Orca Slicer has a feature to purge into objects infill and purge into support towers.. As a community we need to push the manufactures to make all of them do that.
Purge into infill is such an awesome feature. Of course it isn't perfect, if you're running low density infill you might not get full purge, but I'd rather take a layer or two if transition than literally entire rolls worth of waste.
I really appreciate the time and thought you put into revealing the negatives. Most channels just knock themselves out to score points with the manufacturer while at the same time throwing the viewers under the bus. Thank you for this excellent review. New subscriber here.
That’s been my issue with Creality (and AnyCubic). They’ll release a new machine to great fanfare - then within six months, that machine is old news, replaced by something new. Getting support (ha!) or parts is tough, changes to firmware or software - that’s left to the realm of the tinkerers / folks that like to improve/upgrade their machines. I’m hoping for something great from Bambu Labs, which doesn’t have this history of abandoning consumers
100% agree with all of this. With there being so many great machines now a days, choice is going to start coming down to things like ease of access to parts, etc. They need to focus on developing their machines over longer periods of time, not replacing them every year with something else. I’m hoping that the K2 Plus might be that start of that, where they unify their design and parts more - similar to how some of the newer Enders and newly announced Hi have - but I guess only time will tell.
@ the reason the Bambu Lab machines are dominating are many - and I’m not a fan boy by any means - I’ve been 3D printing since 2013. My observation is that they know the customer! They’ve made machines easy to use first of all and the machine tells the user what to do when problems are encountered. There are thousands of videos on TH-cam for debugging mysterious printer issues! Their machine tells you what to check and a QR code to a support page! They’ve focused on their 3 machines They didn’t go crafting new machines once the reviews hit on their current ones. They’ve made have spare parts galore! They offer firmware updates and tell you what was fixed! And their slicer really works! They don’t just rebrand Cura and never update it like many makers have. Sorry for the rant - this K2 offers a nice boost in print volume. But we all know Creality. How many versions of CR-10 and Enders are out there? Are they offering firmware updates and parts for those? AnyCubic is even worse, the cheap “Walmart” copy of anything anyone else makes. Anyways - please print safe! Good video! (You might even like my channel & content!)
You're exactly right. I used to love Creality, and I still run some of their machines. But their support is horrendous. I bought 50 K1's for my farm and 3/4 of them developed major VFA issues. I won't sell subpar products so these issues were not acceptable. Creality support said "all printers will have these eventually," but later said "inexperienced users should learn to use their machines before selling models." Seriously? It wasn't until I responded with "none of the other machines brands develop these issues like this, and I've spent over $100k on your machines over the years" that they switched it up and offered to replace 10 of the machines. I guess they looked up by purchase history. Anyway, I took the 10 units, replaced the others with more Bambu P1S/X1C's, donated the bad K1's, and I've never given Creality another dime. Id love to have their K2Plus, but I can't justify it if they end up like the K1's.
@ that’s really unfortunate you’re going through that. The advice I try to give people is to do their research. Don’t just fall for the many adoring videos about a product (not saying that is the case here!). We wouldn’t buy a major appliance without checking into reviews and how the manufacturer backs their product. Since most of these newer machines are over $1000, it’s really important to see if you’re buying something that’ll work as promised and if the company will support them into the future. Creality has a really poor history of that, among others. They just roll on to the next big thing and you folks that have a one year old model are on your own. Many want these devices to work without the hassle of debugging, hiring help to redesign failed components or worse, someone that can fix the firmware shortcomings the company won’t do. Basically consumers need to demand better. And that’s why, I feel, Bambu Labs is dominating right now. They understand the customer’s needs. Hopefully they understand we need offerings that have bigger print volumes! Print safe, friend!
@@WhereNerdyisCool True. I shouldve researched more. But I had good experiences with their v2/V2 Neo's (although I immediately upgraded each with Klipper, dual z, direct drive, etc) so I thought the K1 would be a nice upgrade. I actually bought the 50 K1's a little at a time. I think I bought 10, then 10 more, then 30 because I liked them so much. It was only after extended use that the issues really started to show their heads, which was unfortunate. So I'm waiting until others use the K2Plus for an extended amount of time before I buy. I'm also waiting on Bambu's new machine and plan on buying quite a few of those. Anyway, thanks for the response, and great video. I wish I could post my 3d printing life on YT. I think it'd be fun. Unfortunately about 200 of my machines are used for 1 client and I signed an NDA so I can't show any of those, and the other 100ish machines are also in view so I'm kinda stuck. I wish my warehouse was bigger so I could separate the two...maybe one day.
Wow! That sign came out absolutely fantastic! Will be looking forward to a one month of ops final update on this machine. I worry about long term even short term parts support. I was burned on a Creality scanner two or three years back, they never got the required software working for it, so I am slow to look to Creality since that experience. There is a reason I own several Qidi machines, parts and support are the best I have ever dealt with. Waiting bit longer before my next FDM purchase. Hoping we may soon see AMS for Plus4. Will be keeping close tabs on K2 updates. You bring up an extremely valid point on efficiency in regards to where filament cutter is located. All companies should look at locating cutter such that the lowest waste is achieved. That equates to time and cost and shortest amount of waste is a huge efficiency gain over time.
The quality of that first print...at that size...is nuts. A fantastic time for newcomers to 3D printing to be able to pick up a printer and just start printing with little problems!
We have this printer for a week now. What we learned in this time, when you print multi color with PLA don't have to many color changes in small areas or you get mixed colors. Open the door also can help with this problem. You should also don't use high contrast colors. White+black in a multi color print give you most likely a couple of layer with different shades of gray. The print quality on this printer is on another level. We have an Ender 3 V3 Plus and an old Kobra Plus and the K2 beats both of them pretty easily. We are now waiting for a smaller K2 to replace our bedslinger :D
@@blalesnail3098 possible but we don't care. Multi color prints are way to wasteful and take a ton more time. We use the CFS to fix the annoying your roll has not enough filament but you have no time to manage the filament switch in the printing process. The CFS do this for you fully automatic. Yesterday we removed two rolls from our pile of shame :D
Great video, and amazing prints! I'm still liking my K1Max, hope it continues to do well. I want a machine with multi color but still haven't made up my mind yet. Thanks so much for sharing with us!!
There are a few ways to minimise waste during purges and flushes. Creality seem to be putting spare parts on Amazon for sale, I've seen nozzles and a couple of other parts for the K2 Plus.
@ We decide based on our own experiences and requirements. If I need a 4 colour printer with 350mm3 build area then is Bambu going to sell me one? No. £30 for a heater block and £15 for a unicorn hardened steel nozzle is crazy prices? I’m honestly done with the Bambu vs other manufacturers stuff, just as I am for the iPhone vs Android stuff. We buy the tools that suit us, for the price we can afford, and with the features we want.
@@MainframeDaydreams This is the way. This brand war BS is also getting on my nerves. I use an I phone and I mac, but also have a windows PC running as well as a sony PS5. I use each for their most optimal purpose. My Apple devices for the lazy comfort they afford me in my day to day and private use, my PS5 for gaming because I am a filty casual, and my Windows PC because thats where I can run games I don´t want to play on console but mostly because it´s what I use for the prorams I cannot run on my mac. Like pattern drafting programms or CAD. I have litterally no brand loyalty in regards to tools. And that is what these devices are. Just like how my power tools are also a wild mix of devices. While I mostly use Metabo for battery powered tools, it´s just because I generally like those best. But if also got Bosch, Proxxon and others. Because they produce specific tool that are just better in certain areas. Like my foam cutter from Proxxon, as no one has a product even aproaching it´s quality and versitility compared to the price. And my ancient corded Bosch Drill-Hammer from the 80´s because that thing has more power than anything on the current market and is utterly indestructible. This Brand loyalty and conflict is just utterly stupid in my opinion, and is often a weight around ones neck because it will limit what one can do.
