Top Ten Upgrades for Your 3D Printer: 2021
3D printing is ever advancing, you need to make sure that you know everything there is to know about the latest and greatest upgrade options.
Finding the right improvements to make to a 3D printer is an inherently personal task; some need a 3D printer that can reach 300°C while others only care about succeeding with flexible 3D printing filaments. We’ve sorted through the dozens of new components and accessories available to compile a list for you of some of the easiest and most capable upgrades you can put on your 3D printer or use to supplement your 3D printing experience. Already have these installed and looking for something more? Check out the Top 10 Advanced Upgrades and challenge yourself. Let’s get to it!
Flexible and Magnetic Build Surface
With so many flexible build plates available, you should definitely be able to find one that fits your workflow & 3D printing needs. Flexible build plates are a two-factor improvement for 3D printing; you can easily remove finished 3D prints or swap build plates in seconds. By using a flexible spring steel sheet as the build plate, you can twist and flex the sheet the moment a 3D print is finished to pop it off and get back to printing. A magnetic base plate is semi-permanently installed to the heated bed using an adhesive sheet which means you can swap spring steel build plates depending on the conditions needed for a specific 3D printing filament. BuildTak, Wham Bam, and LayerLock are all viable options to consider when you’re trying to find the perfect size for your 3D printer or when you need a build surface better suited for the materials you work with, like BuildTak PEI for general purpose 3D printing, Wham Bam PEX for general purpose 3D printing and better performance at high-temperatures, and LayerLock garolite for all your nylon based 3D printing filaments.
MatterHackers Toolkit
The MatterHackers Pros have handpicked tools that are essential for a successful 3D printing experience for both filament or resin-based printers. Each tool kit has been thoroughly tested and internally reviewed for utility and effectiveness so you can be sure that these aren’t tools you want to miss. Some highlights in the filament-based kit are the adjustable hex screwdriver for easy maintenance and a deburring tool useful for removing elephants-foot and chamfering harsh edges. The resin 3D printing tool kit’s metal strainer, silicone funnel, and resin workstation mat make are all necessary additions to keep a clean and functional resin workstation; the funnel and strainer make it easy to pour resin into a new container for storage and ensure there isn’t any cured and failed resin prints being poured in, and the mat makes cleanup quick and easy thanks to the durable properties of silicone. All these tools are chosen to help you achieve a successful 3D printing experience.
Capricorn XS PTFE Tubing
Capricorn XS tubing is the first PTFE tubing designed for the express purpose of enhancing your 3D printer’s performance; even the formulation has been slightly modified for higher lubricity for an easier glide. The inner diameter of Capricorn tubing is tightly controlled to have a 1.9mm inner diameter, 0.1mm smaller than standard PTFE tubing; this may not seem like much, but it’s enough to have a noticeable difference in the backlash within the bowden extrusion system which means more responsive retractions for reduced stringing. You might see some benefit in using Capricorn instead of regular PTFE in direct drive extruders that need a short length of PTFE in the hotend, specifically if you’re printing with flexible filaments that tend to buckle. Installation is as easy as removing your bowden tube from the collet at either end of the printer and replacing it with Capricorn XS.
All-Metal Hotend
Changing the hotend for your 3D printer is a quick way to unlock new, more advanced 3D printing filaments usually by foregoing the PTFE lining and instead using a thin, all-metal heatbreak which allows for temperatures as high as 300°C. For Creality 3D printers, you can usually find a Micro-Swiss hotend in the right form factor to have a drop-in replacement that doesn’t require any modification to your 3D printer in the form of soldering or printing out new mounts. For those outside the Creality ecosystem, the E3D V6 or Slice Engineering Copperhead are fantastic options for all-metal hotends. With hundreds of designs available for free on sites like Thingiverse or the MatterHackers Design Store, it’s easy to mount these hotends to your 3D printer, ubiquitous or obscure. For some installations you may need to get familiar with soldering in order to integrate it correctly, but with a little practice you should be good to go and up and running in no time.
