1 More which one should I buy

I dont have as much money as the last few posts to spend. Looking at 300 or less. I'm a software architect and found an M3D cube at my local thrift store 2 weeks ago and I can't stop printing! I even installed freeCAD and am going through a few tutorials now. None the less I am very handy and am not afraid of swapping out parts and was looking at the Ender 3 V2 but I am still not convinced that is the path I should go (not like my budget gives that much choice)I am very interested in printing Carbon fiber nylon. I have a car that I completely customized and have the models for a bunch of interior parts. I also have the need to design some engine bay parts as well. I want to be able to prototype and test parts as well. I know down the line I will invest in a better machine but at that price point knowing what I want to do... what would you recommend.I also have a home theater and would like to print a bunch of signs (Dolby THX etc) as well as film reels and light fixtures and other decor pieces that alone would cost me more than this initial investment... obligatory get buy in from the wife statement...Please let me know. Thank you in advance.Please disregard. There are tons of posts and opinions in this area. I will just go with Creality and go from there. Looks like at this point the learning curve is more important than the hardware for me.Will look into He3D K200

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Originally Posted by i_build

I dont have as much money as the last few posts to spend. Looking at 300 or less. I'm a software architect and found an M3D cube at my local thrift store 2 weeks ago and I can't stop printing! I even installed freeCAD and am going through a few tutorials now. None the less I am very handy and am not afraid of swapping out parts and was looking at the Ender 3 V2 but I am still not convinced that is the path I should go (not like my budget gives that much choice)I am very interested in printing Carbon fiber nylon. I have a car that I completely customized and have the models for a bunch of interior parts. I also have the need to design some engine bay parts as well. I want to be able to prototype and test parts as well. I know down the line I will invest in a better machine but at that price point knowing what I want to do... what would you recommend.I also have a home theater and would like to print a bunch of signs (Dolby THX etc) as well as film reels and light fixtures and other decor pieces that alone would cost me more than this initial investment... obligatory get buy in from the wife statement...Please let me know. Thank you in advance.Please disregard. There are tons of posts and opinions in this area. I will just go with Creality and go from there. Looks like at this point the learning curve is more important than the hardware for me.Will look into He3D K200

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Just ordered the Two Trees Sapphire Pro based on a recent post by Aardvark. Thank you... sounds like with your mods I will be happy with it as a starter.

yeah ! (lol)

Good choice, minimum mods, and just an awesome machine.
So glad you didn't go down the creality rabbit hole.

send me your email and I'll bung you my stl's and build notes.

You might as well put it together properly the first time - as you've got an m3d you can print the locking knobs and direct drive adaptor bracket in advance.
You'll need to wait till the machines built to print the filament holder - plus I'm going to make it a bit stronger as with a full kg spool the current spool holder will move slightly.

prusaslicar is probably the best free slicer for it - you just set it up as a bog standard i3.
I pretty much just use simplify3d -if you've got that I can send you my profiles.

I did do a couple of prints from prusaslicer, but need to adjust the z-axis movement speed as it was a bit too quick.

Apart from fitting the locking nuts, which is a bit fiddly as you need to peel the corners of the buld plate cover up to get at the bolts - the only slightly tricky thing is making sure the belts are as tight as you can get them.
And there are a few prints you can make to get that easier.

I did kill the original print surface so mines got a cheap sheet of self adhesive pei on it. Which is probably better. And I use a little print adhesive as I've got loads.

I wouldn't bother with the run out sensor - pretty much a part nobody should ever need. And it gives you a spare endstop.

I followed the build instructions in the manual and apart from having to swap my x & y stepper cables over - worked pretty well.
Still don't know if that was me looking at the belt diagram the wrong way up or their fault.

But it is an awesome machine.

Just the part quality and solidity of the frame really set it apart from everything else in the price category.

But drop me a line and we'll get you sorted :-)

Thank you Aardvark! PM sent.

Don't understand why there are so many issues with assembly on YouTube. I completed in about 2 hours. Parts were clearly marked. Besides a few factory installed fasteners needing to be slightly tighter it assembled well. Looking forward to some test prints today. So far I just powered on and heated the bed but then went to bed. Will post pics later.

First test print the small box. Started fine but when it reached the top of the print... the filament was no longer coming out of the nozzle. I attempted to unload the filament and could not. Looked under the extruder and saw that the gears were turning but the filament was not moving. I tried to unload by firmly pulling as unloading and the filament broke out of the extruder. I removed the extruder and attempted to unload from the hot end back manually by pulling on the filament that remained sticking out of the bowden tube after it hit 200 and cannot get that to budge a bit. I am pretty sure the bowden tube was cut flush and inserted firmly into the print head but I am thinking I might have a mess in there as well???

I see where there was a post that the casing used on the clone dual drive extruder that Two Trees supplies may cause the extruder to not function properly.

I see the driect drive bracket adapter you mentioned above problem is my M3D does horrible at ABS. I just ordered WINSINN's dual gear extruder all metal and will give that a go.

All sorted and printing fine. In all my NEWBness I did not seat the Bowden tube fully into the hot end and did not tension the extruder so I had a bit of clean up. But after those issues were sorted seems like printer works very good. Will post pics later but I had no problems with the kit and or assembly other than User error...

Dont know what BOT got in for that bogus netflix post... but I did promise some pics... they pretty much show my evolution of CURA settings as well as going with a direct drive adapter. Can't really get much detail from the pics but it will give you an idea of the potential of the Sapphire Pro. Albeit less public support but not as if you really need specific support when it just works well foundational
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bot ? what bot ;-)

haven't donea t-rex skull for about 8 years. was one of the very first prints I did on my original flashforge creator. Great model.

Yep i'd say you've got that dialled in nicely :-)

I'm currently about to try the first drop in extruder mod to get flexibles working properly (at all really).

Right well a little size adjustment needed - but - yep, that will do nicely.

About 1 minute print, a couple drops of glue and we have one 100% flex friendly extruder !

I can get 40mm/s out of the klic-n-print with my new top mounted filament holders.
I reckon we should be able to get the same from the stiffer tpus on the sapphire. And probably 20-25mm/s for the original 'wet spaghetti' ninjaflex and filaflex (of which i still a roll of each that I've just never been able to use well).

The 105mm feed length will have a slight effect, but being that it's dead straight and we can now apply real pressure with the extruder - yeah, this should work well :-)

More after I've had some lunch !

Well the idea is sound. But it's such a damn small bit, it's just too fiddly.
why the hell couldn't bmg have designed the bloody thing properly in tyhe first place ? lol

Okay, so plan b involves some two part epoxy putty and a bit of speed moulding :-)
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