Really enjoying your calm, patient, and thorough review style, complete with detailed setup tips to get the most out of the printer, and explaining all the things you're doing and looking for along the way. Really well done.
Thanks a lot, I'm slowly getting better... I think at making videos, sometimes I can get a little carried away. I'll have more videos coming going over more specific topics for this printer and the K1 as well.
You finally got "The Printer", congrats. This is my first printer so I have special feelings to it. Anyway, the lidar is a "no use" for me, I remove it, it causes me troubles, or it just stays there for no reason. The PA settings are simple- for regular PLA that prints with 150-200mm/s with this machine, the value is around 0.03, for hyper speed PLA printing around 300mm/s will be around 0.04. The more You increase the speed, the more You need to increase this number. I personally print a simple cube and observe the corners to see if there is a material exceeding the geometry, then the PA needs to be increased, i there is a underextrusion- need to decrease it. Check the belt tension, need to be equalized on both sides, and to be around 115Hz when the print head is in the middle. If You do this, will get rid of this layers misalignment, and overall, the print quality will increase significantly. The machine I've got came with very tight belts. I personally upgraded the hotend with the "Triangular Lab" one. Now the flow of the printer is around 35mm3, from 24mm3, and of course the speeds can be pushed up to 420mm/s with 0.2 LH and 0.4 LT, but than the PA go up to 0.056, at least in my case. I can speak endlessly about the K1 Max, but lets stop here, if You have any questions just ask.
@@MajorDiabetes Such a question is very responsible. I will share experience, you collect data. What I love about this printer is: Print quality is very good, it is fast indeed, small for its build area, 300 cube is awesome, very nice looking, very good cooling, touchscreen and UI are great, low price, may be no competitor in that price range for that level of hardware. Big company, often updating firmware, lots of upgrades, can root the Klipper- endless possibilities. What I don't like: warped bed- its not that bad, but still it is warped and I can't do much about it unless if just buy thicker machined plate, but this is too much of hassle for me. Out of the box there are some imperfections, but I will tag them as a upgrade path: hotend is not very appropriate so I bought Trianglelab CHCB-OT and is better, nozzle will go MK8 CHT- best, this is how you can reach around 40mm3 instead 24mm3, Belts are too tight, you need to tune them around 110-115Hz while head is in the center, the tensioners on the back need little upgrade too. I put knobs on my bed for manual leveling. Wider belts(7.8mm) to increase print quality further more and get rid of any ghosting. Riser for the top so the PTFE tube not scratching on the glass, side spool holder or separate one. I made these upgrades and now this machine prints like there's no tomorrow. Still didn't change the belts because the quality is very good and I'm not rushing, but I have them. Currently I draw my model of riser because I want something more special. I hope this was helpful, me and many others like a lot this printer, but some, don't. This is my experience, I personally like that this printer have a upgrade path, like a reviewer said in one video: "K1 Max needs a little Love" :). Cheers.
24:21 µ is the Greek letter Mu, usually pronounced like mew, and it is the metric prefix meaning micro. So in this case µm is micrometers also known as microns.
I have another series of videos coming out soon to show people how to get even better results. Yup, it's definitely a capable printer, the extra build volume is really handy. Do you have other printers or is this your first?
Please, clean the X axis before anything. Mine are destroyed. Everything has fine in the feirs month, Now it can even print cube that has no crazy deformations (VFA, Ghosting, resonances) that even input shaper cannot conpensate
I have had 100% perfect luck printing for about 2 weeks since getting my K1, until I just finished printing a set of very large trays with magnets embedded in the corners for the board game 'isle of cats', the trays that are just at 220mm wide, when stacking, one's corners don't touch the tray below it so the magnetic attraction is too weak, but it didn't lift off of the bed while printing, it just printed at the area of my bed that's being compensated for the most. thanks for this great info.
I have a video on that subject as well. I've had the same experiences and what was happening was that the magnetic plate was coming away from the bed, but only a little bit, the shrinkage of the material was strong enough to do this, and I was able to capture a timelapse of it happening as well. Parts that are printed nearly solid will tend to do this quite a bit more. I've always printed with heavy duty settings and I run into a lot of problems with warpage, and I hear it all of the time, that people never have an issue with it. I think it's because they're printing with light-duty settings and the stresses involved are far less. The bed warpage could be contributing for sure, a few people have commented to use KAPTON tape below the bed in the low spots.. unfortunately the low spots will change based on the printing temperature.
Mike, I found your channel recently and have been binging your older videos. My K1max was also showing weird warping of parts like yours. I determined that when the print had good adhesion to the build plate it was actually pulling that build plate up from the magnetic surface. I bought a 310x315 glass build plate originally made for the cr10 and all the warping disappeared. I had to order it special from creality and it took 2 months to get it. I attach it with some low profile 3d print bed/mirror clips. Auto bed leveling is unaffected by the glass. The adhesion to pla is incredibly strong, even after cooling but it fixes much of the problems expressed in this video. If you try one I think you’ll like it.
