Help starting out

[Mjrk95]

Hi everyone,


first post post here and I知 looking for some advice,

im looking on amazon uk and see quite a few 3D printers for ｣250 or less and really want to buy one, I know for that price it wont be the best and with have some or many cons but I would like to get something that will do a decent print for a beginner,

any help would be appreciated thankyouuuiu

[martinyazz]

I would recommend the Geeetech Prusa i3 if you like to build from scratch or the Anycubic i3 mega if you want a simple build. I started with the Geeetech but you will find as I have that it will take a few months of upgrades and tinkering before you will get a perfect print.

[Mjrk95]

I was stuck between the geeetech prusa i3 and the Comgrow Creality Ender 3, would you recommend the prusa over the ender 3, what upgrades did you have to do before you were satisfied with your prints?

Thankyou for the reply

[martinyazz]

I don稚 know the ender 3 but it seems to get good reviews.

The main change I did was to change the z axis lead screws as the ones supplied were just long bolts. They made a big difference to the print quality and I would say I was happy at that point.

I really enjoyed the building process as you have to assembly virtually every nut and bolt and this took me a good 10 hours. Other changes I have made since are I have altered it to a Bowden type setup and have made a new bed with an ultrabase. I have also changed the extruder to an e3d metal one.

[Mjrk95]

Ended up getting the prusa and took me roughly 9-10 hours to build over the weekend, it was a fun experience building but was such a long experience I just wanted it done by the end tbh haha, had a couple prints out of it now only small ones, not the best quality but I知 still learning about all the settings, hopefully will get a decent print soon, I知 not going to upgrade anything to much on it yet I just want to sort the setting out at the moment get a decent print then start upgrading, do you have any advice on the settings side of things, I知 contantly changing the settings but just seem to be getting bad prints ?

[Mjrk95]

Where did you buy your z axis lead screws btw ?

[martinyazz]

Oh nice one. Are you using Repetier host ? I generally use the CureEngine slicer on standard settings. I changed the 0.3mm nozzle which came with the printer to a 0.4mm as this seems a good compromise and seems less prone to blocking. I find a 60deg bed and 210deg extruder works best for me and the pla AMZ3D white for most things as it works a treat.
I got some Muxsam 300mm t8 lead screws from Amazon ｣13ea but beware you will have to change the steps/mm in the firmware settings as the new ones have 4 starts instead of 1 which means for every turn of the stepper motor the z will move 4x greater distance but it is a simple calculation to put in the firmware.
When you say bad prints what problems are you having. Have you done the 3dbenchy test yet?
martin

[martinyazz]

Also I use 0.2mm layer height for 90% of prints and the other thing I forgot to mention was to add a part cooler to the head. You can print one. This is really important if you don稚 have one.