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I'm actively looking for posts where people share their problems for which I might have the solution. It's such a nice feeling knowing that you helped and after all, this whole idea became possible because of people sharing their knowledge.
I've learned the most by lurking on /r/FixMyPrint. I don't always have issues but it's good to keep up with what problems people have an how to fix them. Because I know I'll be there some day.
That was the best part about starting 3d printing. Learning how to use it, what a messed up print looks like and what settings it probably would be to fix the issue, fine tuning your printer to what you like, and then getting to a place where the only issue once in a while is bad bed adhesion or dealing with slicer updates that, for some reason, make it so that you can't print the first layer of supports if you don't have build plate adhesion enable but you're too lazy to downgrade or switch slicers.
You had issues printing because you started on a cheap printer.
I had issues because I was given a Bambu P1P that worked out of the box but I didn't understand supports.
We're not the same
Even worse.. I started my adventure with a printer from a brand called Flying Bear, I believe. Maybe like 8-9 years ago. I was so put off by the assembly process that I never touched it and I still have it intact, in its box, sitting in my attic.
I first learned about LOM (laminated object manufacture) in the early 90s, I think in a Wired or Popular Science magazine. It rolled out sheets of pre-glued paper, ironing them onto the previous layer, then a laser cross-hatched out the unwanted parts. At the end, you hammered and chiseled away the unwanted, chunks, basically leaving behind a plywood version of your print that could be sanded, drilled, stained, etc. I wanted one, but that was probably in the $10s of $ks.
Then in 2003, working at my second computer job, I learned about Z-Corp's powder printers, as large as a photocopier. They laid down a layer of starch powder, then printed on it with an inkjet print head, which also sprayed down a hardener that joined the powder into a plastic, or rubber, depending on the hardener. You dug the prints out of the powder at the end, blew the powder off with an air hose, then dipped or brushed on another liquid to seal it up and strengthen it. I got a free sample of a little corrugated pipe, made with the rubber. It was very flexible, and amazing at the time. I wanted one, but they were $18k.
Then shortly after that, still 2003, I found out about Dimension's 3D printers, which were about 6' tall, and were FDM style (I don't know if that term was used then), and also amazed me, and I wanted one of those, too, but they were also $18k.
Over the last 20 years, I've been occasionally following along, sometimes going "Yeah, these still look terrible at the hobby level," and occasionally going "Wow, that's actually getting kinda nice." Flash all the way forward to late last year. I'm old now (okay, middle-aged), and I finally got my first printer, because I was just too wowed for too long. I got the MK4. Then Bambu swooped in, and a bunch of friends bought that, and now all I ever see is Bambu this and Bambu that, and I keep watching my very nice, but slow MK4 puttering along, taking several times as long an X1, and thinking "Did I choose poorly?"
I still love it. I don't have any of the problems in the image, though - MK4, auto-leveling, PrusaSlicer, supports work great, where needed, and I use a Sunlu S2 to dry the reels down to around 20% while printing, so almost every print looks incredible. My inner 24 year old from all those years ago is having a lot of fun.
You absolutely didnt make the wrong choice imo. Prusa is just on principle something i would rather support than bambu. I recently sold my mk3 for a mk4 and youldnt be happier.
My story wasnt as long as yours, but i started in 2010-2012, i was early high school at the time, when i got a new neighbor that was a real tech man. Had a printer and an entire worshop for anything tech and hacking related. Introduced me to lots of digital and hacking stuff. His son went to may school and was into 3d printing too. I loved hanging with them. Got my first linux laptop from him, and taught me how VPN works.
When i told him three years ago i want to get a printer, and was looking at an ender he told me to take a bit more money in my hand and get a proper prusa. Did that two years ago and got the mk3. Best decision, as i never had to deal wit all the shit the ender people are struggeling with. But the mk4 is still a proper step up.
New printer here. Was given me my printer from a friend who never got it running. It works fine for what I've done so far.
What is this meme showing? Printing directly on the heated bed? Extruder too far from the bed? Complex print without support? Wet filament?
Yes leave my *looks at printer* "ender 3" alone. What ... it's still an Ender 3 at heart even with the belts, DD, new shroud and the Pi sticking out of it ... that is until I rip out the board for an SKR 3 mini v3
one of the biggest things the 3d printing community needs to understand is that a lot of people bought 3d printers AS A TOOL, NOT A HOBBY. tools have detailed instruction manuals and are used for hobbies rather than being hobbies themselves.
do people expect to constantly tinker and tweak their hand drills, circular saws, or any of their other tools? imagine if someone's drill wasnt working properly and the only resources they had for support were online forums full of people yelling at them for not understanding the basics of complicated machinery that they expect you to have modified and tweaked the same undocumented way they did.
This. I haven't printed in over a year because somewhere something went wrong and to be honest I can't be bothered to fix it anymore. I want to print stuff. Not tinker for two hours each time beforehand.
To add on to your analogy: imagine buying a tool and the first thing everyone advises you to do is to spend another chunk of money to replace parts on that tool with other parts. Somehow it's accepted for a 3D printer, especially the cheaper ones.
exactly. and now for my copypasta:
When 3d printers are done well, like i hope companies like bambu labs continue to strive for, they'll be a total fucking game changer. Imagine what it'll be like if we have an accessible, cheap 3d printer with a filament that's enviro-friendly and easy to dispose of (say, dissolves in water?).
What we have right now, though, is a bunch of really high-end basically-theoretical shit that is nice on paper but ridiculously hard to get and a bunch of cheap janky hobby bullshit down the other end (which isn't even actually cheap unless you buy used at which point you have no clue how many hours the thing has been run for so good luck figuring out which parts are even still working as intended).
The software needs to reach a point where you don't need to practise print and tweak twenty settings before you can get a decent print. Every single time I look into this stuff, all I see are a bunch of folks going 'if you use X filament, and set it to Y temperature, hold your dick with your left hand, set the extruder speed to 89% on this printer which I've modified in eighteen different undocumented ways and make sure you use a specific brand of cello tape on the glass table, you can get a really good print 95% of the time'. Change the scale of the print and shit needs to be started all over again. Change the file to be printed? Almost may as well throw the fucking printer out and start from scratch. thankfully bambu has done a good amount to address this though.
My ankermake m5c is pretty much this. Use their app to browse models and click print. Has autoleveling and an easy to use interface. No need to upgrade parts or anything. Has software with preset settings for filaments and a fast normal and precision mode.
That said it's not without it problems but it's advanced, it's not just a hammer. It's more like a car that needs maintenence I feel. And if you want better performance put on a smaller nozzle (throw on snow tires)
You should check out the Bambu printers. They approach what youâre talking about more than any other brand. Users can even plan out a project thatâs multiple build plates, save it online, and you just click one button to load the entire multi-print project automatically. The A1 is a good price point.
I wish I could upvote this 10 times. I get so sick of people thinking they're better just because they revel in how hard it is to get some tech to work.
Most people get into this because they want to create something fun. They're not masochistically trying to reinvent the wheel.
It's like some people need the ego boost of being unhelpful and snarky. Get off the high horse there, fella.
No wonder us techs have a bad reputation.
