Well, Now I've Done It.....

I got a Creality Ender 3. Just the standard model.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07D18L9K6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hopefully they upgraded to using Meanwell power supplies. On both my Ender 5 and Ender 5+ the power supplies in both started to stink after a while. The power supply that comes with them is literally 1/2 the weight of a genuine meanwell power supply.

No silent board in that version. Silent board has more memory and has better thermal runaway features enabled in the Marlin firmware.

Can use as is and there is a ton of web support for it.


I would do this to it:

replace the power supply with a meanwell if it doesn't have one.

Replace the bowden extruder with a direct drive one. Direct drive is the only way to go. Less headaches with them. Creality metal double gear extruder is ok.

Put on an all metal microswiss hot end. Can print with hotter temps with them.

Add a BLtouch for bed leveling

Upgrade the controller board with one from Big Tree Tech. 32 bit and has plenty of memory for all the features of Marlin. Plus it has the option for silent stepper drivers.

But that's just me. I've been printing for 7 years.

Thank you Jason for the tips and advice. As of now, I know absolutely nothing about these things, but am sure I will learn more once I get it and start using it. I have saved your comments for future use, and will do some research into them so I may get an understanding of the parts and things you are talking about. But for now, in all honesty, I will probably try it out as it is just for learning, then maybe replace some stuff as I go along. Thanks again for all this.

Congratulation on the way to new technology , I understand the happy/scared thing at the same time , but i feel you will get alot of fun from it and a learning curve also

NEW222 wrote:Thank you Jason for the tips and advice. As of now, I know absolutely nothing about these things, but am sure I will learn more once I get it and start using it. I have saved your comments for future use, and will do some research into them so I may get an understanding of the parts and things you are talking about. But for now, in all honesty, I will probably try it out as it is just for learning, then maybe replace some stuff as I go along. Thanks again for all this.

You will find that you have more friends now. I pestered Jason who saved my bacon often with printed fuel tanks, figures, suspensions, etc. etc,

Print one of these. Tasty,

rsv1cox wrote:Print one of these. Tasty,

Wow that does look good, whatever it is. Ok, what is it? To me lt looks like the mother of all homemade deep dish pizza! Ok, I now see I think it is a pecan pie?

But funny you mention to 'print one of these'. Had a good chuckle as I saw this asked on the questions of a 3d printer.....

Ya, pecan pie. I'm not a cook, witness the crust but I made it from scratch. Just finished a batch of brownies'. Brownies and vanilla ice cream.....

rsv1cox wrote:

Ya, pecan pie.  I'm not a cook, witness the crust but I made it from scratch.  Just finished a batch of brownies'.  Brownies and vanilla ice cream.....

Looks good enough to eat, to me!! Warm Brownies and Ice Cream, mmmm, Reminds me of my FIL’s birthday party when I was just dating his daughter.  chocolate cake W/ chocolate frosting and vanilla ice cream was served, his (and my) favorite. I took a fork to my serving and mashed up the cake stirred in the vanilla ice cream to a well mixed, slurry. “WHAT YA DOING TO MY CAKE” he says! My response was to get the perfect amount of cake and ice cream all at once by the forkfull! Yup, he ate his cake and ice cream the same way from then on!!  This was years before DQ came up with the “blizzard “.

Here’s what’s left of an Apple pie, made last night by my wife..

So just a quick basic question for those that may know. What would one recommend for a free program/software for starting out with deigning for 3d printing. I have no experience with any designing software. I do not plan on doing a lot of designing, and am sure I will not ever come close to being able to design things like some on here! Just something simple to start out. Thanks again.

Fusion360 eliminated the hobbiest license so that’s out.

I use tinkercad. It’s web based and free. It allows you to edit basic shapes to create parts.

Can download all kinds of stuff to print from Thingiverse.

For slicing software I use Prusa Slic3r. It’s based on Slic3r but with added features. It’s a free download. I tried cura but didn’t like the way it generated support.

Thank you Jason again very much for your time and help. After I posted, I had been playing with Tinkercad and just finished playing with Cura. I will look at the Prusa one as well to see how I find it. Right now, I do feel a lot overwhelmed about this whole situation. Tried designing wheels like you had done and well, I never got anywhere yet. Looking like Thingsverse will be my 'go-to'. I will have to figure out how to do it one day though as I need a new plastic firewall for my Carbon Cub. I have th eoriginal, but have to learn how to draw it on the computer or I will just end up buying another one....

Well, off to look on Thingsverse for Cox engine stands...... Gotta justify the purchase somehow. The only other thing I am not fond of is having it print all day while nobody is at home. But I guess they all do, and it is just a part of life.

Going to try this as a first designing project. The mount for my Carbon Cub....

Todays experience netted me zero results. Trying different things so far without luck. The Cub is back together and is working so no longer need that firewall. So today I have been trying to make/design a 'spacer' for Cox horseshoe backplate mounts without a choke tube. This is just for bringing it out 2 -3 mm so the rear air intake does not sit against a firewall. I am just trying to replicate a flat copy of the outline of an original horseshoe backplate. This designing thing is not easy, but will definately keep trying as this is something that I feel would be nice to have. With the shipping being delayed as many here are also experiencing, I just may have the backplate design ready sometime in 2021!

I now have found a whole new respect for those that can design such complicated things with a computer to print. Not that I did not already respect them, but after trying it myself, wow!

Stay tuned for further updates as I make progress. Hopefully.....

Well, I think I may have something now. A bit crude, but will hopefully work and make do. The only thing I could not figure out though is how to round the corners, so I left them square which is no big deal to either trim off, file round, or even leave them as is. Unfortunately though, I will have to wait patiently to print it so it is currently untested.....

Picture is actually upside down. The groove in the center is the bottom for both air for the intake and extra room for the fuel tubing.

At the side bar click basic shapes and select all under shape generators. There is meta fillet on page 12.

Size the radius you need. Align to the corner you want rounded using the align tool. Convert to hole then group to round the corners.

Great, thank you very much for your help. It is greatly appreciated. Now off to try it!

Well, that went pretty well. Hopefully my measurements worked out with the radiuses..... If not, I may just need to make them 1mm bigger on the top. Only time will tell. Wish I had it here so I could try the design out already. Anxiously waiting. Now to try out different things. I guess if ya screw it up, just start again!

Thank you very much for your time and help Jason.

Well, I just spent another couple plus hours here playing with an engine mount for the TD .049 and such engines. Took measurements off of an old one I had here Now hopefully this will also be a useful or workable design. Getting slightly better with the Tinkercad, I hope.

If anyone wants the file to try and print one of these, I am willing to share. But be forewarned, this has not been tested, so no guarantees. But it looks good.

I have also just done this with another little 'tweak' if you may as I know absolutely nothing yet about 3d printing and how it works. In the first mount, the beams were incorporated from the base up through to the ends. And on teh second one, I raised the beams to 'sit' atop the base, then scaled it back to the correct length again. I just did this as I am not sure if when printing that the printer would print it all as one piece, or would it print it out in the 'sections' (base and 2 beams) that are composed into it. Only time will tell. And now time for a break.

Seems like you are doing very well up to this point, NEW222. I think all go through a learning curve, speaking of which, I saw a few 3D baked pies being posted as well.

You can put the holes in for the engine mount screws. It will bridge that small gap no problem. I can print what you have now to test it out. I’ll send you a PM.

I can honestly and safely say that I would not be here typing right now if it was not for the great help from Jason. It is the main reason I am able to share pictures of something I had drawn up/designed.