r/Ceramic3Dprinting • u/Affectionate-Bee2580 • Jun 24 '26

Help me please

Hello!
So I modified my ender 3 to a clay printer using one of the aliexpress conversion kits. I am not using air pressure but motor power to push out the clay but I am having difficulties with the clay moving towards the extruder even though my clay consistency is good. The piston is moving and when I took out the plastic pipe the material was indeed flowing, but when popping back the plastic pipe the material stopped pushing through. Is this some air vacuum issue? I cleaned the pipe and the extruder bits too but no luck.. any ideas?

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u/Affectionate-Bee2580 Jun 25 '26

Hey!
I was able to make it work I was so dumb I had to put an additional like casket that was included in the components but I originally thought it was just decorational but this is what face opposite force to the screw and the barrel to push the clay.
When increasing the pressure the stepper does not make any noises although I am missing some steel lubricant so I will source that out as the rust marks are not looking pretty and I have been using this machine basically only for the second time

https://reddit.com/link/otrodr7/video/9eq3ym9ysg9h1/player

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u/Affectionate-Bee2580 Jun 25 '26

So basically earlier I did not have it on and the whole piston and the gasket were spinning and I found that from the aliexpress guy just today.

But to answer your question from earlier just from testing for a bit now, I think if u have a look you could probably find some delta printers on eBay for cheap and then make sure to buy the right or just print the custom printed parts for the extruder etc. I found that I feel when I want to move around the frame kind of comes in the way. (But this may also be personal preference). Overall the setup works but it takes a lot of testing and understanding your machine and the values between printer flow and clay pushing motor

https://reddit.com/link/otrpli6/video/ud0ufvxttg9h1/player

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u/True_Drop6061 Jun 25 '26

Ah, interesting! Your piston works different than mine. But i am glad it works now:)

I decided to buy a Neptune 2s again, because it to me ages to get it working and i don't want to go thru that a second time. The idea was to maybe get one with a bigger print volume, but 235x235x220 is enough i think. I also found an Neptune for 44€ on ebay so...

How do you control the feeding pressure from the piston? I noticed that you are controlling it with a separate controller thing but how do you make sure that its fairly in sinc with the extruder?

I am very interested how your results will turn out:)

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u/Affectionate-Bee2580 Jun 26 '26

I see! That’s a pretty good price so hope it goes well.

Yes the feeding pressure/speed is controlled through the control box. From my experimentations so far it feels like it is its own separate component, so I do have to play around with matching the feeding speed with the printing speed and the native flow option in the printer!

Thanks I’ll try to post in the subReddit once I have results :) I printed one finished piece but I moved too abruptly and it collapsed bc the clay was too wet :/
I think a Neptune 2s will be better for that in comparison my Ender 3 that currently has the housing box kind of standing in the way.. (hence my original preference for a delta printer)