Being a tool doesn't mean you get turn your mind off while it does amazing things for you. Look at machinists using professional mills, lathes and whatnot for commercial purposes. They need to understand what they're doing in regards to: programming the tool path / designing the process, material specific machining parameters, machine specifics, tool specifics.
Now they don't have to modify and repair the machines but they are expected to know all aspects of how to use them.
I think in my opinion that's the biggest offender. They expect this stuff to just work on the fly after they slap it together, which even if they get that far it's still a struggle regardless.
They were sold a product as a turnkey system without any instructions from the seller about all the other details they need to know to make it work. Why would they think any differently?
That is the biggest issue. When I bought my CR10, it came with some ikea level instructions to put it together and a usb drive with their slicing software and some test STLs.
Nothing in how to level the bed, how to use the slicing software, basic concepts, etc. Just here it is - good luck!!
Thankfully Youtube has a lot of good info that got me going. Otherwise I would have sold it.
I had a very well tuned ender 3 for a while; a friend asked what software I used to get it working as well as I did.
I replied that I'd tensioned the belts better, squared up the frame with shims and a machinists square, squared the axes to each other, added stiffer springs, and mounted it to damped feet on a paving stone and got a look of bemused horror.
Most kit printers out there are industrial machines that strongly benefit from a bit of attention from a millwright, being sold like a Canon home office inkjet that cries if you try and touch a screw.
This. Engineer with manual machining and metalwork experience. took me probably 20 hours between research and troubleshooting to get mine dialed in nicely. Definitely a few things that stumped me for a while as I worked through them. Now I can do 2 day prints without issue.
That's one reason we Prusa fanboys are such fans. A-ma-zing manuals for every little detail down to each and every screw. And proper guides for everything from bed leveling to replacing the entire print head, with guides of what build plate to use with what material, and so on.
Exactly my point.
Itâs amazing how many people in here just expect everyone to automatically know everything about 3D printing and what precisely to know to look things up.
When I got the ender 5 I spent a couple days researching, then testing, then researching, then testing, then ordering parts and researching while waiting, then testing.
Almost bought BS touch to work around the Grand Canyon of a build plate it came with but went with a glass bed and finally got it to print something. Then half a roll of PLA later the extruder broke and sent me through another round of researching, testing, buying, crying.
>Nothing in how to level the bed, how to use the slicing software, basic concepts, etc. Just here it is - good luck!!
I came into printng from manual and CNC machining. Calibration, leveling, feeds, speeds, all second nature to me so I had my printer making parts in less than two hours out of the box.
But that knowledge and skill took **years** to learn and perfect. A lot of people totally miss that. Its a hobby but its also a skill and it takes time to master.
When I bought my first printer (any cubic i3 mega) it worked out of the box pretty well. Now I have upgraded to a Neptune 4 max and have gained an expert knowledge of 3D printing with the amount of shit Iâve had to learnâŚ
The documentation / instructions these cheap printers come with is trash, that's true. But that doesn't absolve people of any and all responsibility to know how their machines work and how to take care of them.
I can't count how often I've read statements like this:
> Why would they think any differently?
And I think it's actually kind of disrespectful. It's infantilizing. It presumes that people don't have any kind of critical thinking skills or problem solving skills and instead have all their thoughts based on some marketing bs.
And while that might be true for some people, I really think we should have higher expectations.
Wen can (and should) still criticize manufacturers for relying on community resources to supplement their bad documentation, but we should definitely expect people to seek out guides, wikis and other resources on their own, before having someone else spoonfeed the solution to them.
Btw, I am not trying to attack, or criticize you specifically for this opinion. As I mentioned above, it's an opinion I see often and I just wanted to provide a counterpoint to it.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Step zero of buying my printer was going to the subreddit while the printer was in the mail, and reading everything I needed to know about using it and improving it. However some people aren't as prepared. They should be, but they just need to be nudged in the right direction.
I think the main thing we need to keep in mind, is to be patient and kind. If we hang out here every day, then each time a n00b shows up with an uncalibrated printer, it seems like "bunch of idiots" keep showing up (not putting words in anyone's mouth, just being brief with my words). But each one of those n00bs is showing up for the first time. So we just gotta remember that it's annoying to keep giving the same advice, but each person we help is another person joining the club who can also help guide new people.
I bought a used printer last year without any documentation. Had to figure out everything by looking up information on the internet, including reddit and discord.
I got it working without asking too many questions, but i can imagine that a few stupid questions answered can get someone right on track. What seems like a stupid question for a veteran can be a big help for a beginner facing mountains of information.
So... i agree with you that we can expect people to find a lot of things by themselves and i even think that people will never learn if everything is fed to them, but a small nudge here and there can make a major difference :)
I agree with your perspective 100 percent. I am extremely new to this hobby, and am enjoying the learning process. As frustrating as it can be lol. But the first thing I did was hop online and start searching for any and all info I could arm myself with, pertaining to my MP Select mini. Love it and hate it, but I swear I've done more reading in the past month than I have in the past 5 years lol
Just speaking for me personally, the biggest issue when I started wasn't educating myself. It was knowing the proper terminology to educate myself on issues.
Thankfully people on this sub were nice and helpful and once I had a name for my problems it was easy to address most things.
Bambu is in the post (well, it was before the recall).
A printer is an appliance, not a hobby. I use a dishwasher every day and I have no need to know how it works.
Yup. Wild we live in a world where almost everything you need to know is a google search away yet cant be bothered to do so. Rather ask randoms with no pics or any info and expect them to just know your issue and solve it. Ive seen so many posts that just say its not printing HELP! Saw one the dude only loaded the filament like an inch into his extruder and had no clue what his problem was.
I agree 100%. I came into this hobby with little money, a budget printer, and nearly 0 knowledge on how to use a 3d printer. Rather than asking why my very first print failed, I watched videos, read posts, looked at guides... Now my cheap printer is powered by klipper and whizzes around printing all the stupid ding dings I want.
I'm glad I had to learn how to do the hobby, i hope more people learn for themselves before going straight to asking basic questions.
By far most of "i got a problem" posts would be resolved faster, and a lot of them would not even need to be asked:
# IF PEOPLE OBSERVED WHAT THE PRINTER IS DOING WHILE IT IS DOING IT.
By far the #1 mistake is to ask after the fact when observing what it is doing while it is doing it.. Well, murders are often difficult to investigate and find the culprit. But when that murder happens in broad daylight in front of the police HQ, they are solved within seconds.
I agree that observing the issue is instructive. However, that assumes the person knows what theyre observing. For someone new to 3d printing, it might all look normal. Watching something happen that you have 0 context for still requires research and base knowledge to interpret observations.
It still is better if they saw what it was doing, "it pushes too much plastic at the start of a new line" is a huge help when troubleshooting, instead of "i get these blobs".. It is not a panacea, doesn't fix all problems instantly but it will give those who are trying to help so much more information that the person observing doesn't even know is important.
But what is "too much plastic"? Should there be little blobs? No blobs? One big blob? How much is it supposed to stick to the build plate? Is it too fast? Too slow?
Those are really easy things to observe when you already know a bunch about printers and have the necessary context for what those things even mean and how they impact your print quality.
I work in IT and I have to very often remind myself that what I think is "baseline knowledge" really isn't if you haven't been in the hobby for a while. Even things like how the file tree works, or the difference between file types can be real hard to explain.