Very helpful review, I've been extremely happy with my K1C, decided to retire my old large format printer and pick one of these up, price was excellent, even if it has a few short comings, the K1C also passed WAF, so hopefully the Max does the same :)
Hi! I have mine and im super happy. Im designer and wow the speeds, i dont care about quality but i can really push it to 600 mm/s so this is just the machine for me
I've only been able to get close to those speeds and that's with a 0.4mm nozzle and with 0.08mm layer height, but yeah at that speed it does seem to give good results still which in itself is pretty impressive. I like the machine, I think it'll be better when we can put a thicker bed on it.
@@NeedItMakeIt well im printing 0.18 layer height 285/110° at 600mm/s infil, inner wall and 500 outer wall. And the best thong is that im printing PC blend from prusa 🥹😄 and the machine just does it.. im super impressed
Don't waste your time with meshing. Root it, get klipper installed, run the Klipper bed level, and let it do the compensating. The OEM bed leveling with the K1 series is dogwater and you'll spend more time tweaking it then printing for a marginal difference. Do your PID calibrations, filament calibrations, and resonance tuning. Slap some glue down and call it a day. Only issue I've had after hundreds of hours, is that the cable chain sags over time and causes print issues because the chain will rub on the axis rod while printing. I removed the chain completely, put a cable sleeve over the cable, installed a riser, and have been cooking since. (I run two K1s and two Maxs about 20hrs a day)
Hi there, could you give me a minute of your day to help me with my decision, I run a car wrap shop and we are adding 3D printing for our custom car services(I'm a hobbyist since 2021). I'm toward the P1S or x1 carbon but your comment made me rethink the K1 Max due the bed size. How long you have your machines?
@pxtmotors4478 The printer you get should be based on the largest size print you want to do. I bought the K1 Max's because of the bed size and the ability to print large items in one piece. However, if BambuLabs offered a printer in the same volume. I would have bought those. The build quality and print quality is superior. I've had my printers for about about 8 months now. The benefit of creality is that they have a lot of aftermarket support and community support. Bamboo Labs does not, they are for more proprietary. Which makes it more expensive to maintain. It's like comparing Android to Apple.
@@secritsquirrel4994 I'll be printing a few body parts(that are really big) in sections to after that, put together and make a mold for carbon fiber or fiber glass. So I can print in more parts and put together but a bigger bed would make the process less "puzzle".
Hey Mike.. i guess that the print bed after the print finishes cools down faster in the middle of the bed than on the edges. So the shrinkage that happens in the material (although it's minimal) first happens in the middle. That leads to a small amount of lift on the big part you printed. Perhaps that's why although your bed is lower in the middle than on the edges your final print is the opposite. So yeah that's my idea: It could be an issue of temperature differential while cooling down.
Yeah, the RED card tray lifted up on the ends, but the white throat plate went down, so maybe a cooling issue, or related to how heavy the print was? The white print was light duty, and I almost never print that way. It threw me off a bit actually I was not expecting that at all. Good theory though, I'll have to do some testing to see if I can find a consistent reason.
I love your 3d printer videos. Does your K1 have the updated Unicorn nozzle? It REALLY improves the reliability of the machine and lets you get basically clog free and blob free prints forever. My K1C has been so reliable it is truely the set it and forget it printer. I would also suggest using Orca slicer, it seems to be better than creality print.
Very good review video, objectively focused on the key points. Quick question.... What's the model at minute 16:40??? (looks like a segment of the K1/K1 Max frame corner)
As always, really good content. They should have been more serious about the bed. It's too curvy and I saw in other videos the heat is not correctly distributed.
The Hepa filter doesn't protect you from gasses (they advertise it does) it's only rated for dust/particles, It will collect smoke. Filters only last 48 hours when the seal is removed, your printer comes with the seal already removed, the time it takes to ship to you means it's already dead. An adaptor should be modeled and printed up that takes the NATO 40mm thread or the 3M bayonet style attachment. An 3M bayonet adaptor can be threaded to fit on the 40mm thread so it could take either. The filter would need to be sealed after each print to extend the filter life. On the Max, there would still be some areas the smoke would escape. My design to collect it would be a hose positioned almost exactly where the hotend is to vacuum the smoke directly into the filter which wouldn't a big open side and this can help isolate the filter for longer use. If you smell the prints with everything sealed, the filter is obviously not working.
Yeah, I don't think these filters are nearly enough, it's more of a gimmick. The HEPA is for particles but it doesn't capture particles which are as fine as the ones produced from a printer, they are so small that they can be inhaled and absorbed through the lungs into your bloodstream and make their way around your body. Long-term we don't know yet how this will impact us, but I would have to assume at this point that foreign plastics coming into our bodies isn't going to be good. I still think venting outside is the best option while enclosing the entire printer(s). I'd like to see some models of other filter options which are much larger, the issue is of course that the small fan at the back will not be able to move air through the filter. So the Bento box solution might be a better way.
