Flashforge Creator from eB ay

[ARosch]

I am interested in buying a creator as I have heard great things about them, and I am in need of a printer that can make multicolored prints 4"x4"x2" for an upcoming project. Has anyone purchased one from eBay before? There are numerous sellers listing them for $700 and they claim them to be new. Is it worth the risk?

Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-PRINTER-R...item2ecbcdff37

I apologize if this has been asked before, I tried to look around.

[Ghosty]

Hi, and welcome

I bought mine from e of the bay, im in the uk so paid £449 got a spool of white abs and a spool of fluro green pla still have half of each left, have bought other colours to print with, first impressions are good, it does what i need and want, sucks on large overhangs, but then your not supposed to print into thin air, so have to find ways to cut models to allow the best possible prints.

ive had mine about a month now, and im still learning, broke the aluminium bar that holds the fans in place, got a new one cheap enough, was without for 3 days total.

as the printer is open source, ie also labled as a ctc replicator dual, a wanhoo dual, flashforge creator, and a few others parts are available fairly cheaply.

upgrading the firmware to sailfish v7.7 is a must as it seams to work better for me.

as for worth the risk, check the seller reputation, for neg feedback on this model. if its high walk away, as you said everyone is selling them.

look around, have fun, print lots (i even have people asking me to print things for them now for a price of course).

[ssayer]

Quick response... It isn't a Flashforge. It's a clone of a clone. So... who knows what it'll do...

[curious aardvark]

sucks on large overhangs

add cooling fan and ducting and you'll be amazed how much better the overhangs are.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:537918

The odds are that it is a flashforge or ctc made machine.
I had no idea what brand mine was till the box arrived.
But basically ctc or flashforge tend to make pretty much all the ones sold without obvious branding.

The commonest issue is a non-level build plate.
This is easily overcome with either a glass plate (try and get it 3-5mm thick glass) or a second aluminium plate - although I have clients who are aluminium fabricators so for me that was the simplest and cheapest option :-)

Not sure the firmware would make much difference - I haven't changed mine and everything works as it should.

But - yep, for the money they are just about the best machine you can get.

[ARosch]

Clone of a clone... that is a little disconcerting. I hadn't noticed it was a clone until you mentioned it. Some of the ads show a picture that says Flashforge on the printer while others don't say anything.

The reviews that I have found seem mostly positive, with a few neutrals, and no negatives.

[ARosch]

add cooling fan and ducting and you'll be amazed how much better the overhangs are.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:537918

The odds are that it is a flashforge or ctc made machine.
I had no idea what brand mine was till the box arrived.
But basically ctc or flashforge tend to make pretty much all the ones sold without obvious branding.

The commonest issue is a non-level build plate.
This is easily overcome with either a glass plate (try and get it 3-5mm thick glass) or a second aluminium plate - although I have clients who are aluminium fabricators so for me that was the simplest and cheapest option :-)

Not sure the firmware would make much difference - I haven't changed mine and everything works as it should.

But - yep, for the money they are just about the best machine you can get.

So you have one and are happy with it?
If they are indeed flashforge or ctc made, would it be smarter to just buy a "ctc" machine off eBay since they are cheaper?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CTC-3D-Print...item2ed9d2899d

Sorry for the double post...

[jdg56]

Depending on where you are, an option in about the same price range would be MicroCenter.

If you in an area where MicroCenter has a store, you can check on the PowerSpec 3D Pro, which is a re-badged FF Pro. I have not been able to discern any difference from the FF-badged printers.

I just did a price check on my local MicroCenter, and they have the Pro in stock for US$799.99. Slightly higher than eBay, but it comes with a 180 day warranty, and I have found that MicroCenter absolutely stands behind that warranty.

Cheers,

John

[ARosch]

Depending on where you are, an option in about the same price range would be MicroCenter.

If you in an area where MicroCenter has a store, you can check on the PowerSpec 3D Pro, which is a re-badged FF Pro. I have not been able to discern any difference from the FF-badged printers.

I just did a price check on my local MicroCenter, and they have the Pro in stock for US$799.99. Slightly higher than eBay, but it comes with a 180 day warranty, and I have found that MicroCenter absolutely stands behind that warranty.

Cheers,

John

Unfortunately there are no Microcenters near me, none in my state.

I think I am going to roll the dice and buy this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CTC-3D-Print...item2ed9d2899d
Hopefully I can get it working nicely.

[ARosch]

Update:

I purchased the $550 CTC Creator from eBay. Since I purchased it, the price has jumped to $700. Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/CTC-3D-Print...item2ed9d2899d

I used this video as a reference for setting everything up since there were not any directions included: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iJqjDzWlos

It arrived in great condition and I was able to get it up and runny quickly without only a few issues. For those interested in buying a cheap flashforge clone from eBay, here are my thoughts and problems that I have encountered.
1. One screw with nut and washer at the bottom of the box when I pulled it out. Took about ten seconds to determine where it went, and then put it back in place (part of the frame).
2. When I turned it on and went to machine info, it said that it had 53hrs of runtime already. It didn't look like it had been used, though there was filament in each head which I assume was from testing. It was supposed to be new, so 53hrs seems like an awful lot when I expected 0, or 1.
3. The extruder assembly was not correctly assembled, I could tell just by looking at it that the part weren't properly put together. I took all the screws out and fit everything together properly then screwed it back together. (I should have taken a picture of this...)
4. The bed was no where near close to level. I expected this to happen, and leveling wasn't too bad.
5. I think I need the aluminum arms; the bed is level but the arms are very crooked currently.
6. The bed was completely covered in kapton tape and then had three strips of blue painters tape on top.
7. One spool of red PLA was included. The description on my listing didn't mention including filament.
8. The nozzles were not level, so I had to level them. There is a handy sticky thread in this forum that helped me figure that out.
9. The parts have a slightly rough finish, so I need to come up with a good way to fix this.
10. I have only run PLA through it (at 230C). I prefer PLA to ABS, but will eventually test ABS on it.

I have printed several things already, in both single and dual extrusion. For $550, it seems totally worth it. I will need to spend some time getting it tuned in since I haven't done anything but level the bed/extruders. All of my prints were sliced with makerware desktop software. I will probably switch to something like Slic3r soon because the retraction settings from makerware are not good enough and I need to adjust the extrusion multiplier.

It was a great purchase for $550, and I would do it again.

[Ghosty]

congrats,

to answer your list in order
1, ouch never had to do anything like that with mine.
2, 53hrs that is abit high for testing. mine had something like 2hrs.
3, mine was fine, i killed it however by trying to clean it, its all sorted now though.
4, nope neither was mine, and still isnt have a 0.124 warpping in the alu (not borthered im upgrading to a glass bed soon)
5, not sure why mine are perfectly straight, is the frame straight.
6, mine just had kapton tape, replaced mine after about 100 prints (was getting grotty), remove the painters tape and use acetone to wipe off the kapton, things stick like glue to it now.
7, yeah, some do some dont, i got both a roll of pla and abs, prefer pla (less smell, lower temps etc)
8, mine were not level either, hence how i broke it for 3 days.
9, mine is wooden framed, i like the rough look, but each to there own.
10, that temp is too high for pla, it will melt at alot lower, try nozzle at 195, bed at 65, this is what mines set at and works fine. although every roll is different, so try the lower temp and if it starts cliclking like a misfeed stop and try at 200, etc

as said in my original post, i am getting very good at it now, im creating things for people and getting paid to do it.