Published: Jun 26, 2022 by Henry Forsyth
Getting Started
The web is riddled with suggestions and ideas for 3D printing, many of which sound like random howlings from random Reddit threads. This can make it challenging to determine what your machine needs, how to debug it, and how to get printing again. In this article, I’m going to lay out a buyer’s guide the upgrading the Ender 3 Pro. Each successive tier offers some added functionality. The tiers are organized by level of importance: tier 1 will include what I believe are the most important upgrades to make, whereas successive tiers are more for higher end user experience. In the end, though, I have spent a year working and vetting these upgrades to give us ground-truth data on the performance of these mods.
Note: as of 6-26-2022, this article is in-progress. It provides links to the resources you need, but offers little explination as to why the upgrade is helpful. More thorough explinations will follow shortly
Tier 0: The Machine
Reason: You have to have something to upgrade ;)
Tier 1: Upgrading the Mainboard
Reason: Quiets the machine and give you more headroom for the upgrades you can make
Tier 2: Minimal Hotend Upgrades
Reason: Resolves known issues with couplers/PTFE tubing that can causing jamming/filament issues
Tier 3: Full Hotend/Extruder Upgrade
Reason: Increases the print speed while also improving overall part cooling
Tier 4: Uptimize the Build Surface
Reason: The stock print surface can wear out quickly, and the springs have too much play for quality printing
Tier 4.5: Further Optimizing the Build Surface
Reason: So many people confuse "a level surface" with "level your 3D printer bed". In reality, the later just means that your hotend is a consistant distance from the bed. This upgrade helps compensate for any little issues you might have in that distance
Tier 5: Adding More Debugging to your filament
Reason: Jams and issues seem (unfortunetly) commonplace with 3D printing. This acts as a nice sanity check to your issues. It can also detect when you run out of filament, so you aren't wasting it
Tier 6: Octoprint
Reason: Gives you the ability to start prints remotely, and monitor them remotely. Also acts as a great source for debugging. Note, this optionn used to be cheaper before the chip shortage.
Tier 7: Upgrade Fans
Reason: Makes your machine whisper quiet
Tier 8: Great tools to help fix your printer
Reason: 3D printers breaking isn't an 'if' question, its a 'when'. These will save you a lot of headache