Using an Ender 5.

I'm concerned with how difficult it is to print and also how toxic the fumes are? I have a one year old by at home, and this is a HUGE concern for me and what has kept me from even considering doing ABS printing.
Is PETG a Good substitute? Is PETG Less or more toxic?

The room my son sleeps in, is adjacent to the room where my 3D printer is located.
I've thought about moving the 3D printed to my laundry room, but am worried that the humidity when laundy is being done might cause issues with the filament. I live in AZ, and from what I gather,... we don't really have to worry about humidity ruining our Filament.

Do I need an encolsure? What is the cheapest way to setup an Enclosure? I heard Enclosures cause the heat to build up in the chamber which can cause the electronics to have a short lifespan...

Not sure about an Ender 5...I have a Prusa.

That said, an enclosure is 100% mandatory.  it needs HEAT, otherwise your part will warp right off the bed.  You may or may not need a draft shield too, just to help keep the heat on the part itself.

I built mine for ~$100.  You can buy them ready built, or even use a mini pop up photo tent if you want to keep it cheap.

Keep in mind PLA, and even PETG (to a degree) requires cooling, so you do NOT want to have your enclosure closed for those filaments...my enclosure's lid pops up, and then the doors obviously swing open to prevent heat build up.

There are different enclosures. You can even build your own out of a few Lack tables from Ikea. Mine is below.

I would say skip ABS and go directly with ASA. It has all the benefits of ABS and a tad fewer downsides, mainly slightly less warping (still need enclosure) and a big plus, at least for me, is that it is UV stable, so you can leave it in the sun all day every day.  It surpasses PETG is UV Stability.

For fumes, you have a few options.  Crack a window and let it air out that way, or rig up a power venting system that SLOWLY vents the fumes out of the house (I've seen custom window inserts, even dryer duct type exhausts).  I've found that ASA isn't really that bad. I shut the door to my office, crack the window, and let it print.

electronics life will be less, but that is negligible for most parts with the exception of the power supply...good idea to locate that outside the enclosure. Mine is mounted outside and I have quick disconnects that run through the floor of the enclosure.

Do NOT move it to a laundry room. Humidity will trash your prints, especially if you ever deal with filaments that absorb moisture quickly.

Attached File

I printed Esun ABS+ on my Ender 5 with no enclosure.

Use a brim and printed on PEI sheet.

On the git hub here there's a link to a guy's SuperSlicer settings and it worked great. However you have to change speed acceleration and start end gcode. His settings are for the Mercury One.

https://zerogdesign.github.io/

Our house is fairly small, and the room that the 3D printer is in, is a room we barely ever occupy, but thats about to change. The back room that is adjacent to our master bed room, is going to have an AC unit installed. It is an addition, and doesn't have duct work installed, and used to be cooled by a Window Unit installed in the wall that the previous owners took. Once we have AC in that room, we're setting it up as an office.

Right now it mostly sits unoccupied, and we never spend any time in there beyond removing prints.
But once the work is done, I'll basically have my 3D printer in the same room as my computer where I Spend a lot of time. I'm not sure how healthy that would be long term to be in the same room as a 3D printer.

The only room that would be consistently unoccupied, would be the laundry room.

OP, in case you need it, a quick comparison table:

Attached File

I have a stock Ender 5. Can I print it, as is? Or do I need an enclosure for it? Do I need any other modification?

You talking PETG now?

PETG prints extremely easy. It's just a little oozie.

Requires nozzle temp around 240 and a bed temp around 90, give or take some depending on brand.

PETG is by far my favorite filament to print with.

Is this a good brand to get?
I've been using their PLA+ and found it to produce *VERY* high quality prints.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LMDFYCM?tag=arfcom00-20

op i have an ender 5 pro.. printed some ABS using a draft shield with good results when the object is either tall and skinny or wide and low but not so well when the object has a supports and overhangs (warping at the cold spots).  i added an enslosure and have done pretty well with ABS and ASA since then.  personally i am relegating PLA to throwaways.  next up is polycarbonate and pa6-gf

i moved the printer to a room that has a door to the outside.  the enslosure is a ender tent and for fumes i just vent after the print is over.

as for petg... i find it to be slow to print and not worth the hassle.  it fails badly for printing guns which is all i print.  