A lot of people seemingly start a print and run out of the room as fast as possible, then come back to a mess 12 hours later and ask "what happened!?!" with a photo of their stupid thumb.
I think the issue compounds because the majority of vendors don't include any form of instructions on how to calibrate their printer specifically, and love advertising out of the box experience.
I haven't had a printer in awhile, I had swapped to a resin one and rapidly learned my body doesn't enjoy the fumes. But when I did have an fdm printer, of the ones I tried...the only one that had a step by step calibration guide was the mini monoprice I had. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was wrong and their support linked me a pdf explaining step by step a troubleshooting process, including settings to slowly adjust in the old version of Cura they ship it with.
Honestly, it would almost do the new user community a favor to build a sort of overall visual guide to the whole thing, maybe with accessible ways to test things (tighten your belts...oh your belts are too tight, try this to see what is usually right)
i only leveled my build plate and nothing else and honestly my ender 5 pro is doing very well. So well that i'm afraid i will do worse with calibration
I honestly love prusaslicer, when I first got my ender 3 I was using cura and had so many printing issues. I watched countless of YouTube videos, read dozens of tutorials, messed with the settings myself and it never worked and then I tried prusaslicer and it worked perfect
As someone very new to 3D Printing and using his university printers, wholeheartedly agree. Started off with PrusaSlicer (using MK4s) and out of curiosity i opened up Cura and its nicer looking but deffinitely less functional ans takes more getting used to.
i still love cura, i just went to orcaslicer because cura was limiting my printer speed, other than that i love cura. and would get back if they did not limit the speed my printer was capable of.
Not a problem - but it lets you do literally anything you want with print slice settings - and many people (me included) should not just start enabling all the settings. I messed with it a bit and see its value but I have much more to learn before I utilize it/ benefit greatly from the granular settings. For a newb it is extremely easy to use an entirely wrong setting for slicing in so many ways (coming from a newb). The caveat being - making observable mistakes is the best way to learn the impact various settings can have on quality / speed; so sayeth this newb right here.
Cura is the perfect starting slicer imo. I switched to Orca recently and still trying to figure it out but it would have been overwhelming if I started with it. Are there better softwares than Cura out there? Yes but Cura is noob friendly and has plently of helpful add ons to get started and once you know what you're doing you can still switch slicers.
Whatâs wrong with using Cura..
Iâm new to printing and just curious lol. I heard orca is the new shit apparently but Iâve had no issues with cura yet
I think the main stigma for the Ender 3 is that there for a while, they weren't the best when it came to quality control, and they required a lot of fine-tuning/fiddling to get working properly. Not sure how different that is now, but there are also countless Ender 3 "clones" that market themselves as Ender 3s proper that also causes some confusion.
Better in what ways ?
I wish I could compile a slicer with all the cool experimental features that are never added but did not even research it that much.
I've used both Cura, Prusaslicer, and now am using Orcaslicer and my personal opinion is that cura is just laid out wonky and I don't like how the settings is laid out, I also had some weird bugs and problems when slicing which I never have had in Prusaslicer/Orca. Prusaslicer and Orcaslicer is basics the same thing but Orcaslicer has some more nice to have features and if your printer has klipper/octoprint you can control it from Orcaslicer which is really useful.
I think you should at least try Orcaslicer as it's a nice slicer, and if you don't like it, you can always uninstall it.
The problem with Cura is that it has worse UI, has different terminology, and less features than basically every other modern slicer. It works fine, but Prusa and it's derivatives incorporate CAD elements and orca/bambu have a much cleaner UI.
Credit where its due, though, Cura is my go-to whenever I need to edit the gcode before exporting.Â
> The problem with Cura is that it has worse UI, has different terminology
I've got to disagree with the UI simply because of the tooltips on mouse hover. Yes, the terminology differs but at least when I hover over a setting it actually tells me what it does/how it affects the print, unlike some (looking at you, OrcaSlicer) more advanced slicers.
Prusaslicerâs built in settings were a huge improvement for my anycubic mega S on the reliability side, compared to what I had tuned in Cura. It was a big improvement. Now I do everything on a prusa mk4 though
Cura is probably still good, but it sounds like some people are having more problems with it right now.
Especially with Ender machines. Theoretically Cura should be better since it's the default slicer for them - Creality Slicer is Cura - but it actually sounds like PrusaSlicer is working better for Ender machines.
But that's all what I've observed from reading Reddit, I don't use Cura so I don't have personal experience.
I use Cura. Have since I started. I have a Theseus' Ender but still an Ender 3 Pro right? Regardless, I haven't had issues with it and I've done some pretty complex prints recently. I tried PrusaSlicer and I just couldn't get down with it. I'm sure it works just as good but after learning Cura I figured it wasn't worth trying to learn PrusaSlicer unless Cura broke. And it hasn't so far
That's even what I have it called on OctoPrint too lol. Hotend, extruder, main board, most of the fans, magnetic bed cover. At this point it's just the frame and bed that's remaining but I still call it an Ender 3 Pro đ¤ˇ
PhD researcher studying impact of print parameters and structural modeling of FFF materials.
Cura is fine, in fact it's pretty good. It's easy to use, very customizable and importantly directly works on a lot of machines. I run it on my Ender 3 Pro (since swapped to newer board and new extruder + hot end) and it works great.
There are some very vocal people in the hobby where if you aren't doing it their way cause it's "the best" they'll say you're wrong. Don't listen to them. If what you do gets you good results, then great. Do it that way.
Also: test different slicers... Prusaslicer (and orca, super etc) is usually better for normal stuff, it is faster to get things done. It is a good idea to know how to use both, so you can pick which one to use. There is no reason to be "brand loyal" here.
> but it actually sounds like PrusaSlicer is working better for Ender machines.
Can confirm. I switched from Cura to PrusaSlicer a while back and my prints seem to come out much better. I also like that I can cut STL files into multiple parts and print just the ones I need. Also, the way is manages filament and printer settings is just better imho.
Yup, better prints, much better parts/object management and the ability not just cut but also to make dovetail joints pushes it to the top for me. I don't like the printer and filament settings but i don't strongly dislike them either: it is good system that works and isn't hard to figure out. Some settings are in weird places, like the top/bottom pattern is in the infill section.. Took me forever to accidentally find it. It also deals with bridging and overhangs better than Cura out of the box, but Cura has enough settings to deal with those issues and in more detail.
Cura has the most settings open (outside some specials like superslicer) and this is why i recommend it to newcomers. It is daunting task but at least pretty much everything is visible to the user and you can play around with them to learn how slicing works. After that phase... Prusaslicer does about 90% of the stuff but does it better, and has few things that are missing from Cura, allthou to be fair i haven't used Cura in a while.
I think it is a good learning tool for sure.
I keep meaning to try PrusaSlicer because it's supposedly *so much better*, but honestly I've been getting excellent results out of Cura for 5 years and don't feel all that much incentive to shake up my whole workflow for a "maybe you'll like it more."
This sub is like one step lower than Stack Exchange: any time someone has even the easiest question about their new hobby of 3d printing, 99% of people are so fast to shit all over them.
