$100 Creality Ender 3 Pro

[Goosey]

Hey guys,

Picked one of these up about a week ago.. Good price on an entry level printer in case anyone here is interested in getting one and has a micro center nearby.

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/specialoffer3dprinter.aspx

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[bombast]

It's a good deal, but after seeing the futzing people at work have to do to get the work Ender to do different things I decided to pony up for a Prusa, which supposedly is designed to just drop into a printing farm and work with no fuss. It'll take 3 months to get here, but my life is a busy mess until May anyway so whatever.

For anyone who does get one of these, keep in mind it takes work and maybe new parts to get it to print PETG, the stuff that safe for cars in hotter climates. Its still definitely your most affordable 3D printing option, but don't think you're going to spend 100 bucks and that's the end of it.

 

[Goosey]

It's a good deal, but after seeing the futzing people at work have to do to get the work Ender to do different things I decided to pony up for a Prusa, which supposedly is designed to just drop into a printing farm and work with no fuss. It'll take 3 months to get here, but my life is a busy mess until May anyway so whatever.

For anyone who does get one of these, keep in mind it takes work and maybe new parts to get it to print PETG, the stuff that safe for cars in hotter climates. Its still definitely your most affordable 3D printing option, but don't think you're going to spend 100 bucks and that's the end of it.

Yep good point. It took a little tweaking to get running right but now its running well.

 

[FakeCowboy]

It's a good deal, but after seeing the futzing people at work have to do to get the work Ender to do different things I decided to pony up for a Prusa, which supposedly is designed to just drop into a printing farm and work with no fuss. It'll take 3 months to get here, but my life is a busy mess until May anyway so whatever.

For anyone who does get one of these, keep in mind it takes work and maybe new parts to get it to print PETG, the stuff that safe for cars in hotter climates. Its still definitely your most affordable 3D printing option, but don't think you're going to spend 100 bucks and that's the end of it.

I love the Prusa product and support although I don't use one. I've had very good success working with ABS for in vehicle accessories. Just throwing that out there although I have an enclosed machine with a HEPA filter on it so I don't have to deal with the ABS fumes.

 

[Trucklet]

I have the Ender 3 Pro with the following upgrades and it performs flawlessly for 2 years now. ($250 at the time)

*Plastic extruder arm broke - $11 aluminum replacement from amazon
*$9 Capricorn bowden tubing for tighter tolerance and hotter end (allowed me to print TPU)
*$29 Better heat brake (allowed me to print TPU and CarbonFiber/PLA blend)
*Better control board just to keep noise down b/c it's in an open office. ($49, but not necessary)

I just ordered a Prusa with the multi-material upgrade so I'll be able to do not only multicolor prints but water soluble support structures.

 

[bringjustn]

Anyone that got one know how long the coupon is good for? I'll be by a micro center next week and could use another ender Wish they would run a deal on the ender 5.

I've had my ender 3 for 3 or 4 years and after getting a micro swiss direct drive it is great. When printing pla it rivials the stratasys f170 i have at work, though with the eazy bake oven it prints in that one does abs and petg like a champ....

 

[Terrenceyao]

I recently got the ender 3 S1. $430 at micro center. Yes, more expensive, but way better out of the box and has all the mods that you would end up getting anyway. And the silent motherboard is the way to go, it’s just fan noise like when you computer is doing some hard processing. My sister bought the ender 3 pro, so I got to mess with it a bit. Biggest selling points for the S1 over the pro (my opinion):
1. Silent board
2. Direct drive
3. Spring steel build plate (never had a problem with the corners lifting). Only wipe doesn’t with alcohol before hand, no brims, no glue, no help to get parts to stick.

but if you are on a budget and just want to get your feet wet with minimal invest, the 3 pro will do the trick. That was my sister’s approach.

 

[Rusty Nutts]

Dang! I have recently been looking at picking one up to play with. Too bad the closest one is 6 hours away. This would be ideal to start with and upgrade as you figure things out.

 

[Rojo]

As someone who is very technically inclined and should have been the target audience for this I will say, i have the E3 V2 which is almost the same printer as the one above I wouldn't suggest this printer unless you have just tons of free time to tinker and experiment. I would go with a slightly more expensive more user friendly printer.

I've put almost the same amount I paid for the printer in aftermarket parts to just get it to print consistently and it still has issues from time to time.

Prusa is the gold standard and I'm hearing good things about the anycubic vyper

 

[AndrewMN]

Thanks for posting this, I bought one last night! It took my wife and I about 1.5 hours to assemble it and another 30 minutes to level the bed and start printing. We've never used a 3d printer before, but with the help of YouTube videos, it wasn't too bad.

 

[Goosey]

Thanks for posting this, I bought one last night! It took my wife and I about 1.5 hours to assemble it and another 30 minutes to level the bed and start printing. We've never used a 3d printer before, but with the help of YouTube videos, it wasn't too bad.

Glad it worked out! Definitely recommend cura as your slicer if you haven’t been using it already.

 

[Zorgrim]

Good find. I just drove 1.5 hours (unfortunately not in a maverick yet) to a microcenter to pick one of these up. I was about to buy one about a month ago from Amazon and something told me to hold off. This was a sign lol. Thanks, saved me $140!

 

[BootXL76]

I picked up an ender 5 pro on flash sale on Amazon for $300 a few weeks ago…. Let’s say it’s been giving me more fits than FITS of you catch my drift, but we’ll get there…. Will have 3 flawless prints then can’t get anything to stick to the bed, etc then get a few prints off then problems

I’m gonna build an enclosure and almost got all my upgrade parts printed (support arms, bed spring replacements, etc…)

 

[bringjustn]

I picked up an ender 5 pro on flash sale on Amazon for $300 a few weeks ago…. Let’s say it’s been giving me more fits than FITS of you catch my drift, but we’ll get there…. Will have 3 flawless prints then can’t get anything to stick to the bed, etc then get a few prints off then problems

I’m gonna build an enclosure and almost got all my upgrade parts printed (support arms, bed spring replacements, etc…)

Not sure what build surface you have, but every few prints on buildtek, glass and pei I like to do a quick scrub with fine steel wool and then a quick wipe down with rubbing alcohol. As long as things are dialed in, including the extruder bolts still being tight (I've had them loosen after running on new printers) it should help with adhesion.

 

[rtkegger]

Hey guys,

Picked one of these up about a week ago.. Good price on an entry level printer in case anyone here is interested in getting one and has a micro center nearby.

https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/specialoffer3dprinter.aspx

Thanks for the link. I purchased one with the coupon from the link. So, the hundred bucks for the printer has turned into - a silent mother board, upgraded feed assembly, a CRTouch. (the reason for the mother board, after many tries and compiling my own firmware I just could not get the CRTouch to work on the factory mb), a couple of hundred bucks in filament, a raspberry PI and USB camera so I can monitor it remotely. A bunch of hours trying to figure out how to access it from my cell phone remotely (wound up using tailscale), a ton on Benchys, cubes, and centering test prints.. But, as long as the wife doesn't realize how much I am spending, it's all good. Now I can print fifty bucks worth of FITS parts.

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