I’d suggest sanding with coarse to medium sand paper, then filler primer. The sanding will help with primer adhesion and reduce the number of extra coats.

This is 'murica. we use Webster’s here.

(sorry. couldn’t resist. you are correct. this isn’t a solution.)

not really. Well let me put it this way. The firearms that are entirely 3d printed are basically one-shot weapons.

the firearms that are single-printed components (or maybe more,) aren’t printing components that are part of the firing mechanism. for example, the DefCad team, they’re printing lower receiver for an AR. All the lower receiver does is holds the magazine in place for feeding into the chamber. For some technically obscure reason, it’s the part that is defined as “the” firearm for the purposes of registration.

the reason most ghost guns aren’t actually being printed is because there’s easier ways to get better firearms. Like driving to a state that allows the gunshow loophole and buying them cheap and flipping them in NY or whatever. printed ghost guns are… relatively uncommon, overall.

an Ender 3’s print quality is too low to reliably handle any of the critical components, even for one or two uses. something like the defcad AR lower receiver (which is for some odd reason designated as “the firearm” under ATF regulations…) can absolutely be printed, but not reliably by an ender 3- at least not a stock ender 3. (the defcad team was using resin printers for the dimensional accuracy.)

in any case, you can go to any big box hardware store, drop around 30 bucks in plumbing parts and some quality time with a dremel will produce a fully automatic firearm. should we now regulate plumbing hardware?

“Three-dimensionally printed firearms, a type of untraceable ghost gun, can be built by anyone using a $150 three-dimensional printer,” Rajkumar wrote in a memorandum explaining the bill. “This bill will require a background check so that three-dimensional printed firearms do not get in the wrong hands.”

… No way an ender 3 is going to produce something that doesn’t blow up in your hand.

so. i suggest people get that 150 dollar lol-printer. Should take care of itself.

Well… you haven’t met Kyle. When he lets one rip… everybody in the room teleports outta there. dude should ask his doctor about lactose intolerance…

You called?

macgyver always carried a few slices… in case he needed an industrial sealant…

But we like the dark.
Darkness, for dark deeds.

tell me, does this fit the F710, or will I need a different part…

I’ve played with extruding my own- basically using chips from failed prints and heater cartridges in what’s basically a giant hot end.

The problem I have is consistency of diameter. my set up was a vertical extruder using 2” black pipe that had a melt zone of around six inches before hitting a tapered out brass “heat block” that came down to the 3mm nozzle.

It was almost impossible to maintain a consistent extrusion.

People are playing with it more now, so it’s possible I’m missing solutions

My advice is to get the best printer within your budget. Remember that printers usually have additional costs- especially the low-cost models like creality printers.

Solid choices to look at are the Prusa mk4s, uktimakers are also a solid choice.

I would suggest before getting a creality look for the number of upgrades catered to them- and then realize that’s because that’s what people generally find important to upgrade.

They’re not always necessary (angle supports, for example) but in general, crealities will need new extruded gears and hot end, if it doesn’t come with ABL, then a bl touch (and probably a new board,). This is in addition to the printable upgrades (like part cooling ducts,).

Generally anything in the price range of an ender 3 is going to need some love. Which, might have some arguments for as a learning curve… but that learning curve is not as gentle as with other printers. You might save a little, but you will out grow them quickly.

Regardless, stay with it! My dad described 3d printers as feeling like it did with very early computers and his Commodore 64. (Aka very exciting.). Of you need help reach out - this is a great group, there’s also the prusa forums (and repository for stls,)

Why klipper? Firmware’s are a bit more advanced and most printers come with marlin as stock. If your printer still uses a 16bit board… sure, klipper has advantages, but on the modern 32bit boards… needing a pi is a big problem and marlin is competitive.

Marlin + octoprint is extremely powerful. I would suggest the only real advantage is the editable confit files- but seriously, how often are you changing settings?

Two slices, you say?

dd’s give better retraction and can offer better precision, especially with flexible filament

Bowden can print much faster because the print bead weighs substantially less and introduces less patterning

If you need an upgrade (or want, heh.)… I doubt you can go wrong with microswiss. At least, I never have. (Their nozzles are my bread and butter, too)

Micro Swiss has an amazing dual gear for Bowden tubes. They’re advertised as fitting creality machines but they basically just sit on top of the motor, so as long as your motor is the same size you can make it work.

Of course any of their direct drive extenders are definitely worth it

just jump in the freezer, you’ll pop right off.

definitely a bit of under extrusion.

for the record, the formula is pretty simple.
its ( [original esteps] x [intended length] ) / [obtained length] = [new value for esteps] I would suggest setting up a spreadsheet to simply the process.

think that’s the problem. it’s like carrying in the heavy bags of salt or stuff. gotta have two. to stay balanced.

you know. one printer with the .1mm nozzle (and the gear train on the extruder to make that work… bleh) and another printer with the 1mm nozzle and 3mm filament, and another with the direct drive for the TPU and stuff… and maybe a paste extrusion… and maybe… uh…

…okay maybe I have a problem…

The name comes from mountain difficulty classifications. 5 being the tallest, 10 being the most difficult.

It was because they were hard wearing and had … pockets…. That cops picked them up, and then, all the tactilool wannabes came.