The shiny bands are indeed where its printing slower because of the extra travels to do the embossing. If you can preview the flowrate/speed when you slice it, you'll see they match up perfectly. If a uniform surface finish is important for raw exposed prints, the easy way is to solve is to turn the max speed down.
I don't do a lot of multicolour printing but I am glad I got the AMS with my printer. It lets me have 4 reels automatically available at all times and should I want to go multicoloured I can.
Nice review! Glad it worked well for you. I don't think the quality quite matches some other printers, but it definitely has a lot of capability. I agree filament waste is a huge issue for multi-color prints.
I'm very skeptical of Creality, but equally curious on your take long term on the K2 Plus. My CR-6SE is a headache. Bambu or Prusa seems to be my next printer.
Creality stepped their game up in the last two years. They don't have very accessible official replacement parts. Most parts will be third party from amazon or Ali express. If you have Prusa money, a P1S or P1P will be great. Prusas MK4s does not stand to the P1 series.
I also was burned by the CR6 Kickstarter as I backed it and was too afraid to touch it for 3 years so it sat in the box. Luckily a few community members put together so powerful resources for it. List of problems, community, firmware, and even a klipper for that can use the original screen! The CR6 had the issues of non thorough testing. It's a good printer, and the nozzle as probe is great when it works. If you spend the time to properly set up/calibrate the strain gauge with a small scale and are aware that unhooking the Bowden tube during probing gives way more consistent results, then it can work but it was a huge headache to make reliable.
Watching your videos makes me want to buy a 3D printer. Maybe someday I'll buy a K2 Plus. I'm gonna start with a smaller one to start with. Those Crocs are fire by the way.
It's not just Creality with the repalcement parts. I'm a few days into testing another brand and something broke today annnnnnnd yeah no plans to have parts available anytime soon. Same for the bed, no bed options and even the one it ships with isn't available for sale for the near future.
Great video and print 👌🤘Yes, parts is an issue , had a hexbolt in the rail come loose within the first 50 hours and something strange happend , it somehow bend the complete hotend so mutch that nozzle was stuck in hotend ..had to go to aliexpress for complete hotend and a 2 week wait 😢...are up and running now , I did order 2 x K2 but the other is still in backorder 🤷♂ ....But it seems to be a good printer dispite my problems.
My view as a software dev: The software is terrible, from the slicer to the firmware. If you root and look at the macro code and G-code in the slicer, you’ll see everything is made without structure and logic, this was not written by a dev ! It's full of issues and needs a complete rework from scratch. You will find the line purge in machine gcode, some code in filament gcode (wtf), some in klipper macros, some in closed source creality macro code. And half of the code is commented out. Also when clogs happen (at nozzle, since this printer has first layer issues), they retract while knowing where the clog is. This clogs the buffer/cfs too. What freaks me out the most is the enabled debug mode in fluidd console which makes it unusable, they are abusing customers. Creality Cloud will read those logs.
If you watch the heating elements on Fluidd you'll notice that when you heat the bed and the chamber at the same time, the printer will send 100% power to the bed first and 0% to the chamber. Once the bed has heated to temperature the chamber heater then kicks on. I wish it heated both up at the same time. Maybe when you set 40 degree chamber your bed was heating up and by the time you set it to 41 degrees it had reached temperature. I'm glad you have pointed out the chamber heater issue cause it's quite annoying and time consuming. Also I did a 64 hour multicolor print and the estimates were way off too. 6 hours off and 300gram difference. Thanks for pointing this out too If you're using a mac to slice Creality is behind on the software update compared to windows computer cause the clitchy screen is mac computer issue many have experienced. Update is supposedly on the way
I’m 95% sure that I always went to input the chamber heater after the bed had already finished heating as to not freak out the battery backup it was plugged into, but great to know! There has been at least one new firmware update since then so it might be all fixed now.
Hey, a couple of things I found with my K2 (I've had it for a little more than a month). First off, you may want to consider putting the spool holder on. There are some materials that can't be run thru the CFS (TPU is the only thing I've tried that the CFS won't handle). Second, there's also a place on the back of the CFS where you can also mount the CFS. I got a second CFS, & found that was the best way to setup mine (the CFSs are on a wire rack next to the printer). Also worth noting, the second CFS also came with it's own buffer. WRT the filament waist that were one color, I recall in the release notes on one of the firmware updates being addressing an issue where the waist was getting jammed in the waist chute.
In regards to colour printing, I like some of the DIY-developments being made right now. There is a really interesting kit to make basically every filament printer into not just a multi colour printer, but a full range colour printer. Using translucent white filament only and a basic ink jet cartridge with some added electronics and a few parts that can be printed out. Interspersing a colour pass in between each print pass so the ink gets bound into the surface of the print. And because it´s an ink jet cartridge and technology, it can do every colour you can do with a normal printer. It is such an awesome idea and the results I have seen are surprisingly good for being a DIY solution based around a normal ink jet cartridge not meant for this purpose. I am really hoping that this will get to the attention of 3D Printer Manufacturers, because a purpose build and engeneered version would likely be even better. Using ink or dye meant to stain plastic as well to improove vibrancy and resolution. There is just too many advantages of it. You not only eliminate the waste of purging or need for an expensive and complicated multi toolhead/nozzle assembly. You also only need a single type of filament (like how you only need white paper for printing, or another colour if you want a solid coloured background and not overprint the whole page with an excessive amount of ink) and not a whole library of coloured filaments that will still limit you. And you can do an incredibly wide range of colours, as well as insanely complex colour combinations and gradients. And you don`t need unnessary amounts of ink because only the outermost milimetres of the outer layer need to be coloured, the wole inside can be left as is as it isn´t visible. With the increasing resolution of FDM printers this could create absoloutely awesome results. Like fully coloured miniatures straight off the printer.
I agree with you about the filament dryer, i generally don't nee one either. I print with 95% ABS and my area/shop is relatively dry most of the year. For my PA-CF I have a dedicated external dryer which is perfect because It's not recommended to run carbon fiber through the AMS anyway.
Software issues have been reported with the Mac version of Creality Print. I think Creality Print 6 will be released for macs tomorrow or slightly after.
Very good video im loving mine thinking on moving on my k1max and getting another k2 and try purging in to infill that helps loads with reducing poop still working in setting's on waste
i'm surprised i haven't seen any videos about that. every video i've seen about the k2 plus they mention how bad the waste is, but none of them have tried anything like purging to infill. seems like a far better solution.
I have had small annoying issues nonstop. Mostly the extruder jams. Filament sensor dying, and after a month, the cutter needs to be changed. When it works it's great...but still.
Very Nice! I know Creality has been working hard on "Making their own slicer" and Its still new so I expect that it will keep getting better. Hopefully the same with replacement parts on their website. Its been a huge year for them and moving their company into massive new HQ's at the same time as launching this flagship had to be difficult. I expect things to keep getting fixed and software being updated. Dont let me down Creality! Fed Ex has been trying to deliver mine for 5 days but the snow is blocking them. Today the thaw is on and maybe It will finally show up tonite.
Nozzle length: The bambu printers have a maker on makerworld that addresses the purge issue when the printer does the change by doing a retract before the filament cut (but beware the meltzone blob).. probably not explaining it well, but this needs to become the norm for all pooping printers as best they can from the manufacturer. This allows you to reduce the flushing volumes significantly. The 'waste' now is a lot more acceptable, and also makes good lamp fillers :)
I will say the extra nozzle size shouldnt automatically mean more waste. Bambu was able to reduce waste since they initally launched by retacting the filament and cutting off just the tip so that purge needed was minimal and you kept the reliable switching. I expect Creality (or more likely tech savvy users) to adjust the macros in the firmware to do the same. I had mmu working on a k1 max and am glad that a lot of the challenges i had there have been solved by Creality here so it gives me some hope... but they do have a habit of developing a product 90% of the way and just calling it good enough
I've found that alot if not all replacements parts you would need are available on amazon, still do not understand why they don't market and sell parts through their website.
