Stop Ender 3 Stringing with this One Weird Trick! (ok but seriously)

okay okay I know I couldn't help myself with the title to this video but it is kind of true and this is an important update to my end of three and end of three Pro review videos let's get started as you going guys Angus here from makers muse and first let me address two things one yes I really do need a haircut and secondly I have the window open because man it is it hot today it's absolutely insane the cameras dialed back to like minimum exposure and yes so I do apologize if you can hear anything outside but oh it's a doozy let's launch right into it so a few days ago I released my ender 3 Pro review and I compared it against the end of 3 which I tested a few months ago and it was met with a lot of feedback let's be real a lot of people shared some eye experiences but a lot of people disagreed strongly with my results and conclusion particularly when it came down to the print quality a lot of people said they were getting much better print quality than I showed and I was a little bit skeptical I'll be honest because look I had a bad experience with the initial end of 3 it had issues with a coupler I had poor extrusion control so when it came to the pro it had to really wow me to pull me out of that expectation so didn't really push my slicer settings much beyond what teaching tech and Chuck hello buck over on his channel had kind of provided and I used that and I did have some stringing well a few people stepped up to the plate to prove to me that the end of 3 and enter 3 Pro could print without string and one of those people was Chaz Meister so on Twitter he sent me a picture which shows very clearly a retraction test a string test with no stringing off the end of 3 it's flawless absolutely perfect something you'd expect of a very expensive machine not off a $200 3d printer and that got me very intrigued so I've spent the last two days testing slices and settings with retraction test to get to the bottom of it and figure out what's going on and I think I've nailed it so here's the thing Chaz Meister was using Kira for all my tests and to be honest for the last two or so years I've used a combination of simplify 3d idea maker slicer pressure addition for example not Kira I haven't touched Kira I haven't even touched the new Kira and I haven't touched the fifteen-point whatever version for a very long time I didn't really like the interface I'll be honest it's a very personal thing but he was getting these fantastic results in Kira the latest version so I thought I'd give it a shot I downloaded his G code and put it onto my nb3 Pro to validate the results a first test with his identical G code was this so yes there's no stringing but there's still blobs and this was kind of frustrating and it was opening the the gateway to a flurry of tests but there's a few blobs on it this is the Saenz mark pro PLA and really he was showing perfect results is no stringing off Kira I was not getting cravaack results I was getting blobs what's the variable the filament so I changed tack I went from the science mark PLA to the silver PLA I tested for my Christmas letters torture tests and it worked here's the proof this is using the identical G code sent to me by chairs Meister this is when it stops extruding this is very normal on burdens and even direct-drive printers but uh that's the only string I see only wisp it's flawless off my end of three Pro no changes to the PTFE I changed a PTFE on my end of three but not on the pro stay you go guys you can print without strings on the end of three and enter three Pro and I do owe you guys and quality and apology in that circumstance because I didn't believe you could I didn't get that result but now I have and it's opened up a whole world of possibilities so what's actually doing this well I wanted to analyze the g-code that was sent to me and the best software for analyzing g code is actually simplified 3d drop that g code in simplify 3d and let's have a look at what is actually going on to stop this stringing from occurring at all on this print alright guys this is chess masters g code in simplify 3d so you just open any g code in simplify 3d because it has the best viewer in my opinion and that's what we want to find out we want to find out what's stopping the stringing and as we scroll back in this test the read is a rapid a movement and that's because it's very fast because this is a different g code to what's being spat out by simplifies really we can't view by feature type but that's fine for this we can see that red is clearly when it's moving between the points this is where you would normally get stringing so what's stopping the stringing look very closely here zoom as much as i can so let's preview it by line this is each line in the g code that is being 3d printed and if we watch it slowly you can see that it comes in it starts extruding on the innermost perimeter then it moves out one to the middle perimeter this is a three parameter file setting and it's going to come out to the outer perimeter so it's in two out like that coming out but that's what most slices do look what it does next see that it moves a little bit then goes back in then extrude then moves across and then comes out and it moves it's this movement this retract inside the part and then movement across the surface of the part which stops the stringing at least in my informed opinion after my experiences with other g code and other slices and this is called combing i believe in Kirra but really for this sort of test it stops the stringing the other tiny quirk in this g code is this tiny line here and that is the outer wall white distance which again does help to hide the same slightly and reduce that stringing in my test I turned it off and on it's only point two millimeters long so in my test in Kira turning off and on I didn't see any visible difference but this also will probably go into play if you have serious string issues to actually reduce that but is the combing that actually seems to do the the biggest difference so now we know that it is possible to remove string completely on the end of three and then the three Pro I want to know if these magical cure settings could be transposed to other slices because I remember I was using simplify thoroughly an idea maker originally and I was still getting issues and this is what I've ended up with in simplify 3d based on my learning in the last few days and Chad masters profile in Keira so going back through the layers you'll notice there is some key significant differences between this and the g-code out of Keira there's no combing as such at least I understand in Scylla Fighter II there is avoid crossing outside perimeters which is what you use for example flexible filaments but this has to go across that's the point it has to go across between the two posts the result is very different to what Keira produced it's very directional in terms of where it's got the seam and in terms of the result though very good simplify 3ds result did become a bit wispy with the same smart filament because I think we've identified that that kind of has an issue with