Anyone tried the Creality CR-10 3D printer?

[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

[NeverDie]

Those are persuasive arguments, but I'm left wondering why none of the big youtube pundits on 3D printing seem to recommend or use an evolution hypercube or the like. Is it because there are no affiliate links for them to cash in on? Or is it something more fundamental?

[gohan]

I believe it is more related to the fact that with the hypercube you would need to source all parts yourself while when getting a kit you have all the parts and a less bulky printer

[dbemowsk]

@pjr I own an Anet A8. I do print ABS, but mostly small stuff. I have tried bigger things and have had warping and layer separation. The hottest I have gotten my bed at the stock 12 volts is about 102°c. There is an adjustment on the power supply that will allow you to increase the voltage, but I haven't played with that yet. The main board can supposedly handle up to 24 volts, but you need to watch the wiring to the heat bed as the stock wiring harness is under rated and won't handle the increased amperage. I think though if I could up the voltage a bit to the bed, I could probably get the bed to possibly 110 or higher. The other thing is an enclosure. I have read that an enclosure is one of the keys to printing ABS with the A8. It does a pretty good job with PETG though.

[scalz]

@neverdie
I don't know if it's about "affiliate" links, it could be. But I don't think it's because of bulky machine. else they wouldn't review the more expensive printers like ultimaker&co which are not small.

do these 3d printing pundits use a dirty cheap printer all day?? because we can often see better printers behind them on their bench, like ultimaker, delta kossel etc..

I think they advice the very noob that he 'll be able to print decent quality with a cheap machine, that's all. is it limited (the heatbed for example, etc)?? for how long without recalibrate? Oh, but the noob thought it was plug and play, now we're talking about calibration, he thought it was like classic ink printer, not yet unfortunately :)

One of the goal to build from scratch, imho, is to achieve same quality as expensive printer, for very cheap. else sure that's not interesting to invest time. That is the deal!
you can find on youtube people saying since they switched to corexy hypercube etc, from prusa i3 style, they live a "dream".
or take a look at reprap forums what non affiliated gurus says there, their builds etc. Maybe they will tell you that a 100-150$ printer is as good as an hypercube..but i don't think so.
Fair enough! I don't want to influence anyone in his choice, I just shared my opinion, better is to dig in google, reprap.

for abs, yes it's better enclosed because it doesn't like air&temp variation around. and fumes are toxic too!

[NeverDie]

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

do these 3d printing pundits use a dirty cheap printer all day?? because we can often see better printers behind them on their bench, like ultimaker, delta kossel etc.

In the case of Sanlanderer, he chose to run his materials tests on a Prusa I3:
https://youtu.be/nlIFMy4vIeM

He never really says why he chose it, instead of some other printer, for that purpose though. He places it inside a wooden box when he wants to enclose it.

Thanks everybody for all your feedback. It has been very helpful!

[scalz]

@NeverDie maybe because i3 design is common, for people watching.. I can see a big kossel behind him ;)

regarding print strength, another vid if you're interested, it's about volcano hotend.
at 8:10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93LJui-pC2Q

strength should not be influenced so much by the printer I think, except its calibration, important. Strength can be improved with the right filament, hotend+nozzle size+settings, and the way the object is printed (for exemple if force would be applied in same direction as printed layers then it could delaminate).

Cool, curious to see whether you'll buy one, and which one :nerd_face: I feel you have a preference for prusa :)

[NeverDie]

If I'm understanding correctly, the main argument in favor of the hypercube is that it can print without ringing at a faster rate than an i3 design and that it's easier to enclose because it already has a box-like frame. However, if I'm understanding @executivul correctly, none of the existing hotends, not even a Volcano, can print faster than an i3 anyway. Right? So, then I guess the argument is that maybe, at some time in the future, more capable hotends will emerge, at which time a hypercube owner will be better positioned to upgrade to a faster printing machine than, say, an i3 owner. Does that pretty much sum up the argument in favor of the hypercube (i.e. corexy design)? Or is there more to it than that?

[scalz]

the speed and melting limitation was regarding nozzle size I think. you could set print speed faster, if using 0.4mm nozzle vs 0.8mm.
And it would be easier with a volcano, as heat chamber is wider than classic hotend (e3dv6..).
Example:

• For technical parts, that I need quickly, or stronger, with a good aspect but less details: 0.8mm nozzle with 0.5mm layer is good compromise for me. Result is nice and print time saved is great. (slower speed at max, but gorgeous extrusion).
• For finer things and details, I use <= 0.4mm nozzle, and <= 0.3 layer. Great result, but more print time, even with more speed, because of finer extrusion.

Depends what you want to make. You may need to print slower with petg than with pla etc.

