Klipper is a different beast but once you get it going it’s leaps and bounds ahead.

No more compiling and editing firmware. Since the Klipper firmware itself is built and deployed to the board so the logic of what features, pins, etc can be controlled by your pi.

E.g. the board is no longer the “brains” of the printer but the brain stem. Where the brain (the pi) tells it on pin A “tell this stepper motor to turn this”, on pin J “tell the heater to cycle on” etc.

Basically you download Klipper, look at a printer.cfg for the board you have, and then just use that as a starting point.

Here’s the generic printer.cfg for your new board

https://github.com/Klipper3d/klipper/blob/master/config/generic-creality-v4.2.7.cfg

The real power comes from having the option to use macros for things like START_PRINT and END_PRINT.

For example, when I added a Nevermore fan on an skr mini e3v3 board I just had to wire it, find the “pins for the plug” on the board and then add the necessary config change.

Didn’t work? Comment it out and restart firmware and you’re no worse than it not being there. Adjust, restart, and go.

So where I’d avoid a marlin update because of the hassle of building and updating I now just check for updates, ssh in and build it with a command and update the board over USB.

And that’s just to update the Klipper firmware on the board for whatever fixes/changes are needed for Klipper. For things like new macros or existing items changed around you just update the config and “restart” and it does the rest.

The only thing that you lose with an ender is the screen. Their screens aren’t dumb… they have their own weird firmware. Personally I just use the website and now the moonraker mobile app to control everything and I don’t bother with a screen at all.

Right. It looks so smooth.

Can even use cylinders to group some circular parts of the model together naturally so that the “glue” points are at the bottom inside the walls where they’re not obvious

Range is 0.7. Not great but not as horrible as it looks in the display.

I’m not familiar with the Neptune and how, if at all, you adjust the bed screws but getting that range nearish to your layer size should do wonders.

Cloud hosting business insists its staff need to be onprem.

Awesome but I wish it was more active. That being said the community is primarily located on the Discord channel as far as I can tell

Some vendors that sell LDO and other kits

https://west3d.com/collections/kits/LDO

https://kb-3d.com/store/151-shop-full-build-kits

There are others and you can check out the discord, YouTube channels like Nero 3D “The Canuck Creator” and “Steve Builds” for more info

Since you mention tweaking/adjusting/etc a Voron may be right for you.

There are kits for sourcing the majority of the stuff and then you build it yourself.

The Afterburner and Stealthburner are great for ABS out of the gate but there are toolheads that can also work with PLA such as DragonBurner.

https://www.vorondesign.com

The entire ecosystem is open especially if you’re using Klipper

Try explaining that purchase.

It’s for smoothing out something I’m making. So it’ll look and act the way I want.

And the lotion? No officer, no lotion. Where would the lotion go?

And you know what? That’s a great design philosophy.

Simple and repeatable. Besides you don’t want to risk more expensive lenses with more breakable parts (so the metal hinges make sense)

Lazy wouldn’t have made them so I’d call it efficient use of your time.

Yeah. Even with acetone you want to be mindful. Nasty stuff and not to be played with lightly.

But interesting application if you can do it safely.

I have a wall mount for some a pretty hefty stepping stool and it’s been going strong for a few years.

PETG really does handle that well while similar things I’ve printer in PLA broke even with layer line orientation and a lot of walls.

Good stuff.

Hermione: No Harry, like this

🪄 Reprapario

Or, if you want new ones

🪄 Cuono Deponefacio Exemplum

These are cool.

I wonder how these would do if you printed in ABS and then used acetone in a makeshift vapor chamber to smooth and somewhat anneal them?

I think, with them being smoother, they’d be somewhat more comfortable

Although PETG would probably last longer overall since it has some flex/give to it but not sure if there’s any process that lets you “smooth” it like you can with ABS.

Not as bad as FDM but you do need to consider resin and drainage for any part that could have hollow/pockets.

Not to mention it’s incredibly toxic. So you have to be very careful with the handling, storage and ventilation.

That’s some nasty stuff and you don’t want to cut corners with it. Can’t beat it for miniatures and details though.

This would be a good post for the cad community too.

I like how he goes into the design considerations and what he thought would work and the challenges with it.

If I recall correctly it’s important to be running ECC memory right?

Otherwise corrupter bites/data can cause file system issues or loss.

I find skirts useful to make sure I’ve got consistent flow before it starts printing the object.

This way there isn’t oozing or a delay from a previous retraction. A good purge, as you say, to get primed and ready to go.

I thought I’d add that it looks like it’s overextruded. So much that the filament is being “pushed” out and curling back around the nozzle.

It could be the e steps, flow rate, etc but it could also be that your Z offset needs to be adjusted back away a smidge.

That could be part of the inconsistent print since the tool head movement over one section of the bed vs another may be affected by the layer below based on how the filament curled there.

If you want to do a deep dive into adjusting/calibrating the Ender I did write up a bit here (although that post does relate to Klipper and I mention settings/adjustments for Klipper it starts purely with the physical printer itself and builds on it)

https://lemmy.world/comment/7904011