VICHSAMWY Support Rod Set, Aluminum Alloy DIY Upgrade 3D Printer Parts Compatible with CREALITY 3D Printer Ender-3/Ender3 V2/Ender-3 Pro Series

Not sure I needed this but hopefully makes the base rock solid so I can achieve high quality prints while exceeding recommended print speeds

I recently installed a direct drive extruder on my heavily modified Ender 3. If you're familiar with the tradeoffs between Bowden and direct drive extruders, you know that the principal tradeoff is that direct drives have heavier carriages which can lead to more vibration and ghosting artifacts, and indeed, I did see an increase in ghosting, especially at high speed. One way to combat this is to stiffen up the frame, so I ordered this support rod set to help.As others have noticed, it comes with absolutely zero instructions; just a bunch of parts. Each rod comes in two pieces, and you join them with a double-ended bolt. I noticed that one of my rods was slightly shorter than the others (~3mm) which is odd. It doesn't really matter, as you can easily adjust for it, but I don't know if this was intended or a mistake.I was able to find an installation video for a similar product, which helped. I don't know if I'm allowed to post links, but you can search for "Ender support rod install instructions" and find help that way. However, none of the links I found had the same method of attaching the bottom support plate. The pictures on the product page didn't help either; my Ender uses 40/40 extrusion for the base, and has no crossbar in back, whereas the product photo shows a base made of 20/40 with a crossbar. Still, it wasn't too hard to mount; 4 of the T-tabs are used to secure the plate, and the fifth is used to secure the strut. Do make sure to reserve the two longer (14mm) bolts for attaching the strut to the bottom base plate; it's tempting to use them to secure the struts to the top bracket, but you need them for the bottom.Anyway, install wasn't too hard, but is it worth it? I ran a test by printing out an acceleration tower for my ender with direct drive before and after. Each tower was run at a 70 mm/s speed, starting at 400 mm/s^2 acceleration, with steps of +75mm/s^2. It's a little hard to tell, but the photo shows the two towers one atop the other. The top one is before installing the struts, and the bottom is after.I have to say, the support rods really do seem to reduce the ghosting. It's a little hard to capture on camera, but hopefully you can see the difference. It doesn't get rid of all the ghosting at high accelerations, but it really makes a significant impact. I'm impressed!So, overall, this really produces a measurable increase in stability and print quality. I do wish the rods were a tiny bit longer (there's a lot of exposed bolt at the top and bottom) but I suppose they fit more models this way. This kit also really needs instructions. Still, if you don't mind a little spatial reasoning during assembly, it's a dead simple way to upgrade your machine.

The kit comes with all the necessary components, including the rods, brackets, screws, and an Allen wrench for easy assembly.Even if you're not particularly tech-savvy, the included instructions are clear and straightforward, making the upgrade process hassle-free. It took me less than 30 minutes to have everything set up and ready to go.The support rods effectively reduce wobbling and vibrations during the printing process, resulting in smoother, more precise prints. My 3D models now come out with greater accuracy, and the overall print quality has noticeably improved.

This may be useful to square up a Ender3. On mine it was already pretty square and the printer stays in one place so once dialed in its been printing well. I was hoping this would help with making layer lines a little less obvious and easier to clean, but really there is no change.I can see this coming in handy if you are having problems with failures or layer adhesion toward the top of a print, but if your printer is properly square I don't think it is going to do much for you.The main point of getting these imo would be if for some reason you often take your printer anywhere. After carrying it around to a few hobby shows, mine did go out of square once and I think this would have prevented that from happening. So for 3d printers on the go or in a higher stress environment worth a pickup.

Installed this Z-axis stabilizer set onto my Creality Ender-3 Pro. Installation took me roughly twenty minutes. Yes, there are no instructions included, but there are enough images available between the listing and the review images that it is easy enough to figure it out.The biggest challenge I had was once the installation was complete, trying to get everything to be level. I used a torpedo level to make sure the stabilizer rods were perfectly straight and not leaning to the right or left. I then used the level to adjust the Z-axis, one side was perfectly level while the other was off by two degrees.This is a solid well made stabilization set and I am very impressed with how well it has improved my printer. I also love how impressive it looks on my Ender-3 Pro, it gives the printer a richer more professional look.At the time of this review the VICHSAMWY Support Rod Set was selling for $25.99 which is an excellent price for this well made very effective set!