Idk about $180, but you can definitely save a bit of money if you order it from the warehouse in China. It just takes longer to arrive, and I personally feel more comfortable dealing with Amazon, as compared to eBay or Alibaba.
OP, here are a few purchasing option links. Also, I would go with the glass bed option if I were you. The eBay link has the option to choose "Ender 3 + Glass Bed" at what looks like no extra cost. Otherwise, you can buy the glass bed separately for less than $20.
eBay Creality Warehouse store ($205): https://www.ebay.com/itm/Creality-Ender-3-Ender-3-Pro-3D-Printer-220X220X250mm-DC-24V-1-75mm-PLA/223496146513?hash=item3409688e51:m:mCXoexVEaY-yqetXfGJ-tyg
Alibaba Creality Warehouse store ($200): https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Official-Creality-3D-Ender-3-Ender_62047106886.html?spm=a2793.11769229.0.0.49733e5fSDdLkY
Before I spend money on upgrades I would print some,
I Printed the following for mine
Cable Holders: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3640726
Tool Holder: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4225752
Bed Strain Relief: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3443100
Control Panel Back Cover: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3353394
Bed Supports: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4128533
That being said I purchased the following upgrades almost immediately,
A Glass Bed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RD6D2ZQ/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
The Magnetic bed is fine but if you are printing anything other than basic PLA it warps/deforms really quickly, also with the glass bed I find myself leveling a lot less.
Any filament other than the stock Creality white that comes with your printer; I was skeptical about this until I purchased some E-Sun filaments and immediately noticed a print quality improvement, even before I dialed it in.
The ender 5 pro is a decent printer to begin with these were just tweaks that I’ve made to address things that annoyed me… so far here’s what I’ve upgraded:
Purchased: * Creality Glass Bed(not 100% necessary, but it’s a noce surface to print on) * BLTouch * ENOMAKER Near Direct Drive Extruder Conversion (moves the stock extruder above the hotend, allowing you to almost remove retractions)
Printed: * Bed Strain Relief Bracket * Control box cable protector * X Axis End Stop Switch Bracket This was needed because the direct drive kit shifted the hotend a little bit, so I needed to move the switch. * Dry Box (more of an accessory, but my printer is in the garage and the filament was not having a good time with the humidity)
Planned: * SKR 1.4 Turbo with Stepper Drivers (I want to enable cool things in Marlin but I can’t, because the stock board is out of room, plus 2209 drivers… this will be here tomorrow) * Bed Super Struts due to the cantilever design of the bed, it can wobble and sag, this is supposed to help… I failed a number of times trying to print it, but plan to revisit soon…) * Cable Management (haven’t decided on a solution yet…) the only included cable management is a few zip ties.
Other: * Marlin 2.0 (BugFix) firmware to allow the BLTouch, I couldn’t figure out the Creality version…
I’ve also purchased various hardware components (screws, nuts, t-nuts, Bowden tubes, nozzles, etc) and reused a raspberry pi 4 running octoprint as a controller (it’s pretty amazing lol) and some tools that I didn’t have handy (calipers, metal ruler with MM, tap and die set). In honesty, I’d be fine with out a lot of it but it’s given me something to do lol. My personal advice… don’t even bother if you don’t add a BLTouch… my bed was/is a little bit warped, the BLTouch and upgraded firmware helps adjust that.
hoooolllld up.
so, like you, my stock bed and magnetic sheet were warped and frustrating.
I bought this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RD6D2ZQ
It is nearly perfectly flat. I do not have to use a BL touch, I dont own one. the paper trick for leveling is nice and all, but the thing people really dont think about is that the temps that your bed should be printing at is still going to cause some thermal expansion. the best test for a level print bed, is to print on the bed.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2987803/files
This gcode is already set up for pla, and yes, both links will work for the ender 5 just fine. download that and try it. multiple times. youre probably going to have to print it 10 times, but I guarantee you it will be nearly perfect. that is one of the better things about the ender 5, is that you can adjust the knobs while it is printing once you start noticing that it has proper bed adhesion. watch the circles as they fill in and raise and lower the knobs directly under it accordingly. you want your circles to come out like ridgeless wafers.
its possible, dont give up on it.