Yeah, this is why I completely ruled out Creality when looking for an FDM printer. I like the look of a couple of their machines, including the K2 Plus, but with poor support and practically nonexistent parts infrastructure, it's just not something I'd ever consider spending money on. It's a shame, really, because the K2 Plus looks like a pretty good machine. Overall, I have the same feelings about Qidi and their FDM printers. Really surprised that none of these companies have just copied Bambu Labs' business model. They could be doing so much better than they are. Competition is good, but so far nobody's really competing. I still hold out hope that Bambu Labs will come out with a larger build volume machine, but I would be just as willing to try something like this K2 Plus or a Qidi Plus-4 if they had the same kind of cradle-to-grave infrastructure and support as Bambu Labs.
Amazing first layer, mine is so bad that even the texture can't hide it. I will also say, with a print bed this largetiu could benefit from purging into infill of something else
I am slowly saving up to purchase this printer. I hope to do so in February. The large 350x350 print size is my deciding factor. Will go with the Multi-material system for that spool change capability, as it's been a very handy feature on my Bambu printers.
I realize this may be a complicated idea, but you would think that slicers could be configured, for printers that have multi-spool capabilities, to not waste as much filament by using it to purge as infill within the print.
There are purge into infill settings, but it takes over the job of the purge tower rather than the separate purge pieces. An oversimplification is that there won’t always be the infill area on a piece to purge what it needs. I could see this becoming a possibility in future software developments (or at least I hope it will 🤞🏻)
The unicorn nozzle has got to the worst nozzle to have for multicolor printing, because, yeah, like you said the purge gets increased and thus more wasted filament. Also the other issue I saw in another review, is that the color bleed is worse most likely due to the nozzle length as well. I was interested I machine too, but having this problem with the nozzle is a no go for me. I have a k1 and it has hotend issues too with the filament seemingly not able to build back pressure for certain materials.
Is it possible the machine saw the support material as a filament change…and therefore purged each time it went from support to finished print, and then back again?
When I watch my Bambu A1 do a purge, there's the color gradient blob, but then it also does around 2 more of the new color. I've only seen it when it's going from a darker color to a lighter one. Perhaps Creality is the same?
First of all, I would like to greet you and express great respect for what you do, you are excellent. I am totally new to the world of 3d printing, I still haven't decided on my first printer and I would like you to help me decide. I am a huge fan of Star Wars and I would like to use the printer to make various droids, spaceships... The printer must be able to work with more colors. I am currently thinking about the Bambo lab P1S combo, X1 carbon and K2 max. I was mostly leaning towards P1S, but the volume of printing scares me, is it big enough to make, say, R2 D2 in real size with assembling the parts and gluing them or something like that is not possible. I repeat, I am totally new to this. To cut a long story short, which printer would you recommend? Thanks in advance
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To your concern regarding part replacements; hopefully the K2 is the start of a proper product they will have in service for the long-run. I like to have some piece of mind that of something cripples my tool, I can repair it without any fuss. Creality's track record up to this pointe doesn't give me the warm-fuzzy feeling of 'I just bought into a brand that is stable and here for the long haul'. Instead, I feel like this is a fling and the moment something breaks, I'm done for. Creality loyalists rave that Creality has been listening which resulted in this K2 model, I hope they're right.
Which firmware are you on and which version of creality print you have for this review? So many have come out the last 2 weeks. Some people stay on certain firmwares that works for them until things become more stable. Might be useful information for some. One of the things ive been having issues on my k2 is color bleed. espicially from red to white or black to lighter colors.
I'm with you on multi-color prints. I have an AMS and like it, but mostly for rare prints where it's just a few layers of changes, and the auto-refill capabilities. Simply loading filament is SO much less fiddly, not that that alone warrants the cost. But I'm just not into the insane waste that big true multi-color prints necessitate... painting seems like the better option, especially because it then no longer looks 3D printed. I'd love to see a comparison to the Bambu printers, however, raw size advantage aside. (which is impressive!). How do the two do, head to head, printing the same models in a size they can both handle? Is the K2 just as good at smaller pieces as massive ones? If you could have only one, do you give up quality for the size? And finally... is it just me, or did they totally rip off nearly element of Bambu's design, with only a few tweaks here and there? The AMS vs CFS was rather eye opening... sure they exposed the tubes, good idea, but otherwise it's a pretty obvious clone, to my eye. Copying a good idea isn't necessarily a bad thing, but still.
I made a comment a few weeks ago in a printing group regarding the poop amounts compared to a bambu. I sliced a 3" tall, 4 coloured, pickle rick model as a direct comparison of time etc. On single colour prints the K2 plus wins hands down on time etc, but loses spectacularly when you factor in poop times on multi coloured prints. Now I was obviously shot down in group as a Bambu fanboi, but it was a serious question. Both machines were on identical settings @ 0.08mm layer heights and the time was 6hrs on bambu and 17 hrs on K2, and used alot more filament. I don't understand why they didn't do a clone bambu hotend to reduce the poop, and yes these settings can be tweaked, but nobody seems to be addressing this until now. K2 is a good printer that I will end up purchasing to go with my Bambu's, but this is a big omission considering they are hyping it as the bambu killer.
I have no experience of multicolor printing whatsoever (both of my printers are single color) so maybe this is a stupid question but why do they use BOTH a purge tower an the "poo"? I think earlier ones did just the tower. And yes, the Creality slicer is annoyingly cumbersome to use. I would like to try Prusa slicer but it does not have a profile for Ender 3 V3 KE.
it'd be far more practical to make the printer use the filament in some way to print something useful than to try and do anything with spooled up lumps. Turning wasted filament back into usable filament would require the sort of machines that filament making factories have. theres a reason there isn't really an off the shelf filament making machine option.
Doesn't the K2 have an option to purge in infill? Whilst I know that doing this for small prints can cause color-bleed issues, for very large pieces with non-translucent filaments that purging into infill would save a lot of time and purged filament. Either way I wish IDEX would make a comeback!
This is at least the second time you’ve said that there “isn’t” a large format multicolor printer, or here that this is “the first”. Wondering why you don’t count the Prusa XL? Yes, it’s extremely expensive (maybe you don’t class as a consumer printer? Certainly out of my price range), but does seem to tick all your boxes of large area (360mm), multicolor, MUCH less waste, and from a company with a reasonable history of support/parts (it had a rough launch but they also support their printers well). Also, I love that this is so obviously a clone of the Bambu (and I have no problem with it) that they even copy the included swatches, right down to the way Bambu strings them together.
It comes down to me trying to simplify explanations as much as possible so I don’t descend into a 20 minute explanation every time, haha! I often group together the multicolour printing with the enclosed printer argument because there’s a lot of interest and overlap there with people that are looking for a machine that can print basically anything. For me the enclosure is almost of more interest than the multicolour capabilities and that’s where a lot of the other larger format printers start to fall out of the conversation. Yes you can technically add an enclosure to the Prusa XL, but it’s also such a unique machine because of its multi tool head design that it’s not a 1:1 comparison for the majority of printers I end up talking about either, which is why I don’t mention it. I actually just got an XL so I’m very excited to start playing around with it because it’s eliminating a lot of the reservations I have with multicolour printing.
That makes a lot of sense! The added enclosure cost (and the 8-week lead time) was what caused me to go to Bambu instead of Prusa Mk4. Will definitely be interested to hear your views on the XL!
TBH I think were are at that rennaissance in 3D printing where we are able to pick from a gamut of companies and dispite their foibles, end up with a printer we could only have hoped to build about a decade ago... We are now in the comoditisiton and demystification phase of 3D printing... much like the hitherto exclusive internet underwent in the 1990s... In conclusion, we are now in the Dell vs HP vs Lenovo or Nikon vs Canon vs Sony phase or even the Honda vs Toyota phase of 3D printing... And I'm here to watch the inexorable march towards the ultimate resolution and repeatability.