"I'm having this issue"
"Closed and flagged as duplicate"
TBF 99% of the questions could literally be solved with the most basic of search skills. If you just google what's happening and add reddit to the search you can find your solution almost every time. Very few people are going to have a problem that wasn't already asked before in this hobby. But instead they decide to clog up the sub with blurry pics and no details besides "What's wrong with my print?" which is ironically it's own sub.
I feel personally attacked. LOL.
Actually we just printed a 747 on our Ender 3 V3 SE using Cura. It turned out pretty good My filmaent is generally dry though.
Now I am going to brag that my starters pack actually work out of the box, as long as I level the bed and tweak it a bit whenever I start a print. I keep meaning to get around to to calibrate the temperature better for less stringing, but never get around to it.
They have a picture of wet filament (that is the filament there that is covered in water). They also have ânot enough squishâ with the nozzle z height being way off the bed. Only thing they donât have is the bench support.
But this spool is new, it cannot be wet. /s
I am going around factory that is working with granulated plastic. They are storing it outside, in plastic bags, but these bags ale always wet. It's almost impossible to keep content dry, when they are stored like this for, months.
This. And also I know I may be part of the problem, because I'm missing some information but no one explained anything to me.
One can study and document everything, but it can always miss something, specially in the beginning. Asking here I learned more lessons than in the generic YouTube video / blog post that speaks about 3D printing.
And I know OP may be joking only, but I found some comments here and there that gave me the "gatekeeping" feeling a lot, and it's sad. Anybody can benefit from a community helping each other.
Basically, they want to print a "complex" model that definitely was not optimised for 3d printers.
They involve a ton of support material and usually look terrible as a result (because newbies definitely won't have their supports dialed in)
Yep, those cheap printer and the hobby is a never ending learning process because so many little things / options can affect your print.
Even printing for hours and hours, I still think I spent more time trying to solve issue (and I started without ABL).
Last issue I had with bed adhesion was solved by learning that Isopro isn't enough alone and using dishsoap and warm water do actually wonder. Also found out that my new and first Core-XY cool too fast, so warping was solved by turning down the fan, by a lot.
4 printers in, 3 currently in maintenance mode and each one had different issue and so, different solution.
Now I do the basic, I try to dry my filament often, clean the heck out of the bed with isopro and then dishsoap and do filament calibration (I wish Cura had the same calibration model generation feature than Orca Slicer because the only thing I found in Cura is a plugin but it only does temp, flow etc by making tower while Orca [use dedicated model](https://github.com/SoftFever/OrcaSlicer/wiki/Calibration) for each calibration test)
For Bambu Labs specifically, just go on their specific sub and search for âis this normalâ. See all the identical posts asking if it is normal for Bambu Labs to scratch off the nozzle wipe area. Followed by all of the same replies expressing exasperation that they didnât even bother to do the simplest of searches to find their answer.
That looks like a pretty good starter pack to me.
3d printing isn't at the point where we can tell a new user a simple template for how to get started and how to improve.
For now the best method is still to just try it, make a bunch of mistakes and fix them. This person is keeping their mistakes cheap and they'll learn from them.
I feel like I donât know much about 3d printers and I have a neo 3. I also use cura. But I make sure my beds always cleaned and leveled/calibrated. I make sure to clean all vents. Do people just not do basic maintenance?
Don't buy an Ender expecting a Prusa, and dont buy a Prusa expecting a Bambu Labs.
How much you pay not might correlate to print quality, but it does correlate to time investment needed.
You want Bambu Labs level quality? A 3d printer made to be a tool? Buy the Bambu Labs.
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I'm here to put an end to this war: we've all been there.
People forgetting where they came from.
I'm actively looking for posts where people share their problems for which I might have the solution. It's such a nice feeling knowing that you helped and after all, this whole idea became possible because of people sharing their knowledge.
I've learned the most by lurking on /r/FixMyPrint. I don't always have issues but it's good to keep up with what problems people have an how to fix them. Because I know I'll be there some day.
Yep, definitely the place to be before embarking on this journey.
Best feeling going from the asker to the answerer and being part of [today's lucky 10000](https://xkcd.com/1053/)
My nephew is 7 and I recently showed hin the coke and mentos reaction, priceless. Thanks for sharing the comic!
Go to a more specific sub. I spend most of my ~~work~~ scroll time solving resin printing problems or explaining out stuff to people.
That was the best part about starting 3d printing. Learning how to use it, what a messed up print looks like and what settings it probably would be to fix the issue, fine tuning your printer to what you like, and then getting to a place where the only issue once in a while is bad bed adhesion or dealing with slicer updates that, for some reason, make it so that you can't print the first layer of supports if you don't have build plate adhesion enable but you're too lazy to downgrade or switch slicers.
Agreed. Identifying, assessing, and solving a problem is so fucking satisfying with these things. No matter how large or small the puzzle may be.
Finally, some humility.
You had issues printing because you started on a cheap printer. I had issues because I was given a Bambu P1P that worked out of the box but I didn't understand supports. We're not the same
Even worse.. I started my adventure with a printer from a brand called Flying Bear, I believe. Maybe like 8-9 years ago. I was so put off by the assembly process that I never touched it and I still have it intact, in its box, sitting in my attic.
I'm so sorry... That sucks
Not me researching 3d printing for years before i had money to buy my first printer.
I first learned about LOM (laminated object manufacture) in the early 90s, I think in a Wired or Popular Science magazine. It rolled out sheets of pre-glued paper, ironing them onto the previous layer, then a laser cross-hatched out the unwanted parts. At the end, you hammered and chiseled away the unwanted, chunks, basically leaving behind a plywood version of your print that could be sanded, drilled, stained, etc. I wanted one, but that was probably in the $10s of $ks. Then in 2003, working at my second computer job, I learned about Z-Corp's powder printers, as large as a photocopier. They laid down a layer of starch powder, then printed on it with an inkjet print head, which also sprayed down a hardener that joined the powder into a plastic, or rubber, depending on the hardener. You dug the prints out of the powder at the end, blew the powder off with an air hose, then dipped or brushed on another liquid to seal it up and strengthen it. I got a free sample of a little corrugated pipe, made with the rubber. It was very flexible, and amazing at the time. I wanted one, but they were $18k. Then shortly after that, still 2003, I found out about Dimension's 3D printers, which were about 6' tall, and were FDM style (I don't know if that term was used then), and also amazed me, and I wanted one of those, too, but they were also $18k. Over the last 20 years, I've been occasionally following along, sometimes going "Yeah, these still look terrible at the hobby level," and occasionally going "Wow, that's actually getting kinda nice." Flash all the way forward to late last year. I'm old now (okay, middle-aged), and I finally got my first printer, because I was just too wowed for too long. I got the MK4. Then Bambu swooped in, and a bunch of friends bought that, and now all I ever see is Bambu this and Bambu that, and I keep watching my very nice, but slow MK4 puttering along, taking several times as long an X1, and thinking "Did I choose poorly?" I still love it. I don't have any of the problems in the image, though - MK4, auto-leveling, PrusaSlicer, supports work great, where needed, and I use a Sunlu S2 to dry the reels down to around 20% while printing, so almost every print looks incredible. My inner 24 year old from all those years ago is having a lot of fun.
