

Awesome

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks David!

[@hewlettlittle5652]

hwy chris i love this video series you are making on this printer seeing how i chose to get back into to 3d printing after a really miserable beginning failure to launch start some years ago. after much research and seeing this printer working live at a locale micro center i decided to get back into the hobby. and since have been having a lot of fun and frustrations. but when you started this series i was excited. so i have been watching and following along. i was using cura and having decent luck until i needed to switch my machines out cause the rotary knob broke now the machine i got is not as good as the first one lol. soi got prusas slicer and been working with it and i tried the enter the start gcode as you explained in the video how ever everytime i slice a a model i get an error sating the start gcode is has an error what could i have wrong because it does not make since at all i wll post it just as i have it written M104 S[first_layer_temperature] ; set hotend temp M140 S[first_layer_bed_temperatrue] ; set bed temp M190 S[first_layer_bed_temperatrue] ; wait for bed temp M109 S[first_layer_temperature] ; wait for hotend temp the other problem i have been having on these machines is my nozzle extrudes filament while heating up to print temperature thank for your hard work and knowledge

[@ChrisRiley]

Hey, I am glad to hear you are getting back into 3d printing. It looks like you have a spelling error causing the problem. M104 S[first_layer_temperature] ; set hotend temp M140 S[first_layer_bed_temperature] ; set bed temp M190 S[first_layer_bed_temperature] ; wait for bed temp M109 S[first_layer_temperature] ; wait for hotend temp

[@hewlettlittle5652]

@@ChrisRiley that will do it everytime

[@gizmobowen]

After I am starting to get my head around Cura your video makes me want to give Prusaslicer a go. I've always liked some of the features it had but expected they would get added to Cura some day. Looking forward to the conclusion to decide if I want to shift gears. Thanks for the video.

[@ChrisRiley]

Yeah Prusa Slicer is worth a look, I prefer the way it is laid out vs CURA. Number 4 should be out soon.

[@IBHiNation]

I just replaced my springs last week and man the difference is great. I dont have to re level after every print.

[@ChrisRiley]

Good stuff right? :)

[@stigberntsen9301]

Realy good video, as always Chris (y)

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Stig!

[@3djimmy252]

CHRIS .. CAN YOU TEACH US TO DO A PRIME LINE ON A CUSTOM PRINTER IN PRUSA SLICER ?

[@ChrisRiley]

Will do! I will get this into part 4.

[@pokenchoke]

I switched to prusaslicer soon as they changed the name and I've never looked back, it's great!

[@ChrisRiley]

Agreed!

[@fredriklarsen5968]

The printes don't heat the bed and the nozzle at the same time, simply to avoid stressing the power supplies more than necessary.

[@ChrisRiley]

It's very rare you see that enabled nowadays, especially on 24v printers.

[@woodwaker1]

Most of these can handle with no problem

[@BLBlackDragon]

Side note on the springs: They may lift the bed up. I ended up having to move the Z switch up 1 mm to keep the head from crashing.

[@ChrisRiley]

Good tip, thank you.

[@yossiz7332]

great guide series... following along :) can you share the .stl for the 20 20 20 cube, or just any from thingiverse will do?

[@ChrisRiley]

Thank you! Any cube from thingiverse will do, or just jump into tinkercad and whip one up real quick.

[@Otakunopodcast]

Fantastic series! Lately I've been trapped in what I am calling "slicer angst." Basically I've been trying to decide what slicer to use. Long ago, back when I first got into 3D printing, I ended up buying Simplify3D because I was having trouble getting the other slicers to work. I'll admit in hindsight that that was probably due more to noob mistakes rather than something actually wrong with the other slicers. But S3D has served me well, so I'm not upset about purchasing it, I feel I have got my money's worth. But the slow pace of upgrades, plus the fact that S3D v5 (whenever it finally comes out) will be a paid upgrade, has led me to look at other slicers. I used to like Cura, but I find the latest version really confusing with its byzantine settings hierarchy. (Which is a pity, because the Cura OctoPrint plugin is wonderful, I can just send my print off to my printer with one click.) Your video has convinced me to give PrusaSlicer a try, and so far I am cautiously optimistic. Looking forward to further videos in this series so that I can continue to tune my PrusaSlicer config.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks! I am currently working on the next video, I have learned a ton about Prusa Slicer, it does pretty much everything I need at this point.

[@toms.3977]

Chris, I just downloaded PrusaSlicer 2.2.0 alpha. It has an Ender 3 profile installed. Can you do a video on this to see how good their settings are and which ones need to be tweaked? It would be great to know!

[@ChrisRiley]

Hey Tom, I checked that profile out. It's didn't look very complete as of yet. I will check it out as we get closer to the release date.

[@woodwaker1]

You always do a great job. I think Prusa has the best slicer it is easier than CURA and is easy to change the start, end and layer gcode

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks Dave, yeah I agree with you, CURA has so much stuff in it, it's a bit overwhelming.

[@triumphtigeradventures]

great video i use cura and get very good prints i have been wanting to learn prusa but never been a good guide for ender 3

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks! Hopefully, I can make this happen.

