…now following some facebook forums and other chatrooms it seems, that there is always a core set of things which are repetitively asked, so I decided to do this overall thing once instead of answering multiple times to individual issues.
For which printers this can be applied:
This is designed especially for the CR-10s Pro V1, CR-10s Pro V2 and CR-10 Max, further just referenced as “printer” but some of the things can be also applied for other bowden style cartesian printers (e.g. CR-10 or Ender 3)
Essential upgrades (things which should be installed already when you start using the printer):
The double fittinghttps://www.printables.com/model/185951-pc4-m10-double-fitting-adapter-solves-also-cr-10s- (or just use the files attached) should go on the extruder since the single fitting setup has a tendency to create groves in soft Capricorn PTFE tube over some time, especially when printing with a lot of retractions. Better fittings will help, but are somehow hard to acquire and the clamping solutions also available will reduce the inner diameter of the tube, so you will create additional friction between the inner tube wall and the filament. The double fitting is just using the additional fitting which should come with a regular spare parts packages shipped with the printer. Just read the installation and disassembly instructions of the 3D model.
Filament guideshttps://www.printables.com/social/261164-caesar_1111/collections/159007 just pick the design you like from the collection, but it is important that you have one installed on the runout sensor inlet, otherwise the filament will permanently grind against the aluminium frame, creating a lot of dust and I even saw pictures where the filament cut a 3mm grove into the frame….
Filament holder DELUXEhttps://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3114139 which I use in the short version. You will need some hardware like a M8 thread rod, 2 M8 nylock nuts 2 608 bearings but you will never have issues again with your spool. You can even adjust the friction if you slap on a new spool which tends to unwind if the friction is too low.
Z (leadscrew) snyc: for the CR-10s Pro you can to this easily. You will just need two GT2 20T B8 pulleys with grub screws and a 760mm GT2 closed belt, both available on Amazon. If you k)don’t use the full printing hight, you can just assemble the pulleys right under the top leadscrew brackets and connect them with the belt. I prefer to flip the top leadscrew brackets, pull the leadscrews a few mm out of the motor coupler and place the pulley on top (see picture). The installation process should be self-explaining and to level the x-gantry, just tighten on pulley, use a ruler / calliper to get the x-gantry as level as possible (make sure you measure between the x-gantry and the bed rails! Do not just measure against the bed!) and then tighten the second pulley. For the CR-10 Max I did my own kit (https://www.printables.com/model/229071-cr-10s-pro-cr-10-max-z-sync-various-belt-length-po) which allows you to use belt which different length (approx. 1200mm to 1600mm). This Kit only works with the “on top of flipped brackets” pulley setup explained above, but is very minimal and creates not unsymmetric pulling force on the top of the leadscrews.
Firmware Upgrades:
I run all my printers with the Tiny Machines / Insanity automation firmware.
hex files for standard setup: just use the pre-compiled Tiny Machines *.hex files (also comes with a guide how to flash firmware and touch screen):
Touch screen firmware: Make sure you are always flashing the right version of the touchscreen software in order to address the new features (How to flash. https://youtu.be/EvG4uqx-Oos). In order to make sure the display is able to read the micro SD card, the card should to be max 16GB and formated with FAT32 max allocation unit size 4KB (4096K).
Consider: If you want to upgrade you also have to open the base of the printer in order to be able flash the display! Sequence: To save you a lot of sweat, always, really always make sure you flash the display fist since there are a lot of issues with the correct micro SD card and the display is way more picky when it comes to accepting micro SD cards than the board.
Maintenance:
Since the printer come with a bowden setup equipped with a dual gear extruder (creates a hell of grip), an original Capricorn PTFE tube and a regular hotend (where the PFTE tube is directly touching the nozzle) you will have to take care on the maintenance of this setup:
Bed Leveling: The bed leveling is a multi step process where, depending on your upgrades, you can skip some steps.
