Support for Ender3 Pro Printing Block

I recently bought an Ender 3 pro 3D printer. Out of the box, it worked fantastically but after a few prints, some parts started coming loose. The bed constantly lost its levelling, the eccentric nut on the hot-end came loose and the UI on the controller crashed. But these problems were not out of the ordinary as the ender 3 pro was a beginner printer....and usually came with a easy fix. However, the first major problem I encountered was when the extruder block would not grip onto the filament. Initially, I figured it was due to the wearing down of the serrated Nylock nut that pushed the filament into the hot-end, but even after replacing it the problem persisted. After experimenting with the extruder block, I realized that the problem was in the spring which pushed the Nylock nut onto the filament. However, I could not find a spring which would fit into the slot provided on the extruder block and still put enough pressure on the lever to push the Nylock nut onto the filament with adequate force to get a good grip on the filament. Thus, I took to Fusion 360 to design a fixed part which would replace the Nylock nut and keep the part in place.

About me

I am currently in the 10th grade and studying at Dhirubhai Ambani International School (High)

All you need to recrate this intractable is

• A working 3D printer

However, if your printer has encountered aforementioned problem, you will need

• some grip tape (or any similar object such as an eraser (almost any eraser will do as long as it is able to maintain its rigidity))
• the damaged 3D printer

I used the grip tape to keep the lever arrangement in place while the part was printing but if you don't want to crease a perfectly good eraser, any object which can be wedged between the frame and lever will do (so long as it doesn't damage your printer!)

I have uploaded the files for this project to the bottom of this instructable. However, I wanted to run through the steps I took while designing this part so that if you have a similar problem, you can easily fix it on your ow.

The first step to designing this part was identifying a part of the extruder which could take the reaction force of the lever without budging or buckling, to fix the part to. For this, I decided to use the clip sticking out of the extruder, which seemed perfect to even design a fitting for.

The second step was to use a vernier caliper to accurately measure the size of the part to be printed, the taper angle of the part to fit snuggly and the dimensions of the fitting arrangement. To make the fit, I decided to have the part held in place by friction and a projection which would restrict X and Y movement.

Fusion 360 is the easiest CAD software to use for beginners and I was able to learn it without needing to take any courses due to Autodesk's extensive list of tutorials. The first step to designing the model was making a rough outline of it in the form of a rectangle.

The next step was to take the measurements for the fittings and offset those by 0.2mm on each side (accounting for the thickness of the filament) and add those to the design. I added an outline of how I wanted the part to look into the rectangle to get it ready for the next step, which was to extrude.

After extruding the design, I was left with a blocky structure without the bottom fittings. So the next step was to make a fitting for the bottom half and add filets and Chamfers to the design to save on material and make the edges less sharp. Now, the file was ready to be sent to the printer

The first step for sending the file to the printer was to convert it from the F3D file format(fusion360 standard) to the STL format, which defines the model in the form of surface triangles instead of defining every single point on the body. To do this, i used Fusion 360s export tool to save the file as an STL format (file, export).

After doing this, I brought the file into Creality's slicer. This was in order to convert the file from STL (which defined it in the form of triangles) to Gcode (instructions for the 3D printer). After inputting my desired print settings, I put the file for slicing (converting to Gcode) and uploaded it to the printer. The part came out as I had expected and I was able to put it for testing.

After printing the part, The next step was to check if it actually worked. To do this, I tried to fit it between the lever and back supports, but the part ended up being too long, with improper fittings. This was also when I figured out that i would need to put a taper on the part to help it fit snuggly.

Using this information, I was able to design and print a version 2, using the steps and improvements mentioned above. The fit was much better this time, but I noticed that the part would often slip off from the lever.

This lead me to design the final version of the part, which had a more secure grip to keep the lever taught against the filament. This version worked perfectly and I was able to give this part a permanent place on the printer.

This project however small it was reinforced in me the importance of prototyping. Such a simple task would not have been possible without having access to powerful tools like fusion 360 and its numerous features which minimized the time and effort taken to design these parts. I have uploaded the Gcode files over here incase you want to recreate this project. To use, just download them and upload them directly to your printer. I have added all supports required and adjusted the infill, support distance, etc, to make it easier to print and give a stronger part.