I'm getting my boys a 3d printer for Christmas. They are getting the Ender 3 V2.

Anyone else into this? It will be a learning experience for me as well as for them.

Anything I should buy to go along with it besides filament? Or other tips? I'm sure we will spend Christmas break creating a lot of trinkets.

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I don't own one, but being a CAD guy I have designed some of my own pieces to make life easier.

One was a silverware organizer that kept all the utensils stacked nicely. Then a display "block" to keep a very heavy and round antique from rolling off the shelf.

It'd be dangerous if I had my own!

I know nothing about CAD. At this point it will be a learning experience for all of us. I will say that I'm hoping I can make some tool holders for my Milwaukee cordless tools. You know, a holder that is in the shape of the battery pack but you can then screw to the wall or underside of a shelf.

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I've got one. You'll want spare nozzles, and I'd consider an enclosure. There's some research showing 3d printers to be heavy emitters of ultra fine particles. Mixed research about how bad those are for you, but the bad stuff is bad. They're fine enough to get into your bloodstream.

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I'm getting an Ender 3 V2 for Christmas as well. I've only run it long enough to verify it works.

Looking forward to cranking out some prints, mostly circuit board enclosures. Some Bronco cookie cutters were down the list a ways. Maybe a mini model of my Bronco.

Printer assembled and printing the first test print that came on the SD card. You'd think that Creality could invest in a tech writer to make those directions a lot better. I can see leveling the bed becoming a pain if it gets out of level regularly. Time to learn some CAD. The 13yo knows how to use TinkerCAD so I'll probably start with that. I found a few things on Thingiverse as well that I'll print out like holders for my Milwaulkee tools. Will be interested to see what you come up with @digger. Hopefully you'll post some of your stuff here so I can learn. :)

Manual bed levelling is annoying. I put a BL Touch on mine and love it. Go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/485185272196044 and download Nic's firmware. It's a massive upgrade, and was the only way I was able to get the BL touch to work correctly. TinkerCAD is a great place to start, and was a good jumping off point to Fusion360.

Dang, sorry to hear. Took me a good bit to get the bed level on mine. I know the plate is not truly flat. Once I got it though, I've been able to keep it close. I know it's not perfect as I'm finding I need to do a 0.01 Z-offset to get the right "flow", especially on the first layer. I have only had one adhesion issue but I think that was more because I was printing something that was too thin a wall on the first layer.

I've printed the dog and cat along with the Owl STL that came on the SD card. I also printed a Milwaukee tool holder (emulates the battery pack). Trying to print a dog poop bag now and have 2 out of the 3 parts done.

This thing is a blast but I know so little. I'm starting to learn/figure out Cura and things like e-steps, etc. but really, I'm just drinking from the firehose. I can see as I get better at it, this thing becoming addicting.

Not sure if you do FB but stuff like this (and dirt bike parts) are the only reason I keep mine. Through the group Justin recommended, I found this one dedicated to these units: https://www.facebook.com/groups/6272896 ... 2149457471. I'm running the stock firmware though I did upgrade to the latest from Creality.

Just for fun. Here's the bag holder I printed. Found it on thingiverse and my wife thought it was hilarious.

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very apropos!! I love it! How do you reload it? I could use one of those!

Looking back, I see where it unscrews now. Just don't leave that thing laying around in public. Too many people are ignorant enough to believe it's the real deal!

@digger, not sure if this will help but I found this for getting the printer calibrated. I'm finding that somethings print really well and some don't.

https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibr ... utqo#intro

I know I need to get things more dialed so I can get a better first layer.

Thanks for the link!

I broke down and used glue, which made a big improvement in reliability. I made a little RC car sized KC light. Its probably at the lower limit of the printer's resolution, but it turned out pretty cool.

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That's awesome!! Now a yellow cover with a smiley!

Working from home today, so I ran this print, 4 hrs total.

1:10 scale Honda GX200 engine

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Thinking through what I need to do on the Bronco, I think I'll draw up a shifter boot tower for the ZF-5 and a coin / junk tray for the trans tunnel.

Wow. That looks good. Overall dimensions? I'm printing a hawk for my youngest. Scaled it down 50% and I think I'll be in for 8 hours of printing.

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It's slightly bigger than a 1 inch cube.

Digger, I tried glue and it was a PITA. I've found that adhesion issues are solved by a tighter Z offset and an extra 5 degrees bed temp, sometimes just for the first layer. That engine looks really good!

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Here's the current print on mine. It'll be done in about 4 days.

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Oh...the suspense!

Usually that's how it works. I've done a few that long with no issues, but have made plenty of plastic spaghetti since we got this.

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I'll be checking back later than.

Meanwhile I found something on Thingiverse
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Looks good! Here's the update from this AM. Looks like it'll be closer to a 3 day print.

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Finished product. Really happy with the results. Because it's ABS, I can smooth it with acetone vapor.

Lol, not what I expected.

Nice print though. Throw up some pics after you smooth it.