Bambu is about to completely dominate the printer market..AGAIN. Its crazy how many identical designs Creality took from Bambu, but props to them, it makes all of the brands better.
I wouldn't call the K2 Plus an identical design to any printer let alone a bambu. I don't see any bambu s with 300mm+ build plate. I guess the CFS ia a sorta copy. However, the CFS is better than the AMS feature wise. The AMS has no humidity or temp sensor. I see where you are coming from though. The K1 and K1C are direct copies of X1C. I just think your description of this printer is misleading.
@@monetary_episode494 The size is obviously not the same, but a lot of features are. Even the instruction manual has the same color writing in it. The instructions on which bolts to remove during assembly have the same stickers on them too lol. i'm just waiting for Bambu to drop a new printer next month and watch what happens.
As a K1C owner, this printer pisses me off. This is what the K1/K1C should’ve been. But instead those printers are an afterthought with only vague promises of a color changer down the line.
so in 3D printing,1 roll plus 1 roll equals just 1 roll for multi color prints.....1kg+1kg = ~1.5KG of usable filament in multicolor printing in the K2 Plus....note to myself since I am getting a K2 plus :o
i got one and a bambu labs... the bambu labs id buy 10 more its just too easy and reliable. the k2 is ok but ya just cant compete with the bambu right now
That throat length just talked me out of this printer. That much waste turns me off multicolor printing. Maybe I stick with my k1 max and try a CFS there or wait for the Qidi MFS
The single color purge’s are from the start of a print. If the last color is the same for the start of the next print that’s why you see it in the purge bucket.
Anyone want to compare-contrast Bambu Lab printers? How do they compare performance wise, ability to get parts and support? Appreciate any comments. Thx
Seems like a nice printer, but it also looks like they tried to copy Bambu, but they didn't manage to copy the full experience. Bambu's support and hardware is great. I don't see a reason to mess around with this printer since Bambu did it first, and did it best.
I appreciate your review. I’ve build a few printers and owned about 5 creality printers and although some will like I did look at the price of bambu and just assume it’s a waste I will never go back anytime soon. I simply enjoy knowing I can easily fix my printer and get oem parts. I have a modified ender 5 plus which I don’t even bother to use anymore due to the headache of calibrations and tinkering. Some enjoy it but I’ve come to find out I just want to enjoy making not fixing. When the larger bambu printer drops that is definitely guaranteed purchase.
there should be plenty of ways to get around that excessive waste on the nozzle purging. It could swap a set distance from the end of a colour layer, so that it uses what's left in the nozzle to finish a section of infill so even if the second colour starts to bleep through then its inside the model and it shouldn't matter. and why does it have a purge tower as well as having the purge chute? surely it shouldn't need a purge tower?
Filament dryers are overrated, not only does plastic degrade and loose its properties with every heat and cool cycle but filament dryers need to run for 6 to 12 hours to actually work otherwise its mostly a placebo and thats the equivalent of a 3DBenchy in wasted electricity if converted to plastic in some places around the worlds that's easily 2 Benchies worth of plastic wasted in electricity. Its best to just have a good desiccant in an airtight box and store your filaments in that. The several weeks of passive drying will do more for the filament than a 12-hour drying with heat. Also, you might have noticed that the CFS naturally heats up well above 40c from just sitting on top of the printer as its printing and if you drop a 2 lb bag of desiccant in one of the slots instead of a spool you can get the CFS to super dry your filaments passively. My CFS right now is sitting at 4% relative humidity.
So what’s your saying is you don’t understand how to use a filament dryer properly and are encouraging others not to because of your own lack of knowledge interesting way to go about that
@techmaniac69 filament driers heat up ambient air, lowering relative humidity, causing water vapor trapped in the filament and in the spool itself to defuse into the now lower relative humidity air. Once the now warm air with extra water by mass cools down, the relative humidity will shoot past what it started at, and it will get absorbed back into the dryest material. Some filament driers are only just now starting to expell the air with extra water out of the driers, but most dont. All plastics are degraded when heated up and cooled down in most cases, It's negligible, but not when the cycle is repeated over and over. Furthermore, when plastic is melted even just once, its chemical composition is altered, which is why virgin palettes are always added to recycled plastics.
@@Guardian_Arias i see what you mean my sunlu v2 had that problem till i put something to leave the top open just enough to let out some air out while it dries and now it goes down to like 12% from always being stuck at like 40% while drying. I guess they are just not designed efficiently enough for their prices (depending on what you get obviously) and desiccant pods are overall more effective for long term dry storage
I can measure a loss in mass after running an old spool of filament for 2 hours in a food-drier. Either moisture is being driven off, or plastic is evaporating. I'm gonna lean into the idea that food-driers (elevated temperatures and lots of swirling air) work just fine.
@techmaniac69 buy desiccant by the lb and before use take it thru some cycles in your dehydrator. Then, leave some in the dehydrator as well as in your long-term solutions. My dry boxes typically sit at around 4% RH. You really should only use the dehydrator as an emergency solution where you need to print something by the end of the day but accidentally leave the spool out. Also, some filaments and mostly all BASIC PLAs are perfectly fine sitting in open air indefinitely
The parts issue is what prevents all the other companies from really competing with bambu. It's a very nice machine that can become useless by a $10 part.
the multi color print is a nice demo. but rly....it would be much easier to make seperate parts. 18:24 its a "problem" that can be fixed quit easy with G-Code.
Orca Slicer has a feature to purge into objects infill and purge into support towers.. As a community we need to push the manufactures to make all of them do that.
Purge into infill is such an awesome feature. Of course it isn't perfect, if you're running low density infill you might not get full purge, but I'd rather take a layer or two if transition than literally entire rolls worth of waste.
Awesome video. Yes replacement parts is a huge issue. I had to order a part off aliexpress. Hopefully it fixes my printer
Oh wait! There is an orcs profile!!!
Hey UJ what r u doing here :) HAHAHA " hope all goes good at you " And MM always good too hear youre OP on new things thanks for that
Aw man! That sucks! My fingers are crossed for you that it resolves the issue 🤞🏻
@@UncleJessy your recent rant video was so spot on.
Don't tell me you need a new glass door!?
I really appreciate the time and thought you put into revealing the negatives. Most channels just knock themselves out to score points with the manufacturer while at the same time throwing the viewers under the bus. Thank you for this excellent review. New subscriber here.
That’s been my issue with Creality (and AnyCubic). They’ll release a new machine to great fanfare - then within six months, that machine is old news, replaced by something new. Getting support (ha!) or parts is tough, changes to firmware or software - that’s left to the realm of the tinkerers / folks that like to improve/upgrade their machines. I’m hoping for something great from Bambu Labs, which doesn’t have this history of abandoning consumers
100% agree with all of this. With there being so many great machines now a days, choice is going to start coming down to things like ease of access to parts, etc. They need to focus on developing their machines over longer periods of time, not replacing them every year with something else. I’m hoping that the K2 Plus might be that start of that, where they unify their design and parts more - similar to how some of the newer Enders and newly announced Hi have - but I guess only time will tell.
@ the reason the Bambu Lab machines are dominating are many - and I’m not a fan boy by any means - I’ve been 3D printing since 2013. My observation is that they know the customer! They’ve made machines easy to use first of all and the machine tells the user what to do when problems are encountered. There are thousands of videos on TH-cam for debugging mysterious printer issues! Their machine tells you what to check and a QR code to a support page! They’ve focused on their 3 machines They didn’t go crafting new machines once the reviews hit on their current ones. They’ve made have spare parts galore! They offer firmware updates and tell you what was fixed! And their slicer really works! They don’t just rebrand Cura and never update it like many makers have.
Sorry for the rant - this K2 offers a nice boost in print volume. But we all know Creality. How many versions of CR-10 and Enders are out there? Are they offering firmware updates and parts for those? AnyCubic is even worse, the cheap “Walmart” copy of anything anyone else makes.
