Best practices / recommend mod list.

[NavyDT]

Hello all,

What are some mods you veteran members recommend?

From reading the posts here this is what I've gathered so far.

1. MIC 6 aluminum build plate measuring 7.95in by 9.95 in
2. PEI/BuildTak top layer
3. Nema 17 motor dampers (×2)

Am I missing anything?
Thanks Again,
NavyDT

[Jules]

Those are the ones I did. (Yes to all 3).

[Farr0wn3d]

In my experience, many of the common mods ended up having trade-off's that outweighed the benefits, so they got removed.

I realize that what I'm about to say will be blasphemy to some, if not most, of the veterans and newbs alike on here, but its still worth a mention if you ask me.

I know everyone loves them, and indeed I did too for a while, but the stepper dampers allow too much belt backlash since you can only tension the belt so much before it deflects the damper. Its great for sound but seems to reduce print accuracy. After having the dampers on for a while, I started noticing layers shifting in both directions slightly here and there. Once I removed the dampers, this stopped.

Noctua fans... again, they seem great because they are quiet, but the only place that they belong is in the PSU, in my opinion. They just dont put out enough flow to do their job effectively. They dont put out nearly as much as the stock fans, and frankly the stock fans seem to be the bare minimum.

MIC6 plate. If I didn't have a PEI sheet, I would probably use my MIC6 a ton more. I have a sheet of buildtak adhered to the shiny side, so when I use buildtak, its great. Ninjaflex also sticks well to the bead blasted surface. So it definitely has its uses.

The PEI on the other hand, is an excellent mod. I run it directly on the bed heater, and I've had no issues with uneven surface. I love that I can clip it to the heater (I use 8 mini clips), print away, remove it, let it cool, flex it and my prints pop off. Its amazing. I've printed very very delicate pieces before (think 0.25mm nozzle and 0.5mm thick, 1mm tall, walls) that I was able to dial in the proper temps for it to pop off with no trouble and the delicate features remained intact.

In my personal opinion, the best 3 mods, in order are:

1. E3D V6 hot end (prints with excellent results, including ninjaflex)
2. PEI sheet (makes removing prints a breeze, many materials adhere to it, needs no added adhesives, and leaves a nice matte finish)
3. E3D Titan (once you get it dialed in, it drives filament more reliably than the OEM one. Gone are the days where you have wildly different extrusion multipliers from rigid to flexible filaments, plus its nice to just heat the nozzle up and pull the filament out, or gently feed it in by hand, in the case of swapping from rigid to ninjaflex)

[sthone]

Most of the Mods are not really a necessity as the printers run great in their stock form.

That said....

Mic 6 Plates are nice and flat I only run one on one of my three printers and only bought it because I was chunking glass... after discovering PEI I didn't think buying more plates were worth it but some people swear by them.

The PEI sheets are great because they don't require any other glues, sprays, or tapes for adhesion. I stuck mine right to the glass beds but they do peal off after a bit. (not sure if they stick better to the Mic 6 plates) and I do run my bed temps hot for abs still so that might be some of my problem.

The dampers are great if the printer noise is an issue for you. If your'e not in the same room as the printer a lot I really wouldn't worry about them.

A octopi/raspberry pi set up is nice if you want to remote print/monitor or if you do not want to tie up a computer to just printing.

I switched out to blower type fans for cooling as they quieter and I keep breaking the stock ones by sticking things in the blades while running.

[Bratag]

Most of the Mods are not really a necessity as the printers run great in their stock form.

That said....

Mic 6 Plates are nice and flat I only run one on one of my three printers and only bought it because I was chunking glass... after discovering PEI I didn't think buying more plates were worth it but some people swear by them.

The PEI sheets are great because they don't require any other glues, sprays, or tapes for adhesion. I stuck mine right to the glass beds but they do peal off after a bit. (not sure if they stick better to the Mic 6 plates) and I do run my bed temps hot for abs still so that might be some of my problem.

The dampers are great if the printer noise is an issue for you. If your'e not in the same room as the printer a lot I really wouldn't worry about them.

A octopi/raspberry pi set up is nice if you want to remote print/monitor or if you do not want to tie up a computer to just printing.

I switched out to blower type fans for cooling as they quieter and I keep breaking the stock ones by sticking things in the blades while running.

The main reason I replaced glass with MIC6 is that the glass was all sorts of wonky. No matter how well I levelled my bed there were still high al low spots on the bed, eventually I realized it was the bed itself - The MIC6 pretty much negates that, when I level the bed I can rely on it being level the entire length and width of the bed

[jimc]

mic6. i started using that prob 2.5 years ago. i dont use pei on it though. its glass beaded on one side then i do a quick shot of hairspray on it. everything sticks great, its perfectly flat and no sheets like buildtak to wear out or replace. buildtak is terrible. i run e3d hot ends which are great but if you have a v4 then no need to change as that is great as well. other than the mic6, the only other real mod that i have been using for years as well and its on all my printers is the adjustable bed corners. i designed those and ended up being one of the best mods i have on the printer.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1217210

[3dPrintingMD]

On my machine I went with the following:

MIC6 Plate - I have two of these and honestly love them. I didn't like the glass all that much. It wasn't perfectly flat, and over time, there were corner chips that made handling them dangerous. I have tried Buildtac with no real success. Its either the part sticks too good or not at all. I have tried Zebra Plate, epic fail as well. PEI same story. I know it might appear to be user error, but the fail for me comes in the issue of things sticking and staying down throughout the print. Nothing works better than the MIC6 and some Garnier Fructis #5.

Dampers - the noise level of the machine is drastically reduced with this. I have not noticed any issues with print quality.

Noctua Fans - I've replaced the fan in the power supply and the one in the electronic case with noctua fans, they also make the printer very quiet.

LCD - Waste of time and money...lol...I have a Viki 1 and a Geeetech and both really don't do anything for me. The only use they have is to be able to check on the temps without opening octoprint.

Octopie/Octoprint - This is the best mod. You can have the printer across the room, and control it from a laptop. Its the way to go.