So, you've got a new ender 3 or ender 3 based printer and no doubt are champing at the bit to
build it. In this video I'm going to run through most of the important parts of the build rather
than waste time making you watch me build it, so hopefully you can get the printer built right
first time without making any mistakes. No messing around, let's get right to it.
[1. Identify all your pieces.]
It's a very good idea to check over and make sure you have everything and you know what's
what before you start building. The manual is actually very good on the ender 3 compared to
the v2, which is strange, but there you go. Lay everything out either in the box,
on the desk, anywhere you have space and don't lose anything.
Note that the machine screw packets have the size written on them so there's no chance of picking
the wrong screw if you only open them when you need them and cross check with the instructions.
Let's have a quick run through the main parts of the printer - This is the bed.
Obviously. This design is a "bed slinger so the Y direction is assembled for you,
and here we have the hotend assembly dangling off it.
This part is the extruder assembly and it also is mounted onto the x direction
motor and is quite a confusing part but we'll cover that later.
These are the vertical bars of the frame because they're made of double width aluminium profile,
the horizontal ones are single width.
This is the screen assembly
And this is the power supply.
And finally we have the Z motor which controls the up and down.
Don't worry about any bits I've not shown, we'll get to that.
[2. Remove the bed ]
The ender comes with the bed attached presumably for easy packing and transport,
but it's important at this stage to take it off and put it safely
to one side out of the way, to avoid damaging it during build.
Just unclip it and put it and the clips somewhere away from screwdrivers and sharp stuff.
[3. twang your y belt]
Before you start anything just give the belt
a quick twang like this. If it sounds anything like this
it's fine. If it's floppy this is a good time to tighten it up. I will go into why
you don't have to be too accurate in a while, just make sure it's not loose and floppy.
[4. check power supply voltage ]
There's a switch here, I don't need to elaborate,
just make sure it's right especially if you imported your printer.
[5. Use the rails as support]
In the first steps you have to screw on the side rails. Use the horizontal ones
under the printer like this to keep it level and avoid crushing any of the rear wire assemblies.
[6. Don't crush wires ]
On that topic, keep your wires safe at all times. For example these ones under the PSU as they carry
a lot of power, don't pinch them or it could be a fire hazard, tuck them into the rail while
aligning the screws or use a shim or something. The display ribbon cable is also quite precarious
and not well protected so keep an eye on that every time you reposition the printer.
[7. Avoid scratches ]
I would advise also covering your desk in something like paper so that you don't
scratch it as I did because you have a lot of sharp corners during the build. Unfortunately
I thought about this one two steps too late.
[8. Don't peel the plastic! ]
Imagine how annoying it would be if you scratched this during the build. Nuff said.
[9. Keep the z stop loose]
This is the z stop sensor, it's a microswitch. These nuts are supposed to align when you
screw them but I find it easier to slide it down from the top,
but the actual tip here is to keep it loose until you are calibrating the bed because
you are likely to need to move it. [10. Assemble the Z things part 1 ]
The z motor and its screw are one of the biggest causes of problems with this
printer so proceed with this step with extreme caution. I advise you do it the way I have,
following the instructions but keeping everything loose. Keep the z motor very loose to start with.
Keep the z screw in its sleeve at all times before fitting
because it's very greasy and I'm not kidding.
Fit the z screw like this and don't tighten it completely.
We will come back to
the rest in a moment as per the manual. [11. The confusing alignment of the extruder]
identify the extruder assembvly by the barcode sticker and face it backwards away from you
Make sure you are holding the right bar and align it so the closer hole end is toward you.
Align this nut with this hole, then use these two screw holes to fix it to the assembly.
For this you will need to use the allen key because you have to put the screws
through another hole in the metal frame. This is possibly the most annoying step so take your time.
[12. Remember to slide the hotend on]
Before you put the other end on this bar you need to slide on the hotend. It should just
go straight on, make sure it's the right way up unless you're printing in zero g or something..
[13. Get the triangle the right way round]
Then you can put the other end on. This piece is notably asymmetrical
so make sure you have it the right way up! No tricks here but again align the large
hole in the frame with the nut that's sticking out and you can't go wrong.
[14. don't tighten the tensioner]
Keep this loose until the very end as there's actually a very important trick here, you'll see.
[15. Assemble the Z things part 2]
This bit again. You are now putting the whole x frame bar assembly thing onto the printer.
Align it like this and just rest it there on the top of the z screw like so.