@@NeedItMakeIt I had the thought even for laser etchers that maybe there should be a small vacuum tube very close, slightly above the laser or 3D printer nozzle to suck it in straight to a small gas mask filter. I don't think I'd want to let other people smell it outside lol I mean having a little suction system right at the source would prevent the need to massive vent systems, especially lasers! At least the K1/K1 Max has it's own enclosure.
one thing I don't like about k1 max is the filament runout position. you need to do a lot to put a new filament. I am going to to move outside and without tubing so I can very easy pull out finished filament.
Creality doesn’t specifically say it, but it is rather expected that you are supposed to remove the flow calibration lines just before your print begins printing. I’ve never seen anyone leave them on the bed. EDIT: As for the LiDAR, it does work, and it does adjust the flow. However, it currently only does so when using Creality Print, and when the checkbox in the configuration is checked. Then, if you print with Calibration, it will do all of the above. At this time, print Calibration does not work with any other slicer. BTW, when using a different slicer, the acceleration controls under the Print Settings MUST be configured correctly.
Really, oh, I don't think that's something I would do, I'd have to watch the printer and automatic is supposed to be automatic. I think they need to work on it. I have run some tests and it does do PA compensation, that's true, however it does not do flow, all of this of course through Creality print, they made it clear early on that it was not possible through any other slicer at this time. I've gone quite a bit further and attempted to get it to do flow calibration, and again, it performed PA tests only, flow even when I set it to 2X what it should be was unaffected. Maybe it's something I've not set correctly, that's possible, however when you activate it in the software, it should work. I will perform some more tests with the help of a few experts on my Discord, it's worth a bit more time to trying and figure out exactly what it is doing. However it clearly does not work the way it is supposed to, and it is not LiDAR. LiDAR systems do use lasers, however they use a sensor to measure the time it takes for light to go and then come back to the source. A laser at an angle can also work, but Bambus version uses two lasers, and maybe that's why it is far more accurate and does perform the flow calibration as well. Let me know how you came to the conclusion that flow was compensated for. I've performed quite a few tests to see and it is not working on my printer and there seems to be no way to get it to activate.
@@NeedItMakeIt by default, when the extruder is not calibrated, it under extrudes. AFAIK, this is the default for all Creality printers. If you calibrate the extruder, you are always increasing the the amount of filament that is extruded. I have never come across a case where it is right on, or over extruding out of the box. When I have the Print Setting setup for Calibration, and I print something with Calibration turned on, it automatically corrects the flow. If it is turned off, every print comes out under extruded. I know what full blown LiDAR is, and neither Creality, nor Bambu, come anywhere close to that. Creality is using their LiDAR for 2 purposes, 1) to simply detect the width of the extrusion, and 2) to detect the existence of filament. They use the width to calibrate both Pressure Advance and Flow.
@@cnc-maker Gotcha on the first part, before it runs the calibration sequence, however as far as correcting for flow, it does not. I have tested this and I can see that it corrects for PA, but not flow. I have tested just for flow by setting the flow of the filament to 2 times the value (2005) and the process runs and flow is not adjusted and the print turns out horribly. Additionally, the touchscreen calls for Motion advance calibration, not flow, and their user manual also says this, it does not state that flow is being adjusted for. I'm happy to do more testing, just tell me where to turn it on, but I do not believe that it does flow calibration, or would be able to accurately, 7 probe sites on a bed of that size will not be accurate enough to be able to do flow calibration. Can I ask you, is the laser coming on for scanning the calibration zone for you, or is it using the light and camera? It could be that we're running different versions of the FW, or something else is different that's unexpected. I'm on the newest release, just updated 1 week ago.
@@NeedItMakeIt it’s been a couple months since I did the testing that I did, and I do remember that the flow adjustment was not perfect, but it was good enough. If you specifically set the flow that high, that would affect what I had observed. Do I know for an absolute fact that it is adjusting flow? No, but Pressure Advance / Motion Advance would not account for the differences that were observed. The setting in Creality Print is “Experimental / Exact Flow Control” which I think is only available in Advanced mode. As for the laser scanning, I see the spread laser scanning the test area before it runs its test, and then again after it prints the test. The only time I see it using the light and camera is when it is reading the barcode. I have always thought that that is used for a height calibration, but for what purpose, I do not know. P.S. Now that I think about it, the camera and barcode could solely be used to calibrate the camera to compensate for lens distortion.
