In the late 2010s, the Ender 3 printers were arguably the most popular line of 3D printers worldwide, and for good reason. They combined simplicity and reliability in a package that was much less expensive than competitors, giving a much wider range of people access to their first printers. Of course there are much better printers on the market today, leaving many of these printers sitting unused. [Irbis3D] had an idea that with so many of these obsolete, inexpensive printers on the secondhand market, he could build something better with their parts.
The printer he eventually pieces together takes parts from two donor Ender printers and creates a printer with a CoreXY design instead of the bedslinger (Cartesian) design of the originals. CoreXY has an advantage over other printer topologies in that the print head moves in X and Y directions, allowing for much faster print times at the expense of increased complexity. There are some challenges to the design that [Irbis3D] had to contend with, such as heating problems with the extruder head that needed some modifications, as well as a resonance problem common with many printer designs which can generally be solved by replacing parts one-by-one until satisfactory prints are achieved.
Of course, not all of the parts for the new printer come from the old Ender printers. The longer belts driving the print head needed to be ordered, as well as a few other miscellaneous bits. But almost everything else is taken from these printers, which can be found fairly cheaply on the secondhand market nowadays. In theory it’s possible to build this version for much less cost than an equivalent printer as a result. If you’re looking for something even more complicated to build, we’d recommend this delta printer with a built-in tool changer.
Thanks to [BusterCasey] for the tip!
I like this…
Couple years back I suggested a similar thing but making opensource hardware designs that used “recipes” that called for other used printers. Saving some ewaste in the process.
Still think that could be a good project that would supplement Reprap.
That’s a great idea, not just for 3D printers but all hardware – I’d love to see a wiki of that.
The biggest problem with the ender, if you ask me, would be the lack of linear rails. The fact that this printer still uses the POM wheels does not give me the idea that it is a much better printer.
I converted my Ender 3 to a prusa bear i3. Limited with the stuff i had, i had to buy 2040 rails for the front and end, some steel rods for the bearings and the LMU8 bearings. The rest was 3d printed. It actually prints really well (I also added a BLTouch). Yeah i can only reach like 180×220 now. That is a limitation i accept, it is a much lower maintenance machine now. It just prints, like a real prusa.
In part two he does linear rails. I built mine with MGN12s
Not sure how many people have two Enders but I have one and started the project Ender3 NG that seems to be a lot more mature and following Voron: https://rh3d.xyz . I don’t see anything written about it here in Hackaday.
used printers are way cheaper than buying new aluminium extrusions and all the other components new.
the “struggle” with buying used printers on ebay is it shows up on your doorstep and then you find out you paid almost nothing for a printer that works perfectly out of the box after you resolve whatever completely insignificant problem made the original purchaser give up and throw it away. and then you don’t want to tear it down for parts because it works. the struggle is real
It’s like the problem with CRT televisions. The stupid things never broke so you could buy something better.
Anyway, I’d say the other “struggle” with those used printers is that if you are looking to print in volume, you want several of the same printer rather than a patchwork of different makes and models you got cheap on ebay/offerup.
I don’t get this statement as if you go to the page you will see that it uses almost all original Ender 3 extrusions (except one) and you can even print the missing two vertical. Of course it has another BoM that you need to buy and print a lot of parts but this is the price to go CoreXY.
I still have my Lulzbot for this exact reason – the frame is so nice and rigid I’m sure there’s something cool I can recycle it in to…
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/s/trKMng7GJM