Ender 3 Max Neo 3D Printer
Purchased Sept 28, 2023
Key Reasons for purchasing this printer:
Reviews were very good - should be a solid, reliable printer
Some assembly required - but not "kit" level. Should be easy to complete assembly and get running out of the box.
Cost competitive. Purchase cost was under $350 as a "bundle deal" including a 1Kg spool of Ender white filament.
Print size. The Ender 3 Max Neo has a print space of about 11.5" x 11.5" x 12.5" high (300mm x 300mm x 320mm). Typical 3D printers in this class are limited to about 220mm x 220mm (about 8.5" by 8.5", meaning 6" x 6" is a large practical upper size for printing).
Here's a web page that gives a great overview of unboxing, and setting up the printer for the first time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p82TT4tNsb4
First test prints: 9/30/23
Printing boat, in PLA
Set Z to -2.3mm
Attempted to set temp to 215C for the extruder, 70C for the bed - but apparently that only worked for the pre-heat... Need to set the default temp higher? First print attempt came loose from the bed toward the end of the print.
Printing required lowering the print Z to -2.3mm. Wish there had been documentation on doing this... There was also no documentation on how to get the filament started. Thank God for YouTube videos!
Update 10/5/23
Lots of frustration trying to dial in the settings - wish there were more (any) instructions with the Ender on how to do this!
Settings that seem to be working at this point (breaker panel test print still in progress, but looks promising):
Z-offset: -2.3mm
Extruder Temp: 220C (PLA)
Bed Temp: 70C
Update 10/7/23
It appears the earlier issues may have been primarily due to the z-offset.
Currently, for Creality (sample) white PLA -
Z-offset: -2.3mm
Extruder Temp: 200
Bed Temp: 60C
Several prints have been made with no adhesion problems. If anything, now things are sticking TOO well... I have ordered a flex plate - so then the alignment and testing will start all over again...
Purchased Kretrum black PLA filament. $11.90 (including tax), 1KG (2.2 pounds). Printing great so far. Spec includes a tolerance on diameter of .02mm. Creality filament's spec is for a tolerance of 0.03mm diameter.
Things to Try:
Print a "max size" plate design to validate the limits of what can be reasonably printed. The boat breaker panel could be broken into sections of 10" x 10". That should fit on this bed.
Magnetic flex plate has been ordered to help with releasing prints. Will it work for it ABS / PETG?
Would be nice to try an array of hole sizes to determine design size to use for holes of common sizes (.125, .375, .5, .75, etc)
Would be interesting to try designing in inches instead of mm.
Try PETG / ABS?
Need to do more research - PLA is easy to work with and cheap. However, it breaks down at low temps (60C - 140F?)
PLA seems to be strong enough, especially given that current fill is only 10%. Strength could be compensated by increasing fill and beefing up parts.
ABS might be more UV resistant?
FINDINGS:
PLA - z offset: -2.3mm, Extruder Temp 200C, Bed Temp 60C, no glue needed on glass plate.
Z-offset is CRITICAL!
Hole sizes:
In PLA, holes need to be sized at least .5mm larger than desired size, to account for shrinkage.
As others have commented, prints seem to be MUCH easier to remove if the print and print bed is allowed to cool to ROOM temperature before lifting.
Part Notes:
Breaker panel (6x1):
Center hole needs to be 15.5mm in diameter. Screw holes 4mm
Bottom screw 25.4mm (1") above bottom edge of panel. Center hole 26.5mm above bottom screw. Top screw 15.7mm above center hole (all measured to center of respective holes). Top edge 21.3mm above top screw center, to give full height of 88.9mm (3.5") tall for 6x1 panel. First set of holes is spaced 1" from left edge of panel. Each successive set is 1" from the prior, with 1" to right edge of board, for total width of 7". Panel thickness is 2mm, which seems to be reasonably stiff for a 6x1 panel. Might want 3mm thickness for full size 10" widths.
Note that the first test panel had an ERROR - the center breaker panel holes were 15mm dia, instead of 15.5 - this caused a VERY tight fit (forcing required) to install the breakers.
2mm thick panels will work with 1/4" screws provided with breakers.
3mm thick panels require 3/8" screws.
Bed Limits Test Box
Simple rectangle print to test x-y print limits of bed.
266mm Y-dimension (10.47")
240mm X-dimension (9.44")
2mm height
Inside dimensions - 220mm X (8.66"), by 246mm Y (9.68")
Printed in black PLA, preheat 220 extruder, 70 bed; 200 extruder print, 60 bed print.
Update 10/12/23
Several more good prints completed, including the above print (slightly smaller than 9.5 x 10.5") to validate the ability to print a large square. Also printed an English rectangle template (5" x 6") to test designing in English units instead of metric - that went well, was printed within reasonable expecation of expected dimensions, and adhered to the plate, releasing with minimal effort after the plate cooled.
Then printed a metric hole template plate, 8 7/8" x 9 1/2", which went well.
Next attempted an English hole template - slightly smaler, but still a substantial print at 8.5" square, with 16 holes.
This attempt was printed at "high quality", instead of "standard quality". Print time estimated to be about 30 hours... After running all night long, I noticed (about half way through the print) that the right side of the print had warped and lifted off the bed. Print was stopped at that point.
Not sure if the print failure was due to the environment (temp and humidity), or due to the change in printing to "high qality".
I resliced the print at low (standard) quality, and am re-trying - at same temp range (200 extruder, 60 bed). This print is expected to take 15 hours.
The standard quality print did fine.
I restarted the "high quality" print with these changes: glue stick on plate, 220C extruder temp, 70C bed temp.
This print completed successfully. My guess is possibly the glue stick mattered more than the temp?
The "high quality" print took at least twice as long to run. Final quality is possibly a little bit better - but not much. Still some traces between holes and text. Text boxes are a little nicer.
Bottom line - For "functional parts" - especially if sanding/painting is considered, there appears no reason to use higher qualty.
10/15/23
Experiments laying out and printing model airplane ribs for Al. Learning quite a bit more about Fusion 360. For the first time, printed two objects on the same plane at the same time. This seemed to take about 20% longer than a single print - but MUCH faster than printing two objects serially. Interesting...
The final (two object) print was also printed to be .02" thick. The VERY THIN print allowed us to test the layout, as the ribs are basically 2D in nature. Printing at .02" went much faster than printing at 1/8 or more, and yet was sufficiently thick to provide a stable print for checking sizes.
ASA Test
10/19/23 - Testing iSanghu ASA filament from Amazon, $18/Kg
First test print is the 5x6 Calibration Test Box s (English units).
Extruder temp: 260 (this is the max for the printer)
Bed temp: 100C (this might be a little high? Softening Temp is 96, Heat distortion temp: 99C)
Fan speed: 0%
Printing speed: 40mm/s; Wall print speed 20mm/s
NO Enclosure (though an enclosure is recommended for ASA)
Just printed a few layers, and stopped the print. Basically looked pretty good. It was obvious where the filament had suddenly stopped. One side of the box was fairly rough.
GEAR TEST:
After the box test, next tried printing (in ASA) a set of Metric gears - 32T and 16T, with 7mm holes (sized for 1/4" screws).
Head temp: 260
Bed temp: 90
Fan off (? - There is still a fan running, but hopefully not the extruder cooling fan...)
Print speed at 40mm, walls at 20mm (50%)
10/20/23
Added base with slot for the 16T and 32T gears. Printed all 3 in PLA.
Print worked well, other than the gears were difficult to get off the bed...
The SLOT turned out to be a challenge! Attempting to tighten the nuts on the bolts in the slot caused the bolt to shift in the slot, jamming the gears.