On today's episode I'm going to show you three simple prints to upgrade your
Ender three one of them helps prevent your extruder from wearing out and I'm
also gonna use a little Tinkercad to make it easier to install so you don't
have to buy any extra hardware and I'll show you two other prints that are
really handy so stay tuned I'll show you all of it on today's Filament Friday
Filament Friday is brought to you every week
by these patreon supporters. One of the features of the Ender 3 I don't like is
a spool holder on top it's added weight when you have a really full spool but
more importantly it's the angle of this filament. It's being pulled at a hard
angle at the extruder. Now I tried this on my CR 10 and it didn't take long before I
figured out that it's cutting into the extruder arm. I had a nice groove cut
into that thing and it was resisting movement and so I said let's move it
back to where it is on the side and that's what I'd like to do here move the
filament over here on the side so it's straight into the extruder and therefore
less resistance now it does make the printer a little bit wider but it's much
better for the printer in the long run because I'm not gonna wear out the
extruder arm but I needed to mount this bracket on an angle and I found this one
on Thingiverse it's the Ender three side spool mount by
user DrStreet this bracket is a nice design and it mounts perfectly
right here to the back of the machine but it requires a screw in a t nut for
both the side and the top although the top one is really the main one and then
you need two more screws and two flat nuts to hold the bracket to this and if
you don't have the T nuts and screws I'll put a link to this kit or these two
kits right up here they're very handy to have in the shop but you probably spent
enough for Christmas and so what I want to try to do is see if I could just use
the two screws and T nuts that hold this to the rail and a little 3d printing to
make this fit without any screws so let's import this into Tinkercad and
I'll show you how I modified it to make it work on the Ender three. Tinkercad dot
com is a free software for doing this. I imported the STL file in and then
there's two cutouts here for the nuts and then two holes to make the screws
fit easier and you can see where I'm cutting it
when I make this into invisible mode here and then here's the piece that's
actually gonna slide into the 2020 rail so then when I make this solid again and
I group all these together the cutouts are gonna make the holes bigger and it's
gonna join that little triangular piece and I have my bracket so this is what I
did in TinkerCAD brought it in to Cura printed out a point two layer height 50%
fill 200 degrees temperature 60 degrees on the bed 60 millimeters per second with
a skirt I click prepare and it said it would only take one hour and 34 minutes
to print when you're designing a custom 3d print like this there's a little
trick only print part of it I've printed just enough so I could test this on the
rail make sure everything fit that way I didn't waste a bunch of plastic and find
out the thing didn't fit if you do that two or three times it becomes a real
pain plus the time you lose so I just print a little thin piece like that test it
and that way I know when I do the final print it's gonna fit. Now to install it
the first step is to remove the old spool holder and then take those T nuts
off and slide them into the new slots that I made in the park and you can see
the holes line right up and so now I just need to put the bracket against it
and slightly tighten the screws so it holds and then flip this over and finish
tightening the screws all the way so this bracket and the spool holder become
one so now it's ready to be installed on the machine so I pop off the little
black plastic cap that covers the end of the extrusion this is on the ender
three pro that's why it looks a little bigger and it slides right on
it'll work on the Ender three or the ender three Pro then I put the cap back on
and now let's test it so the filament spool fits nicely you can bring the
filament in straight into the extruder no rubbing on the arm right into the
gear and into the PTFE tubing I'm sure some people were worried about the
filament hitting the threaded rod it really doesn't but here's a guide just in
case it is it's really for a CR 10 but it fits the Ender three just the same
it's got this little loop that you flip over the filament and then it just snaps
in place no screws or nothing required the filament will rub against it so it
defeats the purpose a little bit. I don't think you really need it but some people
will want it that's why I included it and you can print a new one if it ever
gets too worn. another print that I highly recommend is
this extruder knob by user tech boner and it's got a flat spot here to match
the flat spot on an extruder arm this should be able to just push right on you
shouldn't have to lower your gear you could if you want but it just pushes on
with plenty enough grip and now I can easily move this filament in and out
very very handy three very simple prints to take you from this to this and I
really like it but what do you guys think let me know in the comments below
if you like what I'm doing here check out some of these videos that are
popping up if you want to help support the channel just buy through the
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else click on that CHEP logo and subscribe I probably won't see you
before Christmas so have a Merry Christmas but I will see you before the
end of the year so I'll see you next time right here at Filament Friday