You have finished assembling your Ender 3, the test print came out fine, and now you are staring at the machine wondering what to actually make with it. My answer is always the same: make parts for the printer. A 3D printer is one of the very few tools that can build its own upgrades, and on an Ender 3 that is not a party trick. It is genuinely how the machine goes from a kit that prints to a machine you enjoy using.
This post is a checklist of the Ender 3 printed upgrades that are still bolted to mine years later. You will find sixteen numbered parts below, each one with a photo, a short description of the problem it fixes, and the link to download the model. They are grouped by the area of the printer they improve, so you can jump straight to whatever is annoying you today and print that first.
It is part 1 of five. Part 2 replaces the mainboard with a BIGTREETECH SKR Mini E3 V2.0, part 3 adds a BLTouch probe, part 4 compiles custom Marlin firmware in VS Code, and part 5 puts the printer on the network with OctoPrint on a Raspberry Pi.
The first useful thing this printer makes is parts for itself#
There is something quietly satisfying about a machine that improves itself, but the practical case is even stronger than the poetic one. Printed upgrades cost a few pesos of filament instead of a shipping fee and a two-week wait. They are reversible, because nothing here required cutting, drilling, or soldering. And every one of them doubles as a calibration exercise: a part that has to bolt onto real hardware will tell you far more about your printer’s dimensional accuracy than another decorative print ever will.
I printed the first batch in August 2020, shortly after the printer arrived, and the list kept growing over the following couple of years as new annoyances surfaced. Everything below was printed in PLA, and all of it is still in service.
Two habits are worth adopting before you download anything. First, read the model page instead of just the thumbnail: some parts need hardware you do not have yet, some come in variants for different frame extrusions, and the licence terms differ from model to model. Second, note where credit is due. Where I know the author, I name and link them below. Where I no longer know which of many community versions I downloaded, I say exactly that, because a wrong attribution is worse than a missing one.
Filament that feeds cleanly#
The stock spool holder sits on top of the frame and does its job, right up to the moment your spool is not the size Creality assumed. This is the group I would print first, because a spool that drags shows up in every print afterwards, usually as under-extrusion you spend an evening blaming on the hotend.
1. Filament holder for 80 mm spools#
What it fixes: small sample spools and many refill spools have a narrower core than the standard one, so they wobble or bind on the stock holder. Model: Creality (Ender 3) Filament holder 80mm spools by mjoaris (CC-BY).
Read the model page before you print this one, because the author’s own note is easy to miss: “To be clear, you will need two 608ZZ bearings.” Those are common skateboard bearings, cheap and easy to find, but the part is useless sitting on your desk while they are in the mail.
2. Side spool mount#
What it fixes: the long, high, wobbly filament path from the top of the frame, plus a heavy spool sitting right where it does the machine’s vibration no favours. Model: Ender-3 Side Spool Mount and other Printers with 20/40mm by DrStreet.
Moving the spool to the side of the frame shortens the path to the extruder and lowers the centre of mass. The model is written for 20/40 mm extrusion, so it adapts to more machines than just this one. Be aware that it changes the geometry of everything upstream of the extruder, which, as you will see further down, quietly retired another part of my list.
3. Filament guide#
What it fixes: filament scraping across a frame edge on its way to the extruder instead of running on a smooth, controlled curve. Model: Ender 3 filament guide by Jonasen.
This is the smallest part in the whole list and one of the ones I would miss most. It slides straight onto the frame, so installing it takes seconds, and the gap in the ring means you can drop the filament in sideways instead of threading a whole spool through a closed loop.
Better prints where the plastic comes out#
These two upgrades are the ones that show up in the printed object itself, which is why I rank them above every cosmetic part further down. Both come from the same author, and both address the small volume around the nozzle where print quality is actually decided.
4. Mistral-E filament cooling duct#
What it fixes: poor part cooling, which is what turns overhangs droopy and slim pointed features into soft, half-melted shapes.
Model: Mistral-E Filament Cooling Duct by Leo_N, published in December 2018. My file is Mistral-E_v1.3_Leo_N.stl.
If you print only one thing from this entire post, make it this one, because a cooling duct decides how quickly each layer freezes in place. Its author was refreshingly explicit about the trade-offs he designed for: use the printer’s original fan rather than demanding new hardware, blow a high volume of air onto the filament just past the nozzle, keep that air off the heater block, stay compact enough not to interfere with auto-level sensors, and keep both noise and extruder weight down. That constraint about auto-level sensors aged particularly well on my machine, since part 3 of this series eventually put a BLTouch probe right next to the hotend.