Then turn the z screw anti clockwise to let it naturally fall into the assdembly.
Spin it with a piece of paper, see this is the grease I warned you about.
Don't get that on your hands as you dont' want to transfer it to the printer.
You now have the screw in the copper frame bit comfortably and without any tension,
you should not need to apply any torque for this to happen because everything is still
loose. If this is not happening then check your z screw is not excessively bent.
If it is then this is bad news, you will need a new one if you can't straighten it.
I can't stress how important it is that the screw and its corresponding thread must be
frictionless. Any friction here will cause print quality problems or worse.
This is the point where you need to tighten these two screws as shown, then let the bar
assembly ride down to halfway on the screw before fully tightening the motor to the frame.
When you've done all this you should still be able to move the z axis up
and down freely by hand without any effort at all, it should spin without any force.
[16. Eccentric nuts]
This step comes after fitting the belt which has no special tricks to it.
If you slide the hotend back and forth on its rail like so you may notice it feels like it
bumps now and then. If this happens you must adjust the eccentric nut on the bottom wheel
with the spanner. It doesn't matter which way you turn it, but make it looser so that the
carriage moves without sticking with any lumpy sensation as you move it.
I find it helpful to loosen it to the point where I can just about spin
the POM wheels by hand with a mmmmmm...moderate effort, that seems to be the right tension.
You should also do this on the two other axes at this point,
they all have the same eccentric nuts although the bed seems to have two. Adjusting so that
they just spin seems like the quickest way but check for lumpy sensations too.
If you don't do this I think over time the wheels will wear to fit but
it's better to get it right especially if it's really off as it was in mine.
[17. filament holder before frame screws]
As I mentioned earlier these nuts never seem to work for me as they should so just slide the frame
on before you put these screws in, pretty simple step will save some frustration.
[18. End cap on right only]
The manual says to put end caps on the top frame, but leave the left one off, because you're going
to need to put a filament guide on this end. If you have another printer then this is a
good time to print one, but it won't hurt to wait until you're done and print it.
[19. Keep the filament away from the screw]
What is important though is to not get the grease from the screw
onto the filament. You can print this piece, but if you don't have a printer yet,
just make a sleeve out of card or something to do the same job until you do. You don't
need to actually attach this piece, it works just fine as is, but you can screw it on if you want.
[20. Reattach bed and adjust the z sensor]
Once you've plugged everything in, this is the point where you can put the bed back on.
I clipped it like this, the hotend won't hit the clips this way.
First check the adjustment wheels are around the centre of travel,
then screw the hotend right down so the nozzle is just touching the bed.
Then you can slide the z-sensor so that the microswitch is just clicked on and tighten up.
You may wish to lower the bed using the wheels to give you more adjustment room when levelling.
[21. Now tension the x belt]
We left this loose until now. The trick here that I missed and had to come back to is you
need it to not scrape against the edge of the aluminium, as you can see after just an hour of
this, there's a mark on the belt, so it's easy to imagine the belt being cut within a
few hours. The simple solution is to tilt this piece downwards. Pull as hard as you can while
tightening these screws, it's not easy but again you're looking for a good "twang" of the belt,
exact tightness is not really necessary but too loose and it can skip whole teeth
which causes what we call "layer shifts" in the print. It's most important to be sure
this piece can't move too, just by tilting it slightly mid print I saw a layer shift.
[22. Calibrate the bed]
You're now just about ready to print. Calibrating the bed isn't hard but it's a whole topic of its
own. I suggest looking at my video that should be linked now on how to calibrate a bed properly,
the key to good printing is good calibration so it's worth
understanding how it works. As a footnote to this, because the bed is textured and not glass
it's more tolerant to bad calibration but the method is essentially the same.
That's it. You are now ready to print. I suggest trying the dog from the included sd card first,
because it's smaller than the cat, although be prepared for the included filament to be about
a meter too short for it to complete. Annoying. If you haven't already then make sure you buy
a 1kg reel of PLA to start with, I recommend any colour other than black, and avoid wood,
marble, glow in the dark until you are more knowledgeable, and even then wood is a pain.
Silk and shiny colours are fine though if you are a beginner as they
print pretty much the same as plain colours so feel free to try those.
Please like if the video was useful and if you want more tips then I suggest subscribing as I
already have a fair few videos around this topic and plenty more to come.
If this is your first printer then welcome to the 3d printing community
and I hope to see you in the next video. Thank you for watching!