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3D Printing

Introduction

This page is work in progress. It’s focused on my equipment and use cases, but might provide pointers for other setups.

Almost all prints shown were made using SUNLU PLA+ that works well for both detailed and sturdy objects. I can highly recommend their filaments.

Contents

Printer Types

3D printing from a hobby perspective is split up in two different technologies, intentionally not extensively described here as there’s so much information on the Web about them:

Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) or simply Filament

Printing using melted filament that is “written” path by path and layer by layer. Overall a very slow process, but is easy to handle at least when using a filament type called PLA (Polylactic Acid), and that way suits a home or office environment without extensive measures in terms of ventilation and free zone. Can print in multiple colors more or less effectively. There are lots of different colored filament. The hotend gets very hot though so you still need to be careful.

Stereolithography (SLA) or Resin

Uses liquid resin to print layer by layer by exposing each layer with light that makes the resin harden. Due to need for cleaning and curing and dangerous chemicals this is less suited for a home or office, but on the other hand gives much more details and more even surface. Can only print in one color at a time.

Anycubic Kobra S1

This is my new printer since July 2025. It’s a big step up from the SE, considering it’s a fully enclosed CoreXY printer, still being very cost-effective.

I got the Combo version that includes one ACE Pro.

Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo

Evaluation

Here are a few conclusions from evaluating this printer. Some of it I intend to send to Anycubic tech support.

Advice

  • Don’t put a PTFE tube organizer too close to the ACE buffers, as that makes it harder for them to move. I put the closest one 30 cm away. Possible documentation/Wiki hint.
  • When adding new filament, I found it practical to make a tiny print (prepared on the thumb drive) with just that color before I started a multi color print. More important for old filament.
  • ACE Pro stands on the top lid, making it bend down a little, and the top lid can of course not be lifted. A printed stand fixes that.

Issues

I include responses I’ve received from Anycubic. Overstruck notes are either solved or matters of fact.

  • Printer: The bed is rather thin and bent (I’m clearly not alone with this). I could somewhat straighten it out by loosening the 4 screws, heat it to 80C, and then tighten the screws. That made it rather plane, but there’s still a 1 mm dip at one of the corners that I couldn’t improve this way. Leveling could compensate for it though, so layers still print fine. Anycubic better improve the construction of the bed so that it’s good to go at delivery.
  • Printer: The door is slightly bent making it not reach the middle top and middle bottom of the printer (2-3 mm at that point). Whether that’s normal I don’t know, but it makes the enclosure less airtight.
  • Printer: English translations need to be improved.
  • Printer: It poops a lot, and seemingly multiple times while prepping for a print. Why? (this is what it is)
  • Printer: It goes to 170C, does something, goes to 140C, does something, goes to target temperature and prints. Why?
    • Anycubic: 140 degrees is a problem of automatic leveling, reducing it to 170 is to prevent carbonization.
  • Printer: Prepping takes overall a seemingly unnecessarily long time before printing starts, even when no calibrations are activated. (this is what it is)
  • Printer: It’s rather silent overall, but when it slams into the chute it’s loud (a bang). To activate the lever? (seemingly this has been improved in a later version of the firmware)
  • Printer: After it completes a print it backs up the filament so the hub is empty. This adds time to the process both after and before a print. What if I want to print with the same color again? I can understand it from a “clean slate” perspective, e.g. for switching filament rolls, because the filament needs to be pulled back then. (in practice this wouldn’t work, as you might want to install a new filament in that slot)
  • Vertical walls are not straight, but instead a bit “wobbly”. This might be printer, filament or process profile related, and I’m investigating this by evaluating others’ optimized profiles as well as my own settings.
  • ACE: At one time filament went into the machinery of the ACE instead of through the tube (I have photo evidence). I had to remove the top block to remove it. This shouldn’t be possible to happen. At second try (and being more careful) it worked fine, so nothing broke and the tube hadn’t come loose. I know better now how filament should be inserted. Potential for improvement.
    • Anycubic: Straighten the filament as much as possible, cut at 90 degrees, and don’t force the filament into the feeder too quickly.
  • ACE: When retracting (read: active backwards rotation of the spool) the speed seems to be the same independent of how much filament is left on a spool, making filament stack up potentially causing a tangle. If you count pulses from the rolls when the filament is pulled in, you could use that to determine the speed when backing up.
  • Slicer Next: English translations need to be improved (“PrintEnd”?).
  • Slicer Next: The profiles for the printer and process are not very good, and there are only filament profiles for Anycubic ones. Considering how much they affect the prints and and how complex it can be for beginners to edit them (especially in Advanced mode), this is something for Anycubic to optimize. There are published improved profiles that could be used as a base.