Motor Dampers
Motor dampers were on the front of our list last year and they remain there this year. This is one of the easiest modifications you can make to your 3D printer that can have a significant reduction to the volume of it while 3D printing. These simple little accessories are made of two metal plates with a rubber gasket sandwiched between them and are installed between the 3D printers motor and the frame of the 3D printer. By decoupling the motor and frame, you are less likely to encounter resonant frequencies that cause your 3D printer to reverberate and whine during certain movements. It’s likely that installation doesn’t require anything other than the motor driver themselves; unscrew the motor from the frame, use two of the screws to attach the motor to the damper, then the other two screws to connect the frame to the damper. You’ll need to adjust or possibly flip your drive pulley over as you will be adding some distance between where the belt used to line up and where it needs to be now.
New Nozzle
Nozzles are cheap and varied and by changing out this one part you can completely change the performance of your 3D printer. Every nozzle has their ideal use-case to make 3D printing easier, whether it’s 3D printing with thicker layers when using a 0.8mm nozzle orifice or resisting abrasion with a hardened steel nozzle. It’s important to consider the job at hand and the necessities for the specific 3D printing filament you are using. Carbon-fiber infused NylonX? It’s best to use at least a hardened steel nozzle or go for a little extra with the Olsson Ruby or E3D NozzleX for extreme abrasion resistance. Using wood-filled PLA? Try a brass nozzle with a larger orifice to evenly heat up the filament and prevent clogging from any of the wood particles. Being such a small part, it’s easy to have a dozen nozzles on hand to be able to swap around as necessary for whatever project springs up next.
Drop-In Extruder Kits
Many of the more affordable 3D printers out there hit their price tag by using hardware that works well enough but doesn’t have any bells or whistles. Micro-Swiss and Bondtech produce their own extruder upgrade kits that include everything you need to change over to a more advanced extruder, no soldering required! Both manufacturers use dual-drive gears to grip the filament from both sides to maximize the torque that can be exerted on the filament and a way to adjust tension so soft filaments don’t squeeze out for too much pressure. Micro-Swiss and Bondtech arrive at the same goal slightly differently, with MicroSwiss using machined aluminum and Bondtech using SLS 3D printed nylon as the base components. This allows them to easily change and improve their designs from one printer to the next.
PrintDry PRO
The PrintDry PRO is a welcome improvement over the PrintDry of years past. When you’ve had a spool of filament sit out for way too long and you’re concerned about its moisture content, that’s the perfect time to get a PrintDry PRO and dry out your filament for optimal 3D printing performance. For any level of nylon 3D printing, this upgrade is an essential part of the process that we use daily in our Pulse 3D print farm to make sure our filaments are dry and ready for use. This upgrade even has upgrades of its own allowing you to fit 5kg spools with one kit or two additional spools with another.
LayerLock Powder-Coated PEI Build Plates
MatterHackers has expanded our powder coated PEI offerings to include even more build plate sizes than before! By baking a thick coating of PEI onto a sheet of spring steel, a unique texture is imparted on the surface, which itself can be transferred to the surface of your 3D prints. The thick PEI coating is resistant to scratches and doesn’t require any installation with sticky adhesives and because of its spring steel base, you can flex and bend it when your 3D print is finished to pop your 3D print right off the bed, ready to start the next print.
Premium 3D Printing Filament
If you haven’t tried it yet, choosing a premium 3D printing filament is a worthwhile upgrade from your tried-and-true material of choice. MatterHackers PRO Series filaments are precisely toleranced using a three-axis laser system to accurately measure filament diameter and made using high-quality plastics and colorants which is reflected in the consistent 3D print quality from one batch to the next. We even use a color-analyzing spectrometer to ensure that there aren’t any color variations from one spool of filament to the next. 3D prints made with these materials will pop and catch anyone’s eye with vibrant and unique colors you can’t find with your everyday 3D printing filaments.
Upgrades aren’t an essential part of 3D printing and 3D printer maintenance, but it’s certainly something to keep an eye on the latest and greatest gadget. Oftentimes an upgrade is as simple as a tune up or as helpful as “how did I 3D print before having this?” and it’s worth keeping in your back pocket for that next time you have a project and a machine that’s not yet capable of running it. There are new and exciting upgrades being released constantly, so consider subscribing to our Newsletter to be the first to hear when something is coming. Best of luck with your 3D printer and any upgrades you choose!
Happy printing!