I spent entirely way too much time trying to get one of these style extruders on my Ender 3. Maybe I picked a knock off without realizing it, maybe mine was just defective, I’m not entirely sure.

But it was ultimately the cause for my printer underextruding on certain layers. If you need a new extruder, go for something better than these cheap $20 ones and get an actually decent one.

But on the bright side, my printer is finally fixed! It feels nice to be able to get back into the hobby again.

  • cryball@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Why did you want to originally replace the extruder on your ender 3? I’ve only been running mine for ~100h now, so I haven’t yet figured why one would need to change it. Did yours just break?

    • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, this is like the 4th time I’ve had to replace it.

      I don’t think it’s just a matter of print time, I think it’s also a matter of how long you’ve had the machine. I’ve has mine for I think 4 or 5 years now. The tension arm on the extruder is under constant tension at all times every day. The plastic extruder Ender 3s come with is just not strong enough for the task, so they end up breaking.

      I think my second one was basically and identical one made of alluminum. But that one ultimately died as well, for the same reason. So I switched to the above one, which turned out to be a mistake.

      So now my 4th one is a CNCed steel dual extruder from micro Swiss. Hopefully it lasts.

      • cryball@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        The plastic arms breaking seem to be a super common issue with ender 3’s. I have the neo version, which has a metal extruder arm, but I suppose that is also aluminium. Time will tell if that is going to be durable enough. What kind of stuff do you 3d print, if you have been doing it for years? Also just straight pla or more complex stuff as well?

        • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I usually print things you’d find in r/functionalprint, and usually only ever in PLA.

          I’ve tried ABS and PETG before, but I’ve rarely used them.

    • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      The extenders on ender 3s are all sorts of trash, the bronze gear wears out pretty fast, tensioning issues, build quality.

      How you have 100h on one is frankly a miracle. I have multiple ender3 s and I just immediately change out the extruder at this point.