Avoid These 7 Mistakes When Setting Up Your Ender 3 3D Printer

There are some things the instruction sheet that comes with the Ender 3 doesn’t tell you.

The assembly will take around 2 hours to complete. It doesn’t have to be one 2 hour stretch, you can split it up. But if you make the same mistakes I did, it can take even longer.

Avoid wasting time and setting up your printer incorrectly by learning from these mistakes.

Adjust the wheels of the print bed first

I didn’t do this right away because I didn’t know about it.

I only found out about it when I was moving the print bed back and forth with my hand. It had some halting. Didn’t slide smoothly back and forth. After a quick internet search, I found out you need to adjust the tightness of the bolts on the track wheels. My support beams and extruder were already attached meaning I had to be extra careful to lay the Ender 3 on its side in order to access the print bed wheels.

When you do this first, you can flip the Ender completely upside down which makes adjusting the wheels much easier.

Double check the connections on the underside of the Ender 3

Some of the wires and cables come attached from the factory.

But they could have come loose a little in transit. Most of these, like the print bed track, are on the underside of the printer. Which means, checking them before you attach all of the topside pieces is much easier.

Make sure they are all connected securely before you start going thru the assembly instructions.

Square the support beams (Optional)

Gonna be honest, I didn’t do this step because I don’t own a carpenter square / rafter square.

One of the instructional videos I watched on setting up my printer suggested using a square to make sure your support beams are perfect 90 degree angles. This would help ensure your prints are as close to perfect as they can get. If the beams are not lined up straight, then the print head will be off a bit as it moves around.

If your prints seem a little off or slanted slightly and you haven’t done this step, get a square and make sure everything is lined up.

Use one of the extra Allen wrenches to get the tension wheel setup properly

This is one of the tricky parts to do right with only 2 hands.

You have to install a rubber belt on the cross beam and thread it thru the motor. On one end of the beam is the motor that will move the belt back and forth. On the other end, you will install a tension wheel / pulley. When you do, you need to make sure it is taking as much slack out of the belt as possible. In order to do this, you can slide one of the allen wrenches between the wheel and the bar. This will make it easier to leverage the wheel away from the bar as you tighten it.

If you have a friend nearby, an extra set of hands makes this step a lot easier as well.

Loading the filament is a lot easier if you use the release lever

I nearly broke some pieces trying to get the filament loaded.

I pushed and wiggled and twisted the filament but could not get it fed into the tube leading to the extruder. Nothing would work. It just kept hitting something solid like the filament was too thick. I ended up taking some part of the feed motor off to see what was blocking everything. Shortly after I accidentally pressed the release lever and felt very silly.

Bonus tip, cut a small slant on the end of the filament to make it even easier.

Place your printer somewhere with good ventilation

I ran my printer in my home office during the day off and on for about a week while I was working.

My eyes were getting a bit irritated and I decided to do a bit of research. The type of filament I have is supposedly non toxic (PLA) but the fumes that come off from the melting plastic are not good for you. They can cause eye and skin irritation. Ideally you are running your printer in a well ventilated space and not sitting in the room the entire time. Currently I am looking into an enclosure that should help with this problem.

In the meantime, I only run my printer in the afternoon and evenings when I am not sitting in the office and leave the window open.

Be aware of the runtimes of your prints

The first test print took 4 to 6 hours.

I don’t even remember how long at this point. Pretty sure I started it around 11 AM and it didn’t finish until almost the end of the work day. This was the “cat” gcode file that came with the Ender 3. The slicing software I use (Ultimaker Cura – free) is able to estimate how long a print will take.

Use this information to plan when you will run your printer, especially if it is going to be in a room you need to use throughout the day.

Happy printing

Hopefully these tips save you from both figurative and literal headaches.

Summary of the tips:

• Adjust the wheels under the print bed before putting all the pieces on top.
• Also secure the cables and connections before putting the pieces on top.
• Square your support beams.
• Get proper tension in your tension wheel with an Allen wrench for leverage.
• Use the release lever to load the filament.
• Place the printer somewhere with good ventilation.
• Make sure you know about how long each print will take.

Come along with me on your 3D printing journey and we can learn 3D printing together.