- 14 Jun 2011
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I had a failure while printing an object on my Ender3 V2 and noticed the mounting bracket on the BL Touch had been bent well out of 90 degrees, it must have caught on something substantial but I'm not sure what, I am guessing it was most likely the print as there are signs that it had moved.
The print was full height at one end but at the other the lower levels curved up from the plate with loads of spaghetti underneath indicating an adhesion issue.
I straightened the bracket using a square and the sensor appeared to be working fine when sensing the build plate when I started a print, but the nozzle has driven into the build plate no filament flowed and there are brass marks on the build plate.
I managed to get the V2 printer back to a working condition;
I replaced the bent bracket and the probe, the BL Touch looks a little out of square but it doesn't seem to affect the probing.
I went back to square 1 and loaded the original firmware and without the probe being in play I levelled the bed.
I started by using a "T" level and a bullseye level to roughly get the bed level, then proceeded to level the bed using the paper method.
This took a rather long time until I finally worked out that no matter how careful I was that when I moved the print head I actually put downward pressure on the Z axis and was changing it's the height so I was forever readjusting the knobs.
Reading many, many articles on levelling and watching hours of YouTube videos, I found a method that uses the printer controls to move the print head into the 4 corners to use the paper method that removes the risk of shifting the Z axis.
After a quick level up and then a Z offset adjustment I tried a test print, the nozzle hit the print in a couple of places and in a others all I got was a blob of plastic.
While watching the print a couple of times with similar results I deduced that the nozzle was to close to the bed so while it was printing I used "Live Adjustment" till I got a fairly good print.
I then loaded an stl file and printed it, it came out very good with a couple pieces of stringing but as I used the cheap Creality PLA that came with the printer all in all it was a good result.
While I was messing around with all this SWMBO suggested that I buy a new printer as I had been mucking around for days with this, so heeding her advice I ordered an Ender3 V3 SE from the local Jaycar (it only cost me a new ring so I got out of it well).
I had just finished the print when the phone rang and it was Jaycar telling me that my order had arrived.
So I now have a working V2 and an V3 assembled and waiting to go.
The ender3 V3 assembled in 20 minutes and solves the bed levelling issues once and for all and is comparatively faster than the V2 according the numerous reviews I read (Creality lists some outstanding specs for speed which most reviewers say the printer will not achieve but is an improvement over the V2).
https://worldoflilliputs.com/ender-3-v3 ... -3-v2-neo/
I am looking forward to printing heaps of stuff starting with a filament storage dry box using cereal storage containers.
www.printables.com
I was considering selling the V2 but I have reconsidered so for a while I will use it as a experimental machine with using Octoprint being the first project to be attempted.
I might upgrade it to twin Z axis drives in the future to overcome an issue of the Z axis being floppy at one end as it has no real support but I have to be careful not to go overboard with upgrades but a direct drive extruder would be nice.
The new printer is not recognised in Creality slicer so I will use Cura which after all that is where Creality got there source so that is another learning curve but I do have a head start as I found a list of Cura settings for PLA while looking at the net.
Some pictures of my printer area.
Ender3 V3 SE
Old and the New
The print was full height at one end but at the other the lower levels curved up from the plate with loads of spaghetti underneath indicating an adhesion issue.
I straightened the bracket using a square and the sensor appeared to be working fine when sensing the build plate when I started a print, but the nozzle has driven into the build plate no filament flowed and there are brass marks on the build plate.
I managed to get the V2 printer back to a working condition;
I replaced the bent bracket and the probe, the BL Touch looks a little out of square but it doesn't seem to affect the probing.
I went back to square 1 and loaded the original firmware and without the probe being in play I levelled the bed.
I started by using a "T" level and a bullseye level to roughly get the bed level, then proceeded to level the bed using the paper method.
This took a rather long time until I finally worked out that no matter how careful I was that when I moved the print head I actually put downward pressure on the Z axis and was changing it's the height so I was forever readjusting the knobs.
Reading many, many articles on levelling and watching hours of YouTube videos, I found a method that uses the printer controls to move the print head into the 4 corners to use the paper method that removes the risk of shifting the Z axis.
After a quick level up and then a Z offset adjustment I tried a test print, the nozzle hit the print in a couple of places and in a others all I got was a blob of plastic.
While watching the print a couple of times with similar results I deduced that the nozzle was to close to the bed so while it was printing I used "Live Adjustment" till I got a fairly good print.
I then loaded an stl file and printed it, it came out very good with a couple pieces of stringing but as I used the cheap Creality PLA that came with the printer all in all it was a good result.
While I was messing around with all this SWMBO suggested that I buy a new printer as I had been mucking around for days with this, so heeding her advice I ordered an Ender3 V3 SE from the local Jaycar (it only cost me a new ring so I got out of it well).
I had just finished the print when the phone rang and it was Jaycar telling me that my order had arrived.
So I now have a working V2 and an V3 assembled and waiting to go.
The ender3 V3 assembled in 20 minutes and solves the bed levelling issues once and for all and is comparatively faster than the V2 according the numerous reviews I read (Creality lists some outstanding specs for speed which most reviewers say the printer will not achieve but is an improvement over the V2).
https://worldoflilliputs.com/ender-3-v3 ... -3-v2-neo/
I am looking forward to printing heaps of stuff starting with a filament storage dry box using cereal storage containers.
Printables
www.printables.com
I was considering selling the V2 but I have reconsidered so for a while I will use it as a experimental machine with using Octoprint being the first project to be attempted.
I might upgrade it to twin Z axis drives in the future to overcome an issue of the Z axis being floppy at one end as it has no real support but I have to be careful not to go overboard with upgrades but a direct drive extruder would be nice.
The new printer is not recognised in Creality slicer so I will use Cura which after all that is where Creality got there source so that is another learning curve but I do have a head start as I found a list of Cura settings for PLA while looking at the net.
Some pictures of my printer area.
Ender3 V3 SE
Old and the New
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