5. MK8 extruder insert#
What it fixes: clogs forming inside the extruder body, where the filament has room to bend instead of being guided straight through.
Model: Creality Mk8 Extruder Insert by Leo_N. My file is Extruder_Insert_Leo_N.stl.
This is the least visible upgrade in the post and one of the most useful, because a clog costs you a failed print plus the half hour it takes to find the cause. Two notes from the author are worth carrying into your own build: the PTFE tube needs cutting to length, so budget for a bit of manual work rather than a pure print-and-bolt job, and version 1.1 thickened the wall between the two PTFE tubes specifically for strength, which tells you where the stress lives in that part.
Cables that stop rubbing#
Motion is what wears cables out. On a stock Ender 3, the bundle heading to the hotend and the one heading to the bed both flex thousands of times per print, and they will happily rub against the frame while doing it.
6. Cable chain#
What it fixes: unguided cable looms that bend wherever they feel like and rub against the frame every time an axis moves. Model: Ender 3 Cable Chain by johnniewhiskey (CC-BY).
An articulated drag chain guides the loom along a controlled path so it bends where you decided it should bend. It is also by far the most laborious print in this list: the author’s own instructions call for “15 Links for Heatbed” and “10 Links (or more) for X gantry”, so you are looking at roughly 25 to 30 links before you even start on the covers, the mounts and the bed corner. One more line from that same README saves you a rebuild: “Use a little higher print temp than usual for stronger part. Too low temp will cause part break while assembly.” The links snap together by hand, and a link printed cold will break under exactly that pressure, so print this set hotter than your usual profile.
7. Cable clips#
What it fixes: stray cables dangling off the frame and into the path of a moving axis. Model: Ender 3 Cable Clips by Holspeed, a remix of jn-gr’s ribbon cable clip.
The low-effort complement to the chain: small clips that snap onto the aluminium extrusion and hold cables flat against it. The remix adds 45 degree fillets inside the arms and tags so you can pop a clip off with a flat screwdriver, includes a 90 degree variant for anchoring the ribbon cable where it crosses an extrusion, and was modified to take the two 3 mm power wires coming from the PSU. Print a handful; you will use all of them.
The control box: noise and protection#
Some of an Ender 3’s noise comes from the stepper drivers, and no printed part will fix that (that is what part 2 is for). The rest is air, and air is very much a printed-parts problem.
8. Power supply fan silencer#
What it fixes: the constant droning of the PSU fan, which you hear the whole time the printer is powered on, including while it sits idle. Model: a common community model I cannot attribute honestly.
A printed duct redirects and diffuses the fan’s exhaust, which takes the sharp edge off the noise without blocking the airflow the supply actually needs. Look specifically for a version made for your power supply, since Creality shipped more than one.
9. Mainboard fan guard#
What it fixes: fingers, cables and zip ties finding their way into the fan that cools the mainboard, down in the control box under the printer.
Model: Creality Ender 3 Board Fan Guard - Slimmed by Phryxus. My file is Fan_Guard_V2.STL.
Note what this part guards: the electronics fan, not the hotend or part cooling fan, so it protects the airflow keeping your stepper drivers alive. I chose this version for two reasons from the model page. The slimmed design uses roughly 60% of the material and time of the finned version, and its V2 opens up around 30% more cross-sectional airspace, so the guard interferes less with the cooling it is protecting. A guard that chokes the fan would be worse than no guard at all.
Controls you can actually turn#
Two of the printer’s most-used controls are, out of the box, barely controls at all.
10. Extruder knob#
What it fixes: loading and unloading filament by hand, which otherwise means gripping a small metal extruder arm and turning it. Model: Ender 3 Yoda Extruder Knob by JaZzSuperman.
A printed knob presses onto the shaft and turns an awkward pinch into a deliberate, comfortable motion. I started with a perfectly ordinary round knob, and then I found this one, which is the same idea with Yoda’s head on it. It works just as well, and it has been on the machine ever since. Not every engineering decision has to be austere.
11. Z axis knob#
What it fixes: raising and lowering the gantry by hand during levelling, nozzle changes, and every time you need the bed out of the way. Model: a common community model I cannot attribute honestly.
The knob presses onto the top of the Z leadscrew, so you turn the screw directly instead of wrestling the coupler or forcing the motor. It costs almost nothing to print and you will reach for it constantly.
Keeping the machine tidy and protected#
This last group is not about print quality at all. It is about the printer being a pleasant, durable object to have in your space, which is more motivating than it sounds when the alternative is a cluttered desk you avoid.
