3D Printer yet?

[bitwelder]

As the Ender 3 (Pro) has rather noisy fans, I've seen some projects that aim to replace the MeanWell PSU fan with a larger (and slower and hence quieter) one.
But because of larger hole needed, the original metal PSU cover has to be replaced by a 3D-printed one (e.g.  https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4503364 )

What do you think about this kind of mods (esp. safety-wise) ? Personally, I wouldn't feel 100% comfortable leaving a printer running for long time in that state.

[Flump]

I don't see why people get hung up on the noise 3D Printers make, my E3 is in the same room I live in which is about 15ft square
and when it's running I just go about my daily business which includes watching movies.
Maybe some fans are faulty but honestly my E3 is really unobtrusive when it's running.

Changing the fan and making new cover seems a lot of hassle for negligible drop in noise.

[Brumby]

Some people are naturally tolerant of high levels of ambient noise.  Others ... not so much.

Then there are the situations where tolerance is developed - such as when I first moved out of home.  That was into a unit which was on a major traffic thoroughfare that had a "Stop" sign 50m from the driveway.  The road wasn't the smoothest piece of bitumen and when empty dump trucks with dogs pulled up, the noise echoed.  These trucks and other traffic were a constant source of noise ... but I got used to it.

[xrunner]

It's a scale model 40 foot cube container for my N scale model railroad. They are used in so-called intermodal shipping (ships, trains, and trucks). If you didn't already know it, I have been working on my model RR for about two years now.

The model came out as perfectly as this machine can produce. In the pic behind the printed model you can see a model sold by Kato. it's a "high" cube " container which is 1 foot taller than the cube container - that's why it's a little higher. The Kato model goes for about $15 each. So the savings can add up very quickly. I'm going to print out a lot of these models - both standard and high cube - to stack up in the intermodal area I'm working on now.

[HobGoblyn]

There were two CR10 V2 available an hour ago, one has already gone,  I succumbed to temptation and got the other one   Cost me £15 more than the Ender 3 refund, couldn't resist

So now the question is, what are you getting yourself into with an open box one?

Yeah... let's hope NOT one that was returned for the same assache you just put to rest. 

mnem
If you're going to risk assache, at least try to make it a new assache.

Hehe. I would have got there in the end with the Ender 3, but I didn't see why I should be replacing parts, or spending hours more of my time just trying to get it to work right (not talking about tweaking Cura etc, I'm talking about when I run 5 point bed level a few times in a row, and some times it's spot on, and sometimes there's about 3mm gap)

I'm usually excellent at fixing things, just got to the point where after 50 odd days, and with only 2 weeks left to return it, returning it was the best course of action,  a replacement machine is a fresh start for me

Amazon is currently listing the CR10 V2 for £469 (I know it can be got a bit cheaper elsewhere), so paying £15 more than the £279 they refunded me for my Ender 3, even if I ended up having to replace a couple of bits, I doubt they would come anywhere near to the £175 price difference.

The description said quote "Like New - Item will come in original packaging. Packaging will be damaged". 

If I needed to, I can get the Vframe easy enough in the UK, just checked prices on one site and for 650mm upright it's £9.83, for 550mm that uprights screws into, it's only £8.32  (inc VAT + £2.63 postage), motors are available on Amazon for next day delivery for £10 etc.  And of course can probably get them much cheaper if I get elsewhere.

My point being, when I get a saving like this, I'm not too bothered if something is damaged as it's easily replaceable for very little money (already have brand new SKR V2 board,  TFT V3 screen and BLTouch).

I do have a spare creality glass bed though if anyone (in UK) wants it, used just for a couple of days while I did those level tests.

It's all the fault of sn4k3     I was happily learning my electronics hobby when I made a post about soldering iron tip stand and he said

My own design does that, not heat proof but the body that goes inside is cold and no damage is made to the plastic:

Also if you want you can use reflective tape to heat proof it easy

If you have a printer you can print yourself.

And i can customize spacing, rows, cols for you if you want

I'd always wanted a printer, but him saying that was what pushed me into getting one now 

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

@HobGoblyn save a few quid for a direct drive.

[HobGoblyn]

I don't see why people get hung up on the noise 3D Printers make, my E3 is in the same room I live in which is about 15ft square
and when it's running I just go about my daily business which includes watching movies.
Maybe some fans are faulty but honestly my E3 is really unobtrusive when it's running.

Changing the fan and making new cover seems a lot of hassle for negligible drop in noise.

Without the silent board, my ender 3 was very intrusive when watching TV. 

I agree about the fans though, mind you my PC has about 5 fans so I'm used to the noise

[HobGoblyn]

@HobGoblyn save a few quid for a direct drive.

