Problem Diagnosis

Ender 3 V3 KE suffered from irregular layer extrusions from the initial print tests.

Through recording the bed movement and gantry vibrations during a test print, it was apparent that both Z axis and Y axis suffered from mechanical vibration issues. Additional input shaping calibration with a gyro yielded no significant improvement on print quality, therefore it was determined that a mechanical solution was to be implemented.

Image: By recording the Top Gantry during a 300mm/s print, I was able to measure the average travel distance of the gantry during sudden movements to be 6.5mm.

Solution Concept

1. The bed vibration issue was partially resolved through the replacement of linear rods with a proper h7 tolerance machined rod with WD-40 lubricant, limiting wobbles caused by incorrect tolerance fit.

2. I decided to custom build a gantry structural improvement taking inspiration from taller bed-slinger printers such as the Elegoo Neptune 4 that implements this very solution to combat gantry vibrations.

CAD & Print

Major Issue 1: I bought this printer on January 20th, 2024, and got started on improvements just 3 days after. The problem with buying a brand new printer was that there was absolutely 0 information on the dimensions or any technical drawings available for this.

As any Mech Eng student would, I modeled the entire printer with +- 0.2mm tolerance from measurements in order to design the fixture parts.

Utilizing the existing M3 screws on the bottom and top of the printer, the attachment pieces would be secured properly to the structural elements of the printer.

Implementation & Results

Visually, with the same slicer settings and filaments from the same brand, there was a drastic improvement in print quality, with significantly less visible layer irregularity.

To quantify the improvement, the same test for the gantry was conducted, and the average vibration was measured to be around 3.4 - 3.5mm, a 52% decrease from the original amount.

Future upgrades: Currently in the middle of implementing linear rails for the y-axis, as the replaced linear rods still show slight vibration during fast prints exceeding 200mm/s.