With its 4.5in colour touchscreen the 3D45 is a breeze to use, and you can share it across multiple computers too – the supplied software supports both Windows and macOS – making it ideal for workshops and educational settings. Most 3D printers are either fully constructed or come as a kit, but the Ender 3 arrives somewhere in the middle. printing attracts creative, technical types – so there’s a definite draw to the idea of assembling your own 3D printer. Despite the branding, the i3 MK3S wasn’t the original DIY 3D printer kit, but that’s no bad thing as it benefits from the latest extruder design and all sorts of modern features such as an anti-rust coating, layer-shift detection, robustness against power interruptions and near-silent printing.

If you are wondering if the generosity of Creality has a limit, it does, and this shows in the tiny sample amount of bundled filament. At just 15g, this isn’t enough to print much of anything, and not enough for the demoG-codefiles of a dog that canbe foundon the microSD card. Creality provides a full toolkit for the printer, including a Hex key set, a couple of small spanners, a screwdriver and even some modelling snips. You won’t need any additional tools, and the firm also provides at least one extra bolt or nut of all those you might require. The main alternative to the FDM process is stereolithography (SLA): instead of plastic, this uses liquid resin which is hardened by exposure to a laser. SLA isn’t ideal for domestic use, as it produces unpleasant odours and the models need to be bathed in alcohol once the print process is complete – but the end results can look cleaner, with more fine detail than you’d get from a comparably priced FDM machine. Where can I get 3D models to print? CR Touch for auto leveling and strain sensor for auto Z offset. Easy to get a perfect first layer. Capable "Sprite" Direct Extruder

Creality's New Printer Ender 3 S1 Unboxing

UI Languages: English, French, Portuguese, Turkish, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese Wear-resistant linear shafts at the Y-axis ensure the steady and accurate motion of the build platform. Intuitive UI Display

The Qidi Tech X-Pro looks almost like a regular printer, save for its futuristic colour scheme. It’s neatly self-contained, compact enough to sit on your desk at home and easy to operate thanks to its 4.3in touchscreen. Designed for workshops and schools, the Replicator+ is one of the fastest 3D printers around. It offers great accuracy and quality, and it can produce large objects with footprints of up to 295 x 195mm. A problem in early models of the Ender 3 which still hasn’t been fixed is that the Z-axis threaded rod is not entirely vertical, because the stepper motor at the bottom is not directly under the bushing it goes through to connect it to theX-axis beam. There are two main plastics used for this, namely polylactide (PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). PLA tends to produce cleaner results, while ABS models are physically stronger; the difference isn’t huge, though, and most printers can use both. Many can also use filaments that are mixed with other materials, such as wood or copper. This lets you produce items with more aesthetically pleasing textures, and which may even be electrically conductive, if that’s useful to you. With direct extrusion, Creality Ender-3 V3 SE can print with various filaments smoothly, including the flexible TPU. Y-axis Dual Linear Shafts

Conclusion

For the price you might be expecting an assemble-it-yourself-kit, but this 3D printer comes ready to roll right out of the box, so you can start turning out models in minutes. Though it only has a single extruder head, it’ll work with regular ABS and PLA, plus wood, copper, steel and bronze-filled filaments, so you can create items with a good range of different appearances and physical characteristics. It’s easy to use too, thanks to a large 3.7in colour LCD screen and intuitive control wheel. The print base is only 120mm square, and the maximum print height is 12cm, so it won’t do for big, ambitious projects, but on the plus side, the printer itself only has a footprint of 287 x 190mm, so it’ll won’t dominate your desk. You don’t necessarily even need to connect it to a computer, as the Select Mini V2 can print directly from an SD card – or you can use its built-in 2.4GHz Wi-Fi receiver to operate it remotely.

This unit itself is fairly large, with a footprint of 645 x 406mm, but built-in Wi-Fi allows you to locate it wherever’s convenient, without having to worry about trailing cables from your computer. It even has a built-in camera, so you can keep an eye on your printing progress while it’s whirring away in another room. Creality Ender-3 V3 SE 3D printer can print as fast as 250mm/s while keeping the print quality. Auto LevelingThe latest brainchild of Creality sports a build volume of 220 x 220 x 250 mm, auto-leveling, a direct-drive extruder, a dual Z-axis, dual linear Y-axis shafts, and automatic filament loading and unloading.

Please clean the fan blades, apply lubricant (grease) to the lead screw and clean the throat (3-6 months) regularly. Once we’d got the machine dialled-in, and it took us a few tries, we were able to produce a good first layer time after time. printing isn’t quite as straightforward as regular paper printing. It’s a slow process – expect to wait an hour for even fairly small objects to emerge – and you may need to trim off excess plastic and generally finish up your model by hand once the printing process is complete. The placement of the microSD card slot isn’t ideal, andanormalspecificationSDcard readerwould have been a better option. Key specs – Printing type: Single-extruder FDM; Print materials: 1.75mm PLA, MakerBot Tough PLA, bronze fill, copper fill, wood fill; Nozzle diameter: 0.4mm; Print resolution: 0.1mm; Quoted printing speed: Not stated; Print volume (WDH): 295 x 195 x 165mm; Printer dimensions (WDH): 528 x 441 x 410mm; Interface: 3in colour LCD with control dial; Connectivity: USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi

Optimized UI displays auto-leveling process and printing parameters at a glance. Stable Dual Z-axis As 3D printer designs go, the Ender 3 is a reworking of the same concept that Creality developed with the previous Ender models and the CR-10 series machines. It differs from typicalPrusastyle designs in only having a singleZ-axishelical shaft, relying instead on angled bearings to keep the horizontal support arm at 90 degrees to the vertical.