The CR-6 SE is Crealitys latest 3D printer
that collected over $4Million on Kickstarter
recently.
I finally also received one for a first look
and will tell you if it’s only hyped or
overhyped, and I have some things to complain
about.
Let’s find out more.
Guten Tag everybody, I’m Stefan and welcome
to CNC Kitchen.
This is the Creality CR-6 SE that was launched
for their 6th anniversary on Kickstarter and
was a huge success with over $4 Million in
pledges.
I also received one of the beta units, just,
when the Kickstarter ended and am honestly
quite happy that I didn’t contribute to
the hype there was around this new machine
because Kickstarters can sometimes go way
into the wrong direction.
The reason why Creality chose Kickstarter
probably wasn’t because they needed the
funding, but they used this as a big marketing
campaign, which did work out very well for
them.
You’ve probably already heard a lot about
it from other sources but I’ll give you
a bit more critical thoughts on it.
The CR-6 SE has a print volume of 235x235x250mm,
so a bit bigger that an Ender-3 and a bit
smaller that the bigger brother, the CR-10.
In comparison to an Ender-3, it comes almost
fully assembled, and you only need to attach
the gantry with four screws, attach the screen
and plug in some wires.
It uses well-known aluminum V-slot extrusions,
we already know from so many other printers,
though switched to a more custom and closed
design for a nicer look.
One thing to note, is that it has milled slots
in the extrusions to precisely locate the
gantry in order to make sure that everything
is square.
A good design choice that I haven’t seen
on any other machine yet.
We have two Z-axis motors that are synced
with a belt on the top.
The spool holder moved from the top to the
side, which is a plus for stability and a
straighter filament path but will increase
the footprint of the printer.
Both belts for the X- and Y-axis are tightened
with a small knob, which is a great addition.
There is a small tool drawer in the front
of the printer that seems simple but is, in
my opinion, a great idea to keep your bench
tidy and your tools together.
The printbed is directly fixed to the carrier
and is not manually leveled anymore.
The hotend now has an integrated bed leveling
sensor, which is the most outstanding feature
for me that I wanted to see more on 3D printers
ever since I saw the SmartEffector with Strain
Gauges integrated on the PCB on a Delta Printer
a while ago.
The CR-6 SE uses it’s own nozzle for leveling
and senses the moment, when it touches the
build plate using a strain gauge sensor, which
works very similarily to a kitchen scale.
The pressure on the nozzle causes the sheet
metal to bend and a strain gauge senses the
deformation due to bending and at a specific
threshold signals that to the control board.
This way of leveling has the advantage that
you don’t have to worry about all of the
offsets from the sensor to the nozzle and
should make it more reliable in comparison
to most other methods also especially at different
printing temperatures.
This integrated sensor is also used to perform
mesh bed leveling, where the whole print plate
is probed in a pattern, and the un-evenness
of the print plate is compensated for during
printing, which results in beautiful first
layers every time.
This new sensor did work mostly well for me
though sometimes remaining filament on the
nozzle can cause pre-mature triggering, resulting
in too much distance to the bed.
I think if they would adjust the trigger point
to a higher level of force, this might be
less of a problem.
The hotend itself looks a little different
to older models and less generic, though it’s
still PTFE lined down to the nozzle, which
limits printing temperatures to really a maximum
of 260°C. The material is fed from the side
of the frame, so no direct drive system.
Let’s remain at the print surface.
Creality are using a ceramics coated sheet
of glass, which does work really well to hold
PLA, but even in its cooled-down state, it
can make the removal of prints quite challenging.
I printed a bunch of different materials on
it, and most of them stuck reasonably well.
Since it’s removable, you can turn it around
and apply your favorite build plate adhesion
product to it.
Still, I would have liked to see a removable
spring steel print bed, with a PEI sheet as
a stretch goal instead of for example the
TMC2209 upgrade.
Let’s just hope that with the TMC2209 upgrade,
they will also implement a stall guard, because
otherwise this stretch goal is just pretentious
nonsense.
Due to the heavy glass bed, heat-up times
are also a bit slow, and I would like to see
a bit more powerful heater.
Mine still has the 8bit board; the later units
will be shipped with 32bit microcontrollers,
which won’t make a huge change but will
leave more memory for future features.
It’s also nice to have a full-size SD card
slot in the front, finally.
The color touchscreen is really nice and responsive
and lets you navigate through the menus very
quickly.
Most functions are there, though I would like
to see some features added like flow adjustment
or fan speed control.
Loading filament through the run-out sensor
into the feeder is also a bit fiddly, so a
wizard for quick loading would be helpful.
Since the firmware of the screen is easily
upgradable via a MicroSD slot on the back,
there is the potential that we see updates
in the future, especially because this is
still a beta unit and object to change.
Next, let’s get to the point that annoyed
me the most and where I’d like to know if
I’m just too spoiled by my Prusa MK3.
It’s great that the CR-6 SE uses a MeanWell
power supply, but first, I’m not 100% sure
if it’s legal to use this particular model
in the EU for this application, and second,
as soon as the cooling fan in it starts to
turn on the machine gets annoyingly loud.
The selected hotend and part cooling fan are
pretty quiet and the stepper motors are basically
silent, but as soon as the power supply fan
turns on and this happens even at low loads
during printing PLA it’s all for nothing!
I hoped so much that this is finally a printer
that I can put next to my Mk3 in the office,
but as soon as I noticed that behavior, I
had to put it into the basement.
Please, Creality, please think about a quieter
solution here, it would make the whole experience
SO MUCH BETTER!
Print quality overall was good, and some visible
artifacts are probably a result of my minimally-tuned
PrusaSlicer profile.
Surfaces are mostly smooth, and ringing artifacts
are quite little.
I printed PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, TPU, Polymax
PC, and Polymaker COPA on it, and it seems
to handle the materials that are printable
up to the maximum hotend temperature of 260°C
quite okay.
Some filaments stuck well to the stock print
plate, for some others, you can turn it around
and apply products like Magigoo or similar.
Even flexible materials like the Medium hardness
TPU seem to work well with the new extruder
design.
So the CR-6 SE ticks many boxes that are important
for a good 3D printer, and I especially enjoy
seeing a bit of innovation in terms of the
strain gauge bed leveling sensor.
Build volume is plenty and it’s great to
see decent electronics, wiring and custom-designed
and injection molded components on such a
machine.
The software and interface are already good
but I hope to see some more updates until
it’s release.
The only things that I’m really missing
is a quiet power supply and a flexible print
bed.
If that would happen, I’d give it a big
thumbs up; if not, it’s still okay but again
just another one of these products that were
engineered 90% of the way, and it was then
decided that this would be enough.
Creality, take this chance and make a great
out of a good 3D printer, please!
If you got it for $320 on Kickstarter, I think
it’s a pretty reasonable price for what
you’re getting.
Though the retail price, which is $100 higher,
is a bit too high, in my opinion, because
an Ender-3 with a silent board that sells
for a good $200 will give you almost the same
value minus a bit of print volume and not
automatic leveling.
I’d be really interested in what you think
about this machine.
Do you have the opinion that the hype is deserved,
and have you backed it on Kickstarter.
Post your reasoning, and let’s discuss down
in the comments!
Thanks for watching everyone, I hope you’re
all doing well!
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Stay healthy, auf wiedersehen and I hope to
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