12. Drawer under the base#
What it fixes: nozzles, spare bowden couplings and hex keys migrating around the room instead of living with the printer. Model: Drawer for Ender3, Ender 3 by Jaypirnts.
It mounts underneath the printer’s base and turns dead space into storage. This is the part visitors always comment on.
13. Display PCB cover#
What it fixes: the stock LCD leaving its board exposed at the back, where it collects dust and takes the occasional knock. Model: Ender 3 Display LCD PCB Cover by Rocco81-92.
Note the licence on this one, CC-BY-NC-SA, which is stricter than the others here: non-commercial, and derivatives must be shared alike. If you remix it or sell prints, that matters.
14. Front screen cover#
What it fixes: the light of the LCD during overnight prints, when the display glows in a dark room and you do not need to read it anyway.
Model: a common community model I cannot attribute honestly. My file is Ender_3_Screen_Cover.stl.
To be clear, this is a different part from the PCB cover above: Rocco81-92’s model closes the back of the display where the board sits, and this one covers the front. Blocking that glow is the reason it stays on my machine, and if the printer shares a room with you at night you will appreciate it. That it also dresses up the front face is a welcome side effect rather than the point.
15. Rail cover#
What it fixes: debris and dust from printing settling on the frame rail. I fitted it only on the side where the spool sits.
Model: a common community model I cannot attribute honestly. My file is New_Ender_3_rail_cover.stl.
Keeping that rail clean is one less surface where dust builds up around a moving machine, and it is a five-minute print. It also makes the machine look finished, and I will admit that counted too, but the debris is the reason I printed it. Good candidate for a leftover end of filament.
16. Scraper holder#
What it fixes: the bed scraper ending up under a pile of paper on the other side of the room. Model: a common community model I cannot attribute honestly.
It sounds trivial and it is trivial, but a tool you can reach is a tool you actually use.
What I printed and stopped using#
Not everything on that list earned its place, and I think that is worth saying out loud in a roundup like this one. Three parts came off the machine.
Two extruder knobs. Before the Yoda knob I printed an ordinary round one, and I also printed a variant designed for the CR-10 extruder. Both worked. Both came off anyway, once I found a version that fit better and that I simply liked more.
A second filament guide. I printed 2020 / Ender 3 Filament Guide by Filboyt, and I stopped using it the moment I switched to the side spool mount. Nothing was wrong with the part. Moving the spool to the side of the frame changed the filament path so completely that the guide no longer had a job to do.
That second story is the more useful one, and it is a pattern worth expecting: on a machine you are upgrading incrementally, one improvement can make an earlier one obsolete. Although a print that ends up in a drawer feels like wasted filament, I have come to read those three differently. They cost almost nothing, they taught me which dimensions actually mattered, and they are the reason I recognised the better solution when I saw it. Printing the ordinary version first is not a failure. It is how you learn what “better” would even mean.
What matters when you print these#
I printed all of it in PLA and it has held up, which is the honest summary. Beyond material choice, three things are worth thinking about before you hit print:
Heat proximity. PLA is the weak point of this list wherever a part sits near warm air, so give the PSU duct, the board fan guard and especially the cooling duct next to the hotend a look after their first long prints. If you have PETG on hand, those are the sensible candidates for it.
Layer orientation. Cable chain links and clips are small parts that get flexed repeatedly, and a printed part is always weakest between its layers. Orient them so the bending load runs along the layers rather than trying to peel them apart.
The hardware you need is not in the download. The 80 mm spool holder needs its two 608ZZ bearings, the extruder insert needs PTFE tube cut to length, and several of these parts want M3 or M4 screws and T-nuts to attach to the frame. Check what each model calls for before you start, so the finished part does not sit on the shelf waiting for a delivery.
Where this goes next#
Printed upgrades fixed almost everything mechanical about this machine, and they did it for the price of filament. What they cannot fix is what happens inside the electronics: the noise the stepper drivers make, the firmware that will not grow, and the missing header where a probe should plug in. That is exactly where the rest of this series goes.
Part 2 swaps the stock 8-bit board for a BIGTREETECH SKR Mini E3 V2.0, which makes the printer dramatically quieter and turns firmware flashing into a drag-and-drop operation. Part 3 installs a BLTouch probe, and it is worth pointing out here that it starts with one more printed part: the mount that holds the probe next to the hotend. Part 4 compiles Marlin firmware that knows about all of it, and part 5 hands control of the whole machine to OctoPrint on a Raspberry Pi.
If you only take one thing from this post, let it be the habit rather than the list: when something on your printer annoys you, check whether the printer can solve it before you reach for your wallet. More often than you would expect, it can.