One nice thing about the Creality Ender 3 is how easy it is to assemble. Most "budget" 3D printer kits take hours to assemble. For example, my Anet A8 kit came in hundreds of pieces and took several hours to assemble.

The Ender 3 took about 30 minutes to assemble. The instructions mirror the "IKEA-style" manual whereby photos are used in lieu of broken English. Honestly, the instructions are only about 75% complete; they don't include information on leveling the print bed screws or loading filament. Even so, accomplishing these tasks were a breeze.

Be sure to set the power supply switch to the proper voltage: 115V for US or 230V for Europe.

Assembly video

Leveling

Leveling is my least favorite part of the 3D printing process. Thankfully, compared to other printers I've used, leveling the Ender 3's bed is a breeze.

No longer will you need to order special nuts and bolts or 3D print your own knobs; the Ender 3 comes with large, built-in leveling knobs that you can turn with your fingers to level your bed quickly and easily.

Fixing Ender 3 bed wobble

If your bed seems a bit wobbly, tighten the eccentric nuts on the bottom of the unit until the bed doesn't wobble anymore. Mine came out of the box with some extreme wobble and I thought it was damaged in shipment. Turns out it was just loose (in my research I found a lot of people experienced this).

For the uninitiated, concentric nuts are basically nuts where the hole is off-center; by rotating the nut, you can move the item that's threaded through the hole (in this case, the wheels that stabilize the Y-axis). Just turn the nut a bit until the bed moves smoothly in the Y direction.

Loading filament

To load filament, select the preheat option in the menu, pinch the springed clamp on the feeder, and then push the filament all the way through the [clear] Bowden tube until a bit comes out of the heated nozzle. This wasn't super apparent since most Bowden extruders I've used can activate the feed mechanism through the printer settings/interface.

One thing I noticed is the "Preheat PLA" option in the menu heats the printer to 185°C; however, the temperature range for my PLA filament is 195-230°C. However, this shouldn't be an issue for loading filament.