Do you really see a £110 difference?  I was tempted to just get the Microswiss hot end and use my dual extruder (dual extruder worked really well on my Ender)

[Monkeh]

For that price you should at least get a proper geared one..

That kit won't fit a CR-10 V2 anyway.

[HobGoblyn]

Was just about to edit my post as I just saw on Amazon that the hotend kit doesn't fit the V2

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

There are a few to choose from, microswiss is the most expensive of them all.

[Monkeh]

There are a few to choose from, microswiss is the most expensive of them all.

.. actually, they're not, and that also doesn't equate to best.

[HobGoblyn]

Someones printed a bracket allowing you to move the extruder right over the hot end for the V2

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4032096

[mnementh]

As the Ender 3 (Pro) has rather noisy fans, I've seen some projects that aim to replace the MeanWell PSU fan with a larger (and slower and hence quieter) one.
But because of larger hole needed, the original metal PSU cover has to be replaced by a 3D-printed one (e.g.  https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4503364 )

What do you think about this kind of mods (esp. safety-wise) ? Personally, I wouldn't feel 100% comfortable leaving a printer running for long time in that state.

   Mmmhmmm... I'd be worried about SMPS EMI/switching noise escaping the enclosure with that metal gone more than anything.

It doesn't appear the removed cover on this particular unit is used as a heat-sink, so... "meh? It's your fingers, your risk to take...?"

mnem
 

[mnementh]

I don't see why people get hung up on the noise 3D Printers make, my E3 is in the same room I live in which is about 15ft square and when it's running I just go about my daily business which includes watching movies. Maybe some fans are faulty but honestly my E3 is really unobtrusive when it's running. Changing the fan and making new cover seems a lot of hassle for negligible drop in noise.

Some of us have a wife and kids who like to sleep, work in the office, be able to hear on the phone, etc.     As bad as the 30mm screamin' mimis that came on my Diggro were, the whine from those sources was much worse; in combination it was more than enough to make life miserable for me. Hence MY adventure with a Fang Layer cooler, etc... 

My net was 8-10dB drop, so NOT negligible. 

mnem
 

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

Someones printed a bracket allowing you to move the extruder right over the hot end for the V2

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4032096

That's a good thing for starters...

But later you will want a smaller stepper than that because after the conversion it's going to become an added dead weight on the carriage, but a smaller stepper has less torque => you want one that comes with a reduction gear (to multiply the torque of the now less torquey stepper), like for example a bondtech: https://www.bondtech.se/en/

There are many others, and copies too, in aliexpress, banggood etc.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cr10+direct+drive

[mnementh]

...If you're going to risk assache, at least try to make it a new assache.

Hehe. I would have got there in the end with the Ender 3, but I didn't see why I should be replacing parts, or spending hours more of my time just trying to get it to work right (not talking about tweaking Cura etc, I'm talking about when I run 5 point bed level a few times in a row, and some times it's spot on, and sometimes there's about 3mm gap)

I'm usually excellent at fixing things, just got to the point where after 50 odd days, and with only 2 weeks left to return it, returning it was the best course of action,  a replacement machine is a fresh start for me

Amazon is currently listing the CR10 V2 for £469 (I know it can be got a bit cheaper elsewhere), so paying £15 more than the £279 they refunded me for my Ender 3, even if I ended up having to replace a couple of bits, I doubt they would come anywhere near to the £175 price difference. The description said quote "Like New - Item will come in original packaging. Packaging will be damaged". 

If I needed to, I can get the Vframe easy enough in the UK, just checked prices on one site and for 650mm upright it's £9.83, for 550mm that uprights screws into, it's only £8.32  (inc VAT + £2.63 postage), motors are available on Amazon for next day delivery for £10 etc.  And of course can probably get them much cheaper if I get elsewhere.

My point being, when I get a saving like this, I'm not too bothered if something is damaged as it's easily replaceable for very little money (already have brand new SKR V2 board,  TFT V3 screen and BLTouch).

I do have a spare creality glass bed though if anyone (in UK) wants it, used just for a couple of days while I did those level tests.

It's all the fault of sn4k3     I was happily learning my electronics hobby when I made a post about soldering iron tip stand and he said:

My own design does that, not heat proof but the body that goes inside is cold and no damage is made to the plastic: Also if you want you can use reflective tape to heat proof it easy If you have a printer you can print yourself.And i can customize spacing, rows, cols for you if you want

I'd always wanted a printer, but him saying that was what pushed me into getting one now 

LOL.... that sounds pretty much EXACTLY like my own journey down the rabbit-hole... now on it's 5th... woops, 6th iteration with the CR6-SE. 

