expired Posted by DesolateMoon • Oct 30, 2021
Oct 30, 2021 7:37 PM
Item 1 of 6
Item 1 of 6
expired Posted by DesolateMoon • Oct 30, 2021
Oct 30, 2021 7:37 PM
Creality CR-10 Smart 3D Printer
+ Free Shipping$299
$499
40% offGood Deal
Bad Deal
Save
Share
Leave a Comment
Top Comments
Prusas are very expensive for hobbyists and aren't free from problems. Look up 3d printing forums. You'll see that, yes most prusas are good, but you'll also read about CR-10s reputation for good quality. Plus if you get the lower tier Prusa $800 model, you'll spend 8-12 hrs assembling it. CR-10 takes maybe 20 minutes. Not to mention the comparably tiny build volume of the Prusa compared to this.
Then you THINK you have all the knowledge you need to print everything from here on out pefectly, you WILL BE WRONG about that. i've been FDM printing for 7 years. I've had 3 printers in that time and i just got into MSLA (resin) printing and i'm STILL tinkerin and failing with prints.
it's a constant learning process. The curve keeps on going.
72 Comments
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Only SMT100 for $100 works this time.
It's $399 now.
Original Ender 3 w. glass bed (2018 model) - $200 off Aliexpress
SKR Mini E3 - $45 off Amazon
Geeetech 3D Touch ABL sensor (BLtouch clone) - $13 off eBay
24v 5015 cooling fan (for Petsfang parts cooler) - $6.50 off eBay
No-name All-metal extruder - $10 off Amazon
Trianglelab bi-metal heatbreak - $20 off Aliexpress
That brings my total to around $295, with all other upgrades printed models off Thingiverse. Out of all those items, the all-metal extruder was probably the only required part since my plastic extruder cracked. Still, for less than $300, I've got a printer that does PLA/PETG at least as good as a Prusa. TPU still kinda sucks on a bowden tube printer, but if I wanted to add direct drive, I can either print an adapter off Thingiverse, or buy a metal adapter off Aliexpress for $6. Mods and upgrades for Creality printers are cheap and/or free depending on what you want them to do. They're good beginner printers because you can't really mess them up and if you do, most parts are less than $20. Hell, you can buy a completely assembled all-metal hotend off Aliexpress for less than $6 shipped.
The cheapest new Prusa MK3S option is $750 for the kit or $1k for the assembled printer. I'm no expert at math, but $750 - $295 = $455, so no...not "maybe within $200 of the MK3S kit."
Not arguing the fact that Prusa are excellent machines, but a cheap machine isn't terribly expensive to get to "good enough", especially when you can print parts to get the quality up.
If someone is going to be printing as a profession - cranking out stuff for Etsy or something, then yeah, it's probably worth getting a Prusa, but if you're going to be printing the odd bits to fix stuff around the house and the occasional silly trinket, it's often fine to go cheap.
I picked this up because I figured it was time for an upgrade after like four years of printing, and yeah, I've read the horror stories, but I've been printing on a 200x200x180 surface for a while and would appreciate the size upgrade.
I'll be sure to come back and warn others off if I have a ton of issues.
I use a glass bed with nothing on it for PLA and TPU. For PETG I'll add a bit of hairspray or glue stick to protect the glass bed. Otherwise, adhesion is not an issue if you level your bed correctly.
It IS great gear when you consider the capability and price point. The upgrade costs you speak of are nowhere near accurate. My Ender 3 has the following upgrades:
Original Ender 3 w. glass bed (2018 model) - $200 off Aliexpress
SKR Mini E3 - $45 off Amazon
Geeetech 3D Touch ABL sensor (BLtouch clone) - $13 off eBay
24v 5015 cooling fan (for Petsfang parts cooler) - $6.50 off eBay
No-name All-metal extruder - $10 off Amazon
Trianglelab bi-metal heatbreak - $20 off Aliexpress
That brings my total to around $295, with all other upgrades printed models off Thingiverse. Out of all those items, the all-metal extruder was probably the only required part since my plastic extruder cracked. Still, for less than $300, I've got a printer that does PLA/PETG at least as good as a Prusa. TPU still kinda sucks on a bowden tube printer, but if I wanted to add direct drive, I can either print an adapter off Thingiverse, or buy a metal adapter off Aliexpress for $6. Mods and upgrades for Creality printers are cheap and/or free depending on what you want them to do. They're good beginner printers because you can't really mess them up and if you do, most parts are less than $20. Hell, you can buy a completely assembled all-metal hotend off Aliexpress for less than $6 shipped.
The cheapest new Prusa MK3S option is $750 for the kit or $1k for the assembled printer. I'm no expert at math, but $750 - $295 = $455, so no...not "maybe within $200 of the MK3S kit."
They are very economical when you consider the alternatives. The only alternative you mentioned was a $750/1k Prusa MK3S which to me, is no alternative at all. Also, unless you're using these printers for a business, assigning a dollar amount to your time is just silly. Anything you do as a hobby should not be factored into a "my time is worth X" argument. That's like telling someone that likes to go fishing "I don't know why you bought all that expensive fishing gear, I can buy catfish at the grocery store for $9/lb."
I have spent way more time with the Mini+ actually enjoying myself, and my kids enjoying it, because they got zero entertainment out of watching me fix junky, low quality control crap. Instead, I'm spending what time I have actually printing things and explaining to them how it all works.
You're fishing analogy is about as silly as the whole love for Creality. It's not like buying fish at a store, it's like telling people to go fishing with shitty gear and not worry if it breaks and you don't have a good time. Are you kidding? I just wasted my chance to actually fish.
I own an Ender 5 and I like it. The CR series is considered a "step up" in a way from the Ender series. There's a lot of overlap though.
