Wifey got me an Ender3 Pro. Wasn't too bad to put together. YT helped over the instructions for sure. Getting the filament loaded in was a PITA. I saw a comment saying to cut the end so you had a pointy end. That helped but still was a pain.

Here's my first print.



Now I get to see what the hell I did wrong, this should be fun.

What was it supposed to be?

Almost always, the novice has Z offset way, way too high, and almost always Enders' E steps calibration is way, way off.

A mighty fine example of a old style cheap ramen pack.  

And yep - looks like the z-axis high might be a bit high.
the fact that the second row was not flatted out, more than one
issue.  did you select the right printer + nozzle size in the slicer?

3D Ramen noodles?

Can I get the recipe....I mean STL?

Lol it was the pig file that came with the SD card. So I guess I need to find a slicer program and fix a whole bunch of settings. This is a bit overwhelming

Nice squeezed zit!

I think it could be saved and used as an AR lower.  I know this because I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

That is the nicest-looking 3D printed pile of spaghetti I've ever seen. Mine normally look like someone let off a few cans of silly string in the enclosure.

That looks like the Angel hair noodles at BD's Mongolian BBQ.

You printed Ramen?

Nice looking spaghetti toast.

So the machine has been sitting in the box for well over a year, so I'm going to try again with a fresh spool of PLA that's still sealed.
Maybe we'll get fettuccine this time

You need to u-toob Ender 3 Z-height. It will go thru the steps needed to set the correct nozzle to bed height. Once you get it, it'll be muscle memory. But its the getting it part that takes time. And patience.

Level your bed. If the nozzle is just ~ a width of a sheet of paper higher than your bed over the whole surface of the bed, your print will improve dramatically.

As a Ender 3 user, four years now and moded a decent amount, YouTube is the way.



To have nice prints with a Ender 3 you will need to tinker until you wont have to anymore, takes a while and probably you will mod it to get the results you want.

If you like to tinker with stuff and don't mind learning by screwing up then a Ender 3 is great, if you don't like to tinker it is a road straight to pain and heartache.

I always post this to show what an Ender 3 can do.





Straight off the built plate with zero cleanup.

EDIT:
MODS:
High precision rollers.
Micro Swiss all metal hot end.
Hardend steel nozzel.
Aluminum bed leveling wheels. ( had them before I added a solid bed mount kit)
Solid bed mount kit.
BLTouch.
Creality glass bed plate.
Dual Z axis kit.
Bigtreetech SKR mini V3.0 E3 control board.
BTT TFT35-E3 V3.0 touch screen.
Upgraded boden tube.
3D printed knob for the extruder stepper motor.
Sunlu S1 dryer.
Run Octoprint on a old Dell laptop running Ubuntu server.
7 or 8 3d printed standoffs under the printer, they are flexible and I find it helps with print quality.

Still running the factory power supply, hot end fans, stepper motors, belts, plastic extruder housing and lever.

No I did not go crazy with the mods, they are all well thought out and compliment each other and done over the years. I only added mods that I researched that will help the printing quality, did not just add "the latest thing".

I mostly print PLA+ and every now and then CF PETG, no ABS or Nylon or any of the other higher temp filaments yet but will probably get a newer enclosed printer that is made for the higher temp printing when I do.

That's beautiful.

Only mods I've done was to replace my z axis coupling with a bellows coupling (mitigate minor misalignment and backlash) and replaced the plastic extruder with a dual geared metal one.

Is that frame done in PLA+?  Is PLA+ strong enough for glock frames?

ESun PLA+ Red is magical stuff, it prints the best of any filament I have used, with ESun PLA+ Black a close second and Atominc Filiments CF PETG Black and Blue in third.

PLA+ has been used in builds and won't last forever but its easy to save the gcode of a good print and reprint as needed.

I have not build a gun with that red frame, I would probably cry if it ended up cracking.

ESun PLA+ Black


Atomic CF PETG Black



Atomic CF PETG Blue


The blue door regulator part is a little beat up from being thrown in a box of other car parts, also it was printed before most of the mods were added.

I admit that i'm a little bit of a perfectionist with my prints and will keep tweaking stuff when others would be happy with prints almost as good.

ESun PLA+ white does not print very well at all and it seems most white filaments pretty much suck.

Matterhackers Build PLA black does not print very well on my setup.

Also have a roll of Atomic Filament PLA black that I will try soon, just have not had the chance.