Help to choose the 1st 3D printer - Tronxy X5SA Pro or Creality CR-10 V2

Hello (3D) world!


As the title reveals, I'dbe grateful to get some tips and input before the purchase of myfirst 3D printer.
After viewing a lot ofspecs, review videos etc. I've boiled it down to two printers, that Ibelieve would fit my needs, and they are
Tronxy X5SA Pro
and
Creality CR-10 V2


Both of them have theirpro's and con's, as I see it, but both seem to be priceworthy"all-round" large volume 3D printers.


What do I seek in a 3Dprinter?
It has to...

• be able to print partslarger than 250 x 250 mm
• have a heated bed
• manage to print flexiblematerial as well as ABS and nylon
• be robust and sturdy
• produce at least fairlygood quality prints, although most of the parts will be of "sparepart nature"

Is there anyone out therethat has experience from any, or maybe even both, of these printers?
Which one would YOUchoose, and why?


I'm happy for all tips andideas!


Best regards,
Björn

well the creality is a bowden - so not great for flexibles.
Also creality, so will have issues ;-)

Out of those 2 I'd go for the tronxy.
Also it's the simpler of the two to convert to an enclosed and heated build volume.

Abs is pretty pointless - nylon is doable without a heated build volume - as long as you use the RIGHT nylon.

But for stability, ease of enclosing and not being a creality - I'd got for the tronxy.

Thanks for the input!
OK, that the Tronxy is simpler to convert is a plus, very good to know.
Yes, it was also my thought first I saw the Tronxy, that it's easy to enclose, compared with the Creality.
And, I've also read some good things about the CoreXY "system".

"Also creality, so will have issues"
Oh, I thought Creality stood for a reliable and "out of the box" good machine... :eek:
Well, some tweaking, adjusting and trial-and-error I have counted with in any case, but if I can avoid a machine with built-in issues, I will! :D

Quote:

---

Oh, I thought Creality stood for a reliable and "out of the box" good machine...

---

lol - that's what they pay a lot of people to say :-)

Since they have so far not paid me or given me a machine to 'review'.
I tend to go by the number of people who come to the forum with problems. Creality are so far ahead of any other manufacturer in the 'problem' race, that I can't see anyone ever catching up.
So - personally - I would avoid them like the corona virus !

That aside, the new tronxy looks good, titan extruder, direct drive - solid and stable looking z-axis on the bed.
Good build volume. Plus that aluminium extrusion frame is great for attaching things to.

I am also beginner in 3D printing and I am going to purchase my first one.
I am an very experienced senior engineer, both in mechanical sector as also in computers / software.
So these issues are not a problem for me, this I luck is knowledge about 3D printing and equipment.

I am living in Greece, so I have to buy anything from EU market to avoid problems with customs.

After searching a lot, I have reduced my options to 3 models:
1. Original Prusa i3 Mk3S Kit (~770 €)
2. Creality CR10S Pro V2 (~550 €)
3. TronXY X5SA Pro (~410 €)

Prusa seems -to me- to be more "professional" than the others, as also having better support.
As a plus it has an easy to add multi (5) material module, the MMU2S at a price ~300 €,
while the other two require some serious search on how they will be converted to multi material.
On the con side it has less printing volume, and in reviews there are mentioned some issues on long items.

Creality model can create much bigger volume items, but reviews mention that is difficult to remove items from plate.
Also -as they say- support is not so good.
Finally some have complains about quality, specially for previous models.

TronXY is the cheapest of 3, meaning less "lost money" if possible problems will drive to another printer.
I don't know anything about support for this printer.
In reviews there were serious issues about quality of plastic parts,
but for the new model they say most of them are metallic.
There also complains about bad quality control, missing parts on kit,s etc.
One issue (that I do not know if it creates problems) is the head movement by belt.

So any info from any of you that have experience on these models, will be helpful.
As also any other thing that I have to be careful, before purchasing a printer.

Thanks in advance.

personally I'd avoid creality in general.

The tronxy looks like decent machine, particularly the new model.

The prusa is good - but for half the price get the newer prusa mini.
slightly smaller build volume, but newer tech,

you can get the prusa mini AND the tronxy for about 100 euro more than just the prusa mk3 :-)
win win situation :-)

I can share my (so far, very short) experience:
I finally decided to go for the Tronxy X5SA Pro and bought it from Amazon.de (seller: Ddark) for 399 Euro incl. shipping and German sales tax, shipped from Poland to Sweden (= no customs fee as within the EU) and it was delivered in five days, much faster than announced.


