So, after nearly 10 years of faithful service, my shitty ol’ Wanhao i3 Plus is finally ready for retirement. Steppers are buzzing, occasional collisions with the bed, and the heat block just doesn’t… heat as quickly as it used to.
Talking to a mate who does a lot more printing than I, it seems I can’t pass up the Ender 3 V2. The right price for what I typically do, and is backed by a mature community.
I’ve ordered the auto-level kit with it, but nothing else. My i3 already sits in a Lack Rack I made, and it should comfortably take the new printer.
I have a couple of functional print projects on the backburner that were waiting for me to make a move, but wanted to get some advice on mods and upgrades first, that might make the first experience with the Ender even better.
So, asking the more experienced Ender owners out there: are there any essential upgrades, preferably 3D printed, you think I should look at first?
Cheers in advance!
How dare you! Jokes aside, I had the same printer, in monoprice guize, for something like 6 years before recently using it to print Voron parts.
I don’t own an ender, but from watching from afar they seem as community backed, and quirky, as the i3/i3 plus were back when we bought ours.
I personally found my i3 plus to be fairly reliable/consistent, but print quality was certainly not the best. Some of the design on the i3 is a little better than the ender 3 IMO (rods vs rollers, dual z, etc), but ender 3s do have some out-of-the-box features that weren’t available back then like CR touch and an extruded frame).
I wish you well in your ender 3 journey. It’s amazing how cheap they are. I got my i3 Plus on sale for $250 and with inflation that’s $315 in today’s dollars. Meanwhile an ender 3 V3 SE can be had for $220 on Amazon without looking for any kind of deals.