@@cnc-maker Okay, thanks. My plan was to make a follow up on only the 'LiDAR' and have it as it's own video when I can wrap my head around everything that its doing. I have the point cloud info from the laser, I want to convert that into a visual to see what it's doing. I believe the laser is being used for first layer detection for issues. Most of the people I know don't use the scanner any more, they say it's not good enough and causes more problems that just manually calibrating. Personally I think it can be a lot better, but we need to understand what it's doing. I don't mind running the tests and doing follow up videos if it can help. I've switched to KAMP for the bed, and that is giving a far more precise bed mesh for smaller prints, anything the size of the bed will have the same first-layer issues unfortunately. Also, I've done testing on the bed warpage at 45C, 60C, 80C and 100C, and the bed warpage goes from 0.5mm Concave to 0.6mm Convex. Another reason to do a mesh before each print unless you always print at the same temps. Have a good one.
It is pretty nice. That is Bambu Red Sparkle PLA; it seem to be one of the better ones as far as consistent size and how it looks. Thanks for checking out the video!
Hey you left that setting turned off if you go to 11:30 in the video and watch. You checked an option "on" in the settings but the feature it was for was left off on the right of the screen just fyi
you can get the li dar senser for the k1 i have it a addon i got mine from ebay and you just screw it in the same side and plug it in to the back also the multi colour printing is coming soon for both printer creailty told me
Do not now never asked that I ask a company I use technology outlet they said it works there a port on the back of the hot end remember you need to enable it on the control pad
One would think the parallel adjustment would have been done at the factory. Creality not doing this just reafirms my belief the Creality QA has not improved over the years. They are still lazy in this department. Not trying to hate on them but they really need to change their ways. Anyway it was a great video. Very informative.
Thanks. I use sewing machine oil, I've been running the X axis with no oil lately and it seems to be working well with the graphite lube alone. with oil it tends to get a bit messy and needs more cleaning.
@@mironccr345 That's probably the best, I did some research and graphite is an excellent lubricant, one of the best out there and those bushings look to be nice quality and the fit is very precise. They will wear just like anything, but adding the oil may counter the graphite's performance, I can't say for certain, we'd need someone with more experience on that front that I have.
@MakeIt I was leaning towards that as well. I quickly did some reseach on graphite bearnings. I'm not that invested, but your video had me intregued. Thanks for the videos, keep them coming!
@@mironccr345 I'm glad I took it apart, I ended up doing it when I was editing the video, I thought I had better do it to be sure. Thanks for the taking the time to write some comments and for the support, I really appreciate it!
You peel them off? I've done some more testing and the PA is certainly being adjusted just before the print starts, but flow is not and I have some samples where I increased flow to 2x and no changes are being made. PA testing is good, but I think it could be improved. Maybe they need the dual laser setup that Bambu uses, or it's an issue with the type/color setup of the laser. A little strange that it also doesn't reach the entire bed as well.
2:56 Do you usually run your spool that direction? The spool should be flipped so that the filament path comes from the bottom of the spool and feeding rotates the spool Clockwise.
That's right, there is a reason for it, though it's no intuitive, it feeds better that way. On the back of the printer there was a sticker to say that the 'backwards' feed it the correct one. I was careful as well because in a previous video someone pointed out my mistake. That extra bend seems to help the filament feed in smoothly, and the cracking noises I was getting from the spool don't happen anymore either, which was super annoying with PETG.
Maybe I just feel spoiled after using an ender 3 for years, but I love my k1 max, it works just fine, it’s fast, and I can make my kids superhero masks and Mandaorian helmets in one go with great quality. I just wish the darn spool holder was on the side and not the back
You know it's really about perspective. I drive a minivan, and I'm plenty happy with it, because before that I had a small Hatchback. My only major complaint is that they've touted the AI LiDAR as being able to scan the bed and calibrate the filament. From what I can see, it only calibrates for Pressure Advance I think they could re-vamp it and it could do everything without too much work. The printer itself is good, the frame is good the whole structure is well done, just a few small things to address and it could be great. I have the Bambu printer and I think that's where I have something that far exceeded my expectations to compare against, so maybe I've been tainted a little bit. I'm with you, I still like it, and having the extra space to print in is really nice. I'll have a few more videos on this printer coming out showing how to get better results and speed up the bed probing process and a bit about the warpage that I've learned as well. Thanks!
@@---ey6hj I'm a bit surprised that they haven't been pushing hard with little adjustments, the calibration zone and the way it works, isn't very good. I tried some PETG yesterday and because it moves right back with a long travel, the PETG strings and oozes, and leaves a zone with no filament on it. I've found the file to tell the printer what to do, but if I start changing it, I'd end up messing up the way the camera uses that info... maybe. If Bambu can do it, Creality can too they need a better setup for scanning and calibrating and then it would be amazing, and it could be an add-on to existing printers. I hope they do come out with something!