[NeverDie]

@scalz I'm trying to arrive at an apples-to-apples comparison between an i3 (let's assume Prusa i3 Mk3) and a corexy (let's assume Hypercube unless you want to name something different). So, assuming they are outfitted with the same size nozzles, etc., can a corexy print faster than an i3 without losing print quality as compared to what the i3 can produce at its fastest (non-ringing) speed?

If there's a better way to compare the two, then I'm open to that. So far what I've heard is that a hypercube can move faster without ringing than an i3, and so I'm wondering what, if any, tangible advantage that translates into when it comes to actual, practical use.

[dbemowsk]

My Anet A8 came stock with a 0.4mm nozzle. I have never tried anything larger, but I know you can purchase nozzles down to 0.1mm. What size filament does the Volcano use? Standard these days is 1.75mm, but many of the older 3D printer used 3mm. I have worke don an old BFB 3D Touch at our school district where I work and that uses 3mm Filament.

I have printed PETG at up to 80mm/s, but the quality wasn't near as good as when I printed slower like 40mm/s. The one thing I like about using PETG is that you get a similar strength to ABS, but you don't need the higher bed temps to print it. I print PETG at bed temps of 60°c to 70°c. I have on occasion gotten some corner lifting with PETG on larger prints, but overall not bad. Depends on what you have on your bed for the print surface.

[dbemowsk]

@neverdie What kind of print speeds are you going for. The quality at higher speeds I think depends largely on the rigidity of the frame of the printer. Somehting like mine which is considered an I3 clone which is an open frame printer vs something like you mentioned, a hypercube is going to be different.

[NeverDie]

@dbemowsk I'm just trying (and apparently failing) to understand why someone would want to own a hypercube instead of an i3. OK, so the frame on a hypercube is more rigid. So....what? Does it do better prints? Does it do the same prints faster? i.e. why do I care? Even if the i3's frame isn't as rigid, maybe it's already rigid enough that being more rigid has no discernable advantage.

[NeverDie]

Anyhow, partly for family reasons, I think I'm probably going to order the Prusa I3 MK3, even though production is backlogged with orders. 1. It seems more kid friendly than what else I've seen, and 2. its very low noise means I can run it at night without waking anyone up. My wife did not at all like the noise my CNC makes even during the day, so that's partly why it was banished to the garage. Maybe we can run the Prusa inside the house, provided there exist print filaments that are non-toxic when used for 3D printing (I haven't yet looked into that, but maybe PETG is one such filament).

The other, new reason, now is that maybe I can leverage Tom's research on filament properties. I hope I can be fairly confident of getting the same results as him, provided I use the same print profiles as what worked best for him on a particular filament. Since he's using an MK2 to develop his data, the results should translate very nicely. I'm hoping this could save me a lot of testing and trial-and-error.

[dbemowsk]

@neverdie I didn't realize that was your reasoning behind the questions. One nice thing about owning a 3d printer like the I3 is that even though it may not be quite as rigid, you can print parts to make it more rigid. I saw this meme on the Anet group that I am on on Facebook: You buy a 3D printer to print a 3D printer and then return the one you bought.

There was the talk of printing in ABS and PETG. Using the I3, you should be able to print ABS if you build an enclosure. As for PETG. that you should be able to print fine straight out of the box.

[NeverDie]

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

You buy a 3D printer to print a 3D printer and then return the one you bought.

LOL. Very funny!

And from what I've seen in reviews, the corollary to that would be: buy a 3D printer that, even if it's bad, is at least good enough to print the parts needed to eventually make itself print well.

Looked at that way, 3D printers are a marriage made in heaven as the remedy for sub-par Chinese quality. :grin:

[NeverDie]

@scalz

It would be cool to have a printer that had both a regular hotend (for finely detailed print jobs) and a volcano hotend installed on it. Maybe then changing from one to the other might be as easy as changing which one gets get fed the filament.

[executivul]

@neverdie I use XT60 and JST connectors on my hotends, 2 minutes job to replace, including heating and removing filament.
You seem to get the strong points of a cube design, speed, sturdiness and "enclosability".
The kinematics can be corexy or simple cartesian (flsun cube) or even wicked gantrys like the ultimaker.
As long as you are near the 30-35mm^3(cubic)/sec melting limit of the Volcano heatblock you are maxed out and can't go any faster in speed. Knowing that usual layer height is nozzle diameter/2 and layer width is 1.2nozzle diameter, divide the more realistic 30mm^3/sec to the widthheight and see the max speed you can achieve. That should determine the type of printer you use. Also remember the max speed is achieved only at long straight moves, acceleration plays a huge role, and accelerating a big heated bed with glass on top is not easy, while throwing around a light bowden hotend on a corexy is a breeze. Like comparing a narrow, curvy, mountain road for a big truck vs a sports car.
The noise is dependent on the drivers, use tmc2100 or later (2108, 2130, etc) and all noise is gone. What control board to use is a whole new story.