Month: January 2021

Purchase the Creality CR6-SE printer from Banggood HERE and use code 296F79to get it from CN Warehouse for $379USD OR use code F203DEto get it from AU Warehouse for $329USD!
The Creality CR6-SE is one of Crealitys latest printer offerings, and it has the smaller footprint of the Ender 3 but with many new advanced features like the removal of bed levelling screws and only auto bed levelling capability. I would like to thank Banggood for sending me this printer for review.

Why did you choose to review this printer?
Creality is one of the biggest names in the 3D printer market, and so far I’ve had a generally positive experience with their products. I noticed that this printer had no bed levelling screws and relied on only auto bed levelling and this really intrigued and worried me. I chose to review this printer specifically because I wanted to test out and let you guys know if this only automatic bed levelling was really a good idea. *Spoiler: it seems to work fine.
Initial packaging thoughts/ unboxing
Another standard printer box, but I must say it came in relatively unscathed in comparison to some other parcels I’ve received recently. I really like that we are seeing pictures of the printer printed on the side of the box now, it’s a nice touch….. Although could be risky if a delivery was left on your porch just advertising that you had a 3D printer sitting there…

The printer appears to be well packed

Here’s everything unpacked laid out on the bench. It was nice to see an AU power cord included in the box, and the printer clearly doesn’t require much assembly at all.

I really love the look of this toolkit draw, so I took some pictures of it to show you. This really doesn’t add value to the quality of the printer but it’s a really nice touch.

Instruction ManualI have taken photos below of the important sections of the instruction manual. This manual is very similar to all of the other Creality Manuals I have seen recently, mostly telling the story with pictures and having a very limited amount of english words.

Printer AssemblyHere I have detailled each of the main parts of assembly of this printer.
Attaching the gantry to the base

Printer standing back up with gantry attached.

The screen mounted with the 2 screws

Cable plugged into the screen

Handle fitted to the top of the printer. This handle feels really nice and is solid aluminium… but again I feel it doesnt really add to the usable quality of the printer, just makes it nice to carry around.

Spool holder attached. This was quite hard to clip on, but gave a firm clip and seems to hold on tight. I do like this new take at spool holders but they do take up considerably more desk space so that’s something to consider.

Here I plugged in all of the cables, and peeled off the protective layer on the bed.

Further Printing Experience

I set this printer up in CURA as a standard Ender 3 with no issues, although I did make some settings adjustments to what I normally run on my Ender 3. The printer went well like this.

If you would like to see more prints off of this machine and see it in action, please check out the Live stream I did of it printing below:

Final Thoughts
At a price point of $380USD this is right in the middle of the price range for Prusa i3 form factor printers. The CR6-SE has an incredibly different feature set from its competitors making it suitable for a slightly different market. I found the auto bed level to work fine, but I would have set the bed level slightly different personally. I think this printer is ideal for people who want to do 3D printing but not really get involved in the technical side too much or do too much maintenance and are happy to pay a premium to do so. The portrait touchscreen is nice and easy to use, and overall the nice to have features make the printer look and feel more polished when in use.
I can now happily confirm that while not completely perfect, the auto ONLY bed levelling printer does work just fine.

If you would like to see more 3D printing live streams I would love for you guys to respond with some printing ideas that i can do Live, and request which printer you want me to do it on also 

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Purchase the Artillery Hornet printer from Banggood HERE  and use code BGAU856 to get it for $239.99USD!!

Hey guys, here again for another 3D printer review, this time the Artillery Hornet!

I would like to thank Artillery 3D for sending this printer for review, they asked that I link them as below:Artillery Aliexpress store: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/4697033Artillery Official Website: https://www.artillery3d.com/

Why did you choose to review this printer?
I have been a big fan of the Artillery Genius and the Artillery Sidewinder X1, so I was excited to hear they were coming out with a new printer. I really wanted to find out first hand what Artillery was going to bring to the table different this time and I must say it is a pleasant suprise.

Initial packaging thoughts/ unboxing
The box came in and wasn’t noticeably big or small, just a standard printer box at this point. I do like the touches like the Artillery branded tape and the printing on the side of the box.

The box had a few dings due to international shipping which is quite normal and should give us a fair example of how protective the packaging is.

This is after opening the box and removing the foam layer covering the top

Gantry layer in box removed

And here are all the pieces included in the box laid out on the table. I do like the inclusion of an actual AU power lead, and it has the standard artillery toolkit that I am used to.

I noticed we have a new print head design here so I thought i’d take a few pictures for those interested.

It’s interesting to see that artillery have done away with their traditional ribbon cable here and have replaced it with this seemingly custom integrated cable that has the bowden tube and electrical connections in one. This seems like a more reliable solution.

Here we can see that the same soft joint has been used for mounting the Z axis nut on the lead screw, I have heard removing this can help with layering lines on the Sidewinder X1 and Genius models, so it will be interesting to see the quality here.

The Instruction Manual
I have taken photos of the useful parts of the instruction book here, this just details the general assembly steps. As usual for Artillery the instructions are well detailed and have well written english blurbs to explain each step.

Assembly
Inline with Artillery fashion, this was one of the easiest printers i’ve assembled, although I did have to mount the print head but it was just a few screws.

Here we get to see the underside of the printer, with the seperate power supply. I tipped the printer over like this to mount the gantry.

Here is after mounting the gantry with the printer tipped back up

Clipped on the spool holder, this did take a significant amount of force but once it popped in it was definitely mounted

Plugged in a few cables for the gantry

Mounted the printhead with the 3 screws

Installed the bowden tube/print head cable. 

This marks the completion of assembly, which was extremely simple.

First test print
I printed the artillery cube test print which was included on the SD card.

I have taken pictures of the display at each step of getting the print started to show how this version or Marlin works.

This is with the printing started. I did need to do some bed levelling but got it right pretty quick. I also had to wipe the bed with IPA to remove the yellow oily film that comes on these beds. Note that the printer didn’t come with any test filament, so I am using dark blue Esun PLA+ here for this test print.

You can’t really see here, but it was a perfect first layer.

And the print finished, it was basically a perfect print, nothing to complain about really.

Further Printing Experience

I set this printer up in CURA as a standard Ender 3 and was able to slice G code and print mostly flawlessly. I chose the Ender 3 V2 since the dimensions are the same, and it has a bowden extruder. Although I found with this printer I needed slightly less retraction distance at only around 5mm.
If you would like to see more prints off of this machine and see it in action, please check out the Live stream I did of it printing below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbgPt6fG9Qk

Final Thoughts

At around the $250USD price point the Artillery Hornet is in the cheaper range of printers, and I must say I am impressed with the quality of it. I do like to see Artillery thinking outside of the box when they build printers instead of doing the standard designs that many manufacturers copy, and I like that they are improving by moving away from the ribbon system without making the printer look messier.
If you are looking for your first printer and have a relatively low budget then I think you should definitely consider the Artillery Hornet as one of your options. This is a very competitive area of the printer market so you will need to decide if you want the polished look and a few features of the Hornet or something more common like the Ender 3.

If you would like to see more 3D printing live streams I would love for you guys to respond with some printing ideas that i can do Live, and request which printer you want me to do it on also 😀

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