I’m thinking about buying a 3D printer for creating cosplay props like helmets and armor pieces (only once I figure things out, I’ll start small of course) among other things and since there is a sale on the Ender 3 V3 series and they seem to be well received I figured that it would make sense to buy one. Having done some research, it seems like the regular V3 with it’s 220x220x250mm build volume is too small for what I’m planning to do. Though splitting some parts will of course still be required, from what I could gather the V3 Plus better matches the recommended build volume having one of 300x300x330mm. The sale puts it at about the original price of the regular V3 which works for my budget.
I’d love to hear some thoughts on this, since my knowledge is limited as well as theoretical and the quality of internet sources varies quite heavily.
The best upgrade I made for the Ender 3 for adhesion was a PEI coated build plate. I don’t know the specs of the V2, but the brand I went with was “Wham Bam Systems” mine didn’t have a magnetic bed so I had to purchase the kit with the magnetic plate, and stainless steel PEI coated build surface. It was nice being able to pull off the plate and pop prints off of it. Be careful printing PETG on PEI it can fuse to the PEI
If the V2 has some sort of leveling system make sure it’s working correctly or the PEI sheet isn’t really going to help. Mine did not. I had so many failures where the print head crashed into the sheet and gouged it. The Z end stop wasn’t the best. I added a BLTouch probe and flashed the firmware and it got much better.
Thanks a bunch; I’ll check out the PEI coated build plate.
I’ve contemplated getting the BLTouch probe for auto-leveling, but I don’t think bed leveling is the root of the issue; I’ve leveled the darn thing about a thousand times by now