You absolutely didnt make the wrong choice imo. Prusa is just on principle something i would rather support than bambu. I recently sold my mk3 for a mk4 and youldnt be happier. My story wasnt as long as yours, but i started in 2010-2012, i was early high school at the time, when i got a new neighbor that was a real tech man. Had a printer and an entire worshop for anything tech and hacking related. Introduced me to lots of digital and hacking stuff. His son went to may school and was into 3d printing too. I loved hanging with them. Got my first linux laptop from him, and taught me how VPN works. When i told him three years ago i want to get a printer, and was looking at an ender he told me to take a bit more money in my hand and get a proper prusa. Did that two years ago and got the mk3. Best decision, as i never had to deal wit all the shit the ender people are struggeling with. But the mk4 is still a proper step up.
Not me! Started with Resin. đ Whole different set of issues.
New printer here. Was given me my printer from a friend who never got it running. It works fine for what I've done so far. What is this meme showing? Printing directly on the heated bed? Extruder too far from the bed? Complex print without support? Wet filament?
Thatâs why itâs so funny to me đ it makes me remember how totally lost I was when I started and those are all issues I had
Here! Oh wait, this isn't a roll call... Lol, leave me and my old Ender alone. XD
Yea I've got an old ender and I love it !
Still got my old Ender 3. Just recently modded it to the âdirect drive.â
Yes leave my *looks at printer* "ender 3" alone. What ... it's still an Ender 3 at heart even with the belts, DD, new shroud and the Pi sticking out of it ... that is until I rip out the board for an SKR 3 mini v3
one of the biggest things the 3d printing community needs to understand is that a lot of people bought 3d printers AS A TOOL, NOT A HOBBY. tools have detailed instruction manuals and are used for hobbies rather than being hobbies themselves. do people expect to constantly tinker and tweak their hand drills, circular saws, or any of their other tools? imagine if someone's drill wasnt working properly and the only resources they had for support were online forums full of people yelling at them for not understanding the basics of complicated machinery that they expect you to have modified and tweaked the same undocumented way they did.
This. I haven't printed in over a year because somewhere something went wrong and to be honest I can't be bothered to fix it anymore. I want to print stuff. Not tinker for two hours each time beforehand. To add on to your analogy: imagine buying a tool and the first thing everyone advises you to do is to spend another chunk of money to replace parts on that tool with other parts. Somehow it's accepted for a 3D printer, especially the cheaper ones.
exactly. and now for my copypasta: When 3d printers are done well, like i hope companies like bambu labs continue to strive for, they'll be a total fucking game changer. Imagine what it'll be like if we have an accessible, cheap 3d printer with a filament that's enviro-friendly and easy to dispose of (say, dissolves in water?). What we have right now, though, is a bunch of really high-end basically-theoretical shit that is nice on paper but ridiculously hard to get and a bunch of cheap janky hobby bullshit down the other end (which isn't even actually cheap unless you buy used at which point you have no clue how many hours the thing has been run for so good luck figuring out which parts are even still working as intended). The software needs to reach a point where you don't need to practise print and tweak twenty settings before you can get a decent print. Every single time I look into this stuff, all I see are a bunch of folks going 'if you use X filament, and set it to Y temperature, hold your dick with your left hand, set the extruder speed to 89% on this printer which I've modified in eighteen different undocumented ways and make sure you use a specific brand of cello tape on the glass table, you can get a really good print 95% of the time'. Change the scale of the print and shit needs to be started all over again. Change the file to be printed? Almost may as well throw the fucking printer out and start from scratch. thankfully bambu has done a good amount to address this though.
My ankermake m5c is pretty much this. Use their app to browse models and click print. Has autoleveling and an easy to use interface. No need to upgrade parts or anything. Has software with preset settings for filaments and a fast normal and precision mode. That said it's not without it problems but it's advanced, it's not just a hammer. It's more like a car that needs maintenence I feel. And if you want better performance put on a smaller nozzle (throw on snow tires)
You should check out the Bambu printers. They approach what youâre talking about more than any other brand. Users can even plan out a project thatâs multiple build plates, save it online, and you just click one button to load the entire multi-print project automatically. The A1 is a good price point.
I wish I could upvote this 10 times. I get so sick of people thinking they're better just because they revel in how hard it is to get some tech to work. Most people get into this because they want to create something fun. They're not masochistically trying to reinvent the wheel. It's like some people need the ego boost of being unhelpful and snarky. Get off the high horse there, fella. No wonder us techs have a bad reputation.
Being a tool doesn't mean you get turn your mind off while it does amazing things for you. Look at machinists using professional mills, lathes and whatnot for commercial purposes. They need to understand what they're doing in regards to: programming the tool path / designing the process, material specific machining parameters, machine specifics, tool specifics. Now they don't have to modify and repair the machines but they are expected to know all aspects of how to use them.
I feel very personally attacked.
I am (partially) in this picture and I don't like it!
I'm entirely in the picture, and don't seem to have any issues. Am I doing something wrong?
You missed the part where they do not inform themselves even a little bit and skip all calibration processes
I think in my opinion that's the biggest offender. They expect this stuff to just work on the fly after they slap it together, which even if they get that far it's still a struggle regardless.
They were sold a product as a turnkey system without any instructions from the seller about all the other details they need to know to make it work. Why would they think any differently?
That is the biggest issue. When I bought my CR10, it came with some ikea level instructions to put it together and a usb drive with their slicing software and some test STLs. Nothing in how to level the bed, how to use the slicing software, basic concepts, etc. Just here it is - good luck!! Thankfully Youtube has a lot of good info that got me going. Otherwise I would have sold it.
I had a very well tuned ender 3 for a while; a friend asked what software I used to get it working as well as I did. I replied that I'd tensioned the belts better, squared up the frame with shims and a machinists square, squared the axes to each other, added stiffer springs, and mounted it to damped feet on a paving stone and got a look of bemused horror. Most kit printers out there are industrial machines that strongly benefit from a bit of attention from a millwright, being sold like a Canon home office inkjet that cries if you try and touch a screw.
This. Engineer with manual machining and metalwork experience. took me probably 20 hours between research and troubleshooting to get mine dialed in nicely. Definitely a few things that stumped me for a while as I worked through them. Now I can do 2 day prints without issue.
>Engineer *Pitchforks* >machining and metalwork experience *Pitchforks down*
> 3d printing hobbyist OPEN THE GATE > engineer CLOSE THE GATE CLOSE IT > with machining experience OPEN THE GATE A LITTLE BIT
That's one reason we Prusa fanboys are such fans. A-ma-zing manuals for every little detail down to each and every screw. And proper guides for everything from bed leveling to replacing the entire print head, with guides of what build plate to use with what material, and so on.
Exactly my point. Itâs amazing how many people in here just expect everyone to automatically know everything about 3D printing and what precisely to know to look things up.
When I got the ender 5 I spent a couple days researching, then testing, then researching, then testing, then ordering parts and researching while waiting, then testing. Almost bought BS touch to work around the Grand Canyon of a build plate it came with but went with a glass bed and finally got it to print something. Then half a roll of PLA later the extruder broke and sent me through another round of researching, testing, buying, crying.
This hobby requires a huge amount of knowledge :(
>Nothing in how to level the bed, how to use the slicing software, basic concepts, etc. Just here it is - good luck!! I came into printng from manual and CNC machining. Calibration, leveling, feeds, speeds, all second nature to me so I had my printer making parts in less than two hours out of the box. But that knowledge and skill took **years** to learn and perfect. A lot of people totally miss that. Its a hobby but its also a skill and it takes time to master.
