What about the k1?
I resisted buying a filament printer for years because I don’t have time/resources/interest to endlessly tinker. Two years ago I felt the field had started producing true plug’n’play machines and bought a Creality CR-10 V3 E3D. It was a breeze to set up and printed a few of those sample tugboats perfectly. On about the 4th print the feed gear on the hot end exploded. I think I fed in some poor quality filament which didn’t melt and the knurled filament feed strained to push it into the hot end until it bust a gut.
It was such a disappointment after finally deciding to jump in that I just abandoned it. But now I have a couple of projects that filament would be better suited for. So…
Do any of you know what is the least amount of parts I would need to replace to get it back up and running?
I don’t want to start over from scratch: the machine is “new” and unused.
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Ok, that’s a 24v version of the CR-10.
The extruder on my Ender 3 also did that, several times… I tried a metal version but ended up with a cheap bontech clone. But I’d start by taking it apart, cleaning the filament residue, and setting the tension towards the lower side of the scale. You should also check the hotend as clogs cause extruder problems.
I’m way too tired but look if it has an all metal of PTFE lined hotend. All metal is less likely to clogg in my experience. Sometimes you get a gap between nozzle and PFTE lining that fills with plastic and this creates a messy clogg.
Also, once you get the extruder and hotend side of things working, get a CR-Touch. It helps a lot.
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Insomnia kicked in so here’s what I found about the extruder on the CR-10 v3; it’s an E3D Titan:
That one looks like a great extruder and I almost bought one for my Ender. However, I have never used one so take this with a grain of salt.
From what I could find, the CR-10 v3 appears to come with a PTFE lined hotend. If that’s the case, you need to clean out the thing, then unscrew the nozzle by about 3/4 of a turn, seat the PTFE tube all the way in, and then tighten the nozzle.
Or you could just get an all metal heatbreak and call it a day. I have a Copperhead in my E3, it works great.
And the forum decided to remind me of the DT product that I should’ve ordered…
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Here’s the rub: that’s the extruder that exploded! I stripped it down today and it’s only one small bearing that failed. I’m writing to them to ask if spare bearings are available.
Thanks for your help though. After two years of it sitting there I had gone into full denial. I have now been galvanised into sorting it out.
Gotta love this forum.
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ive always been a big fan of Microswiss products…
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If you can measure it (calipers?) you can match it up and replace it. Sometimes you can just pull the part number where its printed on the bearing too.
Can probably buy a bag of them off Amazon for cheap.
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I can see why! They look beautifully machined. The model that’s compatible with my printer is the lovechild of a tattoo gun and jewellery:
Howevvvveerrr… it costs almost exactly 4x the E3D_Titan! Over a third of the cost of the whole printer.
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Great idea! The bearing exploded into lots of tiny little pieces, many of which I never found but i could measure the bits I have and search for a replacement.
Extruder only is only 57$. you can use your own hotend. Although i have the microswiss hotend and its pretty nice 
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e3d sell the bearings to repair the Titan for £0.65 so I’ll start there. If I find myself making a lot of prints I might splash out on some Micro Swiss machinist porn.
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I could but if I replace the bearing and find that the original Titan is still not up to the job I think I would rather spend money on the Micro Swiss than buy an even cheaper Titan knock-off.
Those are beautiful indeed! However, I’ve never been able to get myself to buy their products because the base Ender 3 is a cheap and mediocre machine and I don’t want to make money pit situation any worse. If I had a Prusa, I’d get a bunch of Bontech stuff for it.
I’ve been thinking about getting an Ender 3 S1 Plus, it looks like a decent middle of the road printer.
the K1 is really really nice imho
Thank you for not telling me to get a Bambu…
I want something that can be packaged into a flat box but when I compare my local prices with the US ones, the US version of the K1 becomes very tempting. Even Bambu printers start to look good but I don’t trust their software. Maybe with a cheap managed switch?
However, I’m open to recommendations and also to warnings about the S1 Plus.
i like bambu printers mostly because of their look.
but i know Creality gets a lot of shit for being cheap. Their K1 looks nice to me. the price is what tempts me the most. However i just cant justify that expense right now. i dont print enough to warrant it, i dont mind mid print filament swaps for what i am doing. If i printed more, yeah i would go with the K1.
So i have seen you mention flat packing the printer a few times. May i ask what the use case is to constantly need to pack it down and move it?
Because you will have some issues if you dont get those gantrys perfectly square. Cosntantly moving it isnt a great idea…
Mostly the political situation of the region where I live, I want to have the option to take it with me if things go down the drain. And well, airlines can easily handle rectangular boxes. Ask me how I know
No, they get a lot of shit for cutting way too many corners and making frustrating products.
The Q1 pro is a good contender, I don’t know if they still run the promo, but they were just below $450 shipped and tax in the US …
Native kliper and heated chamber are a step up from the K1 for me.