So earlier this week I found an Ender 3v2 at the dump and drug it home. It powers on fine and moves in the z and y axis but not x, I have a stepper motor from an old project that will fit I’m just waiting for a gear that uses set screws vs press fit.
A few days ago my daughter mentioned she wanted to get into 3d printing (coincidentally as I hadn’t told her about the dump printer) so today I bought an Ender 3v1, working, and an Ender 3v3 SE, not working for $80. The v1 is going to my daughter and probably the v2 as well once I’ve replaced the bad stepper and I’ll keep the v3 if I can fix it.
All that said, are there common problems with the v2 that I should look for after the stepper is replaced? I can’t believe that was the only issue that made someone trash it.
The v3 has the nebula smart kit and I guess freezes while booting, I read that I can reflash the firmware to get it working again but would it be worth sourcing an original screen and taking it back to stock?
Edit: another question I have, looking at the nebula kit pictures there is the pad, a camera, flash drive and something else. I don’t have the flash drive for sure and I’m uncertain if the 4th part of the kit is installed or even what it is, how important are those pieces to the kit? Thank you
If you don’t have a CR touch on one or both of those, you desperately need to get one (or you’re unlikely to be able to use more than a tiny little spot in the middle of the bed without massive adhesion issues). And getting a CR touch will probably require upgrading the motherboard on your v1.
Idk. I’ve been using my ender 3 v1 without an ABL probe of any kind just fine. The main problems occur when the shitty stock buildplate (the super thin buildtak one held on with binder clips) warps under high heat and you have to contend with high spots. Getting a probe could have solved the problem, but I just swapped over to a magnetic spring steel PEI buildplate, and after a bit of live leveling, I’ve printed things using the full buildplate once or twice so far with proper adhesion throughout. The only thing that I needed to do to use that was to stick a magnetic sticker on the stock aluminum bed. If OP needs a link, this is the kit I bought: https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Flexible-Heated-235x235mm-Ender/dp/B07XBM24HN
Would an ABL sensor be nice to have? Absolutely. But you can technically do without it if your buildplate isn’t warped and you are very good at live leveling.
Oh, I also have the stiffer yellow springs installed, which helps the bed stay more level than the stock springs. That probably helps as well.
Yeah… I spent years printing just fine on my Ender 3 v2 without any ABL. It’s just a matter of learning the art of manual leveling.