In entry-level 3D printers, the Ender 3 printer from Creality is a very popular choice. It comes with fantastic quality and performance that you will love to have as a beginner and even as an expert along the way.
Now, one of the best parts of this printer is its upgradability factor. With the right upgrades, you can take this printer to a whole new level and make it a beast all around. That’s why to help you out; we prepare a list of Ender 3 Mods and upgrades that you should try out on your printer.
So, without wasting further time, let’s check out the upgrades for Ender 3 printer.
Top Creality Ender 3 Mods and Upgrades
Well, you can find many varieties in the upgrades if you look for them in the community. You can go for specific upgrades according to your needs.
The ones we have got here are the most popular, which can significantly improve the performance of the printer. Let’s get going then.
Basic important upgrades
Here are some of the essential upgrades that you can start with-
- Board fan guard: The fan location of the printer is right under the build plate, which leaves it at risk of getting damaged. So, having a fan guard around that is very important to protect it.
- Filament guide: As a beginner, you can get a lot of help with this filament guide upgrade. It helps hold the filament and gives you less skipping with much more consistency in the feeding rate.
- Cable chain: You can install the cable chain to eliminate the risk of any cable snag from the printer. It helps a lot in preventing the cable snag issue.
- Beeper silencer: You will often see the printer is too loud while you navigate the menus. So, to lower the volume of those beeps, you can get a silencer upgrade for it. This makes things a bit less noisy for you.
Aside from these, you can find a lot of other upgrades that are pretty basic. Just look for them and do some research to find the perfect upgrade you may need in your case.
Related: Ender 3 Auto Bed Leveling
Bltouch auto bed leveling
One of the most annoying parts of 3D printing is bed leveling. And with this upgrade of Bltouch auto bed leveling, you won’t have to manually level the bed of your printer every time you use it. Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?
This Bltouch auto bed leveling is a component that you can add to your Ender 3 mainboard to level the bed of your printer automatically. It has got a sensor that can detect any tilt on the surface of the bed. The best part is it doesn’t even use too much power, so you won’t have to go through any overheating issues with this one either.
There is nothing to worry about installing this one on your mainboard because it is supported by Creality itself. You can use this without causing any issues to your printer or performance.
You can also find other sensors like this one out there, but there are some things you will have to consider there. One is the issue of compatibility with some print bed surfaces. Another one is that some of them are pretty costly to repair.
On the other hand, with the BLtouch sensor, you don’t have to go through any compatibility issues. Also, repairing the sensor is very straightforward and affordable at the same time. You will find a large community based on this sensor use and installation, so that’s always a plus too.
Silent Mainboard v1.1.5
When it comes to 3D printing, noises can be an annoying issue that many people face. There are usually two ways that your printer makes noise. It’s either the fans or the drivers on the mainboard. Usually, in your Ender 3, some cheap drivers on the stock mainboard make an annoying noise every time you use the printer.
As a solution to that problem, you have got the silent mainboard from Creality themselves. You will replace the existing mainboard of your printer with this silent mainboard to get rid of all the annoying noises from the drivers.
After installing this mainboard, you will see a significant difference in the noise level of your printer. There will still be some noises from the fan that you can also solve, but the noises from the drivers will be no more. Even if you increase the power level of the printer, you won’t hear any annoying noise.
There may be some other types of mainboards, but getting this one will be your best bet. First of all, it comes from Creality, so there should be no issue of compatibility whatsoever. Secondly, this one helps improve the print quality simultaneously, so everything works out perfectly.
Related: Ender 3 Fan Upgrade
MeanWell LRS- 3500-25 PSU upgrade
In the 3D printing world, the MeanWell power supply has a class of its own. It’s one of the best power supplies you can get for your printer. And when you get the MeanWell PSU upgrade on your Ender 3 printer, it just reaches a whole new level.
With this upgrade, you can get rid of noise from your printer. When you pair this one up with the silent mainboard upgrade, you will see the noise level of your printer going down surprisingly low. Even for this benefit, the power supply upgrade will be worth your money.
Although, you have some other benefits of upgrading to a MeanWell power supply. First of all, you get a better power supply than the stock one, making working with the printer much safer. As you already know, a power supply with cheap components can be pretty deadly for your machine and you as well.
