BL-Touch Review – A 3D Printer’s Dream

Last week I installed a genuine ANTCLABS BL-Touch from Amazon.ca on my Creality Ender 3.

I did a lot of research on a variety of automated leveling devices that are compatible with my printer and finally settled on the BL-Touch because of ease of installation, price, and quality.

Despite the apparent easy installation, I was intimidated to jump in, knowing that I needed to work with Marlin and do some basic rewiring to my printer. After utilizing a number of YouTube videos, including a number of videos from Teaching Tech…With this being the most helpful

I managed to get the BL Touch installed and mostly functioning. I ran through as much troubleshooting as possible and finally broke down to ask for help.

The above guide is for a BL Touch V2…I purchased a BL Touch V3 – Thinking it was a V2 (at least the Amazon page said it was).

Once I realized the V2 was actually a V3 – the fix was pretty simple. Luckily Teaching Tech’s YouTube channel saves the day again with this video detailing 3 fixes for the BL Touch V3.

Once I applied the first fix, the BL Touch worked flawlessly, and still does by giving me that perfect first layer.

Thanks for the life-saving raft Bl Touch! Looks level to me.

I’m excited to continue working with the BL Touch and exploring all of the add-ons and plug ins that are available.

Wedding Cake Topper Design – Using Wood PLA

As mentioned in the previous entry, a colleague of mine asked me to create a cake topper for her daughter’s upcoming wedding.

She initially started working on the design using her Cricut Maker. She very quickly realized that medium wasn’t going to be appropriate for her project. Knowing that I have a 3D printer, and knowing that I can do some basic design work, she decided that having the object 3D printed would add more strength and durability to the part. Also, depending on the filament she chose, would open up more options for finishing the product.

We settled on working with a wood PLA filament. Specifically, Form Futura – Cedar – Purchased from Filaments.ca

What’s super cool about working with a wood based PLA is that the final product can be treated and finished like real wood. It can be sanded and stained to create a really unique finish to a 3D printed product.

The finished design in TinkerCad
The finished print – The process made some interesting designs in the top layer level. When it is sanded and stained it will look very unique!

It’s a really great accomplishment when you can take someone’s concept and bring it to life in a unique and creative way using 3D printing and design.

TinkerCad and Basic Designs

A colleague of mine asked if I could 3D printer her a cake topper for her daughter’s wedding. She had a concept in mind and thought that 3D printing could take it to a different level.

There are a lot of great programs out there to allow you to build 3D models that can be 3D printed. A program like TinkerCad is great for young children or beginners to begin “tinkering” with 3D modeling. The controls are intuitive and objects are built with basic shapes.

Something more advanced is software from Autodesk called Fusion 360. It is something that I have barely scratched the surface with and I’d love to explore more in the future when time allows. It is a much more advanced program and something that provides a lot of freedom. This freedom, however, does come with a pretty steep learning curve. There are a number of YouTube videos out and about that detail the Fusion 360 process.

For many of my designs, I ust TinkerCad. I try not to reach out beyond my safety level when I’m working on projects for others, and I’m honest with my skills. Each project I complete, I gain experience and am getting ready to take on Fusion 360 soon.

My Big Nozzle

I’ll be honest.

If I’m printing something for myself like a modification for my printer I don’t really care what it looks like, as long as it functions as intended.

That’s why I usually print with a 0.8 nozzle.

It significantly cuts print times as 1,75mm filament can push through a 0.8 space much quicker than a 0.4 nozzle.

If you use a 0.8 nozzle take note of this one quick finding from the Creawesome mod, which I discussed here.

A 0.8 nozzle will default to a 0.32 draft quality and there are no other quality profiles set up. Of course, you could change that default quality to another magic number (decrese by 0.4mm), but it will result in visable layers and very fast print times.

Notice the only quality profile is 0.32mm – Thicc.

However, if you drop your nozzle size down, even just to 0.6, you start to see more pre-configured quality profiles.

Oohhh…0.2 – That’s like getting closer together…Maybe the lines will vanish!

However, like I said at the top of the post – I’m not going for quality – On MOST prints. So a 0.8 nozzle at 0.32 line width is just fine for me – BUT it might not be for YOU – So print at various qualities and see what would work best for the printing you’re planning to print and also take into account whether the quality of the print is worth sacrificing for speed.

Totally Creawesome Dude!

As a beginning 3D printer things can be overwhelming. That’s why Eric Ptak over on GitHub created the Creawesome modification for Cura 4.0

There are so many settings that can be adjusted in your slicer of choice.

I use Cura 4.0 and there are settings that will be valuable to learn right away, such as:

  • Infill – The percentage amount that will be filled inside of the object
  • Adhesion – Raft, brim, skirt or naked – if you dare. Get that print to stick to your print bed on the all important first layer.
  • Supports – Make sure your tricky prints don’t fail by adding extra material that can easily be removed.

Of course you’ll find a host of other, and much more advanced settings, that you’ll eventually venture out on and tweak until your prints are to your liking.

If you use an Ender 3, like me, you just might want to try out the Creawesome Modification. It changes key settings that are tried and true for Creality printers. Along with many surface settings, it also changes some settings that beginner users would never touch.

All in, many users, including myself are reporting much improved print quality over their pesronal slicer settings.

Not to mention, it updates Cura with this sweet model of your Creality printer

Hit this link for a direct downlad. Installation is easy:

  • Unzip the Creawesome package.
  • Backup your Cura resources file – In your Ultimaker Cura directory, simply rename your resources file to “resources_old”
  • Copy the Creawesome resources folder to your Ultimaker Cura directory.

If you don’t notice a difference, maybe your original Cura settings were tuned to perfection. Simply delete the Creawesome resources folder and remove “_old” from your resource folder to get back to your initial settings.

Keep an eye here as I will update the blog frequently with Creawesome Mod results.