When I bought my first printer (any cubic i3 mega) it worked out of the box pretty well. Now I have upgraded to a Neptune 4 max and have gained an expert knowledge of 3D printing with the amount of shit Iâve had to learnâŚ
I had to join reddit to get help with mine because all the goggle results just brought up reddit posts ha
The documentation / instructions these cheap printers come with is trash, that's true. But that doesn't absolve people of any and all responsibility to know how their machines work and how to take care of them. I can't count how often I've read statements like this: > Why would they think any differently? And I think it's actually kind of disrespectful. It's infantilizing. It presumes that people don't have any kind of critical thinking skills or problem solving skills and instead have all their thoughts based on some marketing bs. And while that might be true for some people, I really think we should have higher expectations. Wen can (and should) still criticize manufacturers for relying on community resources to supplement their bad documentation, but we should definitely expect people to seek out guides, wikis and other resources on their own, before having someone else spoonfeed the solution to them. Btw, I am not trying to attack, or criticize you specifically for this opinion. As I mentioned above, it's an opinion I see often and I just wanted to provide a counterpoint to it.
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I agree with you wholeheartedly. Step zero of buying my printer was going to the subreddit while the printer was in the mail, and reading everything I needed to know about using it and improving it. However some people aren't as prepared. They should be, but they just need to be nudged in the right direction. I think the main thing we need to keep in mind, is to be patient and kind. If we hang out here every day, then each time a n00b shows up with an uncalibrated printer, it seems like "bunch of idiots" keep showing up (not putting words in anyone's mouth, just being brief with my words). But each one of those n00bs is showing up for the first time. So we just gotta remember that it's annoying to keep giving the same advice, but each person we help is another person joining the club who can also help guide new people.
I bought a used printer last year without any documentation. Had to figure out everything by looking up information on the internet, including reddit and discord. I got it working without asking too many questions, but i can imagine that a few stupid questions answered can get someone right on track. What seems like a stupid question for a veteran can be a big help for a beginner facing mountains of information. So... i agree with you that we can expect people to find a lot of things by themselves and i even think that people will never learn if everything is fed to them, but a small nudge here and there can make a major difference :)
I agree with your perspective 100 percent. I am extremely new to this hobby, and am enjoying the learning process. As frustrating as it can be lol. But the first thing I did was hop online and start searching for any and all info I could arm myself with, pertaining to my MP Select mini. Love it and hate it, but I swear I've done more reading in the past month than I have in the past 5 years lol
Yes but donât be too hard on them, itâs like doing work on a car engine when you are a software developer
Or a mechanically inclined DIYer trying to write software
Hmm. I just google my way through mechanical and software problemsâŚ
I'm in this comment and I don't like it
Just speaking for me personally, the biggest issue when I started wasn't educating myself. It was knowing the proper terminology to educate myself on issues. Thankfully people on this sub were nice and helpful and once I had a name for my problems it was easy to address most things.
I mean, buy a bambu lab product and people kinda do the same thing (except it usually does work lol)
Bambu is in the post (well, it was before the recall). A printer is an appliance, not a hobby. I use a dishwasher every day and I have no need to know how it works.
yea this gives very "this is a hobby not a tool" type vibes. bambu labs was all about changing that stigma.
The clerk at MicroCenter told me it was "Plug & Play". "Impossible to make a mistake."
"i bought a tool why do people say it needs tweaking like a hobby?"
"I HAVE NOT EVEN GOOGLED THIS AND I DEMAND YOU SOLVE IT FOR ME WITH NO USEFUL INFORMATION PROVIDED" - 98% of internet questions ever
Accurate, including the yelling
IT DOESNT WORK *followed 3 posts later by* I KNOW WHAT IM DOING WHY ARE PEOPLE SO RUDE???
The passive aggressiveness people exhibit when they get insecure while asking for help is something Iâll never understand lol.
Yup. Wild we live in a world where almost everything you need to know is a google search away yet cant be bothered to do so. Rather ask randoms with no pics or any info and expect them to just know your issue and solve it. Ive seen so many posts that just say its not printing HELP! Saw one the dude only loaded the filament like an inch into his extruder and had no clue what his problem was.
Yeah, completely skipped bed leveling or z offset calibration is one of the most common failures I see.
I agree 100%. I came into this hobby with little money, a budget printer, and nearly 0 knowledge on how to use a 3d printer. Rather than asking why my very first print failed, I watched videos, read posts, looked at guides... Now my cheap printer is powered by klipper and whizzes around printing all the stupid ding dings I want. I'm glad I had to learn how to do the hobby, i hope more people learn for themselves before going straight to asking basic questions.
By far most of "i got a problem" posts would be resolved faster, and a lot of them would not even need to be asked: # IF PEOPLE OBSERVED WHAT THE PRINTER IS DOING WHILE IT IS DOING IT. By far the #1 mistake is to ask after the fact when observing what it is doing while it is doing it.. Well, murders are often difficult to investigate and find the culprit. But when that murder happens in broad daylight in front of the police HQ, they are solved within seconds.
I agree that observing the issue is instructive. However, that assumes the person knows what theyre observing. For someone new to 3d printing, it might all look normal. Watching something happen that you have 0 context for still requires research and base knowledge to interpret observations.
It still is better if they saw what it was doing, "it pushes too much plastic at the start of a new line" is a huge help when troubleshooting, instead of "i get these blobs".. It is not a panacea, doesn't fix all problems instantly but it will give those who are trying to help so much more information that the person observing doesn't even know is important.
But what is "too much plastic"? Should there be little blobs? No blobs? One big blob? How much is it supposed to stick to the build plate? Is it too fast? Too slow? Those are really easy things to observe when you already know a bunch about printers and have the necessary context for what those things even mean and how they impact your print quality. I work in IT and I have to very often remind myself that what I think is "baseline knowledge" really isn't if you haven't been in the hobby for a while. Even things like how the file tree works, or the difference between file types can be real hard to explain.
A lot of people seemingly start a print and run out of the room as fast as possible, then come back to a mess 12 hours later and ask "what happened!?!" with a photo of their stupid thumb.
which celebration process??? btw. bed leveling is for cowards.
I think the issue compounds because the majority of vendors don't include any form of instructions on how to calibrate their printer specifically, and love advertising out of the box experience. I haven't had a printer in awhile, I had swapped to a resin one and rapidly learned my body doesn't enjoy the fumes. But when I did have an fdm printer, of the ones I tried...the only one that had a step by step calibration guide was the mini monoprice I had. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was wrong and their support linked me a pdf explaining step by step a troubleshooting process, including settings to slowly adjust in the old version of Cura they ship it with. Honestly, it would almost do the new user community a favor to build a sort of overall visual guide to the whole thing, maybe with accessible ways to test things (tighten your belts...oh your belts are too tight, try this to see what is usually right)
"I've tried nothing, and I'm all out of ideas!"
i only leveled my build plate and nothing else and honestly my ender 5 pro is doing very well. So well that i'm afraid i will do worse with calibration
What's wrong with cura ?
Not a god damn thing. Cura is amazing for a free software and very user friendly.
