On today's episode I'm going to show you a few tricks on how to properly assemble
your ender 3 3d printer right here at filament friday this video is brought to
you by these patreon supporters the first thing I recommend is take
everything out of the box lay it out on the table so you can see it and then you
can easily assemble it you don't want to be pulling stuff out of the box you may
lose something or grab the wrong part it does come with an illustrated manual
it's really just one sheet with a bunch of decent pictures but the most
important is it gives you a picture of all the parts that you need to assemble
it so you can verify you got everything out of the box and you're ready to build
the first thing you want to look at is the main assembly which is the bed or
the base of your 3d printer it also has the hot end connected to the electronics
but you want to check the bed to see if it's loose like this one that was the
best time to adjust this bed before you assemble anything else to it so we're
just gonna flip this over like this get the electronics to the side and pull
this back and now we can get access to the two wheels that we need to tighten
if I move this you can see it's really wobbly and these are the two adjustable
wheels they're on eccentric nuts so as we turn those the center will actually
offset into the rail they give you a wrench to fit those just put it on and
turn it until it's tight not too tight but you'll feel it snug up and you want
to go counterclockwise to do this and then once those are tight it slides
pretty easy back and forth and no wobble so we're ready to go to the next step so
I flipped the bed back over and the first thing I recommend you do is take
this top material off this is actually your printing bed and it's held on by
four clips just take those clips off and you can set all this aside we're now to
step one of the manuals so everything I showed you was just suggestions and they
recommend you mount these two uprights but this is where I differ
I say you mount only one upright to start and the one on the
electronic side because this is the main upright that the arm will mount to that
the stepper motor will go to this needs to be perfectly straight so we're going
to use a square to mount this and focus all assembly here this upright is just a
secondary operate so we're gonna set that aside for now I got the base on the
side and this is the arm I want to mount to it the one with the two holes at the
bottom is the arm you want to put on this side of the base and there's two
screws that go on the bottom there m5 forty-fives you'll find them in your
pack of screws and you want to hand tighten them into the aluminum extrusion
don't use the wrench yet just hand tighten them and then as they get a
little stiffer you can use the wrench to turn them in a little bit further but
you want to keep this loose so we can put a square out here and make sure
everything is perfectly square as we tighten it up this is where it's nice to
have the tools I'm a big speed square that I've got a clamped to the upright
and also to the base so this way it's 90 degrees perfectly this direction and
then as far as the side-to-side I took one of the aluminum extrusions that came
with it and I clamped it to the side so it lines up with the bass and the side
of this so it should be 90 degrees on this side as well so now that
everything's clamped up I can just tighten those two screws and this
upright should be perfect next I recommend installing the stepper motor
and this requires 2 m4 screws and you'll find those in a bag and this is totally
out of order from the manual but I recommend you install this put the two
screws in but don't tighten them up just get them to where they're in place and
then this motor isn't going anywhere but it's loose and then we're gonna install
the stop switch and it's got two t- nuts and it's got a little lip that
stops it from going too far line up the t-nuts slide it down to that lip and
then I recommend tightening the bottom one so that way you know what tightens
up which it didn't do on this one so I can loosen it up and then as you tighten
it it's supposed to twist and go into place
so now it's holding in the top one I can actually see a twist so I can see if
that one there just twisted that ones in place so these you can tighten up but
we're gonna probably loosen those and adjust them in a little bit when we get
the gantry level so I still like to tighten those up so it's ready to go
next step is actually step five in the manual where we mount the aluminum
extrusion to the bracket that has the extruder motor and the x-axis motor and
there's two screws you got to access them it's kind of awkward you got to
stick them in here and screw them into this guy what I recommend you do is you
tighten the first one and then the second one you just have it loose
because this rod will actually pivot and it's hard to see it here but if I mount
it where it's gonna go right here and I can't put all the way into the screws
there but you can see though just a little movement here produces a big
movement over here and that's really critical because it has to be leveled to
the bed you'll level the bed but you want this as perpendicular to this bar
as possible so the easiest way to do that is to like I said tighten that
first screw and then pivot this so the top of the extrusion is even with the
top of this bracket and then once you have it tight what you can do is
actually check it with a square put a square in here you can't get it all the
way up to let it touch but you can eyeball it to see if it looks level and