Anyways - please print safe! Good video! (You might even like my channel & content!)
You're exactly right. I used to love Creality, and I still run some of their machines. But their support is horrendous. I bought 50 K1's for my farm and 3/4 of them developed major VFA issues. I won't sell subpar products so these issues were not acceptable. Creality support said "all printers will have these eventually," but later said "inexperienced users should learn to use their machines before selling models." Seriously? It wasn't until I responded with "none of the other machines brands develop these issues like this, and I've spent over $100k on your machines over the years" that they switched it up and offered to replace 10 of the machines. I guess they looked up by purchase history. Anyway, I took the 10 units, replaced the others with more Bambu P1S/X1C's, donated the bad K1's, and I've never given Creality another dime. Id love to have their K2Plus, but I can't justify it if they end up like the K1's.
@ that’s really unfortunate you’re going through that. The advice I try to give people is to do their research. Don’t just fall for the many adoring videos about a product (not saying that is the case here!). We wouldn’t buy a major appliance without checking into reviews and how the manufacturer backs their product. Since most of these newer machines are over $1000, it’s really important to see if you’re buying something that’ll work as promised and if the company will support them into the future. Creality has a really poor history of that, among others. They just roll on to the next big thing and you folks that have a one year old model are on your own. Many want these devices to work without the hassle of debugging, hiring help to redesign failed components or worse, someone that can fix the firmware shortcomings the company won’t do.
Basically consumers need to demand better. And that’s why, I feel, Bambu Labs is dominating right now. They understand the customer’s needs. Hopefully they understand we need offerings that have bigger print volumes!
Print safe, friend!
@@WhereNerdyisCool True. I shouldve researched more. But I had good experiences with their v2/V2 Neo's (although I immediately upgraded each with Klipper, dual z, direct drive, etc) so I thought the K1 would be a nice upgrade. I actually bought the 50 K1's a little at a time. I think I bought 10, then 10 more, then 30 because I liked them so much. It was only after extended use that the issues really started to show their heads, which was unfortunate. So I'm waiting until others use the K2Plus for an extended amount of time before I buy. I'm also waiting on Bambu's new machine and plan on buying quite a few of those.
Anyway, thanks for the response, and great video. I wish I could post my 3d printing life on YT. I think it'd be fun. Unfortunately about 200 of my machines are used for 1 client and I signed an NDA so I can't show any of those, and the other 100ish machines are also in view so I'm kinda stuck. I wish my warehouse was bigger so I could separate the two...maybe one day.
Wow! That sign came out absolutely fantastic! Will be looking forward to a one month of ops final update on this machine. I worry about long term even short term parts support. I was burned on a Creality scanner two or three years back, they never got the required software working for it, so I am slow to look to Creality since that experience.
There is a reason I own several Qidi machines, parts and support are the best I have ever dealt with. Waiting bit longer before my next FDM purchase. Hoping we may soon see AMS for Plus4. Will be keeping close tabs on K2 updates.
You bring up an extremely valid point on efficiency in regards to where filament cutter is located. All companies should look at locating cutter such that the lowest waste is achieved. That equates to time and cost and shortest amount of waste is a huge efficiency gain over time.
Warm the tape and stickers gently with a hair dryer to make them easier to remove, they don't need to be scorching hot, just warm
The quality of that first print...at that size...is nuts. A fantastic time for newcomers to 3D printing to be able to pick up a printer and just start printing with little problems!
I couldn't believe how much better my ender 3 was than my Tevo Tarantula, and now I can't believe how much better these machines are than the ender 3.
17:20 - The bambu cut point is about .5mm above the top of that piece your holding, the cutting blade runs along the top of it
£1300 here in the UK, less expensive than I thought
Still least you do honest reviews 👏🏼
Fair play that first print is amazing
We have this printer for a week now. What we learned in this time, when you print multi color with PLA don't have to many color changes in small areas or you get mixed colors. Open the door also can help with this problem. You should also don't use high contrast colors. White+black in a multi color print give you most likely a couple of layer with different shades of gray.
The print quality on this printer is on another level. We have an Ender 3 V3 Plus and an old Kobra Plus and the K2 beats both of them pretty easily.
We are now waiting for a smaller K2 to replace our bedslinger :D
Looks like you need to adjust purge volume.
@@blalesnail3098 possible but we don't care. Multi color prints are way to wasteful and take a ton more time. We use the CFS to fix the annoying your roll has not enough filament but you have no time to manage the filament switch in the printing process.
The CFS do this for you fully automatic. Yesterday we removed two rolls from our pile of shame :D
Great video, and amazing prints! I'm still liking my K1Max, hope it continues to do well. I want a machine with multi color but still haven't made up my mind yet. Thanks so much for sharing with us!!
The tight fit can be extrusion multiplier, not necessarily a dimensional issue ...
There are a few ways to minimise waste during purges and flushes. Creality seem to be putting spare parts on Amazon for sale, I've seen nozzles and a couple of other parts for the K2 Plus.
For crazy prices. Bambu parts are cheap and sorted in their own shop. Creality has multiple shops - where the issue starts.
@ We decide based on our own experiences and requirements.
If I need a 4 colour printer with 350mm3 build area then is Bambu going to sell me one? No.
£30 for a heater block and £15 for a unicorn hardened steel nozzle is crazy prices?
I’m honestly done with the Bambu vs other manufacturers stuff, just as I am for the iPhone vs Android stuff.
We buy the tools that suit us, for the price we can afford, and with the features we want.
@@MainframeDaydreams This is the way. This brand war BS is also getting on my nerves. I use an I phone and I mac, but also have a windows PC running as well as a sony PS5. I use each for their most optimal purpose. My Apple devices for the lazy comfort they afford me in my day to day and private use, my PS5 for gaming because I am a filty casual, and my Windows PC because thats where I can run games I don´t want to play on console but mostly because it´s what I use for the prorams I cannot run on my mac. Like pattern drafting programms or CAD. I have litterally no brand loyalty in regards to tools. And that is what these devices are. Just like how my power tools are also a wild mix of devices. While I mostly use Metabo for battery powered tools, it´s just because I generally like those best. But if also got Bosch, Proxxon and others. Because they produce specific tool that are just better in certain areas. Like my foam cutter from Proxxon, as no one has a product even aproaching it´s quality and versitility compared to the price. And my ancient corded Bosch Drill-Hammer from the 80´s because that thing has more power than anything on the current market and is utterly indestructible. This Brand loyalty and conflict is just utterly stupid in my opinion, and is often a weight around ones neck because it will limit what one can do.
The shiny bands are indeed where its printing slower because of the extra travels to do the embossing. If you can preview the flowrate/speed when you slice it, you'll see they match up perfectly. If a uniform surface finish is important for raw exposed prints, the easy way is to solve is to turn the max speed down.
I don't do a lot of multicolour printing but I am glad I got the AMS with my printer. It lets me have 4 reels automatically available at all times and should I want to go multicoloured I can.
What a nice printer. This would be a great replacement for my now inoperable Creality printers.
I think I'm going to order a K2 with CFS but I also will try and find creators that will break down the model in different parts of single colors.
Protip: you can put the buffer on the back of the CFS. There are mounting holes for it. The tube routing is a lot shorter as a result.
Nice review! Glad it worked well for you. I don't think the quality quite matches some other printers, but it definitely has a lot of capability. I agree filament waste is a huge issue for multi-color prints.
I'm very skeptical of Creality, but equally curious on your take long term on the K2 Plus. My CR-6SE is a headache. Bambu or Prusa seems to be my next printer.
Creality stepped their game up in the last two years. They don't have very accessible official replacement parts. Most parts will be third party from amazon or Ali express. If you have Prusa money, a P1S or P1P will be great. Prusas MK4s does not stand to the P1 series.