stringing but the result out of the with the silver Prusa filament is really really nice to be honest you can barely tell it apart from the Keira one part from the seam I am also using the magic numbers that Chuck mentioned in a recent video so it's I'm using a 0.16 millimeter layer height not 0.15 whether or not that plays any significant difference I don't know so despite having a different path to reduce the stringing it still works and I'm quite happy with this result ever simplify 3d so the next test was to try idea maker which is sort of my favourite underdog slicer and really if I can get idea maker to work that's awesome because it's free and does customizable support and here we have my custom settings with an idear maker and again I've transposed everything I could from Kira the thing about idea maker is it's a different layout again so there might be some things that are different or that don't translate across your different settings under different names but you can't lie over the results again exceedingly clear no stringing at all in fact when it pulls away at the top that's even smaller than the Kuro one the only thing I would say about the idea maker result is the stitching on the seam is more obvious but really it's the same you get them on FTM 3d printers it's completely unavoidable so no stringing again so that's idea maker kira and simplify 3d all tweaked to remove stringing but there's got to be a catch right you know you can't just magically remove stringing without kind of making a compromise and yeah there is you see with all these tests I've disabled Z hop where the actual z axis z axis moves up between each point and it's pretty obvious with this Christmas tree lattice test that you kind of need it for some files at least in my experience this is the cure profile the same one that produced that perfect retraction test and string test it failed miserably producing this tree in fact my original settings on the end of 3 and Pro actually made better work of the lattice tree then this that's because Z hop is disabled it doesn't move out of the way from these lower arms that tend to warp up better cooling might help again which I mentioned in my review but that is a fail so what about the retraction tests when you turn Z hop on using the profiles we've just created the first really interesting one is the cure one you saw how fantastic the cure result was without z hop we'll look at it with Z hop this is ridiculous so all I've done is made it move up 0.25 millimeters between each point to help it clear posts and it's just packed for stringing it's the worst in the lineup which is crazy in my opinion that is such such a small change can result in such a significant difference what about the other slices though changing that number that single single setting does that increase stringing just as badly well interestingly enough no the simplify 3d one has wisps absolutely this is the kind of thing I was seeing on like the game around erson cat ears stuff like that very very small hot-air gun would instantly remove them but they are there and they weren't there before we had Z hop but the the again the underdog guys idea maker right you would think probably similar extreme to cure maybe no none but it's not perfect this is really interesting the idea maker result now has these little sort of raspy bits on the side it's broken free it's cleanly broken off hasn't left a string across the two posts but it's not as clean as the result without z hop so where does that leave conclusion to this follow up back in 2015 I did a slicer Throwdown between simplify 3d Kirra slicer slic3r as Tom calls it and craft where and back then there wasn't many slices available and you kind of could do a comparison but now in 2019 there are so many slices out there most of them completely free that are insanely powerful and I don't truly don't believe that a slicer comparison is possible because what we've proven what I've found out is material makes a big difference brand makes a big difference the printer itself makes a big difference and the files geometry makes a big difference what what my settings and tests have just have identified to me is if I want a really nice print with no string I'll use the cure settings with no Z hop but if I have a model which needs C hop I'll probably use idea maker because the idea maker result resulted in less stringing and a better result if I needed Z hop but there is no best I mean I always say that but there is no best slicer clearly they all have their strengths and weaknesses in conclusion although I do apologise for the pre quality demonstrated in the end of three and Industry Pro videos after my findings in the last few days I still have a huge issue with the quality control of quality and clearly releasing that video many of you have received vastly different machines that are all ender threes and I do get it the price point is incredibly affordable - I saw a great conversation in the end of three Facebook group where people came of different opinions and many people view the end of 3 as being so cheap that it's ok to take a bit of a gamble on which one you get for example Chaz Meister although he got the great results without stringing his print beds warped I don't find I'm not ok with that and I know a lot of people are because it's a lower price and you can make tweaks and changes but for me that's something that doesn't sit well with me and I will mention in my reviews and I always mentioned in my videos it's an opinion you're entitled to a different opinion you're welcome to I want you to have a different opinion I want you to come away with an idea that you formulate yourself that I might be able to help you with and show you things that I think are good and bad and then you can make your own purchasing decisions based on that and other people's opinions and evaluations anyway guys I'm gonna put a link in the video description to my settings I've used for these tests they're still probably not perfect but they're pretty good for what I'm getting off the end of 3 now and this is with stock hardware as well the better PTFE will help but this is just possible to get no stringing up stock hardware with the right settings and filament and that sort of thing and Chuck hello Bucks also going to be doing a video discussing these findings so I'm gonna put a link here here there we go it's mirrored here for when his video drops and if you did enjoy this video please consider subscribing to make his muse I would absolutely appreciate it I aim to empower your creativity through technology and I will always try to be honest and upfront with you guys and update you with things as they come to me and as I discover them because I'm always learning as well and I look forward to seeing again very shortly catch later guys bye

Channel: Maker's Muse

Views: 1,298,241

Rating: 4.8565149 out of 5

Keywords: remove stringing ender 3, ender 3, creality, stop stringing, 3D printing, tutorial, guide, better 3d prints, angus deveson, maker's muse, makersmuse, australia

Id: _QRb54zVPfQ

Length: 15min 30sec (930 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 05 2019