About
All feedback (146)
- applianceonline2011 (37275)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseThank you for an easy, pleasant transaction. Excellent buyer. A++++++.
- falconmom (548)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseGood buyer and positive experience. Please shop with us again soon!
- bzbee-0 (395)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseThank you for an easy, pleasant transaction. Excellent buyer. A++++++.
- ejc-online (10227)- Feedback left by buyer.Past 6 monthsVerified purchaseGreat transaction! A pleasure to do business with! 5-Star Buyer 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
- vintageautoliterature (233348)- Feedback left by buyer.Past yearVerified purchaseTHANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST AND HAVE A GREAT DAY!
- 2021sh (332)- Feedback left by buyer.More than a year agoVerified purchaseGood buyer, prompt payment, valued customer, highly recommended.
Reviews (2)
Sep 29, 2020
High quality for soap making.
High quality for soap making.
May 15, 2019
Great Price, needs work
4 of 12 found this helpful This is my first 3D printer, but with my electronics degree and 20 years experience in Networking and IT, plus some machining experience, I feel confident I can make it go. I assumed this unit was in good working condition, but it is used, so minor items may need some attention; however it should "work" with no major repairs needed.
Pros:
It's a very good price for an Ender 3.
Shipping speed was good.
New fastener set
Cons:
Z Axis stepper motor shaft was bent. This caused the Z Axis shaft to wobble about an inch at the top, causing the print to not operate
Z Axis shaft was damaged on one end. This was bad enough it would not fit into the Z Axis collet which attaches to the Z Axis motor shaft. I was able to deburr it with a file, and sanding so it could be used in the collet.
Fastener set was missing 2 screws for Z Axis limit shaft, and one t-nut.
Old firmware with fire safety shutoff missing
The Ender 3 is good for starting out, but has several slights where Creality went really cheap. Some of these can be upgraded with some labor, such as flashing a bootloader to the mainboard, which allows you to upgrade your firmware via the USB port. I used my Arduino Uno for this which I already had. This allowed me to flash the latest Marlin firmware which has the fire safety enabled for the hot-end, and allows any number of customizations, and some upgrades. If you want to change out your stepper motor drivers, you need a mainboard which is RAMPS compatible. The MKS Gen L, is around $20. The main reason for changing this out would be to change stepper motor drivers, more space in flash, so other accessories work better like auto bed leveling. For example manual bed mesh leveling (no sensor required), enabled in Marlin, with a stock mainboard, and requires the boot screen to be disabled, due to a lack of space.
I also have a Z Axis motor spacing issue which causes the shaft to tilt out at the top. This can be adjusted by bending the plate which houses the Z Axis Shaft screw, ensuring its square at 90 degrees. For now, I've spaced my Z Axis Motor away from the vertical cross brace as a temp fix, so I can use it until I can tear it down.
Overall if you don't expect the printer to just work out of the box, and don't mind working on it, the price is good. I've learned much in the last 4 days about 3D printers, and overall my Ender 3 will have the following costs.
Cost of repairs:
New Z Axis Stepper $15 (more on this later)
Longer screws for Z Motor spacing, $2
Total for operational Ender 3
$165.00
Upgrades so far
Borosilicate Glass Bed: $20
PEI Build Surface Sheet: $15
Nozzle Kit: $9
Raspberry Pi: $38 (Re-purposed existing Pi 3B+)
USB mini to type A for Pi: $7
Octopi: FREE
Total with current upgrades
$260 (includes Pi 3B+)
Future Upgrades
Auto Bed Leveling: $60
Tighten Y carriage: 0 - $50 depends on DIY vs buy
Swiss Hotend: $65
MKS Gen L Mainboard: $20
TMC2130 Stepper Motor Drivers: $35
MKS TFT28 Color Display: $35
Dual Z Axis: $60
Total after upgrades: $550
Why bother with all the upgrades, well it's turns the Ender 3 into a very accurate, machine capable of printing in any current material including Teflon and Polycarbonate, which allows me to make parts that are wear and temp resistant to repair many parts around the house and outside like lawnmower and tractor parts, plus I get to learn more for a reason. I also think it makes the Ender 3 comparable to the Prusa i3 MK3 which is around $750 as a kit and $1,000 assembled. I also know this thing inside out and can repair it as needed in nearly all aspects including hardware, electronics, and software.
The motor for $16 was purchased on Amazon because the one I received was bent, and I didn't want to rely on the seller to provide a replacement. I did contact them, explain everything, and send a picture (see below) and they stated it was not bent, so you be the judge. They want a video now and I really don't feel like removing the motor again, installing a bad one, shooting a video, then fixing it again.
Pictures below
Z Axis Cube pic was too blurry to be usable.