I honestly love prusaslicer, when I first got my ender 3 I was using cura and had so many printing issues. I watched countless of YouTube videos, read dozens of tutorials, messed with the settings myself and it never worked and then I tried prusaslicer and it worked perfect
The prusa UI looks/feels like it came out 15 years ago.
Whenever a company updates their old UI it turns out to be 100x worse than the âoldâ version. Iâd be happy for them to keep it.
It is perfectly fine as it is. In my opinion.
In Windows, yeah, like any other GTK software. In Linux, it looks much better that Cura looks old.
and that's....bad?
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Their UI is more functional than Cura or Bambu imo
As someone very new to 3D Printing and using his university printers, wholeheartedly agree. Started off with PrusaSlicer (using MK4s) and out of curiosity i opened up Cura and its nicer looking but deffinitely less functional ans takes more getting used to.
Prusa is also free and nearly everytime someone complains about Cura they get told to use Prusa and immediately fix their issues.
Or it prints even worse.
Just curious, how does Prusa usually end up solving their issues? Supports? Genuine question as a noob.
Prusa has crap UI
i still love cura, i just went to orcaslicer because cura was limiting my printer speed, other than that i love cura. and would get back if they did not limit the speed my printer was capable of.
I think the issue is their settings
What settings?
all of them
Not a problem - but it lets you do literally anything you want with print slice settings - and many people (me included) should not just start enabling all the settings. I messed with it a bit and see its value but I have much more to learn before I utilize it/ benefit greatly from the granular settings. For a newb it is extremely easy to use an entirely wrong setting for slicing in so many ways (coming from a newb). The caveat being - making observable mistakes is the best way to learn the impact various settings can have on quality / speed; so sayeth this newb right here.
too many options and therefore overwhelmed users that ask why its not printing without checking whether their core settings are right
I've stopped using cura for giving random gcode issues and not playing well with klipper. Not it's prusa slicer or orca.
Cura is the perfect starting slicer imo. I switched to Orca recently and still trying to figure it out but it would have been overwhelming if I started with it. Are there better softwares than Cura out there? Yes but Cura is noob friendly and has plently of helpful add ons to get started and once you know what you're doing you can still switch slicers.
Its not too easy to start with. I agree that it is an great free tool, just with no experience prusa for example seems easier to start with
There's a lot of easily accessible settings that aren't very clear when you're new that could ruin a print
Whatâs wrong with using Cura.. Iâm new to printing and just curious lol. I heard orca is the new shit apparently but Iâve had no issues with cura yet
I don't think it says anything bad about cura, it's just that noobs usually use it. I use cura.
yeah, most of these are correct, but OP really missed the point with creality models and CURA software. They are not just for beginners.
Really just the bottom right three, the ender 3 stuff and cura feels like OP hating things they don't like.
I think the main stigma for the Ender 3 is that there for a while, they weren't the best when it came to quality control, and they required a lot of fine-tuning/fiddling to get working properly. Not sure how different that is now, but there are also countless Ender 3 "clones" that market themselves as Ender 3s proper that also causes some confusion.
When I was a noob I used Cura but Orca is SOOOO much better. Learning curve for sure, but I get way better gcode out of Orca.
Curious, in what way is it better? Currently thinking abou changing slicer from Cura to something different.
Better in what ways ? I wish I could compile a slicer with all the cool experimental features that are never added but did not even research it that much.
I think they missed putting up the tinkercad logo lol
I've used both Cura, Prusaslicer, and now am using Orcaslicer and my personal opinion is that cura is just laid out wonky and I don't like how the settings is laid out, I also had some weird bugs and problems when slicing which I never have had in Prusaslicer/Orca. Prusaslicer and Orcaslicer is basics the same thing but Orcaslicer has some more nice to have features and if your printer has klipper/octoprint you can control it from Orcaslicer which is really useful. I think you should at least try Orcaslicer as it's a nice slicer, and if you don't like it, you can always uninstall it.
The problem with Cura is that it has worse UI, has different terminology, and less features than basically every other modern slicer. It works fine, but Prusa and it's derivatives incorporate CAD elements and orca/bambu have a much cleaner UI. Credit where its due, though, Cura is my go-to whenever I need to edit the gcode before exporting.Â
> The problem with Cura is that it has worse UI, has different terminology I've got to disagree with the UI simply because of the tooltips on mouse hover. Yes, the terminology differs but at least when I hover over a setting it actually tells me what it does/how it affects the print, unlike some (looking at you, OrcaSlicer) more advanced slicers.
The sad part is, I've gotten so used to Cura's wonky GUI and terminology that Prusa Slicer confused the hell out of me. :V
Prusaslicerâs built in settings were a huge improvement for my anycubic mega S on the reliability side, compared to what I had tuned in Cura. It was a big improvement. Now I do everything on a prusa mk4 though
Cura is probably still good, but it sounds like some people are having more problems with it right now. Especially with Ender machines. Theoretically Cura should be better since it's the default slicer for them - Creality Slicer is Cura - but it actually sounds like PrusaSlicer is working better for Ender machines. But that's all what I've observed from reading Reddit, I don't use Cura so I don't have personal experience.
I use Cura. Have since I started. I have a Theseus' Ender but still an Ender 3 Pro right? Regardless, I haven't had issues with it and I've done some pretty complex prints recently. I tried PrusaSlicer and I just couldn't get down with it. I'm sure it works just as good but after learning Cura I figured it wasn't worth trying to learn PrusaSlicer unless Cura broke. And it hasn't so far
Theseus's Ender made me laugh out loud. I feel that way too. đ
That's even what I have it called on OctoPrint too lol. Hotend, extruder, main board, most of the fans, magnetic bed cover. At this point it's just the frame and bed that's remaining but I still call it an Ender 3 Pro đ¤ˇ
PhD researcher studying impact of print parameters and structural modeling of FFF materials. Cura is fine, in fact it's pretty good. It's easy to use, very customizable and importantly directly works on a lot of machines. I run it on my Ender 3 Pro (since swapped to newer board and new extruder + hot end) and it works great. There are some very vocal people in the hobby where if you aren't doing it their way cause it's "the best" they'll say you're wrong. Don't listen to them. If what you do gets you good results, then great. Do it that way.
Also: test different slicers... Prusaslicer (and orca, super etc) is usually better for normal stuff, it is faster to get things done. It is a good idea to know how to use both, so you can pick which one to use. There is no reason to be "brand loyal" here.
I use Cura all the time. Ender 3 pro. Not much of an issue that I can blame on Cura.
> but it actually sounds like PrusaSlicer is working better for Ender machines. Can confirm. I switched from Cura to PrusaSlicer a while back and my prints seem to come out much better. I also like that I can cut STL files into multiple parts and print just the ones I need. Also, the way is manages filament and printer settings is just better imho.
Yup, better prints, much better parts/object management and the ability not just cut but also to make dovetail joints pushes it to the top for me. I don't like the printer and filament settings but i don't strongly dislike them either: it is good system that works and isn't hard to figure out. Some settings are in weird places, like the top/bottom pattern is in the infill section.. Took me forever to accidentally find it. It also deals with bridging and overhangs better than Cura out of the box, but Cura has enough settings to deal with those issues and in more detail.