Suggestions

  • Printer: It should be possible to adjust the volume of the beeps. I want beeps, but they are very loud now. Optimally an analog volume control that can optionally be zeroed for those that want that.
  • Printer: The printer only supports 2.4 GHz WiFi that’s less “rugged” than 5 GHz, so support for that would be great, well aware it would require a hardware change.
  • Printer: There are small indicators for available colors on the print page (just above Stop). Could you highlight the active one somehow, mirroring what’s shown on the ACE?
  • Printer: Supposedly the camera supports 1080p. Make it an option to increase the resolution to at least 720p, as it should work well for at least printing via LAN. That said, when using Rinkhals I could only crank up my camera to 720p anyway.
  • Printer: Leveling should use 7×7 samples, to be inline with other Klipper printers. The trade-off is that is slows down leveling. Not that I level for each print, nor should I need to. (installing Rinkhals solves this, that is of course unsupported by Anycubic)
  • ACE: A humidity sensor and displaying the value on the printer would be nice.
  • Slicer Next: The video is in landscape, but the player “frame” is in portrait, causing black blocks above and below. This was tested on a 1920 by 1200 monitor. Optimize to the video dimensions. Possibly redesign so that information blocks “float around”.
  • Slicer Next: Can’t control flushing volume depending on from and to filament. It can only be controlled globally from the printer. Also, the default flush volume might be unnecessarily high, but I guess it’s based on the extreme of swapping between white and black. (fixed in a later version)

Creality Ender-3 V3 SE

Setup

I have a Creality Ender-3 V3 SE purchased early 2024. FDM was chosen to simplify use and placement, and because I’m very sensitive to chemical fumes. I’ve used it primarily for printing scale models in 1:160 (model railway N gauge) for a rural diorama that I’m working on when there’s nothing else to do, as well as tools for the printer and for my balcony garden. Of course I’ve also printed a lot of doo-dads with arguable practical purpose (e.g. movie and game figurines) except showing off 3D printing, and then mostly to myself, as others have already grown tired of it.

I chose 1:160 for the diorama as it’s small, so a lot of things fit in a tiny space, and there are also lots of ready buildings and figurines in that scale considering it’s used for model railways, so it will be a combination.

For 1:160 an FDM printer with a 0.4 mm nozzle and (usually) 0.1 layer height is on the threshold of being too coarse, but I’ve still achieved great results provided I go for bigger things like buildings. Printing people or animals at that scale simply doesn’t work or would require resin.

The SE is based on the same mechanics as the KE, where the KE shines with Klipper, higher temperatures etc. The SE and KE are in my opinion the first “just print” printers that Creality has made, and overall the SE has been easy to work with.

Clearly the future is in designing 3D printers as appliances and not as something you need to spend a lot of time on or that require a lot of knowledge. Bambu Lab is clearly leading in this area, and others are following. A benefit with Creality is that if I want to I can upgrade with better hotend etc and there are many printable upgrades as well.

To be able to print and monitor via the network I use a Raspberry Pi 4, that I happened to have already, running OctoPrint. OctoPrint is accessed as a web application, and I have one PC monitor dedicated to OctoPrint while printing. I tend to be by the printer when it prints the first layer anyhow to remove stray filament and check for adhesion issues.

The only upgrades I’ve made so far:

  • A PEI plate with a smooth and a textured side. I almost always use the smooth side. It works amazingly well. No more glue.
  • Installed a new hotend because I overheated the hotend by using Auto PID and Retract/Extrude (the latter fixed to 240 C) while printing with a filament that essentially burned up and destroyed the hotend PTFE tube that caused clogs as filament couldn’t pass through. The new hotend (the same type) fixed that. Don’t use Retract/Extrude when changing filament (see what to use instead below). Don’t Auto PID above the temperature you will use.
  • A SUNLU S1 Plus filament dryer, that doesn’t seem to do much of anything or takes a very long time. It has no or a very weak fan so there’s no noticeable flow of air. It also works as a spool holder as it has two rolls and a PTFE tube for the filament, so I use it that way and have an empty spool in the holder to redirect the filament to the extruder. That takes off weight from the Z gantry, and I can dry the filament while printing.
  • A pair of high speed nozzles and an extra extruder (just in case and they were inexpensive) that I haven’t used yet.
  • Updated the printer firmware to Navaismo‘s enhanced version of Marlin.

The printer still runs Marlin, so I haven’t taken the leap to Klipper, and might never do with this printer.

I get the impression I’ve had way less issues with the SE than what many others have encountered based on the many Reddit and Facebook posts, so it seems QA did their job on mine.

