FlashForge Creator X Questions

[dante1]

Hello everyone,
i am a complete newbie to the 3D printing world.
I was offered a FlashForge Creator X that is 4 years old with only 159 hours of use for $300.00. It also comes with 4 spools of filament.
Would this be considered as a good deal? Is this machine reliable? Are the any upgrade i should consider?

Thank you!

[curious aardvark]

It's not a great deal.
On the other hand they are very good and reliable machines.
have you seen it working ?
$200-$250 would be a better price, when you consider what you can actually get brand new for $300 these days.

The main upgrade I've done to mine is a print area cooling fan: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:537918

That and move the on/off switch from the back to the front.
Oh yeah and asheet of printbite - probably the best thig you can add to ANY 3d printer.

The other thing to bear in mind is that if you use the reset switch at the back it resets usage hours along with everything else.
I'm cynical by nature, but there is no guarentee it's only had 159 hours of use.
Actually there's a setting on the control panel to reset all statistics. So unless you know the seller personally, take printing hours with a pinch of salt.

After a quick look around - replicator dual clone (what a creator x is) can be had - brand new - for between $270 - $360. Everyone else is now either making i3 clones or moved up to creator pro clones.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CTC-Desktop...8AAOSwMYRaXvxA

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2017-Geeete...AAAOSwy0JZ8vCE

Used ones start at around $150.

Now, flashforge machines are generally better quility than other makes. But 4 years old, and sitting around doing nothing should knock a fair bit off the asking price.

After 1200 hours of sterling service, the extruder on mine has ceased to function properly. It's 4 years old and I'm pretty sure the stepper motor controller is playing up.

The weird thing about electronics is that they generally prefer to be used to just sitting around doing nothing.