Creality k1 printer

[cilyjr]

A couple of months ago I bought an anchor make printer. I was extremely disappointed with the printer and returned it within the window. I got one successful print out of it with PLA and zero with PETG.

After the return went through, I picked up the creality k1, second generation printer. And surprisingly this thing has been amazing!

Ceality has finally worked out the kinks with their slicer. Wish I would recommend using if you're going to go to this printer. It's got a lot of presets for fast printing.

I have printed with very little tweaking of their stock settings and have gotten successful prints of reasonable quality with PLA at 300 mm
And successful PETG prints at about 100 mm.

It is fast and requires very little to get it there.

One thing I had learned from watching a lot of reviews was that the Bowden tube would scratch the top as this is an enclosed printer. Fortunately, I had read that and was able to print a riser for the lid which solves that problem. Still you would think they would have a correction for that.

I haven't printed a ton yet, but I would say for high quality PETG Prints you're still going to want to be at 100 mm or less.

 

[Tavero]

Looks like it's usable but it doesn't come with unlocked klipper and no root access to install it. IMHO that's an absolute no no for +600 bucks and the year 2024.

 

[cilyjr]

Looks like it's usable but it doesn't come with unlocked klipper and no root access to install it. That's an absolute no no for +600 bucks and the year 2024.

Yeah,
I paid $460
They did something similar when they launched the ender I think.

My guess is they will need to "update" the firmware. They already stepped it up from the gen1s.

Still having such a bad experience with ankermake, and bambu using all proprietary software and hardware, and prusa being just another bedslinger and a 1200 price and a 6 week wait time and buying only through them in the Czech Republic, I figured I'd try the K1. Buying through Amazon means I can easily return it if it doesn't live up to it's claims.

 

[Tavero]

Buying through Amazon means I can easily return it if it doesn't live up to it's claims.

Careful with that. I learned the hard way this only applies to products directly sold by amazon. 3rd party resellers have their own return policy.
Also, they may not be using proprietary software but they are using proprietary firmware.

I totally get you though. Nowadays it's almost impossible to get good quality products for a reasonable price. And after going through several products it gets frustrating. Still, Creality is in blatant violation of the klipper license, which would rub me the wrong way.

When I bought my first 3d printer 10 years ago, one of the first things I did was to install custom Marlin so I knew thermal runaway protection was property set up. You don't want to trust a chinese company with a tool that that can potentially burn down your house without checking it beforehand.

You should go through the safety checklist after every firmware update with this printer. You never know when they'll forget to comment in some important safety features.

 

[cilyjr]

Careful with that. I learned the hard way this only applies to products directly sold by amazon. 3rd party resellers have their own return policy.

Yes this can be an issue. Really gotta make sure it's got the prime protection

Creality is in blatant violation of the klipper license, which would rub me the wrong way.

Yeah I get that, I did some hard thinking on this.
At first, I was determined to buy a printer that was made in the United States for better product support. Ankermake, although in China was touting amazing customer support. I found it was better than creality but far from excellent.
If I thought I could get a quality, reliable product from Bambu or Prusa I would happily pay the $1000 ish price. But, when browsing the Prusa forums I see just as many people complaining about the same problems that every printing company seems to have.

Basically, we are dealing with a technology that is adolescents at best. There is going to be a lot of changes coming and it will be exciting to watch it grow.

I don't mind tinkering with the machine in general but my real enjoyment is designing things in CAD. I wish this sub forum had more showcasing of people's designs.

 

[cilyjr]

@Tavero I do appreciate your insights!
Happy printing!

 

[Waboss]

It's not bad, I have a couple of K1 max's. They added the ability to root from the screen in a firmware upgrade. I'm running full Klipper, Moonraker, etc. with no issues. They've also addressed the extruder and hotend issues, so it seems pretty solid now.

I printed a couple of things to make it all little better for me (i.e. chain shelf, bed shims, etc.), but nothing compared to the crazy amount of mods I've had to do on other printers I've owned to get them to print well.

 

[Tavero]

It's not bad, I have a couple of K1 max's. They added the ability to root from the screen in a firmware upgrade. I'm running full Klipper, Moonraker, etc. with no issues. They've also addressed the extruder and hotend issues, so it seems pretty solid now.

I printed a couple of things to make it all little better for me (i.e. chain shelf, bed shims, etc.), but nothing compared to the crazy amount of mods I've had to do on other printers I've owned to get them to print well.

Nice to see choice that are moving in the right direction.
It always frustrates me when products that we pay full price aren't actually owned by their customers. Like the majority of smartphones nowadays.
And then we have to jump through loopholes to get actual ownership.

Some design choices of this printer are strange though. Like the glass door that seems to be prone to breaking.

 

[Tavero]

Just upgraded from a Geeetech A10 to the Creality K1 printer and am seriously impressed with how far things have come. It's about as close as you can get to a set-and-forget printer.

Anyone else got one? I was looking at the Bambu labs also, but wasn't impressed with the price or the lack of a proper enclosure (I'd like to try printing ABS at some point)

As of right now the qidi q1 seems to be the most powerful and cheapest printer on the market. 460$ for a fully encased Klipper printer with all the features bamboo labs has, but without it's proprietary ecosystem nonsense.
If I didn't have have fully functional printer right now, I would get this one.

 

[cilyjr]

I'd like to try printing ABS at some point)

I am now pretty much exclusively printing with overture abs. I'll share the settings I've been using when I get a chance to sit down in front of it. But I'm printing it roughly 250 mm/s For functional prints. If I was going to make a figurine or something I'd probably slow it down.