New Creality 3 S1 Pro just arrived!

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Hi All,

My second 3D printer has just arrived today as my old Ender 3 Pro has been showing signs of age after nearly 3 years practically non stop work. The 8 Bit main board is not compatible with leveling sensors etc.

I have just replaced the old hot end with the upgraded Spider unit and after A LOT of faffing about have got it back working as it should. They sent a new thermistor (thermcouple?) cable which did not work at all so reused the old one which is now fine. I suspect it won’t work with the very old 8 bit board?

Bought it direct from Creality complete with a laser engraving head in their Black Friday deal for £309 shipped.

Has a direct extruder and auto bed levelling and the initial reviews seem very positive.

Does anyone else have one?

We are getting lots of sales of the various odds and sods that we make, by far the most from the sets of lathe spiders that we make in sets of 3: 3mm, 5mm & 10mm for various lathe chucks. They alone have paid for the Ender 3 6 times over in 3 years!

Just starting to explore Cura 5.5 with all the new gizmos, an amazing piece of software.

Will let you know how the build and setup goes when I finally get time to open the boxes!

Cheers, Martin

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Hi Martin, very interested on your views for the new printer, I borrowed my sons Anycubic mega S and starting to learn Onshape so I am hooked! Will be looking to buy my own machine in the new year possibly a Creality or Sovol?

Tony

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Tony,

When I first decided that I wanted to try 3D printing it was important that I got something that would work straight out of the box to instill some confidence!

The Ender 3 Pro seemed to fit the bill and was very easy to put together and get a first print done, a Benchy like everyone does!

I design my stuff in Fusion 360 and it was recommended to use Cura as the slicer software, this proved to be pretty easy to use with just basic settings.

The only real problems were getting the bed REALLY level and I did also swap out the supplied bed for a more expensive one with better adhesion.

Auto leveling is, I hope, going to be a game changer for me. I only print PLA and only buy Creality or SUUNLU filament having had poor results with cheaper stuff.

I have not tried ABS or other filaments as The War Office deems our house a no smell or smoke zone!

Resin seems to be out of the question, it looks really messy!

I had never ever anticipated that this could be a useful source of income in my wildest dreams. Hence buying another printer to up my game.

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

I like the higher temperature available on mine and have moved onto PETG as my go to filament being tougher than PLA.  I’ve put the printer in a Crealty enclosure and have had some success  printing nylon.  ABS is very smelly, I felt quite unwell after filling the workshop with fumes.

The consumer market is moving on and fully enclosed high speed printers are now where it’s at.  If speed is not a major consideration, or multi filament, then now is probably a good time to get a bargain.

Rod

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Hi All,

Have spent some time with the new S1 and went thought the initial setup bed leveling routine which has a “manual” component before using the auto function.

You do the usual paper thing in 5 places and it is worth taking time to do this several times until the resistance on the paper (supplied by Creality!) feels the same everywhere.

In auto mode the central position z height is set via the control panel with clear up & down buttons.

Then the printer senses the bead at 12 positions and you should be ready to go.

In my case not quite!

Somehow I screwed up and on my first test print the nozzle ploughed into the bed, instantly stopped print and no harm done. I had misread the up & down buttons! They are labelled + & -. better if it said up & down.

The first print skirt showed some smearing of the laid down filament and hers is where the design is excellent; you can tune the z height in real time until the filament is laying down nicely.

Since then all prints have been superb. I am looking forward to trying out more features.

Cheers, Martin

[John Doe 2Participant @johndoe2]

Sounds good – and I like the idea of a Laser engraving head.

For what it’s worth, I level the bed using normal metal feeler gauges. I found that using paper can be very misleading, because the paper easily crushes, which throws your settings off.

Metal feeler gauges don’t crush of course, so you just need to set the bed height until you get the same pulling feel from the feeler blade everywhere, and it is much more accurate than using paper.

 

PS, Can you explain the different bed you used please?

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Hi JD2,

I take your point about feeler gauges, good idea.

The supplied bed is a flexible magnetic plate with a slightly rough surface coated with, I think, PEI whatever that is!

Sadly I have scored mine as told above but it seems OK now, will get a new one later.

My other Ender 3 Pro has a similar magnetic plate but totally smooth. I have to roughen it up now and then with 320 paper then clean with acetone for good adhesion.

Cheers, Martin

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