I haven't tried Esun PETG, but use their PLA+ all the time. Also, print a lot with Inland PLA+ which is made by Esun for Microcenter stores.

I've turned out some really good PETG prints after converting my Ender 5 to direct drive with an all metal hot end. Once you get the retractions right it prints as easy as PLA. It can be frustrating though to get stringing under control.

I use this website for retraction calibration. It lets you run many tests all in one print.

http://retractioncalibration.com/

So I have my first role roll (embarrassing typo right there) of PETG.

I ordered the PETG Roll before I read Rat Patrol's post and got ESUN PETG. I also accidentally ordered silver, but wanted gray. I was worried when I noticed the mistake on my order, that it would be a sort of "Shimmery/metalic" silver, but it just a lighter shade of gray so no big deal there. I wanted a sort of "neutral color" that looks fine if left unpainted, but also can easily be painted over if need be. Though, as stated in another thread, it might be hard to adhere paint to PETG apparently.

Anyways. What is a good test print, to test my PETG? Just print a benchy? Is there any settings I should check or change going from PLA to PETG?

It's a little stringy compared to PLA if your print has a lot of retractions. It also prints a little slower for best results. Run about 240C on the nozzle and 70C on the bed and go from there.

Fan off (other than bridging) for strength, you can put it on 30-50% if you need to, but print fast at 100% fan speed and you might end up with a very brittle result.

PETG is overall very easy to get along with and it will do the things most people would use ABS for. If you need really high temps, like something kept near a motor or engine, go to ASA to avoid the stinkiness of ABS, but I bet PETG will do what you want.

But yeah, painting PETG is difficult.

Do you have a retraction test that you like for the MK3S+?

I've just used the default Prusa settings and never had an issue, so never tinkered with retraction on PETG.

I'm printing a Benchy right now, to see how it turns out.

13% done... and I dont know what setting changed... but its printing a sort of a crappy looking "Wall" around my benchy. I kinda went with the default settings for the benchy.

Can you email me one too? Does it work for an Ender 5?

Sounds like a draft shield. Great for ABS and ASA, not needed for PETG.

Doubletap.

So I just got the the Small Retraction Test (Thanks @Rat_Patrol )

Do I just slice it with default/recommended settings? Does the STL include different retractions settings per layer?

Just printed with the print.

I'm getting a significant amount of stringing.

Travel Speed is set to 200mm/s
Retraction distance set to 6mm
Retraction speed 25.00

I print almost 90% in ABS. We print large prints that run 24 hours at times and they almost never fail. 105 degree bed. Extrusion temps between 230-240. Printer is flash forge almost completely enclosed. We use glass with aquanet.

The whole fume issue is overblown. Just because you can smell it doesn't equate to the levels beieng harmful.  Step into a mold shop and see what the levels are and OSHA isn't shutting them down.

ASA has a lot of promise. Especially with the disolvable support materials coming out now. We do a lot of parts that we sell so we use a lot of it.

I'd love to get into dissolveable supports. I've damaged a significant number of prints, trying to remove supports. But that would require me setting up a dual extruder


That being said... I think I've come up with really good support settings, that allow for the supports to be easily removed. Previously, it was *REALLY* hard to remove supports.

I've been seeing good reviews on the Sovol SV04 IDEX printer.

Supports are one thing I've managed to get very well dialed in. Most of my tree supports come off in one giant piece, depending on the model.

OP I agree with everything in this post.  I almost exclusively print in ABS, and the smell thing is drastically overblown.  If you're concerned about it get an in room air filter with a carbon filter, but frankly it's just not needed.  

I use print supports or failed prints to create ABS juice with Acetone and paint it on the bed before warming it up.  Probably should switch to aquanet for ease of use, but I'm cheap and like to reuse things as much as possible.

I had a unenclosed Ender3 running multi-day prints in ASA in my home office / basement during covid and it never bothered me, the noise would get annoying and I'd just put some music on to drown it out. Never noticed the smell, maybe the room is just drafty...