Hello there! My friends gifted me an Ender 3 printer, and I achieved my first successful print today! I have a few (probably stupid) questions:

  1. I will store it in my garage, in a shelve among other things. It is quite dusty, so I’m thinking of building a plexiglass hermetic box to keep it while powered off. Would it be a problem to keep it closed also while printing? This would change the type of box I’ll build, because there is not much space and I’m trying to save the most of it
  2. How do I store the filament? I (currently) have only one filament (black PLA), so I see no need to remove it from the printer each time, but leaving it “connected” (I don’t know how to say it) will not allow me to store it in a different way the printer is stored. Do I need to store it in special ways or can I leave it connected? (And bonus question, what is the correct word to say it?)
  3. If I don’t move the printer, how often should I calibrate it?

Sorry if these are basic questions, I’m taking my first steps into this magic world… Thanks in advance!

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Thank you for explaining it so thoroughly. I’ll keep a look out for changing extrusion levels because I use the white pla, it probably has titanium oxide in it. My printer came with quite a few extra nozzles, I’m just afraid of fucking up the printer when I change it the first time so I’m avoiding having to do it.

    • TwanHE@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      10 months ago

      Even if you do wear out your nozzle slightly it probably still works perfectly fine if you change nozzle size/line width in the slicer. I printed a bunch of cf-asa on a brass nozzle since my hardened steel one hadn’t arrived yet. Started out as a .4 but became a .8 nozzle after about 500 grams of printing.

      • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        That’s good to know, I guess I have to start measuring the width now. I didn’t even think to get one of those measuring devices. Thanks.

        • TwanHE@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          10 months ago

          Don’t need to measure, just increase the size by .1 when the extruded lines aren’t flattened out by the nozzle anymore. It’s not a foolproof strategy but might save you from wearing out multiple nozzles instead of 1