Make sure your x-gantry is level. You can use the leveling blocks form the collection or just a caliper or a ruler, but always make sure, you are measuring the x- gantry extrusion vs. the bed rail extrusion! Do NOT measure the gantry vs. the bed since this will incl. the tilt of the bed! (This step is obsolete if you have a z-sync upgrade.
Heat up the bed AND the nozzle and keep them heated for the following steps
Check the z-offset of the bed leveling probe. Do the paper test (see youtube). Since the z-offset toggle butten will move the nozzle in 0.1mm increments you might find the one step to far away and the other step to close. But if you have installed the Tiny Machines software, you can get around this by manually changing the value in Settings/Tools/Motion Setup. Here the probe offset z value can be changed in 0.01mm increments. Also while printing you can use the Adjust feature and change it in small increments.
Go to Settings/Leveling and make sure Auto Leveling is switched on
Do the AUX leveling where you again have to use the paper method to determine the correct distance between bed and nozzle
Do the Measuring and check your bed warping. A good bed will have less than 0.1mm distribution (for larger Max bed it is around 0.15mm). If your distribution is more than 0.3mm you should have a warped bed. Especially if out of the box, this should be flagged by the seller (Creality sometimes replaces such beds, depending on where you bought the printer)
Do a leveling scaled to max XY size testprint like this line or this patterns and adjust the z probe offset is needed while printing the first layer.
PTFE tube maintenance: At approx. 1000hrs you will have to do PTFE tube maintenance which is basically, pulling out the tube completely on both sides, cutting about 5-10mm of the hotend side (you will see, that the tubes colour changed to brow/black and the tube itself is getting brittle) which is about the length you can cut before the stock tube is getting to short (so if you replace the tube, add some extras length to it so you can cut easily). Now flip over the tube, so the former extruder side is now going into the hotend. This will now place the fittings on different positions and providing again full grip. After approx.. 2000 hrs it is somehow time to say goodbye to the tube since the filament will slowly widen the inner diameter of the tube. You can just go on until your tube is really getting to short by multiple times doing the cutting/swapping thing, but the overall print quality will suffer and random problems can occur.
Nozzle maintenance: since you will be using special nozzles for the printers, it is hard to get a wide variety of materials and brass nozzles will be sensitive to abrasive materials, but if you just stick to PLA printing, the nozzle might last a few years. This means there is no real time when a nozzle needs to be changed. Important is that you will have to do a hot tighten so the nozzle is not becoming loos over time.
Hotend maintenance: You want to make sure, that there is no gap between the nozzle and the PFTE Tube, since this will cause blocks! Whenever I change the nozzle, I also disassemble the tube, heat up the hotend and use an old piece of tube to clean the heatbreak. You should be able to push the tube complete from the top to the bottom and pull it out from below, taking with it all the left over filament in the heatbreak. Then assemble the nozzle and to make sure, that the tube is firmly pressed against the nozzle, unscrew the hotend fitting about 1-2mm, push the filament in completely until it touches the nozzle and the tighten the fitting again. This will now take out the slack in the fitting compared to only push in the tube.
Issues and fixes:
Issue
Reason (possible)
Fix
Picture
Bed belt is wearing off at the top
front idler pulley is bent backwards
Use a lagre set of pliers to bend the pulley forward
Bed nut is getting loose while printing
z stepper wire is not pused in completely in the base
Push in the wire completely in the base of the printer on both sides
Bed is wobbly / bed nuts loose
Bed nut are not tightened so be springs are not providing enough stability
Tighten all nuts completely, open again by approx 3 rotations, do bed leveling (see Maintenance/Bed Leveling) final tension should be like on the picture - alternative solution, use silicone bed mounts instead of springs
PTFE tube being pressed out of the extruder fitting
The original Capricorn tube softer than regular tubes, the original fitting is of poor quality, the bowden print settings require a lot of retraction, all of which leads to the fitting grove into the tube until it slips
Install the double fitting from the collection. you should have the second fitting in your tools box which came with the printer
More to come:
Just let me know what else should be covered in this guide!
caesar_1111