One day i dont have to fiddle around with zeroning, offsets, warped beds ... man i will miss the days fiddling 5 hours on my ender to print a 3 hour piece ... but i wont be buying anything every again until it tells me to automate everything you just showed to do when unboxing that thing ... i have no problems greasing stuff, revisioning stuff that has worn or something replace bushings ect. ect. but i dont want to fiddle around before i can print ... thats like owning a car and to get it running to go to work in the morning you have to wire stuff and programm tables for the ignition to and injection to even get it to start and then wiggle around in it till you arrive at work ... cant take that anymore. I have no problem repairing "wear" but i dont pay 800 bucks just for it to be puking all over the place left and right with uncooked features and mechanics that do 20% of the work but hinder me 100% from using it
Great review. I would love to see you do a review like this for the Qidi X max 3. I was underwhelmed by my k1 max. I had issues with the K1 max and have returned it for a refund. I'm looking for an alternative.
They reached out to me a few weeks ago and I wouldn't mind seeing what they're doing differently. What I can say is that the dual red laser scanner that Bambu uses is very hard to beat. The ability to just print and not have to think about the other stuff is pretty nice, I think all printers should have a system like this. Do you know if QIDI has something on their printers that does this or similar?
@@NeedItMakeIt no they don't. But the qidi does have a 6mm thick bed and from reviews it's a set once an forget system because the bed is so stable. I just wish creality would bring out a thicker upgraded flat bed.
@@NaughtyGoatFarm I'll see what I can setup with Qidi, it seems they're trying to make a push to be competitive and I respect that. I like the idea of having a few good solid companies to help drive innovation. I think Creality must realize that the Max needs a thicker bed, it can't cost that much to adopt at least 6mm for the max right?
@@NaughtyGoatFarm Gulfcoast Robotics seems to have the entire kits at better prices, but I'm waiting for them to get back to me about it. I had a look at the Mandela and they look really nice, however it looks like we'd need to purchase the rest of the parts ourselves. They're also calling to use a Voron heater pad, I'm not sure that's going to work too well, we need the 4 mounting holes clear to bolt it down. In any case I'll try to find one solution or another that I can mount and test out to make sure everything works correctly. Do you know if it's possible to remove and reuse the silicone from the original bed? They use a 3M adhesive rated to 200+°C, we could simply buy a new piece of adhesive, assuming we can actually remove it from the aluminum plate.
I've followed all of your videos on the K1 series (extremely helpful) and other videos as well to fine tune and root my K1 Max. Seems that no matter what I adjust or calibrate, I always get very bad ghosting/ringing. So bad that you can physically feel the ripples on the print as well as see them. I've changed speeds, loosened the belts, adjusted jerk settings, rooted and input shaped and still have no luck even slightly improving the ghosting/ringing issue... Do you have any other advice? I'm using Orca Slicer and Sunlu PLA. I can provide photos too if that would help. Also going to deep clean the X rods to remove the grease that it came with. What kind of light machine oil are you applying to it in this video? I have read that you shouldn't apply any lubricant to the X rod... Thanks in advance! Love your work!
@@danielmills3945 No worries, I'm sure it's something we can figure out. If you've rooted I might need you to check your config file as well after I run a test, it could be that your G-sensor isn't working correctly, input shaping isn't calibrating for some reason. We'll see.
Do you have a link to the rigid throat plate? I have that saw and a K1 Max and would love to give it a try. (Actually, the fence had me thinking it was an R4512, unfortunately the plate for that one is about an inch to long for me to print in one shot).
I’m always so close to buying this printer but then I see a comments of people having the worst time so I just don’t know. I’ve got a CR 10S V2 Pro and it’s crapped itself for the last time. PLEASE IS THE MAX WORTH IT? I don’t mind working on a printer every now and then because it can be fun but I want something I can rely on a little more. I’m tossing up between K1 Max and Bambu P1S, they are similar ish prices, I love the build volume of K1 max but the reliability of Bambu labs is better
@@NeedItMakeIt I’m an industrial designer so I print a lot of concept designs and I model everything my self from tech product upgrades, mechanisms, casings, useful house additions, storage organisation as well as prop making for fun. I do enjoy tinkering with a 3D printer, but when it’s every other time I want to print it gets draining.
@@robbspinks4589 If your designs are not big and you want high precision, a resin printer will give you the most detail, they have a bit more post-processing with the curing process etc. The resin can be quite expensive as well. If you want a printer that just works, the Bambu X1 or X1C is probably still the best, it does have the option for color, which I don't really use for that reason, I use it as a backup for when I run low on filament. It has a Dual Red Laser Scanner which is used for filament calibration which does actually work. It is only 1 of two printers I have used where I could open the box, unpack everything and then start printing without any trouble at all. I do have some issues with the color changes on PETG because it's so sticky, but that would be the same with any printer. The QIDI Q1 is the other printer, which has less bells and whistles, but it's reliable and very accurate. It's a bit bulky looking, but it does have the benefit of having a heated chamber, whereas the X1C does not. Personally I don't think we should be making bed-slingers anymore, I think the idea of "slinging" a big bed around with all of it's mass doesn't make sense when we can instead use a CoreXY setup which moves a smaller and less massive head and rails. In the case of the X1C they are CF on the X axis as well. The X1C is a fair bit more expensive than the Q1, and the X1C is 10mm large in print area for X and Y. I'm happy to hear that you're using your printer to design things that have a function. A side note, I am pretty sure there will be a new wave of faster and more accurate printers coming out within the year, the tech is still improving rapidly. I hope that helps at least a little bit.