[@E-3]

Hi Chis, Thought I would share some of my start/end gcode. (I deleted some stuff that not relevant for some people, like my LED code and M117 stuff). You will note the temperature placeholders, hot end heats -5deg before the bed is up to temp. Saves on oozing and just sitting there hot. Start, M190 S{first_layer_bed_temperature[0] - 5} ; wait for bed temperature - 5 M140 S[first_layer_bed_temperature] ; continue bed heating M104 S[first_layer_temperature] ; set extruder temp and continue M117 HOMING.. G28 ; Home M117 BLTOUCH MESH.. G29 ; BLTOUCH MESH G92 E0.0 ; Reset Extruder G1 Z15 ; Move the platform down 15mm G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder Distance M109 S[first_layer_temperature] ; wait for extruder temp end, ; Ender 3 Custom End G-code G4 ; Wait M117 ALL DONE!!! M220 S100 ; Reset Speed factor override percentage to default (100%) M221 S100 ; Reset Extrude factor override percentage to default (100%) G91 ; Set coordinates to relative G1 F1800 E-3 ; Retract filament 3 mm to prevent oozing G1 F3000 Z10 ; Move Z Axis up 10 mm to allow filament ooze freely G90 ; Set coordinates to absolute G1 X0 Y220 F1000 ; Move Heat Bed to the front for easy print removal M84 ; Disable stepper motors M104 S0 ; Turn off Extruder temperature M140 S0 ; Turn off Heat Bed M106 S0 ; Turn off Cooling Fan M107 ; Turn off Fan M150 ; Turn off LEDs Also you might find useful the output file name placeholders, have a look see. Mine is... [input_filename_base] - [filament_settings_id] - LH [layer_height] - [temperature]-[bed_temperature]°C - Speed [perimeter_speed]-[external_perimeter_speed].gcode

[@E-3]

P.S That start Gcode will also save you time if running an ABL. give it a go and let me know what you think. :)

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks for the code, I will check it out.

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

is that last step on pronterface really necessary? don't really want to dealt with yet another program...

[@ChrisRiley]

If you E steps need adjustment then yes. Most of the time, they are fine.

[@VincentFischer]

Never occured to me that the filament diameter could be the cause of my inconsistent prints. I guess there is no way for compensating that? Maybe I should overthink buying the first filament from ebay, sorted by price ascending ^^. Also.. does Joseph want to burn down our house for not using one of his printers? Leaving the bed on seems like sabotage to me...

[@OldCurmudgeon3DP]

Generally you want to measure a few places on the filament and take an average. Put that average in your slicer and it will help.

[@ChrisRiley]

Hey Vincent, it does make some difference, you can measure and adjust it in the filament settings in Prusa slicer, but for most prints, you probably won't be able to tell the difference. As far as the bed, not sure why that is the default.

[@VincentFischer]

@@ChrisRiley Yeah really strange. If Slic3r knows it's Marlin, it also knows how to turn of the bed. Strange choice and hard to believe its an accident

[@orestisdimopoulos2643]

part 4 is not available...

[@ChrisRiley]

Good timing, it came out today.

[@orestisdimopoulos2643]

@@ChrisRiley Thnx ! very useful

[@karipenttila2655]

I always do e steps what comes out side, first cutting it level of connector

[@ChrisRiley]

Not a bad idea.

[@keichide]

I like the idea that you heat the hotend and the bed at the same time, and am doing the same thing since ages.. BUT! You really should not heat the Hotend to it's final temperature before the printer homed itself! That's just a realllyyy bad thing todo, because it can ooze some filament at that point, when it almost touches the Bed, which will than stay there and if you are not careful will get in the way. It's better (and a approach from me, that even got in the Creawsomemod) to heat the hotend just to 140 degree, home the Bed and than let it heat to it's final temperature, which will most of the time take under a minute.

[@ChrisRiley]

Good point, probably a good idea.

[@howardjakesheeks615]

Did you do a how to series for LinkedIn? I heard a tutorial earlier and the voice and the speach patterns sounded a lot like you.

[@ChrisRiley]

Nope, that wasn't me. :)

[@carbide1968]

Chris, all of my prints have strange corners. They bulge out alot. Not sure what term to use but it makes a big radius at every turn which sticks out and makes it hard to make parts fit. Got any tips? I'll take anyone's help please.

[@ChrisRiley]

Hey Matthew, that is usually caused by speed, it depends what you are seeing, can you send me a link to a pic?

[@bearofbarham]

Fantastic thanks again Chris, I have always used Cura but I find I get better results now so far with Slic3r and setting it how youve shown, I do get alot of stringing and have tried lots of settings to prevent it but so far no luck, could you add this to your next video please, kindest regards, Paul

[@ChrisRiley]

Yes, for sure that will be in the next video.

[@LukePettit3dArtist]

In more than 5 years and having worked on over 20 printers in the wild, I've never found the esteps to be out, ever!. I always laugh at the importance placed on this. Am I missing something here Chris? One imagines that each board leave the factory with exactly the same settings and hardware gets very little opportunity to be different. You'd have to be pretty unlucky to get something so far out affected only by hardware issues.

[@ChrisRiley]

You have a point, you very rarely see this being wrong anymore. I think a bit of this is paranoia from the scratch build days. I have seen this be pretty out before, but it usually comes from a missed firmware setting.

[@helgemoller5158]

Very informational as always Chris, but instead of stronger and flat springs i recommend somekind of these one : www.amazon.de/gp/product/B07XHH7CQZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Even stronger springs tend to tilt away during printing. specially on Cartesian Printers.

[@ChrisRiley]

Thank you for the link, I have never seen these offered before. I will have to try them out.

[@stevvieb]

Nice page with Estep calculator built into the page 3daddict.com/3d-printer-extruder-calibration-steps/

[@ChrisRiley]

Thanks for the link, great site!