Ender 3 is a nice printer. like others suggested you need a closed chamber for abs otherwise you will get a crappy result without it. Also you need to let it cool down on the bed otherwise it warps really bad 
other than those gimmicks abs gives me better results in quality compared to pla.
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What kind of issues did you have when printing nylon? I just bought a roll of Taulman 910 nylon…
For high temperature filaments such as nylon you really want to have an all-metal hotend that can safely reach +250°C and more! I’m quite sure the Ender3 doesn’t come with one.
If unwahr to go more advanced in quality and speed u should definitely go more into an CoreXY printer… it depends on your time and budget can build your own.
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The layers didn’t stick nicely together even with 260 degrees. I wanted to print pulleys and the details of the teeth where not so accurate like with petg. I guess a problem was also the nylon itself. Found out it was some kind of wet and I couldn’t dry it out as we have only a gas oven and I can’t regulate 50-60degree. So I guess if you get a better nylon it could work out somehow.
Nylon soaks water extremely well. U have to put it into a vacuum box immediately after unboxing or printing. Even better if u can manage it at the time u are printing with nylon. Also a chamber Temperatur up to 60 degrees is recommended
I have a dry box and I directly put it there. It was vacuum packed as i got it but first time i printed i directly heard that it was soaked up with water.
For an entry printer the general consensus on the Reddit 3dprinting forum is an Ender-3 or Anycubic i3 mega.
The important thing to do is get it calibrated both hardware and software wise.
Then start modding and read read read
Just like esk8
Same as @Andy87 I have a Tevo, I like a 24v bed as a must, for high temp filaments it makes life easier.
I’ve replaced the x/y/z drivers with TMC2100 and using a DRV8825 for the extruder. 1mm PEI plate for adhesion.
Importantly I’ve tuned in the VREF of the drivers so as not to get the motors hot and miss steps, now enjoying silence.
Benchy making is required but also make calibration cubes and fine tune your steps, having a print come out dimensionally correct is really important for makers mg mechanical parts.
Right now I’m printing some z-brace mount to reduce z-banding using a big printed triangle and 8mm threaded rod, I’m also going to add more rollers for the Y-axis.
I’m going to change the cold-end to a water-cooled Chimera with a Petsfang blower with a 5015 fan.
After that a heated enclosure with 4mm polycarbonate with a lack table enclosure.
My Wanhao I’m rebuilding with flexion extruder for squishy filament primarily
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definately get one. i cant live without one anymore. lol.
i have a creality cr-10 on my desk and i love it. its over your budget but its worth it. i paid around 500€ around a year ago so it might be cheaper nowadays since the newer models hit the market already.
regardless what printer your going to buy…i suggest printers with a good rigid frame and a big print volume. the cr10 has a 30x30x40cm build volume which is nice.
I purchased the Ender 3, hopefully will be in by end of week. Already ordered dampeners and got a list of first to print upgrades. I <3 Tech Communities, everything I needed to know in like 4 YT videos.
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did i say already that ideamaker is a really nice free piece of software?
Don’t get too caught up upgrading. It’s very easy to tumble down that hole. For the e3, print a filament guide and a fan guard. That’s it. Run it for a while, print some parts for your board, and don’t upgrade anything else until you have at least a dozen parts done. After that you’ll start to get a sense for what’s actually needed, and which upgrade parts are not utter crap.
I got 3 ender 3 for my upcoming 3d printer cluster. 12 planned. Having prusa and 1 built on cr10s4 frame I am modding my enders. I am near finished with most. These will up the price of a printer from 209usd to 320eur. Here is the list:
- Direct drive system with titan and v6 ( better quality eith less retraction, flexible filament printing, hight temp printing, mine, up to 350C)
- Induction probe ( always smooth and nice first layer)
- Spring steel magnetic print plate with N45H magnets ( for induction probe, to flex off prints, for future pick and place robot)
- Extruder breakout (to swap faulty components on extruder without tracing all the way to mainboard(for production to minimize down times)
- Filament runout sensor
- Drag chains on x and y
- MGW9 rails on x and y (less maintenance, better motion system than v slot wheels)
- Firmware mod to enlarge print are from 220x220 to 232x228 ( cause Chinese cant make stuff perpendicular and all is crooked, hence cant go 235x235)
I am publishing my models on Thingiverse and grabcad.
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Don’t buy one…just makes u addicted
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This one says its a upgraded a8. Anyone know anything about it. https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/163232822427?rt=nc&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20161006002618%26meid%3D7e5f8030918f459f9ce3cce8a2bbf274%26pid%3D100694%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D30%26sd%3D253686434338%26itm%3D163232822427
Don’t do it. There are major safety problems with that platform that the “upgrades” dont address, there are several accounts of this specific printer burning down due to the printer being fundamentally made out of a flammable material, coupled with the fact that rhe firmware thermal protections are disabled by the factory. And even if you dont care about that, the frame is made out of floppy, sheet acrylic. Even if you upgrade every other component of the printer, the frame is just too unstable to achieve the level of accuracy and precision that you want.
The Ender 3, despite being twice the price, is SIGNIFICANTLY better value because you get a much more rigid, extruded aluminum profile frame. 2 years ago the A8 made sense from a value perspective, if you were willing to do a lot of tinkering, but we’ve made a lot of progress since then.
Just FYI, I got my ender 3 last week. So far it has been very good, a little tweaks needed once put together. This has allowed me to learn along the way.
For what it’s worth here is my experience. Printing PLA is fine but it’s mostly only useful for orniments and things. PETG is good but a sticky pita sometimes. What you really want to be able to print in is Nylon and ABS - that for me really brings out the potential for 3d printing.
Look at these pulleys, 100% Nylon (I just finished them)
That is the sort of stuff you want to be able to do.
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hacked a few ikea CL finds together with some scrap plexiglass to try and print ABS with the ender 3.
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nice racing stripes