Up to a couple years ago, my experience with 3D printing was quite limited. My career has been 3D modeling and design, however, so I was just dying to jump in. The thing that really held me back for so long is that I had very little use for printing some tiny little doo dads that I couldn't actually really use for anything substantial. Let's face it, I'm not a jeweler, I'm a modeler and RC enthusiast. Tiny little printing beds and limited ability to print the basic of desktop filament just really didn't interest me. But with the larger machines now available I just could not resist.
I purchase the Creality 10S pro - ostensibly to create Architectural models for my day job. To be fair I did make a couple then got very bored. The very next project on the build plate was a 3D printed airplane. I'll say in advance that's not the type of 3D printing project to cut your teeth on, but then I've never strayed away from a challenge. What a learning curve that is! So, I'll share here what I've learned that works, and what didn't.
First I'll say that no 3D printer is perfect. I really loved the Creality 10S pro printer. I was able to have some printing success with it right out of the box, but even to someone with limited experience in printing as I had at the time it was obvious that there were items that needed improving. So I tinkered, and upgraded, and upgraded........ Here's what I've done.
Bowden tubes suck. I don't care what they are made of the whole concept of controlling the feed of a filament from many inches away from the actual printhead is wrought with problems. In my experience this was the first real failure of this machine. That's not entirely true as I dug the print nozzle across the build plate so hard that I literally tore it almost immediately, but that was my fault for failing to get the leveling right. Back to the tubing. It wasn't so much the tubing as it was the bowden tube fittings are junk! So I replaced it with new Capricorn bowden tube and fittings. This is what I purchased: I purchased it a few times actually. Capricorn tubing does seem to be an improvement but the fittings are the real improvement - IF YOU INSTALL THE FITTING AND TUBING CORRECTLY! This guy is a life saver. His video was a big help. https://youtu.be/dVuLmxQ21A8.
Update 11-14-21 Bowden tubes still suck.
I gave up on them and went for a direct drive system. I upgraded to the Bondtech DDX direct drive extruder for cr10s pro.
While I was a it, I also upgraded to a mosquito Magnum hot end. So far I'll say the results have been outstanding.
Bed Leveling:
As a newbie this was definitely the most frustrating aspect of learning 3D printing. There were more failures to count. In fact after repeated frustration with the auto bed leveling feature, I found that I had better success simply manually leveling the bed. This led me to forums about the stock leveling sensor and I grew very dissatisfied with it. I wanted something that could physically touch the bed and the BL Touch sensor seemed to be the right upgrade. I will say I am incredibly happy with the results and most of my leveling issues are now a thing of the past. Here's the link:
Linear Rails:
After some time, the wheels on the x axis carriage began to show some wear. In fact I was unable to tighten the eccentric nut down enough to remove the slop. I could have replaced the wheels but I really wanted to try an linear rail instead. I have an entire post dedicated to this upgrade as I feel this was the biggest improvement I have made to date to this machine. It now has more precision than when it was new. Take a look here:
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