It’s been a while since I’ve thrown anything other than a look of annoyance at my 3D printer when it’s done anything but work properly. But thanks to an overnight delivery from Amazon, $10 has netted me some silicone spacers that will hopefully keep the plate somewhere near level…because the springs that are currently there are about 3 days off from retirement…
An upgrade and a discovery!
Yes before take a look at the silicone spacers, first I’ve needed to look at the motherboard – no no, there’s absolutely no connection between the two, more to confirm a hunch. Namely that I thought I had the model with the silent stepper motor drivers. Or to put it into layman’s terms ‘The quietest version of the machine.’
A deep dive into the the inner workings of my Creality Ender 3 V2 shows me that my board is version 4.2.2. And looking into things this week, I’ve discovered that depending on the letter scrawled on the SD card slot of your Ender 3 motherboard, you may or may not have the quiet type – what you’re hoping for here is anything starting with tmc22xx. A helpful guide netted me what to look for:
Look for the markings on the sd card reader:
C = hr4998
E = a4988
A = tmc2208
B = tmc2209
H = tmc2225
Having no other printer to compare to, I figured I’d find a C or an H under the cover. But lo and behold, it turns out I’m as silent as I could be.
Well that’s some good news then. If only the fan on the hot end read the same memo…
So I can’t make it quieter, but can the silicone spacers keep it stable?
One annoying issue I’ve had of late is that I’ll fiddle around level the Ender 3’s print plate, save the settings and things will be great for about 3 weeks. Then the next time I print, nothing will stick to the plate, filament will go everywhere and I’ll be back to trying to get it as level as possible with the springs the printer came with – which can be a bit hit and miss.
I like to blame the cat for probably dancing on it all night but truth be told it may just be the factory parts slowly giving up the ghost. Or more to the point, their hold in keeping things stable.
One option a lot of people seemed to have luck with are upgraded springs and new levelling knobs, but I’ve also heard pretty good things about silicone spacers holding things in place and so I opted for them instead. At less than $10 with free delivery from Amazon, what exactly could go wrong here? So I placed an order and then the very next day..
Look I know I shouldn’t be surprised anymore by this but I’m still gobsmacked that I can order something from Amazon and it’s here in my mailbox literally the very next day. Especially when I send a Xmas card to the next Australian state over and it still takes a good part of the week to get there.
Perhaps Amazon could think about buying and taking over Australia Post?
If you’re eagle eyed, you might be wondering if the top two are slightly smaller than the rest and if that’s the case, give yourself a freshly 3d printed point – the slightly smaller silicone spacers are for the corner with the bed power wire (because there’s slightly less space to work with.)
Installation is as simple as it comes – firstly wind all the wheels off.
Then lift up the bed carefully and swap the old springs out for the new silicone spacers. In the next pic you’ll see I had them on the threads at the bottom of the bed – it’s easier to line things up if they’re resting on the bottom plate first and then you ease the bed down.
Once everything is in line, pop the wheels back on. Naturally you’re going to have to level the bed after this (if you don’t you’re just asking for trouble) but the theory is that once you’ve got everything dialled in, it should be a far longer time before you have to do it again (and in my case if I can go longer than 3 weeks then I’ll count that as a win!)
Let’s see if these silicone spacers can do a much better job in keeping things level (I do need to do more printing explore more Gridfinity options I feel, it’s been a while!) – so the next update will be coming soon!