if it's actually a little bit high on this side that's okay because the hot
end and there's gonna be another bracket that'll go on here
so the weight of that will slightly say get but it's best to get that as
perfectly flat as possible and then tighten that second screw would you have
to go through this hole tighten it up and then you're ready to go once you got
this assembled then we're gonna slide it over the bar and there's an eccentric
nut right here on this wheel that we can adjust and if some loose or doesn't go
on smoothly you can adjust it with that same wrench you adjusted the bed and
just tighten it up now don't be afraid to tighten a little
too much because this will wear in a little bit but it needs to be smooth and
not loose and here's something else that the instructions don't show you once you
put it all the way down check the front of your bed pull it all the way back and
check the front of the bed if it's parallel to this bar now even though we
put a square on this and try to square everything up this bar can still twist a
little bit while you're tightening the screws and you'll see it now I'm going
to show you here this is an absolute worst case where it's way off I
purposely did that and then here's mine which is nice and square you see it's
lining up with the screws so if you need to twist this just loosen the screws on
the bottom here and then twist it to where it needs to be and tighten those
screws and then recheck the squareness just to make sure that they can get
thrown off we got it moving smoothly so now I'm going to rest it down on the
switch you can hear it click and then I'm going to come in here now I'm going
to tighten these screws on the motor we left them loose before now is a good
time to tighten them up and you can eyeball the hole right here where the
threaded rod goes and you should see it lines up with this but the best way to
do it it just put the threaded rod end and it should naturally just fall into
place if they're lined up it'll go right in and you're all set
if it doesn't if it's hitting then you may have to shim the motor here or
loosen this tea nut and it can slide a little bit left and right but mine's
lined up pretty good because it goes right in now you want to make sure that
the threaded rod is all the way into the coupling and then take the allen wrench
and tighten this screw so the coupling is tight against that threaded rod and
now the motor can lift the gantry step six they have you install the belt with
the teeth going inside around the motor and I like to throw these aside I like
to test the carriage and this is where it's nice to have the threaded rod in
place because I can put this at any level but the assembly here the hot end
needs to be smooth but not loose and there is an eccentric nut here that you
can adjust to make it tighter or looser I got mine really nice no wobble so this
is ready so now I need to take the belts and the bottom one just hangs but the
top one goes inside the channel and then you want the brass to go down so it goes
into the bracket and it goes down so you don't want to rub it against the metal
here so that one's in place now you want to pull this ahead actually pull it back
this wheel is going to go right over the top of that belt and I want to get it on
then you can pull this and put the other one in its spot and now we're ready to
install the end piece the M piece has a bearing and two T nuts similar to the
switch that's over here so this just slides over the belt and then you put
those T nuts right into the rail they should pop in place if you had them
lined up and then what I like to do is just tighten the back one and make sure
the T knot is spinning and gripping but don't tighten it all the way so it's
gripping then take the smaller allen wrench and just come in here and just
pry a little bit just to get a little bit of force on it so I grab it on both
sides and just pull and then I tighten that first two nut now you want to make
sure the belt is tight and also equally spaced on both sides so you may have to
angle this a little bit so just move the bracket up or down just loosen this
second one up or down to get that belt tight and also even on both sides so if
this bracket is going upwards slightly don't worry about it you just don't want
the belts rubbing now you may be wondering why I didn't follow the manual
and I took you through these steps it's because I want to get you here this is
really the core of your 3d printer you've got your upright which is
perfectly perpendicular this arm is perfectly level it's even with the bed
this is the core of your ender 3 3d printer you get this portion
right and everything else is just support this really could be in the 3d
printer this is like an ender 2 which had an articulating arm like this you
can actually almost print with it like this and the LCD hookup the electronics
in print away but we will add the other parts but that's why I wanted to
assemble it this way so you make sure that these parts are perfectly square
now let's finish the rest of the assembly so here's the second upright
and this is the bracket that will go on the crossmember now is a good time to
check this eccentric turnout here is it smooth and you can easily adjust it here
make it smooth and not wobbly so I got mine set so now I can install this
upright and this step Rex can you install three pieces at once one is the
bracket that goes to the crossmember there's two screws one on the inside one
on the outside and the one on the inside I tightened and made the bracket flush
with the beam the crossmember beam the outer screw here is still slightly loose