I do maintain and adjust the printer over time, including lubricating Y and Z on a regular basis, as well as checking that X is rolling across smoothly (or I adjust the eccentric nut).

I rarely auto-level. Due to somewhat of a design flaw Z offset needs to be set (or at least adjusted) manually, as auto-leveling can’t be trusted for that, yet it’s rather easy via the control panel of the printer, and the old paper trick.

The max speeds and accelerations have been lowered on the printer (see below), to decrease the shaking of the printer and to yield higher quality prints.

Designs

I use primarily Autodesk TinkerCAD, but also Autodesk Fusion, for making so far very basic designs, mainly tools.

My printable designs are published at Thingiverse.

Prints

I’ve printed lots of stuff, generally rather small, and sometimes silly small, like dustbins, windows, furniture etc in 1:160 (N) or 1:87 (H0), so I don’t use up that much filament.

Glueing and painting scale models work great. I tend to use glue intended for plastic models, unless parts are so flimsy that I need something that sticks immediately like super glue. I paint using Revell or Humbrol Enamel that covers well, but I don’t paint everything. Especially very small details like windows and doors are better off printed in the right color to avoid issues when fitting them to other parts of the scale model.

Procedures

Assuming Creality Ender-3 V3 SE running Navaismo’s Marlin 1.0.9.x.

Level the bed

This is performed first time you run the printer but should be done again for every change of the physical configuration (switching hotend, nozzle, plate etc), as well as at other times when you suspect misalignment. You don’t need to do it before each print. That can actually worsen the situation due to the somewhat flaky Z offset detection.

After leveling has been performed, adjust Z offset by using the classical paper method. Z offset is set via the control panel.

Procedure:

  • Make a note of the current Z offset to check afterwards whether it was already right.
  • Increase Z offset (don’t make it more negative!) by ~2 mm. This is to warrant that the nozzle won’t hit the plate during the next step.
  • Enter Move and set Move Z to 0. It won’t go below 0 even if you try. See to that it doesn’t collide with the plate.
  • Place a sheet of paper on the plate under the nozzle.
  • Adjust Z offset down until you get some resistance when moving the paper.
  • Z offset is saved automatically.

Upgrade the firmware

Upgrade to at least 1.0.6 at Ender-3 V3 SE Software & Firmware Download – Creality 3D, but I recommend Navaismo’s modified version of Marlin. If you run 1.0.4 you need to upgrade to 1.0.6 before you can upgrade to Navaismo. Follow the included instructions to the letter, and upgrade both the display and control board firmware. If the latter fails, give the bin file a random name.

Improve adhesion

Get a magnetic PEI (or better) plate with a smooth and non-patterned/textured surface on at least one side. Don’t fall for the novelty of a fancy pattern.

Don’t use glue or other home remedies after that, unless the filament requires it. PLA won’t.

After a print job

Let the bed cool down to at least 30 °C before you take anything off, as prints loosen easier and are not deformed, and also minimizes risk of damaging the plate.

Avoid overheating

Follow the temperature levels recommended for your filament and the stated limits of the printer.

Don’t set a temperature for Auto PID higher than you’ll use when printing. The same applies when printing a temperature tower.

Don’t use Retract/Extrude, as the temperatures are set too high (240C) and can’t be changed.

You’ll burn the PTFE tube in the hotend if you go too high. 260 is said to be the limit, but simply never go that high.

Switch filament between prints

Don’t use Retract/Extrude for switching filament (see above). Except for the risk of overheating, they also increase time due to two heating cycles.

Instead use Preheat suitable for your filament.

  • Prepare the new filament: unpack and cut at 45 degrees.
  • Wait for the nozzle to reach target temperature.
  • Hold the extruder lever.
  • Pull out the old filament.
  • Hold the extruder lever and the extruder.
  • Push the new filament all the way to the nozzle and hold the pressure until the previous filament has been fully emptied out on the plate.
  • Issue Cooldown unless you have a print that’s ready to go.
  • Stow the previous filament away with a clip and desiccant, and seal the bag.

Switch filament during print

This describes switching filament (and usually color) on a layer basis, not what you get with a Bambu Lab AMS or similar, in part because I don’t have multi-spool equipment.

G-code has a command for this called Filament Change with the code M600. The SE and most other printers support this command. You either set it by editing the generated G-code (traditional but not recommended), or in the slicer Preview select the layer where the new color should be applied by scrolling down in the layer stack and right-clicking on the scroll bar. After that it differs between slicers, so read the specific documentation for this. This can be repeated several times for other layers.

