3DPrinting

I purchased a K1 Max directly from Creality in October 2024.

This was well after the K1 Max had recieved the K1C upgrades. People had been getting K1 Max units with the small X/Y pulleys and upgrade hot end for MONTHS.

I bought it directly from Creality expecting to get a current revision.

I received a rev1 unit. It had signs of use. I asked Creality to replace it with the current revision and they decline.

It never really printed right. Using their filament and their slicer about 40% of the prints would fail. They kept dragging me along for weeks. I assume this was to push me out of the return window.

They literally never one entertained my suggestion of returning.

Until I call my credit card company. VISA said to box it up, email them one last time demanding a return label for a full refund, and if they did not give me one, VISA would do a charge back.

Whilst boxing it up I noticed another shipping label from before the K1C was released.

So they had absolutely sold me a unit that was not brand new.

Now I have a Sovol SV08 and if I was looking for a new printer I would be looking at the Snapmaker U1

That's a serious shame to hear about. Creality has been a staple of the community since the reprap days. I don't think I can count the number of people I know who had an ender as their first 3d printer.

It kind of sounds like they're struggling with the transition from hobbiest products to appliances and are losing some of their soul along the way.

Sorry you're going through that, but thank you for sharing.

Unfortunately, creality has always been known for this sort of stuff and the sad part is they have not improved at all. Just last week, I had a friend buy a used ender 3 neo. Mainboard has 4.2.2 version, you'd think that would be a u useful information. But turns out - there is a silent and a non-silent version of 4.2.2. So firmwares are not compatible. But I found out not all 4.2.2 are even with the same mcu - some have stm32 and some gd32 (a clone). So my friend - being inexperienced, upon finding that EEPROM setting saving was not enabled by default, promptly flashed the wrong firmware and bricked the printer. I helped him flash klipper, he's printing again. But creality has been mixing and matching parts with no tracking or any logic or reason since forever. I thought they will up their game after bambu pressure, but apparently not.

I thought everyone knew the company was crap years ago?

I'm sure there is a lot of problems with creality, but are you sure that you have an original one? Parts not fitting is really strange.

This is sad to hear. I have an Ender 3 Pro that has been nothing short of a workhouse for 6.5 years now. I've upgraded a few parts here and there as thats kinda the fun. Dual Z motors 2 yrs after, upgraded the hot end to a direct extrusion one a year or so after that so I could print TPU. Just Got the silent motherboard about a year ago. Solid as a rock. A friend got the CR-10 shortly after, same luck.

With all the issues and sketchy closed source madness Prusa and Bamboo are having, i was tempted to upgrade to a much larger Creality unit, but I guess I'll rethink or wait on that now.

I had a CR-10 vSomething a while back. Never really knew the version because it seemed like amalgamation of all their revisions.

I spent more time calibrating and dialing it in than actually printing. That was the first and last Creality product I owned.

I currently have a P1S but with the anti-consumer show they've been putting on if I do have to replace it I think the only printer I'd consider is something Prusa. Even though I've never had one, my first printer was a crappy Prusa clone that still was easier than anything else I've had aside from the P1S.

We all graduated from Creality years ago. They were famous for creating sales flyers before they finished the printers, and ending parts support before the new batch even hit US shores. Just cheap drop shipping. Tell them to send the right part or exchange for a new printer.

Creality made good printers in the beginning, i.e. original Ender and Ender Pro. They used high quality components and offered good value for money compared to what else what available at that time. However, when they had cornered a large part of the market and got known as the brand that made the best beginner printers, things started going downhill. They switched from Meanwell power supplies etc. to cheap noname components, quality control seemingly became non-existent, and they released several poorly designed overpriced printers (E.g. the E3v2 - my first printer - and everything with "max" in the name).

I think there's a combination of different reasons for why there always have been so many people who believe that Creality make good printers:

1. People who have bought their Ender 3/Pro before 2020 actually have good printers, and give them honest praise on forums.
2. Fake reviews on the internet, which hype up the product since their only goal is for you to click their amazon affiliate link and buy it.
3. Creality paying content creators for positive reviews, including several well known and otherwise respected within the community.
4. Buyers who got lucky with the QC and don't own any other printers to compare with, might think their printers are the best.
5. Buyers who are now happy with their Ender after having spent €100+ on "upgrades" and/or days of troubleshooting the printer. I've even seen a guy insist that an Ender is a better first printer than a cheaper more reliable alternative, because the 20 hours he spent on his Ender to get a decent print out of it gave him "an invaluable learning experience".
6. And I've also seen people who haven't yet bought any printer claim that Enders are the best beginner printers, just because they've read that statement so many times they've come to accept it as a fact, and now they're "helping" others looking for a first printer by answering their questions.

I think my E3v2 is good now, but I've replaced the hotend, extruder and part cooling fans. I've added a second Z lead screw to fix gantry sag, and I found a manufacturing error where the X belt tensioner wasn't straight because tightening the screw into the aluminium extrusion bent the plastic (difficult to find, but luckily easy to fix with a metal shim). I've replaced the firmware with Klipper, controlled by a Raspberry Pi. And I've probably spent at least 50 hours just trying to fix and improve the printer, which I didn't mind btw, but I think most would prefer a printer which just works out of the box.

In retrospect, I wish I had joined some 3d printing discords and talked to experienced users before deciding on which printer to buy, and not relied so much on google, websites and random comments.

So I didn’t buy any new parts for my ender 3 pro but I had to print a few things before I could print with any kind of consistency.

1. Bed screw locks. My bed would drift away from where I leveled it. This would cause it to fail on larger prints a lot
2. A filament roller with bearings. The rolls always seemed to have trouble pulling filament
3. Direct drive (Satansa?) for the extruder so it didn’t need to push and pull through that long tube
4. I already had this but a spark plug feeler gauge and moving the zAxis is the what i’ve found to be the best way to level your bed. I like .7mm for this

All of these should probably work with yours, not sure if you still have it. If not make sure you have a caliper and make adjustments in your slicer or tinkercad or just do a lil post processing

Edit: Here are some links https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5020676 Print in place bearings https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6070269 Bed locks I use, recommend doing those first since that’ll make the most difference https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4662728 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4555065 One of these should work, you just would need to remount your extruder that you have You want the bent feeler gauge type like this https://a.co/d/03e9xyxV so it’s easy to hold. Your local auto store should have it

What was the part that didn't fit?

I've had a K1 for a couple of years now, and I've never had issues getting parts for it. I recently replaced the hot end and hot end breakout board because of my own personal stupidity, and I was able to just buy the parts. And they fit.

Is something different about your or my K1?

Anyone have problems with elegoo carbon?