Houston Creality CR10 has landed

Rob Keeble

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GTA Ontario Canada
Well if you were as captivated by listening to Neil Armstrong landing on the moon via radio (we had to use our imagination), you will manage to grasp just how excited i am right now.

I have assembled my 3D printer and powered up and then got it to home.
Now on to adjusting bed level.

But i had to take a break , calm down, take a few breaths and share the occasion with all of you.

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For me this is a long awaited moment, as a techie who has been involved in dozens of plastic tooling molds, has paid a small fortune in the past to have plastic housings "grown" through stereolithography, this day is exciting beyond expression.
Honestly was not expecting how i feel right now. Best i can do to describe the feeling is like i was as a toddler night before Xmas waiting to see what Father Christmas had brought.

So while i catch my breath and pause to calm down, i thought i might share some thoughts i had from receiving the printer.

1) I am super happy with the deal i got on Gearbest as a result of a coupon code from a you tubers video. I paid $339 US$ with free courier delivery to the USA. (I have a mailbox in Niagara)

2) Packaging was incredible. As a manufacturing man i have a sense of what this stuff costs. First they had it one thick carton inside another. Then the inner carton was nylon strapped 4 times twice across each side. Then inside the had everything secured with cable ties, everything carefully fitting in precisely cut out foam.
Then they included everything you need to get to the point where you running your first print.
Tools, spare parts, side cutters, tape, starter roll of filament (vacuum wrapped with silica pack to ensure moisture kept out)
Usb to computer cable, micro sd card with software, instructions for build, even the gcode for a starter model (cat).

3) When i opened it , i thought, wow happy that i waited. Happy that i purchased a more evolved rigid unit.
This unit has aluminum extrusions and takes less than an hour to assemble, assuming you are somewhat mechanically inclined and have previously watched a few videos on the printer (which i had done during my research phase.
I will add that if you have been on the fence about getting a 3D printer, then this is the unit for you.
It has well constructed stand alone controller that connects to the machine via cables that are all polarised and marked for identification. Power cables hook up to controller via screw in connectors so you got no mains hanging about.

Inside the controller there is a stand alone power supply that works on 120v or 240v through a slide switch change over.

But what really impresses me is quality. This is not the Harbor freight quality Chinese product standard.

I took my square out and the z axis to y axis upright is absolutely square. Yeah i expected it, it needs to be, but to see it well that another thing.

So far if i have any criticism it would be tgat they could have made the cables at least 6 -12 inches longer. That would have been cherry on top,

I took my machine straight edge out to check on bed flatness and again i cannot believe they got a piece of aluminum plate as flat as it is then shipped it half way round the world and its still flat.

I also notice they seem to have a real time change order processing system, speaking to their quality system because things that i have seen on yt expecting to have to do have been taken care of or upgraded already.

Yeah there are a few upgrade parts that need to be printed but that i think is all part of getting one of these.

All in i could not be happier. Now off to do my first print.

Oh if Toni in Spain gets to read this, Toni, you of all people have got to get one of these. For those of you that dont know Toni is a highly qualified industrial designer. I would love to see what he could create with a machine like this.

Btw build volume is 300mm x 300mm by 400mm high.

I aim to see how well it does printing one of those spiraling vases.
Cheers for now. I will update as i go along. Wish me luck.
 
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Woot! Congrats, Rob! :woohoo:

That price point sure is tempting, but I have a few other expenses in the queue to handle first. ;)
 
Congratulations Rob, looking forward to hearing your experience with the printer. I still use mine at least twice a week to do simple little fixes/improvements around the house/car.
 
First print running after a couple of false starts.

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Had to scratch my head a bit but did a few adjustments and seems to be going fine.
Printing the cat that was on the sd card that came with the printer.

Still think this has got to be the easiest diy kit to setup. Pretty well refined now, i would go as far as to say its not even a diy setup to some extent.

If however you not mechanically inclined, and cannot intuitively see where an issue lies, then i think one is in for a real steep learning curve. But there is so much help around you just need to read and have the courage to go for it.

I have watched loads of videos, but seriously like anything else, nothing beats watching the real thing in front of you.
This is going to be such a great journey and loads of fun. Won't even know its winter.

The tough learning curve for me is getting back to drawing my ideas out. I can see the item in my head but my hands and patience want it to happen in an instant. Will be a real real test for me but i am up for the challenge.

Hey until i came across this forum a got some advice and tips i never knew what a "sharp" chisel was. I will never forget that great experience.

Standby for more.
 
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Awesome! :thumb:

So are you using a glue stick? I've found that Aqua-net hairspray is a lot smoother and holds better IMHO. Get some and a bottle of Isopropyl Alcohol to clean up with. I hardly ever clean the glass though anymore, just spray a little hair spray when I get a larger object that I've peeled off of there. The burn in on the hair spray takes care of any edges of hair spray still on the glass
 
All done....one cat. Lol not even a cat person.

Pretty good for first run, i think there are some tweaks that will need to be done for fine tuning.

But i am impressed. 2 hours 27 and i went to run some erands and left it printing and it behaved.

Thanks for the tips Darren. Will try hairspray next.

Now i need to go pick up some different color filaments.

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So this is what i find so absolutely uncanny and amazing20171130_173550.jpg

I took as best a picture that i can given lighting etc where i am but wanted to show a section of this printed model zooming in on fine detail.

What you see where i have a purple arrow pointed is totally smooth plastic surface.

Now consider this has been deposited while the hot end is rotating round and round layering plastic in incredibly thin layers
and for $339 this device is so accurate that the result is as smooth as if the part came out of a injection molded steel tool.

I am amazed. I hope i never ever get to the point where i take things like this for granted.

I just shudder to think what a 10 or 20 thousand dollar unit gets you. Anyone here worked with one ?? Can you advise what the extras are for that kind of coin?
 
I was going to say, that looks really smooth. Since it was a compiled file, I'm assuming that it was a pretty fine setting, but have to be happy with that finish. How long did that job take?
 
I was going to say, that looks really smooth. Since it was a compiled file, I'm assuming that it was a pretty fine setting, but have to be happy with that finish. How long did that job take?

All this ^^^.

That is indeed really smooth compared to most of the printers I've been seeing locally. But most of the folks I know aren't generally patient enough to run the things on super fine detail either (although your reported 2-3 hours seems pretty reasonable as well).
 
All this ^^^.

That is indeed really smooth compared to most of the printers I've been seeing locally. But most of the folks I know aren't generally patient enough to run the things on super fine detail either (although your reported 2-3 hours seems pretty reasonable as well).
Ah, missed the duration earlier. :wave:

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
 
Just to add another data point, I print directly on glass and never use any glue or hairspray. Well, I have in the past, but I don't find it to be necessary. I might use some DNA to clean the glass every now and then, but the prints stick solid as can be to the glass, until it cools off.

Nice job on the print rob. Pretty brave to leave the first print running unattended.
 
All this ^^^.

That is indeed really smooth compared to most of the printers I've been seeing locally. But most of the folks I know aren't generally patient enough to run the things on super fine detail either (although your reported 2-3 hours seems pretty reasonable as well).
Well at this stage i have no idea what resolution this was and i dont have any reference on whether this is too long a duration or not.

Be interested to know if 2.5 hours is too long for the cat.
 
2.5 would be about right for a high resolution print of .1mm or so. You'd have to look at the gcode to see what the z axis is incrementing each layer, though it may be in some comments at the top of the file.
 
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