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Creality CR-X review

bigseb

Alibre Super User
I recently purchased a Creality CR-X. Here are my thoughts:

The CR-X is essentially a CR-10S Pro with a fancy dual extrusion system. Firmware is Marlin 1.1.6 ( same as the original CR-10 and all subsequent CR iterations). The hardware is slightly different from the CR-10 mainly in that the control box contents are housed under the bed, there is a 4.5" touch screen, there are two Z rods and steppers and it is now a 24V system.

The printer came in two pieces, the base and the gantry. Assembly was super straight-forward and from unboxing to first power on took all of 30 minutes. The printer was extremely well packaged btw.

Creality supply an older version of Cura (15.04.6) with the printer. The installer was corrupted on the supplied SD card but downloading a new one was easy peasy. The installation required a bit of care as a lot of the install process was in Chinese. Application of common sense was required to install the software.

The supplied g-code on the SD ran perfectly first time. I need to stress that absolutely no modification was done to the printer, no calibration, nothing. I did not use their supplied filament either but rather what I had open already. The print quality was very good.
20190202_143133.jpg

After this I started calibrating and adjusting things. First I calibrated the extruder steppers. They were slightly under-extruding so I adjusted for this by adding an M92 command to the start gcode. Once this had been done I did not need to adjust the extrusion multiplier. I also noticed a layer offset at Z8.5 and Z10. This was repeatable. I removed the Z threaded rods and checked them but they were dead-on straight. I then found that Creality had assembled the rods to the steppers using flexible couplers but had not allowed for a gap between the stepper shaft and the rod. This essentially removed the flexibility from the coupler. I raised the rods slightly (about 1mm) and that removed the layer offset.

The dual extrusion system is EXCELLENT!! No other word for it. The reason why this printer received so many negative reviews is because of this system, specifically the purge tower. The tower is a throw-away item so, yes, there is quite a bit of waste but the nozzle must be purged between layers as there is only one nozzle. This system is actually exactly the same as the Prusa multi-material gadget that is the rage right now. The CR-X uses a Y-piece to feed one nozzle but with a bit of tinkering one could add more extruders. Bottom line: one nozzle means NO OOZING so dual prints look great.

Here is one of my latest prints. It is a stand for one of my MOTU figures. The filament is Filaprint iron gray PLA and Filaprint black PLA. Designed using Alibre Design Expert ;)
20190202_132332.jpg
20190202_132611.jpg
One down, eighteen to go.

Software-wise, I think Cura 15.04.6 works perfect out the box. I have tried Cura 4 which works fine but not as straight-forward as the former. Simplify3D works too but is a schlepp to work with. Not a big fan of S3D to be honest. Cura 15.04.6 allowed me to slice my own model pretty much out the box. Creality explain how to set up dual extrusions by lining up the filament with markings on the bowden tube but they don't say that when doing single extrusion prints you need to feed the filament into the nozzle til it bottoms out. Single extrusion prints are excellent as with all CR units.

Out the box this printer works! No question. To up the quality to what I think it should be I have done slight calibrations and checks that haven't cost a penny. The only expense I am spending is to add TL smoothers after the stepper drivers as the output signal is a bit jaggy and result in slight salmon-skinning. Maybe its just me being super anal but TL smoothers only cost a couple of bucks so I will add them anyway. Maybe not everyone wants to go to that level. I have six steppers so for six smoothers it costs about £25. The supplied glass build plate is concave by 0.1mm in the centre. Don't know how the Chinese manage to stuff up something critical. But flip the plate over and its dead flat. Levelling is manual but incredibly easy using the wizard on the printer. One modification I may make later on is to add brackets for extra stability to the gantry/base as the gantry is held in place using only four M6 metric cap screws. To be honest this seems sturdy enough (it is only a 3D printer after all) and print quality isn't affected. But I am German and I want things to be indestructable. As long as you don't move the printer using the gantry you'll be fine.

Overall, for £625 (including the shipping costs) from Amazon this printer is amazing. Fantastic quality dual prints at 300mm x 300mm x 400 for £625? Thats a steal. Incredibly blown away by this printer.

PROS:
Price
Build volume
Print quality
Upgradability
Build quality

CONS:
Supplied glass build plate not flat (other side is flat though)
Only 4 M6 screws holding the gantry
Stepper drivers could be better.
Documentation could be better
 

bigseb

Alibre Super User
Here is a stand with the purge tower needed to make it. The stand is printed with two perimeters, 0.8mm top and bottom fill, and 20% infill. The purge tower is a solid block. Quite a bit of waste although I personally think its worth the final print quality. YMMV.

20190203_101553.jpg
 

oldfox

Alibre Super User
Like your review. A lot more professional than some others I have seen on YouTube. (read as Expert Central)
Sounds like a good printer. Well done.

And lastly a noise test...
I have Android. Which db meter app is that, please?
btw I like free!!;)

Thanks,
oldfox
 

bigseb

Alibre Super User
Some more examples from this fantastic printer. First (obviously) a benchy:

Benchy1.jpg

Benchy2.jpg

Benchy3.jpg

Printed with CCTree red PLA
40mm/s
0.15mm layer height
Nozzle 185°
Bed 50°
 

bigseb

Alibre Super User
Next up is a dual print. This print shows how nicely the single nozzle system handles colour changes. Neither colour shows any contamination by the other.

Yinyang Coaster 1.jpg


Printed with Filaprint white PLA and Filaprint black PLA
50mm/s
0.15mm layer height
Nozzle 185°
Bed 50°
 

bigseb

Alibre Super User
And lastly here is another dual print, this time using PVA for dissolvable supports (the reason why I wanted this printer in the first place). This model is my torture test and I am very impressed by how the printer handled the fine details of the actual part.

Bracket1.jpg

Bracket2.jpg

Bracket3.jpg

Printed with CCTree yellow PLA and Dutch Filament PVA
35mm/s
0.15mm layer height
Nozzle 185°
Bed 50°
 
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