The fun (and never ending) 3D printer upgrades and mods

First of all, Happy 2022 everyone!

It has been a long time since my last post, to compensate this will be a long and detailed post about the 3D printer upgrades I installed in the last 18 months. 

Before acquiring my 3D printer back in mid-2020, I researched through several articles and reviews for a while. I was looking for a competent, relatively reliable entry-level FDM/FFM printer with future upgrade potential that would not break the bank (after all, my printer would not be used often, just as a hobby really). 

Although there are options of 3D printers the come completely assembled, I was not afraid to opt for a DIY model, where some initial assembly is needed. I ended up narrowing my search down to the Chinese brand Creality and ultimately to their Ender 3 v2 model. 

My heavily modded Ender 3v2

The wonders of 3D Printing

This has been a long overdue post on how useful having access to a 3D printer can be. I have one for the past few months and I am still learning new functions in the program slicer and I am very rusty in terms of CAD design software. Throughout my career, I learned a little bit of AutoCAD but I never really used, so most of it I had forgotten. Thus, having a 3D printer gave me an opportunity to re-learn CAD and of course, learn about the intricacies of preparing a 3D model to be put into our physical world.

I am not going to go much in depth as this post is not a tutorial on how to design and 3D print parts. There is simply too much to cover and much better resources out there. To illustrate the "wonders of 3D printing", I will focus on a simple, yet useful feature of 3D printing: DIY repairs. 

My printer is the Creality Ender 3 v2, that despite being a budget, is a very competent printer, especially for beginners.  

My 3D printer setup with some customized (printed) mods