Also, this power supply can reduce a lot of auto-bed leveling issues that you may have. Because when you are using an auto-bed leveling sensor, you will impact the power of your printer. So, having the MeanWell power supply will immensely help reduce any issues with the auto bed leveling.
Glass print bed
One of the first upgrades you should be doing on your Ender 3 is the print bed upgrade. Now, the reason for that is, you may face the issue of a warped print bed sooner than you think. It’s a common issue people face with the stock print bed on Ender 3.
You don’t need to go for a glass print bed for the upgrade. It will mostly come down to your personal preferences and what you need from your printer. Glass print beds have many benefits to offer that you can hardly ignore.
With a glass print bed, you can save up a lot of time preparing for printing. There will be no issues of warping or bending on a glass print bed. Also, they are much easier to clean than other types of print beds. Lastly, using a glass print bed will leave you with a semi-gloss finish on the prints you do.
Now, which brand of glass print bed you buy is entirely up to you. As long as it fits the print dimensions of Ender 3, you should be good. Try going for a thin borosilicate glass bed for the material, as it offers the most support for 3D printing.
Octoprint
If you are a beginner, then we highly recommend getting this upgrade on your Ender 3 as soon as possible. This upgrade will make your life of 3D printing so much easier and quicker. You will have to put less effort every time you print to get some good results from it.
The basic function of this upgrade is to give you the freedom of not having to load files from the SD card to print anything. Instead, you open up a smoother interface on the computer and control your printer from thereon.
OctoPrint is the library that you run through a Raspberry Pi computer to access all the functionalities of your Ender 3 printer. On top of everything else, you also get the option to remotely monitor your Ender 3 with the use of a small camera. Now, that gives you great control over the operation of your 3D printer as you can keep it in check at all times without being physically present.
This makes your life so much easier than you can ever imagine. If you have already used your printer a bit, you will notice a significant change in how you use it after this upgrade. It’s one of the best upgrades to get on the Ender 3 printer, without any doubt at all.
LED strips
Now, this may not seem like a significant upgrade for your printer, but you can always get some use out of it. Having some LED strips installed on your 3D printer setup will help you improve the print quality in some way. With proper light on your prints, you will see everything that is happening in print very clearly.
Having this advantage helps you fix any mistakes you may have made on the printer’s settings. However, just getting any LED strip will not do the job for you. You will have to get something specific to shed light on the whole print bed and not just the print area.
There are several options that you can go with. Some of them come with a variety of features alongside the essential lighting. But they can be very tricky to install at the same time. So, you will need to do some research and go through tutorials to set those up.
Although, if you want to have an easy LED setup, you can go for the official LED kit that Creality makes. And with that, you can never go wrong either, so everything works out for you perfectly. Also, as a beginner, this will be your best bet for the LED strip upgrade on your printer.
Firmware Upgrade
This is a questionable upgrade that some of you may not have to do at all. Usually, when you receive an Ender 3, you will mostly get outdated firmware that lacks some functionalities. In an Ender 3, you should get some version of the Marlin firmware.
With the firmware upgrades, you can get advanced and essential features, which sometimes completely change the game. One feature, in particular, is thermal runaway protection. Having this in your 3D printer can make it significantly better than what it is without the feature.
The earlier versions of Marlin firmware didn’t have this feature. So, upgrading to a newer version is very crucial for your printer to work much better. Now, the real question is, how do you upgrade?
Well, you will need some Arduino to do this firmware upgrade. But before you get that, check up on the Ender 3 community and see if you already have the upgraded firmware or not. If it’s outdated, then get an Arduino from Amazon or any electric shop near you.
Then look up on the internet to see how you can upgrade your firmware. You can find many tutorials out there, so that shouldn’t be a big issue at all. Also, it’s not that difficult, so even as a beginner, you should be able to do it.
Conclusion
In short, getting all the Ender 3 mods and upgrades will ultimately elevate your experience of using this 3D printer. If you can get them all, you can turn your Ender 3 into a beast. Even if you choose to get some of the upgrades, you will be getting a significant performance boost that you can never deny.
So, make sure to try out some of the upgrades that we recommended. These are the top ones that you can find and will give you the most benefit as well.
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