I also was burned by the CR6 Kickstarter as I backed it and was too afraid to touch it for 3 years so it sat in the box. Luckily a few community members put together so powerful resources for it. List of problems, community, firmware, and even a klipper for that can use the original screen! The CR6 had the issues of non thorough testing. It's a good printer, and the nozzle as probe is great when it works. If you spend the time to properly set up/calibrate the strain gauge with a small scale and are aware that unhooking the Bowden tube during probing gives way more consistent results, then it can work but it was a huge headache to make reliable.
Watching your videos makes me want to buy a 3D printer. Maybe someday I'll buy a K2 Plus. I'm gonna start with a smaller one to start with. Those Crocs are fire by the way.
It's not just Creality with the repalcement parts. I'm a few days into testing another brand and something broke today annnnnnnd yeah no plans to have parts available anytime soon. Same for the bed, no bed options and even the one it ships with isn't available for sale for the near future.
Been waiting for this!
Great video and print 👌🤘Yes, parts is an issue , had a hexbolt in the rail come loose within the first 50 hours and something strange happend , it somehow bend the complete hotend so mutch that nozzle was stuck in hotend ..had to go to aliexpress for complete hotend and a 2 week wait 😢...are up and running now , I did order 2 x K2 but the other is still in backorder 🤷♂ ....But it seems to be a good printer dispite my problems.
that extra purge amount is probably why I do not see any black bleeding into the light colors which seems to be a problem for others with this printer
That print is incredible
My view as a software dev: The software is terrible, from the slicer to the firmware. If you root and look at the macro code and G-code in the slicer, you’ll see everything is made without structure and logic, this was not written by a dev ! It's full of issues and needs a complete rework from scratch. You will find the line purge in machine gcode, some code in filament gcode (wtf), some in klipper macros, some in closed source creality macro code. And half of the code is commented out. Also when clogs happen (at nozzle, since this printer has first layer issues), they retract while knowing where the clog is. This clogs the buffer/cfs too. What freaks me out the most is the enabled debug mode in fluidd console which makes it unusable, they are abusing customers. Creality Cloud will read those logs.
If you watch the heating elements on Fluidd you'll notice that when you heat the bed and the chamber at the same time, the printer will send 100% power to the bed first and 0% to the chamber. Once the bed has heated to temperature the chamber heater then kicks on. I wish it heated both up at the same time. Maybe when you set 40 degree chamber your bed was heating up and by the time you set it to 41 degrees it had reached temperature. I'm glad you have pointed out the chamber heater issue cause it's quite annoying and time consuming.
Also I did a 64 hour multicolor print and the estimates were way off too. 6 hours off and 300gram difference. Thanks for pointing this out too
If you're using a mac to slice Creality is behind on the software update compared to windows computer cause the clitchy screen is mac computer issue many have experienced. Update is supposedly on the way
I’m 95% sure that I always went to input the chamber heater after the bed had already finished heating as to not freak out the battery backup it was plugged into, but great to know! There has been at least one new firmware update since then so it might be all fixed now.
Hey, a couple of things I found with my K2 (I've had it for a little more than a month).
First off, you may want to consider putting the spool holder on. There are some materials that can't be run thru the CFS (TPU is the only thing I've tried that the CFS won't handle).
Second, there's also a place on the back of the CFS where you can also mount the CFS. I got a second CFS, & found that was the best way to setup mine (the CFSs are on a wire rack next to the printer). Also worth noting, the second CFS also came with it's own buffer.
WRT the filament waist that were one color, I recall in the release notes on one of the firmware updates being addressing an issue where the waist was getting jammed in the waist chute.
In regards to colour printing, I like some of the DIY-developments being made right now. There is a really interesting kit to make basically every filament printer into not just a multi colour printer, but a full range colour printer. Using translucent white filament only and a basic ink jet cartridge with some added electronics and a few parts that can be printed out. Interspersing a colour pass in between each print pass so the ink gets bound into the surface of the print. And because it´s an ink jet cartridge and technology, it can do every colour you can do with a normal printer. It is such an awesome idea and the results I have seen are surprisingly good for being a DIY solution based around a normal ink jet cartridge not meant for this purpose.
I am really hoping that this will get to the attention of 3D Printer Manufacturers, because a purpose build and engeneered version would likely be even better. Using ink or dye meant to stain plastic as well to improove vibrancy and resolution. There is just too many advantages of it. You not only eliminate the waste of purging or need for an expensive and complicated multi toolhead/nozzle assembly. You also only need a single type of filament (like how you only need white paper for printing, or another colour if you want a solid coloured background and not overprint the whole page with an excessive amount of ink) and not a whole library of coloured filaments that will still limit you. And you can do an incredibly wide range of colours, as well as insanely complex colour combinations and gradients. And you don`t need unnessary amounts of ink because only the outermost milimetres of the outer layer need to be coloured, the wole inside can be left as is as it isn´t visible. With the increasing resolution of FDM printers this could create absoloutely awesome results. Like fully coloured miniatures straight off the printer.
Any place to read more about this?
I may have missed it, but what was the problem with the color change poop chute?
I agree with you about the filament dryer, i generally don't nee one either. I print with 95% ABS and my area/shop is relatively dry most of the year. For my PA-CF I have a dedicated external dryer which is perfect because It's not recommended to run carbon fiber through the AMS anyway.
Nicely done video. Thank you.
Software issues have been reported with the Mac version of Creality Print. I think Creality Print 6 will be released for macs tomorrow or slightly after.
Nice review, I definitely have this on my radar, thanks
Very good video im loving mine thinking on moving on my k1max and getting another k2 and try purging in to infill that helps loads with reducing poop still working in setting's on waste
i'm surprised i haven't seen any videos about that. every video i've seen about the k2 plus they mention how bad the waste is, but none of them have tried anything like purging to infill. seems like a far better solution.
Can’t you use “purge to infill,” in order to reduce the amount of waste material tossed into in the trash?
I have had small annoying issues nonstop. Mostly the extruder jams. Filament sensor dying, and after a month, the cutter needs to be changed. When it works it's great...but still.
me too. I believe the heatbreak is not sufficient to cool down the filament.
Oh man, that's a great logo, it looks really cool. It's a shame that it isn't shared. ❤😊
Very Nice! I know Creality has been working hard on "Making their own slicer" and Its still new so I expect that it will keep getting better. Hopefully the same with replacement parts on their website. Its been a huge year for them and moving their company into massive new HQ's at the same time as launching this flagship had to be difficult. I expect things to keep getting fixed and software being updated. Dont let me down Creality! Fed Ex has been trying to deliver mine for 5 days but the snow is blocking them. Today the thaw is on and maybe It will finally show up tonite.
Nozzle length: The bambu printers have a maker on makerworld that addresses the purge issue when the printer does the change by doing a retract before the filament cut (but beware the meltzone blob).. probably not explaining it well, but this needs to become the norm for all pooping printers as best they can from the manufacturer. This allows you to reduce the flushing volumes significantly. The 'waste' now is a lot more acceptable, and also makes good lamp fillers :)
Is this working for the K2 PLUS ?
It might take some tuning of the filament from the generic settings to get that dimensional accuracy you are looking for.
Perhaps you could get a protocycler to turn your waste back into usable fillament.
I will say the extra nozzle size shouldnt automatically mean more waste. Bambu was able to reduce waste since they initally launched by retacting the filament and cutting off just the tip so that purge needed was minimal and you kept the reliable switching. I expect Creality (or more likely tech savvy users) to adjust the macros in the firmware to do the same.
I had mmu working on a k1 max and am glad that a lot of the challenges i had there have been solved by Creality here so it gives me some hope... but they do have a habit of developing a product 90% of the way and just calling it good enough
I've found that alot if not all replacements parts you would need are available on amazon, still do not understand why they don't market and sell parts through their website.
