Printing Polycarbonate on your Ender 3

Created by CactusHamster, tested on the

Ender 3 Pro

Table Of Contents

Overview

Understanding the problems

Project objective

Step 1: Extruder Upgrades

Materials List

Step 2: Reprogramming

Step 3: Miscellaneous Upgrades

Step 4: Printing

Overview

PC is a very strong material. It is used in bulletproof glass, safety goggles, and smartphone

screens. PC stands for PolyCarbonate. According to Google’s dictionary, “Poly” means “denoting

the presence of many atoms or groups of a particular kind in a molecule.” Many times, this prefix

means that the substance is a plastic. Its etymology is from the Greek word polus, meaning

“much” ,and polloi, meaning “many”. This means that PC is made up of strong chains CO3

2−,

making it extremely heat-resistant and durable. It is fairly radiation resistant and it is

bulletproof.

Understanding the problems

01 PC has bad layer adhesion and doesn’t stick to itself or the bed. It will also

destroy the stock magnetic bed.

02 PC has a printing temperature of 280°C and a glass transition temperature of

110°C. The Ender 3 Pro only allows temperatures up to 260°C. This will also

cause hotend melting and thermal runaway.

03 PC will completely ruin a brass nozzle after just 250g of filament.

Project objective

These instructions will help you print PC without the

thermistor exploding, the hotend melting, the tube

burning, the bed splitting, and the PC not sticking. After

these instructions, you will be able to print PC with only

the Ender 3, doing what most 700 dollar printers can’t!

Materials

● Polycarbonate○ Polycarbonate 1 or○ Polycarbonate 2

● Extruder Upgrades○ Micro-Swiss Hotend○ Heat-Resistant PTFE Bowden Tube○ 300°C Thermistor

● Reprogramming○ Arduino Uno○ Female-to-Female Jumper Wires○ Male-to-Female Jumper Wire

● Other○ Tempered Glass Bed Cover○ 3D Printer Enclosure○ Bed Adhesive

This comes to a total of about $227.5.

Without the tent, it is only $140.5. If you

borrow the connectors and the Arduino from

someone, the price is $108.5. Using the stock

bowden tube takes the price to $98.5. I have

heard of all-metal hotends for as cheap as $5

(see here), so if you get this instead of the

$63.5 hotend shown here, the price gets as

low as $45!

Step 1: Extruder Upgrades

1. Install the all-metal hotend (Video, Video, Video, Recommended Video)

2. As you install the hotend, replace the stock thermistor with the Gulfcoast Robotics one.

a. Open up the motherboard and pull out the thermistor. Take it out completely.

b. Plug in the new thermistor. Use a hot-glue gun to make it stay

c. Screw the new thermistor into the hotend where the holding screw was

d. Connect both pieces of the thermistor

3. Attach the new bowden tube while the hotend case is removed

Thermistor

Step 2: Reprogramming

To get temperatures of 260+°C, you need to reprogram the printer. First, you can burn the

bootloader, and then you can reprogram the printer anytime with just a USB cable.

Use this document to get instructions. I wrote it for my friend, who also has an Ender 3 Pro.

Step 3: Miscellaneous (and necessary) Upgrades

● Tempered Glass Bed- Needed to surpass temperatures of 70°C without ability loss and

cracking.

● Adhesive- sticks PC to the bed

● Tent (Recommended)- I have not gotten this yet. It keeps the temperature stable and

really helps layer adhesion. It is possible to build your own for ≤$20.

Step 4: Printing

● Nozzle Temperature: 260 – 310 °C (varies) [I use 290°C]

● Bed Temperature: 80 – 150 °C (varies) [I use 110°C]

● Fan Speed: 0% [Helps layer-adhesion]

● Retraction Distance: <10mm [PC is moderately easy to get stuck]

● Bed Adhesion: glue stick, hair spray?, cyanoacrylate, commercial solutions [I use glue sticks]

● Printer Enclosure: Recommended/Required [I don’t use this]

● All-Metal hot-end: Required [Use this or you printer will die a quick, painless death]

● Warping: Severe [Solved with glue/better bed temp]

● Layer splitting: Severe [Can be solved w/ enclosure]

● Fumes and odors: Severe [Depends on the filament, and your definition of “severe”]

● Enable Ironing [Greatly helps layer adhesion and transparency]○ https://all3dp.com/2/polycarbonate-pc-filament-explained-and-compared/

You’re Done!Have fun printing with PC! (Even though it is more frustrating

than TPU, Nylon, and ABS combined). Your printer can hopefully

now reach temperatures of 300℃. I am not liable for any

damage or losses on your printer. These are just the steps that I

followed that worked for me.

Ready?