Anyone tried the Creality CR-10 3D printer?

gohan

What are those unique features of the prusa?

NeverDie

@gohan Well, two that I remember off the top of my head is that it has a flexible printer bed that attaches with magnets. So, when you're done, you flex it, and your model pops off. No scraping with a putty knife.

The other is that it grips the filament from both sides (not just one side) to feed it into the print head, so allegedly it doesn't lose traction.

There are maybe some more, like it's matrix bed leveling, although I'm not sure how unique that is. I need to take a closer look at what makes it different. Allegedly, though, it can print a lot of different materials, including polycarbonate, using just the stock build without upgrades.

Also, Prusa claims that it's easier to assemble than the Mk2, fwiw.

gohan

Flexible print surface can be installed on many printers. It all depends if it is worth the extra money for you. To print boxes you could get a decent printer for 100/130$ without going into higher ends printers

NeverDie

@gohan Which do you recommend?

executivul

Cheap, normal size 200x200x200mm, classic moving bed solution: Anycubic i3 Mega

Large size, moving bed(slow speed): CR-10

Large size, corexy design, easy to enclose for ABS, needs some tinkering: Tronxy X5S

Expensive, normal size, more friendly for the noobs: Prusa i3 Mk2/3/8s/8s plus/ X(is that a printer or a phone?)

Never meant to be bought: Tevo Little Monster

LE. You must first define the largest size you need, than the resolution you need, smaller nozzle yelds better accuracy/resolution but requires faster speed since it pumps out less plastic, of course you can print 3 days in a row for a 100x100mm box, but are you willing to wait that long?
A moving bed solution can't go over 70-80mm/s without ringing and using a 0.4mm nozzle at that speed is not meant for large objects, a corexy can run at 150-200mm/s if well tuned.
A larger Volcano style 0.8mm nozzle is limited by the amount of plastic it can melt (30-35mm^3/s) so 60-70mm/s is the max you can achive anyways, so moving bed like a CR-10 is no longer a limiting factor.

gohan

As said earlier it all depends on your build volume needs. There is also a cheap desktop printer from tronxy that does perform quite well for the 100$ price tag (it's a kit that you need to assemble, look at makers muse channel for reviews). But if you want a pre assembled printer there are very few choices.

NeverDie

Here's the pattern that I notice in a lot of 3D printer reviews:

They unbox it and put it together.
They notice all kinds of flaws in the design/deliverable which they then go on to fix through upgrades.
Finally happy with how it performs, they gloat how great the printer is and give it a "thumbs up."

However, this just seems wrong to me. They are not giving a thumbs up to what came out of the box but rather to an upgraded/fixed printer that they felt compelled to spend additional time/money to correct/improve. I maybe would agree that if their upgraded printer were boxed up and sold for the original price, then, yeah, maybe it would be worthy of a thumbs up. But that is never the case.

You might think the manufacturer would get wind of this and fix their product. But no, that doesn't happen either, and the farce continues, now bolstered by "positive" reviews.

I watched some reviews of the Tronxy X5S, and they all fit this pattern:
https://youtu.be/W_P7ZhnXc34

For sure, all the sub-$200 printers have fit this pattern also.

Nca78

Well I bought a cheap one (DMS DP4, just over 200$ and most of the assembly already done) and the only extra investment was a glass plate (less than 10$). I could probably change half of the parts to have marginaly better printing results but I'm quite happy with what I have now.

gohan

@neverdie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQirk6AA0HE

pjr

I bought Anet A2+ about an year ago and can recommend it only if you have too much time and want to learn how 3d printer exactly works.

The basic assembling took around 5.5hours. Of course it was cheap ~160€ delivered on flash sale at GearBest and was delivered from Europe so no import taxes. But so far I've spent some 50-80€ and X hours for upgrades..

part cooler
belt tensioners for X and Y axis
V6 clone print head
mosfet for heated bed
2mm glass plate
marlin firmware
dual z, single motor
bed leveling sensor

With these upgrades the print quality is now quite ok now.
Btw. Octoprint is quite nice tool to have with 3d printer.

LastSamurai

Did anyone try the Anet A8? I am currently thinking about buying one. It would be my first 3D printer and I do not want to spend more than ~150€ (at least initially). It seems to be a clone of the Prusa i3 and quite capable if add some cheap/self printed parts and invest some time. I don't have the time/knowledge to build a printer on my own from scratch but I am pretty sure that I can those upgrades.

Or are there any alternatives in that price range that you guys can recommend? Main idea is to print cases for my electronics projects and some small other stuff from time to time.

gohan

I read it prints decently but not like cr10 or prusa. The downside is the acrilic frame that is not going to be very durable over time.

gohan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD7IZYcdw58

tbowmo

I bought a Geeetech I3 pro a couple of years ago, and after some upgrades, mainly to the z-axis, then it prints decently. I am considering building a core-xy from scratch, like the hypercube evolution, but will probably not be before 2019, I get around to that project :)

When I bought the Geeetech it was kind of a trend, and 4-5 of the members in my local "nerdclub" bought it. They have all bought a CR10 later on, and are trying to convince me, that I should buy one as well, as they think that it's much better in quality (also it's considerably easier to assemble.. 30 minutes from unboxing and you are able to print).