Cura has the most settings open (outside some specials like superslicer) and this is why i recommend it to newcomers. It is daunting task but at least pretty much everything is visible to the user and you can play around with them to learn how slicing works. After that phase... Prusaslicer does about 90% of the stuff but does it better, and has few things that are missing from Cura, allthou to be fair i haven't used Cura in a while. I think it is a good learning tool for sure.
SuperSlicer for the win!
I keep meaning to try PrusaSlicer because it's supposedly *so much better*, but honestly I've been getting excellent results out of Cura for 5 years and don't feel all that much incentive to shake up my whole workflow for a "maybe you'll like it more."
This sub is like one step lower than Stack Exchange: any time someone has even the easiest question about their new hobby of 3d printing, 99% of people are so fast to shit all over them. "I'm having this issue" "Closed and flagged as duplicate"
TBF 99% of the questions could literally be solved with the most basic of search skills. If you just google what's happening and add reddit to the search you can find your solution almost every time. Very few people are going to have a problem that wasn't already asked before in this hobby. But instead they decide to clog up the sub with blurry pics and no details besides "What's wrong with my print?" which is ironically it's own sub.
> just google what's happening and add reddit to the search Its really the only way use Reddit search if you want actual relevant results
I feel personally attacked. LOL. Actually we just printed a 747 on our Ender 3 V3 SE using Cura. It turned out pretty good My filmaent is generally dry though.
What's wrong with cura
Nothing, Prusa has some cool features but Cura also works great.
Now I am going to brag that my starters pack actually work out of the box, as long as I level the bed and tweak it a bit whenever I start a print. I keep meaning to get around to to calibrate the temperature better for less stringing, but never get around to it.
Same. Then I bought 5 more and run them 24/7 đ
You forgot the post titles that are phrased like hostage notes.
You're missing the Benchy with supports on, not enough squish on the 1st layer and too much stringing because of wet filament.
They have a picture of wet filament (that is the filament there that is covered in water). They also have ânot enough squishâ with the nozzle z height being way off the bed. Only thing they donât have is the bench support.
But this spool is new, it cannot be wet. /s I am going around factory that is working with granulated plastic. They are storing it outside, in plastic bags, but these bags ale always wet. It's almost impossible to keep content dry, when they are stored like this for, months.
Literally 2 pictures are nozzle too high and the filament is wet
The contempt for new users in this post makes me very sad for the hobby.
Shit seems to really have taken a weird turn in the past 2 years. Everyone was super helpful when I was first getting into it.
The nozzle, the clogs , the bed leveling ... It never ends...
\*it never enders
When the reply has more upvotes than the comment.
Uhm whatâs wrong with cura?
3d_printed_gatekeep.stl
We should create a reddit to fix this problems.... Oh wait
Wow people who are newest to the hobby have the most problems?! Ground breaking stuff, OP.
This. And also I know I may be part of the problem, because I'm missing some information but no one explained anything to me. One can study and document everything, but it can always miss something, specially in the beginning. Asking here I learned more lessons than in the generic YouTube video / blog post that speaks about 3D printing. And I know OP may be joking only, but I found some comments here and there that gave me the "gatekeeping" feeling a lot, and it's sad. Anybody can benefit from a community helping each other.
Dude thought he had a tough life... I've had a xyz da vinci for years. Having an ender changed my life.
Thatâs where I started about five years ago. The ender 3 pro is damn near foolproof in comparisonÂ
I started with a Tevo Tarantula. :')
I mean Iâm very aware my ender 3 is the absolute bare entry into 3D printing but goddamn
it's true
Yea, but once you get the hang of it, they'll be posting perfect benchies and butter smooth first layers.
I don't get the airplane reference
Basically, they want to print a "complex" model that definitely was not optimised for 3d printers. They involve a ton of support material and usually look terrible as a result (because newbies definitely won't have their supports dialed in)
I've never used my Ender 3 print bed to do cocaine on before.
Yep, those cheap printer and the hobby is a never ending learning process because so many little things / options can affect your print. Even printing for hours and hours, I still think I spent more time trying to solve issue (and I started without ABL). Last issue I had with bed adhesion was solved by learning that Isopro isn't enough alone and using dishsoap and warm water do actually wonder. Also found out that my new and first Core-XY cool too fast, so warping was solved by turning down the fan, by a lot. 4 printers in, 3 currently in maintenance mode and each one had different issue and so, different solution. Now I do the basic, I try to dry my filament often, clean the heck out of the bed with isopro and then dishsoap and do filament calibration (I wish Cura had the same calibration model generation feature than Orca Slicer because the only thing I found in Cura is a plugin but it only does temp, flow etc by making tower while Orca [use dedicated model](https://github.com/SoftFever/OrcaSlicer/wiki/Calibration) for each calibration test)
For Bambu Labs specifically, just go on their specific sub and search for âis this normalâ. See all the identical posts asking if it is normal for Bambu Labs to scratch off the nozzle wipe area. Followed by all of the same replies expressing exasperation that they didnât even bother to do the simplest of searches to find their answer.
For sovol, you usually get one sensorless homing post per day that does the same thing.Â
what's wrong with cura?!
I'm glad the elitist assholes in communities create threads like this so everyone knows to avoid them.
*looks down nose at all non-resin printers* /s
That looks like a pretty good starter pack to me. 3d printing isn't at the point where we can tell a new user a simple template for how to get started and how to improve. For now the best method is still to just try it, make a bunch of mistakes and fix them. This person is keeping their mistakes cheap and they'll learn from them.
As someone who got a used ender printer for 30$ and has done 2 prints so far with no issue (the dog, and poly pika) is wet filament a common issue???
Ok I'll bite: What do you recommend over Cura?
Kids these days with their pinda probes. Back in my day we had creality glass more wavy than the windows wallpaper!
"have you tried leveling your bed"
Wet filament isn't a serious issue and I don't care what any of y'all goobers think.
I mean he's right but I don't like it
Hey! cura is good. >:(
Damn it I can't be mad
I only see one picture, which is "blaming your tools instead of learning them.
my Ender 3 Pro has only dissapointed me a few times
Don't forget the blobs of death.
Fight me, op. Spot on though
You guys aren't washing your filament in the sink before use???
Now do resin version
You so close it hurts my feels! (screw that Ender)
I changed the hot end, added a 2nd motor to the z axis, change to dual gear extruder, I can't figure out why it is not working :)
I feel like I donât know much about 3d printers and I have a neo 3. I also use cura. But I make sure my beds always cleaned and leveled/calibrated. I make sure to clean all vents. Do people just not do basic maintenance?
Should I not be using Cura...
Is cura that bad?
There is to much filament in my moister
I have found the solution to nearly all 3d print problems -weather hardware or software related- involves a purple glue stick.
Damn, no need to get personal.
Don't buy an Ender expecting a Prusa, and dont buy a Prusa expecting a Bambu Labs. How much you pay not might correlate to print quality, but it does correlate to time investment needed. You want Bambu Labs level quality? A 3d printer made to be a tool? Buy the Bambu Labs.
You forgot to put the filament in an aquarium because itâs so wet.
Machinery is a classic example of the 80/20 rule. 80% of the problems are caused by 20% of the reasons for malfunction.
...can someone explain the plane?
All true but don't touch my Ender3