If you're trying to determine the flatness of a part with a cold bed you're making a mistake, the bed will change shape when heated to temp Not saying it's not flat but that's not an accurate way to measure it
Sure, I usually use my granite surface place, which is what I use for metal work and sometimes precision parts that I make in 3D printing, it's accurate to I believe 0.0001 of an inch in flatness, I've no way to confirm this, but if it's close that's fine with me. The results on the surface plate show that the center is raised about 0.5mm. I wanted to showed this in the video simply as an observation because normally we have the opposite issue, however this being printed lightweight along with the changing shape of the bed like you mention may be contributing. I have several follow up videos about the bed flatness, and several methods of achieving better results as well.
I'm just guessing here but I would imagine that they'll release a K1C MAX, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have one printer with a bunch of changes, and the other one stays the same. Or they make the changes and leave the name as-is.
Question for bed leveling, if you can drive each lead screw manually can't you get a block or metal ruler and moving the lead screws by hand use the ruler to set each lead screw to the same distance from the frame or nozzle? Since the important thing is parallel to the xy gantry.
I think so too, sometimes mine jambs really bad and makes a lot of noise and it also disconnects from the mount at the back of the frame. I think it needs a different or modified setup. Do you think there are other types of cable-chain that would work, or a different setup?
One more, do you have an option to either not print a calibration line set or print a smaller one? I'm wondering if it's really necessary for every print.
I would imagine that they will. There are a few areas on the Max which could use a re-vamp. I'd like a kit to upgrade my K1 to a K1C. That would be so nice even if it was a bit of work to install the pieces.
I've completely removed the scanner, I've tried to use it many times after the video and I haven't had success it was wasting to much time and giving me poor results. It could be that they've made improvements now, but I doubt it since they're now focused on the K2 printer.
@@NeedItMakeIt ah yeah. I heard they don't waste much time to support "older" printers as well. At some point they have to do it because there isn't much changing anymore on 3D printers.
@@Todestelzer Bambu did it successfully, but when I watch theirs it uses IR light... well they claim that it does, I can't actually see it. They're also using dual red lasers, Creality only uses one. But mainly the bed warpage would prevent the K1 Max from having any level of accuracy, the adjustments are very fine and it doesn't know where the bed is truly in space, how could it compensate accurately? LiDAR or no LiDAR, it doesn't really matter, Bambu's works and Creality's did not. I found a section for the extrusion under experimental in Creality Print, and when I tried it, the results were not good at all, so that was the end for me.
A Lidar uses a laser for precise scanning . What do you mean by saying this is not a Lidar but only a laser scanner. That is what a lidar is. Am I missing something?
True, LiDAR uses lasers, this setup also uses a laser, this uses a standard camera to visually measure what the surfaces looks like, a LiDAR scanner measures the distance via the time it takes for light to go and come back to to the sensor. Bambu also uses a laser in the same way, however they have 2 lasers, they are far finer, and not in the visual spectrum, the precision with the Bambu lasers seems to work regardless, they are calling their system Micro-LiDAR, which is also inaccurate, on their site, they re-define it as dual-red laser measurement. It's all light and light, the point is that they're using the laser set at an angle to capture the offset of the laser line due to the extrusion. as opposed to sending light out and receiving at the sensor and measuring the amount of time it takes. In the end, it doesn't matter how they do it, what matters is that it works, and this one did not work well. I found out how to turn on the flow calibration on and it caused far more problems. Not having an extremely precise bed mesh to begin with is part of the problem, and I have addressed that in several follow up videos to this one. Feel free to message back if you want to continue the discussion!
I believe it's coming, I just don't know exactly when. I'd like even one more color, unfortunately the setup of the feed system will also need to change, they'll need another sensor inside the extruder or below it, currently it does not know when the filament ends precisely and also filament can get hung up pretty badly when trying to feed it through the current sensor. I hope that whatever they do, it allows people with one already to upgrade and use it.
I like having the printer because of the size, but the quality isn't quite there, I think their K2 could be a different story, but Bambu now has a good foot-hold so we'll see where this goes. I feel like the competition is ramping up.
HI AT THIS POINT IN TIME, NO ONE SHOULD EVER HAVE TO WORK SO HARD TO FIX A BED , HAVING LEVELING ISUUES ESPECIALY AFTER PAYING SO MUCH FOR THIS K1 MAX.
