Hi everyone! I was looking around for a decent place forum and stumbled across you guys. I wanted a place to meet like minded people and learn as much as possible.

I've wanted a printer for a long time and finally pulled the trigger 5 days ago. I ended up going with the CR-10S. I set it up and started printing straight away.

My thoughts so far:

Everybody's first nightmare... Bed leveling, What an annoyance to say the least.. I started with the preloaded dog to test everything out. picked up the worlds cheapest hairspray AquaNet and started the print. Came out great! at this point I felt I was ready for the big leagues. I was mistaken. One of my main reasons for getting a 3d printer was for printing guns and gun parts. With the length of pistol frames I quickly learned all was not "Good in the hood". I fought with leveling the build plate for HOURS to no avail. Finally, I stopped trying to level all 5 points on the build plate and adjusted the model to where I thought I had the best chance of adhesion and went back to the printer and ONLY leveled where the model was going to be printed. I managed to make this work after 3 failures and finally got something I think is a solid product.

What I've got out of watching 100's of "Bed Leveling" YouTube videos:

I reached the conclusion that either I'm stupid or my printer is about as far off "True" and something could get. All the videos tell you the same info if you don't have any "Auto" function. Set printer to home and move the hot end to the 5 locations "4 corners and center" and adjust accordingly. there are many things to consider here outside of the 4 adjustment knobs under the build plate. First off, what the printer is sitting on. I'm using a 4 foot folding plastic table from Walmart. I love these and use them all the time. My computer desk is one and I have 4 out in my shop when I work on cars. These ARE NOT LEVEL by any means, and are not flat across the top but that's what I got. Lets call this "level issue 1". Setting up the printer out of the box I noticed the bottom part "Frame and build plate Y axis" was not flat on one corner and did not touch the ground on the floor or the table I put it on. I had to stuff some old bills I found in the mail under the foot to stop it from rocking. The gantry, "X axis" is another issue I noticed but as to what issues that brings if any have yet to be determined. I grabber a level and put it on the X axis bar the hotend rides across. was not level. Again watching videos didn't tell me much out side of going into the gcode to make adjustments, witch is outside of my available skills at the moment.. (Remember 5 days in here) Interestingly noone talks about loosing the screw bar on one of the Z steppers and holding one side and moving the other and then locking it down. I tried this on my own and got "Meh" results. I might get something thick and heavy to set the printer on like concrete or something. Then there is the last piece to this puzzle the glass build plate and metal heat plate under. While I think this is going to be one of the main issues to address, I can't really tell you yet because I haven't got a glass plate yet. I've herd the cheep mirrors and anything from the hardware store will work I haven't gone and seen what I can get yet. Online there is something called "Borosilicate galss" I'm not even sure that's what to go with I read it warps under long use so I'll prob just pick up some samples from HomeDepot and try some things out later today.

With all that being said I did still end up with a decent print but I tried a different file and got adhering issues again from the opposite side of the build plate this time. again the "leveling" deal is getting old fast and what I DO NOT WANT is to have to start a print, stop a print readjust, reheat nozzle, and bed try again and pray. If this has to be done EVERYTIME I want to print something I'm gonna lose my mind. I did order the BLtouch sensor that will be in this week sometime so I will get back to you guys and let you know if that helps at all.

Another thing I think I'm going to want for quality of life is a Raspberry Pi and Octiprint. From what I've seen that could save me a HUGE headache from having to stop prints and set up again. Stopping in the middle of a print halts everything and shuts off the heat to the nozzle and bed. You have to turn the nozzle and bed back on in the menu and that is a total PAIN IN THE PRINTER when you only have one shitty clicky knob to navigate with. (I envy the pro owners) Then in most cases you have to prep the glass again.

Anyway I'm glad to be here and I'll stop rambling, I just wanted to get my thoughts out while they were fresh in my mind. Hope to meet some cool people. I hope this helps anyone new that stumbles across this and feel free to jump in, maybe we can help eachother out! Any vets with advice please don't be shy!