Yeah, this is why I completely ruled out Creality when looking for an FDM printer. I like the look of a couple of their machines, including the K2 Plus, but with poor support and practically nonexistent parts infrastructure, it's just not something I'd ever consider spending money on. It's a shame, really, because the K2 Plus looks like a pretty good machine. Overall, I have the same feelings about Qidi and their FDM printers. Really surprised that none of these companies have just copied Bambu Labs' business model. They could be doing so much better than they are. Competition is good, but so far nobody's really competing. I still hold out hope that Bambu Labs will come out with a larger build volume machine, but I would be just as willing to try something like this K2 Plus or a Qidi Plus-4 if they had the same kind of cradle-to-grave infrastructure and support as Bambu Labs.
Does it have Bambu Logos anywhere on it, as the software looks liek a direct rip (As well as the hardware).
lmao must be a bambu lover
You know why they look the same? Because both are forks of Orca slicer.
Amazing video. I like watching your videos. THANKS
Amazing first layer, mine is so bad that even the texture can't hide it.
I will also say, with a print bed this largetiu could benefit from purging into infill of something else
That is pure a slicer thing. Orca slicer lets you do that.
I am slowly saving up to purchase this printer. I hope to do so in February. The large 350x350 print size is my deciding factor. Will go with the Multi-material system for that spool change capability, as it's been a very handy feature on my Bambu printers.
Get a Bambu, muchhhhh better
YAY Just in time! Trying to decide on Bambu A1 mini or accept hobby creap with K2. lol
4:45 sound like some science fiction speeder taking off ;o)
Ramping up for ludicrous speed.
WOW that logo tho was beauuutiful
Been a long time fan of Windex as a PETG release agent.
...and I don't need another printer...(Repeats multiple times). Sick specs on this printer.
I realize this may be a complicated idea, but you would think that slicers could be configured, for printers that have multi-spool capabilities, to not waste as much filament by using it to purge as infill within the print.
There are purge into infill settings, but it takes over the job of the purge tower rather than the separate purge pieces. An oversimplification is that there won’t always be the infill area on a piece to purge what it needs. I could see this becoming a possibility in future software developments (or at least I hope it will 🤞🏻)
It seems that K2 still has many problems to be improved. I think I will wait patiently for QIDI BOX to adapt to my Plus4.
very cool droid print
The unicorn nozzle has got to the worst nozzle to have for multicolor printing, because, yeah, like you said the purge gets increased and thus more wasted filament. Also the other issue I saw in another review, is that the color bleed is worse most likely due to the nozzle length as well.
I was interested I machine too, but having this problem with the nozzle is a no go for me. I have a k1 and it has hotend issues too with the filament seemingly not able to build back pressure for certain materials.
Is it possible the machine saw the support material as a filament change…and therefore purged each time it went from support to finished print, and then back again?
Good review.
Thank you.
When I watch my Bambu A1 do a purge, there's the color gradient blob, but then it also does around 2 more of the new color. I've only seen it when it's going from a darker color to a lighter one. Perhaps Creality is the same?
sounds massively wasteful. would certainly make sense of why theres so much waste.
First of all, I would like to greet you and express great respect for what you do, you are excellent. I am totally new to the world of 3d printing, I still haven't decided on my first printer and I would like you to help me decide. I am a huge fan of Star Wars and I would like to use the printer to make various droids, spaceships... The printer must be able to work with more colors. I am currently thinking about the Bambo lab P1S combo, X1 carbon and K2 max. I was mostly leaning towards P1S, but the volume of printing scares me, is it big enough to make, say, R2 D2 in real size with assembling the parts and gluing them or something like that is not possible. I repeat, I am totally new to this. To cut a long story short, which printer would you recommend? Thanks in advance
To your concern regarding part replacements; hopefully the K2 is the start of a proper product they will have in service for the long-run. I like to have some piece of mind that of something cripples my tool, I can repair it without any fuss. Creality's track record up to this pointe doesn't give me the warm-fuzzy feeling of 'I just bought into a brand that is stable and here for the long haul'.
Instead, I feel like this is a fling and the moment something breaks, I'm done for.
Creality loyalists rave that Creality has been listening which resulted in this K2 model, I hope they're right.
so does it mean you can have 5 spools on the machine, 4 in the top and one on the additional spool holder, and its able to swap between all 5?
Is this a multi material printer or just a multi colour printer (i.e. could you print carbon fibre inserts into petg for example)?
length is always important
Which firmware are you on and which version of creality print you have for this review? So many have come out the last 2 weeks. Some people stay on certain firmwares that works for them until things become more stable. Might be useful information for some. One of the things ive been having issues on my k2 is color bleed. espicially from red to white or black to lighter colors.
I'm with you on multi-color prints. I have an AMS and like it, but mostly for rare prints where it's just a few layers of changes, and the auto-refill capabilities. Simply loading filament is SO much less fiddly, not that that alone warrants the cost. But I'm just not into the insane waste that big true multi-color prints necessitate... painting seems like the better option, especially because it then no longer looks 3D printed.
I'd love to see a comparison to the Bambu printers, however, raw size advantage aside. (which is impressive!). How do the two do, head to head, printing the same models in a size they can both handle? Is the K2 just as good at smaller pieces as massive ones? If you could have only one, do you give up quality for the size?
And finally... is it just me, or did they totally rip off nearly element of Bambu's design, with only a few tweaks here and there? The AMS vs CFS was rather eye opening... sure they exposed the tubes, good idea, but otherwise it's a pretty obvious clone, to my eye. Copying a good idea isn't necessarily a bad thing, but still.
I made a comment a few weeks ago in a printing group regarding the poop amounts compared to a bambu. I sliced a 3" tall, 4 coloured, pickle rick model as a direct comparison of time etc. On single colour prints the K2 plus wins hands down on time etc, but loses spectacularly when you factor in poop times on multi coloured prints. Now I was obviously shot down in group as a Bambu fanboi, but it was a serious question. Both machines were on identical settings @ 0.08mm layer heights and the time was 6hrs on bambu and 17 hrs on K2, and used alot more filament. I don't understand why they didn't do a clone bambu hotend to reduce the poop, and yes these settings can be tweaked, but nobody seems to be addressing this until now. K2 is a good printer that I will end up purchasing to go with my Bambu's, but this is a big omission considering they are hyping it as the bambu killer.
If my main goals are to print helmets and engineering parts, what would you recommend between this and the Qidi Plus 4?
The plus4 have higher nozzle temperature and better chamber system, and i like the qidi filaments quality.
Qidi is definitely the best at printing engineering parts. Creality's chamber heating isn't quite there yet.
I have no experience of multicolor printing whatsoever (both of my printers are single color) so maybe this is a stupid question but why do they use BOTH a purge tower an the "poo"? I think earlier ones did just the tower. And yes, the Creality slicer is annoyingly cumbersome to use. I would like to try Prusa slicer but it does not have a profile for Ender 3 V3 KE.
I'm surprised the companies doing multi colour haven't looked at supplying kits to use the filament poop in some way, surely can't be that difficult?
it'd be far more practical to make the printer use the filament in some way to print something useful than to try and do anything with spooled up lumps. Turning wasted filament back into usable filament would require the sort of machines that filament making factories have. theres a reason there isn't really an off the shelf filament making machine option.
With smarter slicers (Orca) you wouldn't create that much waste.
i'm going to save up and get one 🙏
Doesn't the K2 have an option to purge in infill? Whilst I know that doing this for small prints can cause color-bleed issues, for very large pieces with non-translucent filaments that purging into infill would save a lot of time and purged filament. Either way I wish IDEX would make a comeback!
This is at least the second time you’ve said that there “isn’t” a large format multicolor printer, or here that this is “the first”. Wondering why you don’t count the Prusa XL? Yes, it’s extremely expensive (maybe you don’t class as a consumer printer? Certainly out of my price range), but does seem to tick all your boxes of large area (360mm), multicolor, MUCH less waste, and from a company with a reasonable history of support/parts (it had a rough launch but they also support their printers well).