I agree, I have videos to correct the issues if someone is struggling. It's still a pretty good printer, but there are better options out there now in the same price range.
@@NeedItMakeIt thank you for your reply , most people do not reply, . i have been looking for a printer with the same bed size with an ams , like the new k2 plus from creality , but i understand creality will make available their cfm system for the k1 sieries printers, , but i have notice by watching many videos that this k1 max is having a leveling issue , this being the most important in 3d printing today is the perfect first layer.. plus the open source is a plus . i am hoping creality fixes this leveling issue , plus their lack of customer sevice is questionable , i am hoping this k2 plus does what it says it does , thank you
Hi, thanks for the video, very useful. Thank god I stopped by as I was going to buy one. What would be a better printer around the same price point? Thanks
I haven't had any success with it. I'd have to check again, maybe they've released an update. It has only a single laser scanner and also the bed changing shape during the heating process will throw off the tests. It could probably be made to work well, but they needed to understand a few things better before they tried to implement a laser calibration scanner first. I'll try to get back onto this soon, the last Flow test calibration I did (Experimental) did not go well.
Looks like practically every other Creality printer on the market. Cloned and cut corners with a healthy dose of Engrish instructions to compensate for shoddy construction.
Do you think it's upgradable? I've been thinking that a thicker plate would go a long way, adding all of that weight might cause problems with premature wear on the z nuts? Too bad there isn't a composite type bed with the element integrated, some type of ceramic which isn't prone to warpage. I've done testing and the bed will change shape by 1mm total between 45C and 100C. I tested this just 2 days ago because I wanted to understand it more. I think it could also be in part caused by the magnetic sticker, thermal expansion at different rates. More testing is required I think.
For sure, I guess it's a cost saving measure, saving on 2 motors, though I would have thought that 2 more motors, maybe smaller ones would be better than adding the belt and adding the spring tensioner system as well. I suppose It's still possible to change it out for that setup. It would be pretty slick.
Good job, but why? Creality k1, k1c, or max is pretty looking but shitty quality printers. The cast aluminium frame held by plastic inserts? Hello why bother with aluminium frame then?
Creality really needs to get its act together on quality. At this point I'd rather have a Voron 0 or a Switchwire than constantly being disappointed with how they needlessly cheap out in the wrong areas.
The overall frame, the CoreXY works well, the head and the extruder are all good now, but there are still a few lingering issues and I agree that it should be better. For the bed especially, there should be a better way to make the adjustment. With enough pressure and demand, they'll make the changes. I think like many big companies, change is slow and when you pump out the volumes they do, it's probably not something they want to do. There are a few things I really like about their newer printers. The New Ender 3 Plus and the K1 series use a lot of the same components, they're also moving to fully metal frames, injection molded mag. or alum. It's probably not great for vibration, but with Klipper I'd assume it can be compensated for. With the LiDAR, Bambu also calls their's LiDAR, but it actually works and it performs flow calibration as well. I believe that the difference is that Bambu thought about all of the ideas they wanted to include in the design before the designed it, Creality tried to add them on afterwards. Like designing a car and trying to add the headlights into it at the end. I believe they'll ramp up to the new level of competition and overall it's better for the consumer if competition is high.
@@ZappyOh On my K1, I loosened the belt and skipped teeth one at a time on whatever the lowest corner was, then re-ran the mesh, and kept doing this. It took about an hour and a half, but at the end of it the bed that started off with over a 2mm variance from highest to lowest, got down to a little under 0.2mm. I did not need to use shims to achieve this.
@@ZappyOh That is a better way, however it is extremely time consuming, there is no easy way to know how much you're adjusting it by. The shim method is something I created for anyone and everyone regardless of their skill level or tools they have. I think solving the problem at the root is better, but it can be hours to do it properly on the leadscrews.
My K1 Max is a total piece of crap. Table unlevel and bent. Creality will do nothing to correct this problem. Smaller parts printed towards the front of the plate will not stick to the plate. One time, they didn't stick to the plate and melted into a ball of filament, damaging the hot end
There are ways to correct this. I agree it’s crap they aren’t responsive to you. I have heard them replace warped beds with others. There are fixes and several videos on here to fix the bed level
And the lie-dar strikes again... ...apparently looking up the acronym one uses is too much to ask. L doesnt stand for laser in LIDAR. Nor does K1 max have any lasers on it. As structured light lidars are a thing. The issue is piss poor software as hardware is there.
Really enjoying your calm, patient, and thorough review style, complete with detailed setup tips to get the most out of the printer, and explaining all the things you're doing and looking for along the way. Really well done.
Thanks a lot, I'm slowly getting better... I think at making videos, sometimes I can get a little carried away. I'll have more videos coming going over more specific topics for this printer and the K1 as well.