  • When the printer encounters Filament Change it will move the extruder to the front of the bed and retract the current filament so you can then easily take it out and insert a new one (don’t forget to push the extruder lever).
  • Then push the new filament down to get the remaining bit of previous filament out. What makes this a bit hard is that heating will be shut off during this phase, so be quick.
  • After this you click the knob on the display or the dialog in OctoPrint to tell the printer to continue printing a new layer with the new filament.
  • I recommend using “M600 U0 L0” to avoid unloading and loading as it’s better done manually.

Printer Settings

To avoid too much shaking I’ve lowered the max speed and acceleration settings in the printer. Note that these are overridden by the printer settings.

This is based on “Fine tune your Ender 3 V3 SE – eliminate stringing!”, with some changes. The default settings in firmware version 1.0.6 are in parentheses.

E stands for Extruder. 1000 for E acceleration seems too high, but at least it’s not 4000.

The reason I set bed temperature to 0 for preheat is that I use it for changing filament and there’s no point heating the bed for that.

Max Speeds

  • X: 300 (500)
  • Y: 300 (500)
  • Z: 10 (5)
  • E: 50 (30)

Max Accelerations

  • X: 1000 (4000)
  • Y: 1000 (4000)
  • Z: 100 (4000)
  • E: 1000 (4000)

Steps

  • X: 80
  • Y: 80
  • Z: 400
  • E: 416.6 (424.9) (this is highly printer-specific, so you need to make your own Estep calibration to determine a suitable setting)

Preheat PLA Settings

  • Nozzle: 200 (180)
  • Bed: 0 (60)
  • Fan: 0

Preheat TPU Settings

  • Nozzle: 230 (230)
  • Bed: 0 (70)
  • Fan: 0

Slicer Settings

OrcaSlicer is my preferred slicer, as it’s feature-rich, reliable and has very good profiles for the SE.

Some of the settings I tend to change (activate Advanced):

General changes

  • Printer / Machine G-code / Machine start G-code:
    • M413 S0 ;Power loss resume off
    • M420 S1 ;Use saved bed leveling data (supposedly this is not needed for the SE, but I send it anyway)

Optional changes

Depending on specific needs.

Skirt

I prefer these settings for scale models to minimize risk of stray filament covering any part of the actual print area.

  • Process / Others / Skirt / Skirt loops: 3
  • Process / Others / Skirt / Skirt distance: 10
  • Process / Others / Skirt / Skirt height: 1

Smooth surfaces

  • Process / Quality / Ironing type: All top surfaces

Supports

Optimally try to place the object so that no or less supports are needed. E.g. can some objects be angled 45 degrees to avoid most supports. In that case a brim and/or support enforcers might be needed so the print doesn’t keel over. Some objects are better printed with Grid supports, especially when the underside is at different levels. I use a Raft for things that are so narrow they don’t stick. It can also be used to lessen warping.

  • Process / Support / Support / Enable support: on
  • Process / Support / Support / Type:  Tree(auto)
  • Process / Support / Support / On build plate only: on
  • Process / Support / Tree supports / Tip diameter: 0.4

Separate prints

This is a great way to print multiple objects at the same time while ensuring that as few objects as possible are affected by failures.

Note that objects need to be spaced out more to avoid the extruder hitting them while printing other objects.

Even when objects are spaced out enough I’ve found that the X gantry can still collide with objects that are higher than ~5 cm, so be careful.

  • Others / Special mode / Print sequence / By object

Walls

Also called perimeters.

This might give a better result for details.

  • Process / Quality / Walls and surfaces / Walls printing order / Inner/Outer/Inner

Seam

This setting is practical for round objects without clear corners that have an obvious forward (and detailed) face that must not be affected. If needed orient the object appropriately. Otherwise I use Aligned.

  • Process / Quality / Seam / Seam position / Back

Stringing

OrcaSlicer provides a number of test prints for calibrating the printing process. One that’s especially aimed at minimizing stringing is the Retraction test.

The default settings of 0 to 2 mm step 1 should be sufficient for most cases.

Once you see what setting is optimal you can adjust the retraction length for the filament that was used while printing the test:

  • Material settings / Settings Overrides / Retraction / Length

This is a highly filament-dependent setting, so no general advice can be given.

Code Changes

I still use Marlin, but a variant based on CrealityOfficial – Ender-3V3-SE that has host action commands and linear advance enabled. I used Visual Studio Code and PlatformIO to make the changes and then installed it by powering on with the generated .bin file on the SD Card.

These are the changes I’ve made so far:

  • Version.h:
    Changed SHORT_BUILD_VERSION so I could check my code was being used
  • Configuration_adv.h (uncomment):
    #define LIN_ADVANCE
    #define HOST_ACTION_COMMANDS