As I've never assembled a 3D printer before, I needed approx 4-5 hours to do it, checking everything thoroughly during the build. There are some good "assembly videos" for this model on Youtube, which helped me as some of the detailed pictures in the manual wasn't that easy for me to see (a magnifier will help!). But I have to say, the installation manual is overall pretty good, actually much better than I expected, with easy steps-to-follow, pictures and detailed material/part dimensions etc.


Honestly, considering the price of this machine, I'm surprised by the quality of it! The drag chains and two brackets are made of plastic, the rest of the structure are metal parts. The fitting is perfect (except from the two small mounting holes on the drag chain, who are a tiny bit wider apart than the corresponding holes on the mounting bracket – but it is plastic and easy fixed) and the machine is stable and strong.
No parts were missing, on the contrary, there are many extra screws, nuts, springs etc. in the package. They even sent one extra micro switch as spare part. Everything is well packed and I haven't noticed any damaged parts whatsoever.
The cable assembly is very easy as well, then all connectors and cables are marked. Also the belt installation went smooth thanks to a good belt tying diagram in the manual.
Talking about the belt system – I was a bit afraid, as the belts are so long, that it would be imprecise and maybe wobbly, with bad printed object as a result. But, no need to worry, it runs smooth and exact.


For the moment I'm trying to "calibrate" the machine – to find the right nozzle and bed temperatures etc., to fit the different materials I'm planning to use – and I haven't really printed something "useful" yet, except a "phone camera stand" from PLA that, regarding print quality, actually came out very good (except from stringing), and that solely with the default "out of the box" settings.


According support for the printer, I don't know if Tronxy manages that part good or bad, so far I haven't bin in need to get in contact with them. I have joined a couple of FB groups where good information, tips and tricks about the X5SA can be found.


What I less like...
the bed – the surface is perishable and I've already scratched it when trying to take off printed objects. It seems to be thin layer of "teflon". Although, waiting until the bed has completely cooled down helps, then it's less tricky to get things off the bed, but who wants to wait? ;) As it is my first 3D printer, I don't know if this "problem" is specific for Tronxy, maybe it is common with most printers? I have ordered a Tronxy "Lattice Glass Plate" for 19 Euro from aliexpress, but I haven't got it yet. Lets see if it'll work better with that one.
And, fighting with the bed takes us to the next issue,
levelling the bed – as I have struggled to take things off of the bed, I accidentally have pushed the bed out of level... which means I have to level it again. It's not difficult to do it, not at all, as there's also this auto-bed-levelling function, but I find it annoying. Maybe it's only me being too rough?
The slicer software – it's an old version of Cura (so I've read) and I don't find it optimal to work with. Therefore I downloaded some other software I wanted to try out – Cura 4.5 and MatterControl but, sadly, none of them has any Tronxy printer in their list of printer profiles. Maybe it's possible to create a profile manually, that I don't know and I haven't had the time to check it out either.


To wrap things up, and considering I'm a total rookie and it is my first ever 3D printer,
do I regret my purchase of the X5SA PRO? No, not at all!
Would I recommend it to a rookie like myself? Yes! Building it was fun, I got more awareness of how it all works by doing it.
Is it the best 3D printer? I don't have a clue, but in my opinion it is a VERY nice and really good quality printer for the money!


/Björn

Thanks for the feedback :-)

amazing how often we never hear from people with 'what should I buy' threads.

Go print something useful :-)

You learn far more from a proper print than from any number of stupid torture tests or benchy's.

Here's a good one to start with: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3157890/comments
This is my current favourite thing to print :-)

The way he's got print in place strong working hinges in a 2mm card is just outstanding.

LET IT COOL BEFORE REMOVING !

with most prints you don't have to. with this being so thin, you need it cool and rigid before you start moving things around :-)
I'm now printing these in different colours - just because lol

Thanks for the replies.

Prusa Mini is not an option (at least for short delivery),
because next shipments will be at August (due to covid-19 as they say ...)

aardvark, can you please name some specific reasons why to avoid Creality?
I would like to know why I should drop any option.

I would like also in the future to have a multi material option,
so I can use water soluble PVA to create some "impossible" shapes.

Do you know if it is possible to add this feature in TronXY,
or I will need another printer?

Not to add confusion to the mix, but have you considered Artillery Sidewinder X1?
I find it to be a reliable printer so far. The only issue I have had with it so far is a clog due to wood filament (I should have upsized and not tried wood on a .4 nozzle)