Currently the geeetech does it for me.

NeverDie

@lastsamurai said in Anyone tried the Creality CR-10 3D printer?:

Did anyone try the Anet A8? I am currently thinking about buying one.

According to this review of a different printer, the Anet A8's bed doesn't get hot enough to print ABS:
https://youtu.be/XIk-w5OSVh8

scalz

I would recommand a corexy or a delta. I'm not expert of deltas, I know there are some good.

Some good corexy builds are for example : hypercube like tbowmo said, d-bot and voron..
Mine is a corexy I built myself from different designs I saw.

I understand that people doesn't want to invest much money, or think a better build costs more (not true), and they want it quick to assemble with decent quality. Wow that's a lot of requirements for something cheap :)

Imho, I choosed to build it myself because I wanted to know every detail. If I have a problem, I know what happens, and not stuck ;)

Some important details (personal view)

using aluminium, like vslots. I'm also of those who think it's too bad to use plastic corners for an aluminium structure. better use aluminium corners
check the build&reviews of the printbed (for corexy) if there is any cantilever problem.
Strong rods (8mm diam is too cheap..).
bearings; not the cheapest.. else you can get imprecision in long term, noise etc. (vwheel when you can, and you build it yourself are nice too)

These points will help a lot the machine to keep its calibration longer, print fast, without wobbling, so a better print.
I think, a cnc in general, you can ask people working in this field, always need to check the calibration or recalibrate time2time for a good job. so what expect of a dirty cheap cnc..

This is a special process, control melting temperature, different speed parameters, push&pull filaments to prevent oozing, bed leveling because if first layers are not good then it won't be great etc..there is some learning curve, that no matter you buy a cheap or exepnsive machine, you'll need it.

Finally a few points that are good to consider:

not too small print area, or may be disappointed in future when you want to print bigger
heatbed is very useful
autobed leveling is handy
i like cube structure, it's easier to enclose if you want to use different filaments.
and if enclosed, using hot temperature for a print, check that critical assembly parts have not been printed with PLA if you bought a kit, as they could soften a very little bit, and lose accuracy during print.

I'm sure i forget lot of interesting details. It's not very complicated to understand how it works, just needs to read and test. very interesting. then you'll have your mini routines for each tasks.
I hope this helps.

gohan

Agreed, but I don't think there is nothing wrong in starting with a good but small printer and later on get a bigger one according to the needs (if he needs to print sensor boxes, he could live with a 10/15cm squared print area)

scalz

I can understand your point too, about the needs. of course, there is nothing wrong.
just my personal point of view. That's what i would advice to a friend. Sure, easier for him, as i could also help him..

I'm pretty sure that after you first small printer, you'll want a better, wider one ;) that would be almost twice buy ->"half" bad choice. and we're just talking about the size, not all aspects.

would be also too bad to buy the first cheap kit with good reviews, without thinking if it can be updated easily I mean for features, not for accuracy. "dumb" to buy a printer with bad accuracy :)
it's like buying a 30$ drill machine when you know you would use it a lot.

if it's about a super cheap 100$ printer budget, and you're sure to not invest in future, it's just a short term toy, then i think you're right, and you'll get what you pay for.

I think with 250$ you can build something pretty nice. you'll have to study the opensource assembly manual, but it's a more rewarding learning curve.

To get this price:

buy printed parts needed by the build on ebay or to some friends who can print them for you. you can find for example dbot printed parts on ebay. I just checked this one. I don't know actually which one is the best diy and documented build.
on wiki, or thingiverse, check the bom, and source parts on aliexpress etc. there are also very good price for vslots locally in eu or usa.
Note: you could also buy these parts included with the printed parts kits, but of course that would be more expensive..
Bonus! you can choose the size of your printer, and that won't cost you an "arm" (30cm instead of 20 for example)
read, assemble, read, calibrate etc.
Rewarding, because finally, you can answer any problem you encounter.

pjr

@neverdie said in Anyone tried the Creality CR-10 3D printer?:

According to this review of a different printer, the Anet A8's bed doesn't get hot enough to print ABS:

Yes, the heated bed is bit weak but I think its quite weak on most sub 500€ printers having bigger beds than 200x200mm.
There is some help for the problem. See: anet/a8/improvements/understanding_my_heatbed

scalz

for example, on a custom 3d printer, you could use this for heatbed ;)

https://goo.gl/PRdReG (220v version, AC, it needs security!)
driven by https://goo.gl/W2VmAf

then a simple power supply for other peripherals (actually i'm using an atx power supply)
https://goo.gl/LDLCi1

Anyone tried the Creality CR-10 3D printer?

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