Ender 3 Max 3D Printer

I am the very beginner of the 3D printing.

How is the Ender 3 Max 3D printer? Is this a good 3D printer to have for beginner? Does the printer have any problems often? Does the Ender 3 Max have problems with extruder or anything else? What skills and knowledge does a person have to have in order to work with the 3D printer? I would like to listen to your opinion and learn more. If you give me some sort of the ideas, I would be very appreciate. Thank you!

I don’t have a Max, but I recently got a 3 Pro. It’s my second printer, so I’m starting from a point further along than you are.

When my wife and my brother-in-law expressed a desire to get me a new printer for Christmas, they asked which one. I said the Ender because of the enormous community behind it. And there are a ton of modifications/improvements that can be made. I assume it’s the same for the Max too.

I have plans to change mine to direct drive, because I do use flexible filament occasionally, and Bowden drives don’t do as well with that.

If you’re not planning to print flexible, the drive and hot end work well in the stock form. I suggest, though, that you purchase Capricorn Bowden Tube to replace the stock tubing AND the fittings.

I suggest you watch some (a lot) of videos and start slow, learning what works for your printer.
Some YouTube channels to get you started:
Teaching Tech
Breaks’n’Makes
Chep
To name a couple.

Experiment with speeds/temperatures to see what gives you the best results.

Remember that the more square/parallel you can assemble your printer, the easier it will be to tune for best results.

Above all else, have fun! Don’t get frustrated, ask for help on forums like this one, and enjoy the rewarding moment when the part you created comes off the printer.

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This would represent my suggestion away from the Ender and Creality. The need mods to work well. I expect to buy a new tool and have that tool work. Not need to be re made out of the box.

The question is for you to decide, do you want to have a hobby of tinkering with your printer or would you rather make prints?

The enders are fine after a bunch of mods. They have a reputation for poor tech support and slow replys. Forms are your support but advise here are opinions and poor advise is rarely backed up.

Other companies like Prusa sell a complete or self assembly printer these are well known for rock solid reliability, top quality parts, and tech support. The self assemble instructions are really unbelievably good and represent a fantastic entry. IMO a fantastic introduction into 3d printing. They have produced upgrade kits that have allowed an old printer to be brought forward to the new versions, they also develop their own software and finely tuned print profiles to insure good prints off the hop.

I own a tiko (my first) a Monoprice, Prusa, and a sidewinder.

The sidewinder was the most expensive by far, took the longest to get printing and at the end of the day makes ok prints but nothing to write home about. Sidewinder is owned by the same parent company as creality is and shares many of the same parts and fit and finish. (I had to re wire mine, it was unsafe as it was shipped)

I agree have fun just understand what ‘fun’ is before you start. I had zero fun with the sidewinder and still have a strong dislike of it. Clearly. It is slated for replacement ASAP, the new Prusa XL. The sidewinder and all the parts that went into it is slightly more than the XL at the end of the day. Far more if you count labour. It is far less of a printer than the XL is expected to be.

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My first printer was an ender 3 clone called an adimlab gantry-s. I got it beacuse it had an active and positive community (they stopped selling this model though).

I agree woth @kitedemon if you just want to print, prusa is hard to beat. If you want to tinker, youll learn alot more from a creality beacuse of how many are out there and how large the community is.

My regret with my first printer was its size. That being said most prints i do arent that big. For example the largest print ive done is a helmet which i did on my cr10s pro. But its been mostly a can of worms for me to get and keep going.

My prusa mini on the other hand just works, no questions about it.

I dont regret my AdimLab, beacuse ive learned alot about firmware, software and how to fiddel with it.

My go to youtube channels for reviews, mods, and ideas are makers muse, teaching tech and thomas sandlander.

Look around, ask yourself what your budget is, what you want to do with the printer, and check out reviews on what your thinking of getting.

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I forgot about Thomas! :slightly_smiling_face:

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An ender 3 or the prusa mimi should be sufficient in size to start and be reasonable budget wise. If you need something more, then you can appriciate a larger and bigger printer.

@Ender-3_Max.S what is it that you want to get out of 3d printing? Do you want it to complement another hobby like rc cars? Or making mini figures? Or does it just seem really cool?

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I have the Ender 3 Max. It is a good, basic printer, that can be used in its stock configuration for most 3D printing jobs.
If you stick to PLA and PETG filaments, it will likely do anything you want.

I chose this over the other Ender 3’s because of its larger print area, which I do use. And, of course, the budget was a large part of the decision.

If it is something that you want to modify, then you have to do a lot of research prior to starting on it!. Because of its different size and configuration, you have to be sure that the mod will work for it.

I have spent quite a bit of time upgrading and modifying mine, because I wanted to print flexible filament, and a few other things.
For me, modifying the printer is part of the fun! But, if you are not so inclined, mods can be a very frustrating experience.

I’d agree with Kitedemon that you should look at other printers; and, unless tinkering is your object, at least consider the other printers.

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Something that hasn’t been mention much is that a Prusa can cost several times as much to buy. The Ender 3 series may not have all the bells and whistles out of the box but they do print well right out of the box. Yes you should make a couple of changes like Capricorn tubing, springs and a better extruder eventually and you will pay about $30 for all that. Other mods are a matter of choice not necessity. Any machine will have to be calibrated and tweaked to get the best out of it Enders and Prusas alike.
There is also a large community of Ender 3 series printer users to get support from.

It doesn’t hurt to shop around just don’t discount cheaper machines like the Ender 3 series, Most of us wouldn’t get into 3D printing without them.

The Ender 3 Max is a nice a bridge between the Ender and CR line of printers. I needed a printer with a 300x300 build volume and like the Ender series so the Max came along at perfect time for me. It’s a solid, well built printer with a good feature set for the price. I added a bltouch, capricorn tubing and a compiled version of the latest Marlin bugfix 2.0. The latest version of bugfix has an Ender 3 Max config available so that saved a lot of time. I didn’t try loading any of the Creality supplied firmware so I can’t say how well they work. Cura 4.8 still doesn’t have a Max profile but it’s not hard to create a new printer or modify an existing one. Overall, I’m quite happy with the Max. I got the larger print volume I needed and was able to stay in the Ender line of printers.

The Ender 3Max V2 Pro

Watch this video and it will show you just how much a MAX can be upgraded to improve it for not much money. There is much more that can be done and still be cheaper then a Prusia.