Also, I love that this is so obviously a clone of the Bambu (and I have no problem with it) that they even copy the included swatches, right down to the way Bambu strings them together.
It comes down to me trying to simplify explanations as much as possible so I don’t descend into a 20 minute explanation every time, haha! I often group together the multicolour printing with the enclosed printer argument because there’s a lot of interest and overlap there with people that are looking for a machine that can print basically anything. For me the enclosure is almost of more interest than the multicolour capabilities and that’s where a lot of the other larger format printers start to fall out of the conversation. Yes you can technically add an enclosure to the Prusa XL, but it’s also such a unique machine because of its multi tool head design that it’s not a 1:1 comparison for the majority of printers I end up talking about either, which is why I don’t mention it.
I actually just got an XL so I’m very excited to start playing around with it because it’s eliminating a lot of the reservations I have with multicolour printing.
That makes a lot of sense! The added enclosure cost (and the 8-week lead time) was what caused me to go to Bambu instead of Prusa Mk4. Will definitely be interested to hear your views on the XL!
See Linda ??? Shorter Nozzle Length has its advantages !
TBH I think were are at that rennaissance in 3D printing where we are able to pick from a gamut of companies and dispite their foibles, end up with a printer we could only have hoped to build about a decade ago...
We are now in the comoditisiton and demystification phase of 3D printing... much like the hitherto exclusive internet underwent in the 1990s...
In conclusion, we are now in the Dell vs HP vs Lenovo or Nikon vs Canon vs Sony phase or even the Honda vs Toyota phase of 3D printing... And I'm here to watch the inexorable march towards the ultimate resolution and repeatability.
Has anyone!? Used cfs or ams with the 16 color possibility? It would be curious to see how the machine works with it🤔
Bambu is about to completely dominate the printer market..AGAIN. Its crazy how many identical designs Creality took from Bambu, but props to them, it makes all of the brands better.
I wouldn't call the K2 Plus an identical design to any printer let alone a bambu. I don't see any bambu s with 300mm+ build plate. I guess the CFS ia a sorta copy. However, the CFS is better than the AMS feature wise. The AMS has no humidity or temp sensor. I see where you are coming from though. The K1 and K1C are direct copies of X1C. I just think your description of this printer is misleading.
@@monetary_episode494 The size is obviously not the same, but a lot of features are. Even the instruction manual has the same color writing in it. The instructions on which bolts to remove during assembly have the same stickers on them too lol. i'm just waiting for Bambu to drop a new printer next month and watch what happens.
As a K1C owner, this printer pisses me off. This is what the K1/K1C should’ve been. But instead those printers are an afterthought with only vague promises of a color changer down the line.
Your own fault for not waiting and instead buying the first cool shiney machine you see 😂😂😂
@@Bomfunknight lol that’s not true at all. Low IQ comment.
so in 3D printing,1 roll plus 1 roll equals just 1 roll for multi color prints.....1kg+1kg = ~1.5KG of usable filament in multicolor printing in the K2 Plus....note to myself since I am getting a K2 plus :o
i got one and a bambu labs... the bambu labs id buy 10 more its just too easy and reliable. the k2 is ok but ya just cant compete with the bambu right now
i like to have the pop as infill.. why dump it.
That throat length just talked me out of this printer. That much waste turns me off multicolor printing. Maybe I stick with my k1 max and try a CFS there or wait for the Qidi MFS
lmao its just money
It unboxes like a mx series Lexmark printer
The single color purge’s are from the start of a print. If the last color is the same for the start of the next print that’s why you see it in the purge bucket.
it shouldnt be doing that at all then. its just wasting filament.
plus there were handfuls of them, from one print. so it cant be that.
Still cant get around the price it is just too high... It is not doing anything special for the market this way.
Anyone want to compare-contrast Bambu Lab printers? How do they compare performance wise, ability to get parts and support? Appreciate any comments. Thx
Increase infill then purge into infill
Oh no. Bambu innovated and Creality copied. That's how you know what your next choice in printer should be. Choose wisely, people!
Seems like a nice printer, but it also looks like they tried to copy Bambu, but they didn't manage to copy the full experience. Bambu's support and hardware is great. I don't see a reason to mess around with this printer since Bambu did it first, and did it best.
Got burned hard by a couple Enders so I have my doubts about Creality as a whole. Not sure they can repair their reputation with me
I appreciate your review. I’ve build a few printers and owned about 5 creality printers and although some will like I did look at the price of bambu and just assume it’s a waste I will never go back anytime soon. I simply enjoy knowing I can easily fix my printer and get oem parts. I have a modified ender 5 plus which I don’t even bother to use anymore due to the headache of calibrations and tinkering. Some enjoy it but I’ve come to find out I just want to enjoy making not fixing. When the larger bambu printer drops that is definitely guaranteed purchase.
there should be plenty of ways to get around that excessive waste on the nozzle purging. It could swap a set distance from the end of a colour layer, so that it uses what's left in the nozzle to finish a section of infill so even if the second colour starts to bleep through then its inside the model and it shouldn't matter.
and why does it have a purge tower as well as having the purge chute? surely it shouldn't need a purge tower?
Filament dryers are overrated,
not only does plastic degrade and loose its properties with every heat and cool cycle but filament dryers need to run for 6 to 12 hours to actually work otherwise its mostly a placebo and thats the equivalent of a 3DBenchy in wasted electricity if converted to plastic in some places around the worlds that's easily 2 Benchies worth of plastic wasted in electricity. Its best to just have a good desiccant in an airtight box and store your filaments in that. The several weeks of passive drying will do more for the filament than a 12-hour drying with heat. Also, you might have noticed that the CFS naturally heats up well above 40c from just sitting on top of the printer as its printing and if you drop a 2 lb bag of desiccant in one of the slots instead of a spool you can get the CFS to super dry your filaments passively. My CFS right now is sitting at 4% relative humidity.
So what’s your saying is you don’t understand how to use a filament dryer properly and are encouraging others not to because of your own lack of knowledge interesting way to go about that
@techmaniac69 filament driers heat up ambient air, lowering relative humidity, causing water vapor trapped in the filament and in the spool itself to defuse into the now lower relative humidity air. Once the now warm air with extra water by mass cools down, the relative humidity will shoot past what it started at, and it will get absorbed back into the dryest material. Some filament driers are only just now starting to expell the air with extra water out of the driers, but most dont.
All plastics are degraded when heated up and cooled down in most cases, It's negligible, but not when the cycle is repeated over and over. Furthermore, when plastic is melted even just once, its chemical composition is altered, which is why virgin palettes are always added to recycled plastics.
@@Guardian_Arias i see what you mean my sunlu v2 had that problem till i put something to leave the top open just enough to let out some air out while it dries and now it goes down to like 12% from always being stuck at like 40% while drying. I guess they are just not designed efficiently enough for their prices (depending on what you get obviously) and desiccant pods are overall more effective for long term dry storage
I can measure a loss in mass after running an old spool of filament for 2 hours in a food-drier.
Either moisture is being driven off, or plastic is evaporating.
I'm gonna lean into the idea that food-driers (elevated temperatures and lots of swirling air) work just fine.
@techmaniac69 buy desiccant by the lb and before use take it thru some cycles in your dehydrator. Then, leave some in the dehydrator as well as in your long-term solutions. My dry boxes typically sit at around 4% RH. You really should only use the dehydrator as an emergency solution where you need to print something by the end of the day but accidentally leave the spool out. Also, some filaments and mostly all BASIC PLAs are perfectly fine sitting in open air indefinitely
The parts issue is what prevents all the other companies from really competing with bambu. It's a very nice machine that can become useless by a $10 part.
❤
the multi color print is a nice demo. but rly....it would be much easier to make seperate parts.
18:24 its a "problem" that can be fixed quit easy with G-Code.
Roll on Bambi’s big printer