Absolutely agree... I thought you'd long ago gone past "the point of no returns". If you can save yourself the assache of trying to re-engineer a effed-up kit because of inferior materials just by exercising the right to return... which you DO pay a premium for on Amazon... then for shit's sake, DO IT.

I'll be honest... the fact it came from and was fulfilled by Amazon for USD$190 was the single biggest selling point on my Diggro... Well, okay, the "Oooooh, shiny..." factor of the touchscreen and smooth-face extrusion WERE what first caught my eye, but without Amazon's liberal return policy, I'd NEVER have taken the risk on a nobody-name kit-maker like Longer.

I was VERY pleasantly surprised by one thing: The quality, fit & finish of that new extrusion. THAT was 100% Longer 3D; they made a simple, reasonably rigid frame that assembled square & true with a minimum of assache, and looks good doing it.  After that, my continuing adventures were really just tinker-dwagon fucking-around and me wanting more from it than the designers ever intended. 

mnem
 

[HobGoblyn]

Someones printed a bracket allowing you to move the extruder right over the hot end for the V2

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4032096

That's a good thing for starters...

But later you will want a smaller stepper than that because after the conversion it's going to become an added dead weight on the carriage, but a smaller stepper has less torque => you want one that comes with a reduction gear (to multiply the torque of the now less torquey stepper), like for example a bondtech: https://www.bondtech.se/en/

There are many others, and copies too, in aliexpress, banggood etc.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cr10+direct+drive

Most wont fit the VR10 V2, I spent a while googling for CR10 direct drives and none I found were suitable for the V2 except for the one Creality sells, I will watch those vids later though.

I've discovered the V2 hot end is a clone of https://e3d-online.com/products/v6-all-metal-hotend

The one Creality sells is https://www.creality3dofficial.com/products/creality-titan-extruder-direct-drive-for-cr-10-v2?variant=31607172366409

[HobGoblyn]

I believe it was Covid that caused Amazon UK to announce that they had extended the return of all purchases to July 31st.

I placed an order on 10th Feb that said return date was 11th March, I and my wife have ordered loads since 15th Feb and everything had a return date of July 31st.  Orders since July are back to their 30 days

[mnementh]

Yeah, multiple stories like this one are why I've never personally been too keen on "Titan quality".  Making a load-bearing part of brittle plastic, and not changing the design when it proves problematic, is not my idea of customer responsiveness.

mnem
 

[Monkeh]

Yeah, multiple stories like this one are why I've never personally been too keen on "Titan quality".  Making a load-bearing part of brittle plastic, and not changing the design when it proves problematic, is not my idea of customer responsiveness.

mnem
 

They did change the design, the plastic wasn't actually the problem. It's not brittle. In the end they did change it to a different plastic, also not brittle.

[mnementh]

There is just so much bad engineering there... it makes me cringe. Big bearing bore, thin walls, screws that hold the entire weight of the assembly going through it and no metal reinforcements... needs twice that mass in plastic, and even then would still probably break under some people's heavy hand.

The right way to fix it would be a CNC AL plate with a peephole where the filament goes between the pinion/roller. Done and done, plus you can tighten it enough to keep from shaking loose without worrying about grenading the plastic. But then, once you start CNC-ing, you start thinking about the lever, and the base, and... 

mnem
Bah. I'm with Brumby... time to take up knitting.

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

It only takes two straps, one in X + one in Y, to hold the pinion axis. IOW there's more than plenty enough plastic in there, too much, it's excessive, most of it is useless.

[Monkeh]

There is just so much bad engineering there... it makes me cringe. Big bearing bore, thin walls, screws that hold the entire weight of the assembly going through it and no metal reinforcements... needs twice that mass in plastic, and even then would still probably break under some people's heavy hand.

The right way to fix it would be a CNC AL plate with a peephole where the filament goes between the pinion/roller. Done and done, plus you can tighten it enough to keep from shaking loose without worrying about grenading the plastic. But then, once you start CNC-ing, you start thinking about the lever, and the base, and... 

mnem
Bah. I'm with Brumby... time to take up knitting.

.. but they didn't break because of being brittle (again, it's not a brittle material) or people being heavy handed, they broke because the bearing lubricant attacked the plastic.

[HobGoblyn]

It's here yay.

Just built it, only just fits in (that's with me moving 2nd monitor back), and have to put filament holder the wrong way around (else filament reel will hit printer), which means putting something heavy on the electronics box to stop it tipping.

What would be nice would be to have filament holder mounted say on top of printer, and lengthen the cables on the box, then I could move printer to left of table, have screen on right and be able to easily view my 2nd monitor.

Here's where I'm at, now to start levelling and do a test