Top Ten Advanced 3D Printer Upgrades | MatterHackers (2024)

Liquid Cooled E3D Hotends

3D printing in an enclosure has the benefit of keeping a controlled environment around a progressing 3D print, which for most high-temperature materials is a huge part of their success. However, since enclosure keeps the air warm around the entire 3D printer, that includes the air the heatsink cooling fan is trying to use to prevent heat creep in the hotend. The Titan Aqua, Chimera, and Cyclops are water-cooled, removing air temperature from the equation. For direct drive 3D printing you have the Titan Aqua, for dual extrusion multi material 3D printing you have the Liquid Cooled E3D Chimera, and for dual color, same material 3D printing there’s the E3D Cyclops. A pump and radiator outside the enclosure circulate coolant to the hotend, and because they don’t have to be mounted directly to the printhead, the fan can be larger for more airflow and quieter performance.

32-bit Control Board

Most 3D printers come stock with an 8-bit controller board that drives the entire system. 3D printing doesn’t have a different nomenclature either, 8-bit as in the highest end computer from the 70s. For a lot a printer’s that’s barely enough to manage all the calculations to run it, and on a delta 3D printer you can have some serious lag on it as the firmware has to calculate how to move. Moving to a more powerful 32-bit controller board can have a huge improvement on print speeds and the quality of 3D prints. The Panucatt X5 GT, Panucatt X5 Mini, and the Duet Wifi all run on 32-bit microprocessors and have awesome quality of life features. The Duet Wifi is an all-inclusive package with integrated TMC2660 stepper drivers, wifi control, and plenty of expansion options. Both Panucatts are a lower cost because they don’t come with stepper drivers and instead you can choose what you would like to install or upgrade to later. You’ll need to do some major tinkering with these, since the firmware “languages” are completely different from Marlin, using Smoothieware or RepRapFirmware instead.

Stepper Drivers

If you went ahead with the Panucatt X5 GT, Panucatt X5 Mini Wifi, or already have a 3D printer controller board that allows you to swap stepper drivers, then Panucatt has some stepper drivers for you. The Bigfoot BSD2660s only fit on the X5 GT, but with the bigger footprint (hence Bigfoot) will allow you to put more current into the drivers for faster and more precise movement like 1/256 microstepping, compared to the standard 1/16 microstepping on other printers. For boards that can only take a Polulu style stepper driver, the SD2224 are hands-down my favorite driver. With the right jumper placement, you can set the drivers to run at 1/32 microstepping for smooth print quality and StealthChop2 which will run the motors virtually silently.

Magigoo Advanced Bed Adhesives

Despite being such a small accessory, bed adhesives play a huge role in the success of your 3D prints. PVA glue sticks and hairspray work great, but PVA leaves a texture and residue on prints, and hairspray is hard to apply without spraying a fine mist all over the 3D printer. Advanced bed adhesives like Magigoo are fantastic at holding onto parts while the 3D printer is moving, yet releases with ease as the build surface cools down. Magiggoo has several formulations: PLA, ABS, and PETG; nylon; Polycarbonate; and PolyPropylene, and they all apply the same way: shake the applicator with the lid on, remove the lid, press the tip onto the bed and spread the glue across the surface, first front to back then left to right. Keep in mind Magigoo works best on freshly cleaned glass build surfaces.

3D Gloop Adhesive

Another bed adhesive, but this one has some impressive properties to it. As a bed adhesive alone, 3D Gloop is great at holding parts onto the build surface, even printing ABS on an unheated glass build plate is possible (although they do recommend at least 60°C for best results). 3D gloop has a couple formulations specific to different 3D printing materials because it’s less an adhesive and more of a cement, like what’s used to glue PVC pipes together; 3D Gloop chemically bonds together two different parts so they are essentially one piece. We took two different PLA 3D prints, brushed a little onto each of them, stuck them together, and let them sit overnight. The next day we tried to pull them apart and it just wasn’t going to happen, it’s like trying to pull apart a print at the layers.

BlazeCut T-Series

Peace of mind is hugely important when purchasing a 3D printer, but sometimes some no-name printer you bought off a friend has some questionable design and safety choices, at least it was a bargain, right? The Blaze Cut T Series can bring back that comfort, as it is a passive fire suppression system that doesn’t require a battery or detection system to disperse its extinguisher (which leaves no residue!) We’ve tested this ourselves using one of those no-name printers by installing the tubing on the top of our enclosure, placing the printer inside, and bypassing its safety features to “encourage” it to set fire, and after a couple minutes the pressure inside caused the tubing to burst and completely put out the fire.

Gold Edition

E3D has long been called the gold standard of 3D printing hotends, and now they have the Gold Edition to prove it. If you already have the mounts for the E3D V6 or the E3D Titan Aero, then these are easy drop in replacements for you and have a plethora of upgraded parts from the standards. Both Gold Editions include a plated copper heater block which means it heats better and filament doesn’t stick, so no silicone sock here. They also have the high-precision heater cartridge, which I mentioned in our previous article, which is machined to tight tolerances to provide more contact area for optimal heat transfer. The gold anodization is just for flash, nothing for performance, but to help show it off the fan duct on the V6 is clear instead of blue. The fan on the Titan Aero is a Noctua fan, which if you’re not familiar is known for just how quiet it is - basically completely silent. For ultimate printing capabilities, a hardened steel nozzle is included for whatever abrasive material. And to make things easy, the heater cartridge, thermistor, and fan all have connections for quick disconnect and assembly.

Slice Engineering Mosquito Magnum Hotend or E3D plated copper Volcano

When most 3D printer users upgrade their printers, they usually upgrade the hotend from a PTFE lined hotend to an all metal for high temperature performance, specifically to bump printing temperatures from a maximum of 245°C to 300°C. For the power users that need to go even hotter, the Mosquito Magnum or E3D Plated Copper Volcano Block are great upgrades to achieve 450°C to 500°C, respectively. 3D printing at these temperatures will enable you to print with engineering grade 3D printing filaments like Ultem, PEEK, PEKK, or Polycarbonate.

PT100 and Slice Thermistor

High temperature printing not only requires hardware changes to reach that temperature, you need to be able to accurately measure those higher temperatures. Standard thermistors can be relied on to a maximum of 280°C to 300°C, but the E3D PT100 or the Slice Engineering Thermistor can read up to 400°C and 450°C respectively. Both require you to modify the firmware of your 3D printer to be able to use it, which are described on E3D and Slice Engineering’s website.

Bofa Fume Extractor

For most 3D printing materials, the fumes are from non-existent to negligible. High temperature materials continue to bring an entirely new set of considerations and some of them create some pretty nasty fumes. PVC filament is legitimately toxic and requires a ventilation system to capture all of micro particulate and odors. Bofa Fume Extractors are the perfect solution with multiple form factors for your specific setup. Some are designed to be small and can fit on your desk and others are designed as full, cabinet-sized filtration systems.

Installing advanced upgrades on your 3D printer can significantly increase its material capabilities. Whether you're looking to print high temperature materials or improve the safety of your 3D printing setup, the upgrades listed here are a great next step in improving your 3D printer. I hope that this list has given you some ideas of what you want to do next with your machine. Is there something not on this list that you feel should have been? Let me know in the comments down below and I may revisit this topic and the possibilities for more upgrades.

Happy upgrading!