and then I put the upright in place with two bolts they're loose and I put a
speed square to square it all up this a little bit smaller one that I use before
and you want to make sure that the holes in this upright are on the inside
there's one down here at the bottom and one right here I want to make sure
those are on the inside because that's where the power supply goes and then you
have this up or crossmember here and I've got these screws just finger tight
into their slots will tighten these up last so the first thing I'm going to do
is tighten this screw once everything looks point up then I'll tighten the two
bottom ones and then we'll try the movement of this up and down and finish
tightening these tops now I can move this real smoothly I don't feel any
bumps or resistance other than the threaded rod spinning over here so I'll
leave it right there and then I'll tighten these four screws this is what I
call the silver screw section because you've got two silver screws that go
through the upright into the power supply so the plug goes out the wires go
in and then you have your LCD the wire connects to connector exp three it's
keyed so you can only put it in one way but it's the third slot and then there's
two more silver screws use the mount to the front here before you proceed you
check your hot end if you push down on this white couple and you should be able
to pull the PTFE tube out make sure there's no leftover plastic fill them in
in there and then what you want to do is push this all the way down till you feel
it bottom that means it's hitting the nozzle you don't want any gap between
this and the nozzle I felt it hit really hard and then they
give you these little blue plastic clips put one on there and that should lock it
in place there's also a coupling they give you that screws into the extruder
here at the back just hand tighten that because you'll take that on and off all
the time when you're loading filament then take the PTFE tube stick it in
until it goes all the way in you feel it bottomed out and then take a smaller
blue clip put it on that coupling lock it in place the wiring is pretty
straightforward you've got this big loom that goes to the hot end that just clips
here onto the extruder and then you've got a Z connector for the Z motor that
snaps in place here and then you have this multi connector cable it's got an X
for the X switch which is in here so that goes in there and you might have to
use the pliers to reach that and then there's an X stepper motor that goes
under here and then the e or extruder that goes right into this guy right
there the last connection is the power connection here these two just snap in
place and then I'm going to tie strap that to the base I also use some tie
strips over here I got one down here at the bottom one on the middle and one up
top and brought this all the way up to make sure that it's not snagging
anything and then the bed wiring just stays loose for the instructions I mount
the spool holder on top with two screws and t-nuts
I like to put it on the side with a 3d print as you see in some of the machines
back here but to start just mount it as they have it on top now they do give you
a small monofilament but I suggest you get your own filament spool put it on
there and then feed it through the extruder I like to unscrew the PTFE tube
it's easier to slide it through and then slip it on here that's why I said just
hand tighten this and then once that's hand tighten then you can
push the lever and push the filament little rest away through all the way to
the nozzle depending on where you live you want to make sure you have the right
voltage setting there's a switch here at sets of 230 if you slide it up 115 if
you slide it down so in the US where I live I want to slide that down to 115 so
I just use the allen wrench push the switch down if you're outside the US
leave it up for 230 there's one more connection I forgot and that's the Z
switch that's right over here snaps in place and now we're ready to power this
up I put the bed material back on with the little clips lined everything up
plugged it in and now we're ready to power up and then we'll go to the
prepare menu and then auto home and that's gonna move everything and home
the hot end and that'll tell us that the XY & z motors are all working and all
the switches are working so I'll power it up it takes a few seconds if you
don't see the LCD light-up check your connection it should be on the exp 3 not
2 or the 1 and then you just click by pushing down on the button scroll down
to prepare push on the button click on auto home and now you can see that it
lifts it up a little the X is moving it's gonna hit and switch and stop the
bed's moving back it's a switch to stop and now it's gonna go down hit the
switch on the side and stop now if you want to move it to but the motors are
all powered so you can shut it off or you can go disable under the prepare
menu but I'm just going to shut it off after you shut it off then you can
adjust the nozzle so it's just above the adjustment knob then take a piece of
paper slide it underneath it and adjust the nava till the paper just barely rubs
against the nozzle do that at each adjustment knob and you should be ready
to print now I have a full video showing how to properly level your bed I'll link
to it at the end of the video I also have some videos on using the cure
slicer and some pure profiles linked in description below to help you get
started I've also got some sample prints like my chap cube I hope this helps you
get your under 3 assembled properly so you have success 3d printing right out