I, personally, don't like bed slinger printers (the bed moves in the Y direction and the hot end moves in X/Z). The Ender 5 has the bed move in the Z and the print head moves in the X/Y which I think is preferable.
The CR-10 has a much bigger build surface, but I have a friend who has one and complained that the bed heater is smaller than the bed so you end up with some temperature gradients. That said, you can replace a bed heater easier than increase print area.
I think the Ender 5 Plus is probably the best mid-tier printer you can get right now. It fixes all the issues I have with my normal Ender 5 (one being the smaller print area).
I guess in closing... this is a great deal, and if you want a nicely featured 3D printer, the CR10 is a great option.
You guys are using sugar water, glue sticks, and tape to keep your prints on the bed probably because the heating isn't as even, and it never will be.
It's fine if you want Creality just don't act like it's great gear. It's low quality that sometimes performs well, and if you have the patience, time, and funds for upgrade you can make an Ender 3 almost as good as a Prusa MK3S. The upgrade cost alone to get and Ender 3 close to the Prusa will have you within at most $200 bucks of the MK3S kit, maybe within $200 of the $1000 prebuilt version
This is a deal website, and Creality printers are just not as economical as you act. Like I said in my first comment, if you assign any dollar value over maybe $8 hr, the math will work out that Creality is a bad investment, unless you win the quality control lottery.
I've spent a bunch of money upgrading my Ender 5. Let's not kid ourselves, 3D printing is not like laser printing. There is a learning curve where you have to spend time and energy learning the craft. The better educated you are, the better your prints will print. There is no doubt that Prusa make some of the best mid-range printers you can have, but you still have to invest a lot of time. If you're talking about hundreds of hours tuning and playing, who cares if 20 of those hours are spent upgrading? Don't tell me that there aren't things you can do to upgrade a Prusa.
You can always gatekeep when it comes to this shit. I'd take a Voron 2 over a Prusa any day of the week. It is a superior machine, but it's also 2x the price of a MK3S+. Using your logic, we should drop $1600 instead of $200.
There are all kinds of simple upgrades you can do to any printer… And that's part of the fun… Also, Eventually every printer needs some maintenance and a new part here or there but these are all inexpensive things that you can buy for a couple of dollars on AliExpress.
The biggest question with the Creality CR-10 is whether or not you want something that is that large… It is a fairly large printer and there are smaller options if you're just starting out.
In any case, I think Creality CR-10 is a fantastic printer and I've had it for a couple of years and used it to print PLA, TPU (flexible), PETG (weather resistant), Glow in the dark, and boutique shiny and Wood filament from probably about 20 manufacturers.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Creality printers are not great beginner printers, they are a total gamble on quality control and not that easy to repair. And if you are skilled, the value proposition is still not presented accurately here.
I have the Ender-3 Pro, my friend has a CR-10s, and another friend has some other weird brand. I worked on mine, including researching fixes, 50+ hours, and the very best print I ever achieved doesn't hold a candle to the first Mini+ test print. 50+ hours, vs unpacking and having it all going in an afternoon, while slowing down to show your kids what you are doing and having a joy of it because of all the little details they went through to make it an easier experience. How much is 50 hours of FREE TIME worth to you?
With the Mini+, I assembled it, calibrated it using super easy instructions, and the first test print had the smoothest layers of any of all 4 printers. Zero effort to get fantastic quality, and it's just been printing fantastically for almost 2 weeks continuously now. I'm sure something will break, and I'm sure I will find the exact part I need on Prusa without combing through six websites with users giving totally different advice on what to try for their Creality problems. I'll wait for the part to ship rather than bang my head against a wall trying to fix junk. Do you know how long hard it was to figure out that I couldn't level my bed because there was a machining defect on the rails? Far. Too. Long. It was the shittiest, sloppiest machine work I have ever seen, and you read around and I didn't have a unicorn experience there.
One advantage to Creality is the large format offerings, this one is the much, much larger print beds and I do think Creality might be the way to go for that, simply because there aren't a lot of options for large printers. But I don't think large volume should be the goal for beginners, and that's what I am railing against. People recommending Creality to beginners because they are cheap. No, they are for people very experienced in technician type maintenance.
By the way, I am not trolling, just venting in the hopes that another user avoids the headaches after reading this thread. Ghost comment was a bit tongue in cheek too, just trying to get in the spirit I guess. Happy Halloween!
Obviously everything is related to opportunity cost. Pay someone to mow your lawn or DIY? It's SlickDeals, not "pay-full-price deals". With that said, I hope the CoreXY Prusa XL is good whenever it comes out. The MK3 is kinda showing its age.
The instructions were abysmal, but good enough to get by on. Might be worth it to do a Youtube tutorial if you're iffy about it, but it's all quite simple.
Before I put the thing together I took the bottom off to do the quick cable switch to bypass Creality's print computer to use my Octopi. I can't imagine Creality will be as stable or as useful as Octoprint, so I swapped the cables immediately.
I used the CR-6S (I believe) profile in Cura and changed the dimensions for the CR-10 Smart. Kind of surprising Creality hasn't submitted a profile since they've got nearly every other printer in there.
I'll update if I have any issues. Benchy is printing right now and man is this thing quiet other than the fans.
Edit: Benchy is done - this glass surface is really nice, stuck well during the print, popped off with a flick when it cooled off. I look forward to not having to spritz it with hair spray. I did notice halfway through the print that I hadn't tightened the belts - the spot where I finally tensioned the belt is noticeable - there are noticeable wobbles in the bottom quarter of the Benchy, but it looks great from the point where I tensioned the belt.
I'll be printing a bunch more this coming week, then a big one when I'm confident it'll work. I'll update as stuff happens, but so far I'm pleasantly surprised considering the issues others have had with the printer.
Leave a Comment