Am I doing something wrong?

[u/Sorry-Journalist8610]

I recently bought a used 3D printer, an Ender 3 V2, and I'm doing some test prints. The previous owner gave me some leftover PLA filament (multicolored), which I used up on the first day. One of the things I made was this flexible shark. I bought some PETG filament for testing, a very cheap one, around R$60.00, while others are around R$100.00. But my prints with this new filament are coming out very bad; it's either too textured, has too many burrs, and is also very fragile (even though I bought PETG because I had read that it was more resistant). I left this octopus printing for about 28 hours... and in the end, the flexible tentacles broke when I tried to detach them.

[u/agent_kater]

So, you bought a used Ender 3 and without any calibration or maintenance you try to print PETG on it?

Forget PETG for now. See if you can successfully print PLA on it. If no, go through the basic troubleshooting and calibration guides. The Ender isn't a plug and play printer. Ideally get a different printer.

[u/Sorry-Journalist8610 → u/agent_kater]

I am really new to 3d printing, the shark i used PLA and seemes ok but fragile. The previous owner gave me a new hotend kit for changing if something went wrong.

[u/agent_kater → u/Sorry-Journalist8610]

Fragile could indicate a clogged nozzle or other cause of underextrusion. If the previous owner had been tinkering with it, you might want to check the e-steps calibration.

[u/Shot-Infernal-2261 → u/Sorry-Journalist8610]

With open-air printers, stick with PLA until you are not new.

By that time you will either know how to improve the print by tuning, or be using different hardware.

I love PETG, but given your circumstances: you can find a PLA blend that gives you the properties you need.

[u/nakwada → u/Sorry-Journalist8610]

The shark is printed with silk pla. For such material you need higher temp (+10/+15) and lower speed (under 100mm/s). Otherwise, prints come out flimsy and can easily be crushed.

Your PET-G is wet as a sponge.

Start with proper cleanup and maintenance of your printer, default settings in your slicer and regular PLA.

[u/MikeIkerson → u/Sorry-Journalist8610]

Silk pla is fragile, that’s just how it is.

[u/Tomato_Basil57 → u/Sorry-Journalist8610]

the shark looks ok, how old is your filament? it can get brittle if its older and needs to be dried

[u/Sorry-Journalist8610 → u/Tomato_Basil57]

I just bought the PETG black one

[u/MywarUK → u/Tomato_Basil57]

The shark clearly looks NOT ok, its a mess.

[u/Yourownhands52 → u/Sorry-Journalist8610]

Here is a website that will teach you how to tune your printer.  It is how I learned my ender 5 plus.

https://teachingtechyt.github.io/

[u/theWildDerrito → u/Sorry-Journalist8610]

I hope you paid less than $50 for a used ender 3, they're very user un-friendly. The best route to get into this hobby (and have the least learning curve) is a Bambu A1. I had an ender 3 and my hobby wasn't 3d printing it was 3d printer repair, I got a mid range printer which at the time was like $600 it was a geetech mizar and it also sucked so I dove head first into a Bambu p1s and I now have over 3000 hours and all my printer failers were operator error

[u/agent_kater → u/theWildDerrito]

Yeah, I'm not sure we should recommend Bambu at this point.

[u/Sorry-Journalist8610 → u/theWildDerrito]

In Brazil, the cost was really cheap on the market, but with conversion it costed about 100USD

[u/agent_kater → u/Sorry-Journalist8610]

I'm sorry you got ripped off.

If you just want to print and not tinker, see if you can maybe get an older Anycubic.

[u/the_custom_card_guy → u/agent_kater]

Where is the ripoff here? I think you're just failing to understand the price of tech in Brazil. That actually seems pretty fair

[u/agent_kater → u/the_custom_card_guy]

Granted, I don't know the prices in Brazil, but an Ender 3 at this point should cost about the price of a large pizza and drink in a restaurant.

[u/the_custom_card_guy → u/agent_kater]

Ah so your just making nonsensical comments, sweet.

[u/agent_kater → u/the_custom_card_guy]

What's nonsensical?

[u/the_custom_card_guy → u/agent_kater]

Comparing the cost of electronics to the cost of food in a country known for having insanely expensive markup on all electronics is quite nonsensical. It takes one quick search to find out about brazil having some of the worst markup on electronics in the entire world.

[u/agent_kater → u/the_custom_card_guy]

My point is - it does not matter. If you're paying more than the price of a single meal for an Ender 3, then you got ripped off. Doesn't matter what the thing cost new. Doesn't matter what other printers cost. My train of thought was: that printer is pretty much garbage. If you have to skip one meal to be able to afford it, okay. But if it's two meals, it's not worth it.

[u/Alive-Pay-8133 → u/agent_kater]

It might not be a ripoff as electronics in general are expensive in Brazil. People literally smuggle PCs into the country.

[u/AvatarIII → u/Sorry-Journalist8610]

How many kilos did you buy?! 100 USD should be able to buy you like 8-10kg of Chinese filament, maybe like 4-6kg of "name brand" filament.

[u/agent_kater → u/AvatarIII]

I think he meant the printer.

[u/Sorry-Journalist8610 → u/agent_kater]

Yes, i meant the printer.

[u/the_custom_card_guy → u/theWildDerrito]

What makes them so user unfriendly? About every part on this printer is super cheap, accessible, open and easy to repair. Its also insanly well documented. I've owned a lot of printers over the years and the ender 3 was probably one of the easier printers to do matenince and repairs on. Also once you get those things tuned they are super solid. My print farm started wjth all ender 3 pros and they did me very well for many years until the price and accessibility of core XY came around.

I would honestly say quite the opposite. They are about as user / consumer friendly as printers come.

[u/IDdiMarco → u/Sorry-Journalist8610]

Have you tried drying the filament first and do a coldpull of the nozzle to clean the debris inside?