FlashForge Creator PRO - fix or replacement ?

[phil123456]

hello,

my printer is 3 years old and stars to get old (layers shift while printing) so I hesitate between

- buying another printer ? -> I print with abs plastic, I would look for an enclosed printer, so far , I cannot find anything equivalent to FFPro

- replacing the belts/bearings ? -> I found this explaining CTC bearings replacement : are they worth the price ?

https://www.3dhubs.com/talk/t/igus-b...makerbots/2756

my overal experience/opinon about that printer is meh...9/10 prints go to the trash, the maintenance of this printer is a pain in the a$$, and the parts are quiet expensive from a china company that offers minimum support, and makes money on after sale parts replacement.
the printer itself is quiet solid, but it does not last on the long run without heavy maintenance

thanks for your advices

[curious aardvark]

unusual to have anything negative so say about flashforge machines.

But sounds like you've decided to change up.

Not sure where you are looking as there are quite a lot of similiar machines.
I'd suggest a qidi: the x-pro is aan upgraded version of the creator pro.
Qidi make quality machines and are known for excellent customer service and very reasonably priced machines.
https://www.amazon.com/Function-Extr...s%2C412&sr=8-7

[phil123456]

unusual to have anything negative so say about flashforge machines.
Qidi make quality machines and are known for excellent customer service and very reasonably priced machines.

I bought it from qidi, while someone told me never to buy any clone, but the replicator is way overpriced for what it does

to give you an example, since the layers were miss-aligned, I redid the print,

- I noticed that the support were weakly printed (not enough feed?) but the part itself was fine
- next morning, I check the print, the feed had stopped mid-print

after 2 days later of trying to find the problem, I realized one of the stepper motor wire was cut (on the motherboard side !!! ..what the actual f....??? how can this even happen ?)

-> I replace the cable with the cable from the other stepper motor, same problem for another phase, the cable was cut too, this time, close to the motor this time and even appeared to have burned

which is weird, I checked the board and everything, this all looks like quality materials..I dont get it...I had more issues than actual prints with this printer

I always see people printing stuffs like they almost never have any issue, or they can print parts any size they want

with mine, the probability of failure raises with the size and time of the print...sometimes I even have to print the first layers with a skirt and tie the skirt with kapton to be sure the print does not warp...

I tried different ABS qualities... back in the day I was even using slurry , which is a mess

I followed countless tutorials and forum advices

I tried once printing 2 types of flexible materials...the result was just horrible

that printer is complete garbage I would suggest DO NOT BUY AN FF PRO !!!

regards