Looking for a good large 3d printer.

I've been burned having first bought a Kickstarter 3d printer that never showed up, then by a Wombot Modus (16"*16"*16" build volume) that's been mishandled bt the shipper (a forklift blade through the box bent it out of square - didn't see that until I signed the shipper's bill) and which was a hell to get 1st layer to adhere (and the general woes of a semi-working printer).

Now I'm wondering if I should either shell 500+CAD$ to make the wombot working without knowing if the result will be satisfying (something like making a new bed that can be leveled, Buildtak or other similar stuff, probably guide rails and general hardware to make the printer stiffer, moving from belts to leadscrews for the Z axis), or shell 1300CAD$ on a CR 10 MAX (which only lacks guide rails and probably don't need them). My Wombot is currently gathering dust in the basement. "Disappointment" is an euphemism in this case.

My sister bought a flashforge Creator Pro and she's very satisfied by this (small) machine. The print quality is there and it seems to be a very easy to use machine. It's her first 3d printer. Alas my ideas are in need of a bigger printer.

I've listened to Teaching Tech's 2-part review of the CR-10 MAX (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQOidpEoAsE and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGYc-L6dmLE) and he might have hit a lemon, but he had a hell of a time to make his printer to print good quality prints (layer to layer adhesion issues, he had to tune the board's voltages somehow). His review prompted Creality to enable Merlin's anti-runaway features in the firmware, so now it's a better printer yet.

I also listened to SexyCyborg's review (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skFo37IEkB0) which was somewhere in these lines ("needs a few tweaks"), but she had an early production model and it seems some have received a few upgrades since.

On the other hand, The First Layer's review (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reLJZBLpdZM&t=1s) seems to imply that it can work pretty well out of the box.

Nexi Tech's review of the CR-10 Max is also a positive review (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE9i1-DX1aI&t=293s).

I've also read a few reviews: All3dp's review is not very good, tobuya3dprinter's review is neutral.

So this far it's a pretty mixed bag of reviews.

Would the CR-10 MAX be a "printer that just works" like the Flashforge, good for a "semi-newbie"?

oops - forgot to approve the thread - sorry :-)

the anet a8 PLUS is probably the best value i3 around:
https://www.amazon.com/Anet-All-Meta...4944669&sr=8-3

has dual z motors, direct drive extruder and side support rails for the bed.
Yes it's cheap, and you will probably need to do some modifications - but it's the best starting framework in it's price range.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

oops - forgot to approve the thread - sorry :-)

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No problem, Sorry for the double-post (the pop-up message on the 1st post disappeared before I could read it (maybe I clicked somewhere without noticing). I thought my user had to be approved, not the thread, so I tried again the next day.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

the anet a8 PLUS is probably the best value i3 around:
https://www.amazon.com/Anet-All-Meta...4944669&sr=8-3

has dual z motors, direct drive extruder and side support rails for the bed.
Yes it's cheap, and you will probably need to do some modifications - but it's the best starting framework in it's price range.

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What kind of mods are a must on this printer? Thanks for the info, I'll now have some homework to do :-)

no clue on the mods.
Might not need any :-)

I finally went on an impulse purchase on black friday and bought a CR-10 max at 20% rebate. I can say that this printer (for now) simply works, which is all I asked. I don't have to fight for bed adhesion (at first parts would not stick strongly, but my 1st layer was a bit too high; I lowered the "zero" level by .1mm and from there on good adhesion).

I did a simple mod: remove the loomex that makes the wire/tube dangle down over the printed parts and add a little support made out of .120 aluminum wire I had in reserve for making chainmails (don't ask!)...

The other mod I did was print this cover over the filament detector switch: thingiverse

Apart from that, it worked out of the box. I've made a few prints (test cube, a few whistles, a vase I designed and a Kirby model for my daughter). For the rest, time will tell.

Now I'll make my wombot work (making parts on the CR-10 as needed) and sell it.

I also upgraded from Slic3r for the wombot to Cura for the CR-10 max (Cura 4.4 now has a profile for the CR-10 max) and things are also far easier. I was thinking about shedding some dough for Simplify3D before trying Cura, but so far my results are very satisfactory so I'll keep my money for the time being.

Glad that is working for you. Artillery Sidewinder X1 would also have been a good option, mine has been bulletproof so far (only 3 months in so far)

cool - I know the cr 10 pro does have dual z motors, does it have a direct drive extruder ?

And the ones I saw at tct last year were solid looking machines. I'm just wary about anything made by the company that invented the ender 3 ;-)