You finally got "The Printer", congrats. This is my first printer so I have special feelings to it. Anyway, the lidar is a "no use" for me, I remove it, it causes me troubles, or it just stays there for no reason. The PA settings are simple- for regular PLA that prints with 150-200mm/s with this machine, the value is around 0.03, for hyper speed PLA printing around 300mm/s will be around 0.04. The more You increase the speed, the more You need to increase this number. I personally print a simple cube and observe the corners to see if there is a material exceeding the geometry, then the PA needs to be increased, i there is a underextrusion- need to decrease it. Check the belt tension, need to be equalized on both sides, and to be around 115Hz when the print head is in the middle. If You do this, will get rid of this layers misalignment, and overall, the print quality will increase significantly. The machine I've got came with very tight belts. I personally upgraded the hotend with the "Triangular Lab" one. Now the flow of the printer is around 35mm3, from 24mm3, and of course the speeds can be pushed up to 420mm/s with 0.2 LH and 0.4 LT, but than the PA go up to 0.056, at least in my case. I can speak endlessly about the K1 Max, but lets stop here, if You have any questions just ask.
i'm about to buy this as my first printer in less than a week, sounds like you recommend ?
@@MajorDiabetes
Such a question is very responsible. I will share experience, you collect data. What I love about this printer is: Print quality is very good, it is fast indeed, small for its build area, 300 cube is awesome, very nice looking, very good cooling, touchscreen and UI are great, low price, may be no competitor in that price range for that level of hardware. Big company, often updating firmware, lots of upgrades, can root the Klipper- endless possibilities. What I don't like: warped bed- its not that bad, but still it is warped and I can't do much about it unless if just buy thicker machined plate, but this is too much of hassle for me. Out of the box there are some imperfections, but I will tag them as a upgrade path: hotend is not very appropriate so I bought Trianglelab CHCB-OT and is better, nozzle will go MK8 CHT- best, this is how you can reach around 40mm3 instead 24mm3, Belts are too tight, you need to tune them around 110-115Hz while head is in the center, the tensioners on the back need little upgrade too. I put knobs on my bed for manual leveling. Wider belts(7.8mm) to increase print quality further more and get rid of any ghosting. Riser for the top so the PTFE tube not scratching on the glass, side spool holder or separate one. I made these upgrades and now this machine prints like there's no tomorrow. Still didn't change the belts because the quality is very good and I'm not rushing, but I have them. Currently I draw my model of riser because I want something more special. I hope this was helpful, me and many others like a lot this printer, but some, don't. This is my experience, I personally like that this printer have a upgrade path, like a reviewer said in one video: "K1 Max needs a little Love" :). Cheers.
24:21 µ is the Greek letter Mu, usually pronounced like mew, and it is the metric prefix meaning micro. So in this case µm is micrometers also known as microns.
I just picked up my K1 Max on Saturday. It's amazing!
I have another series of videos coming out soon to show people how to get even better results. Yup, it's definitely a capable printer, the extra build volume is really handy. Do you have other printers or is this your first?
@@NeedItMakeIt that's great! This is my second printer. I have a Zyltech Gear 2 that I have had for a couple years.
Please, clean the X axis before anything. Mine are destroyed. Everything has fine in the feirs month, Now it can even print cube that has no crazy deformations (VFA, Ghosting, resonances) that even input shaper cannot conpensate
@@NeedItMakeIt Was it worth the cost ?
I have had 100% perfect luck printing for about 2 weeks since getting my K1, until I just finished printing a set of very large trays with magnets embedded in the corners for the board game 'isle of cats', the trays that are just at 220mm wide, when stacking, one's corners don't touch the tray below it so the magnetic attraction is too weak, but it didn't lift off of the bed while printing, it just printed at the area of my bed that's being compensated for the most. thanks for this great info.
I have a video on that subject as well. I've had the same experiences and what was happening was that the magnetic plate was coming away from the bed, but only a little bit, the shrinkage of the material was strong enough to do this, and I was able to capture a timelapse of it happening as well. Parts that are printed nearly solid will tend to do this quite a bit more. I've always printed with heavy duty settings and I run into a lot of problems with warpage, and I hear it all of the time, that people never have an issue with it. I think it's because they're printing with light-duty settings and the stresses involved are far less.
The bed warpage could be contributing for sure, a few people have commented to use KAPTON tape below the bed in the low spots.. unfortunately the low spots will change based on the printing temperature.
LiDAR is light detection and ranging. They can be using the reflected laser and reading the wave changes to get bed hight information.
Mike,
I found your channel recently and have been binging your older videos.
My K1max was also showing weird warping of parts like yours. I determined that when the print had good adhesion to the build plate it was actually pulling that build plate up from the magnetic surface. I bought a 310x315 glass build plate originally made for the cr10 and all the warping disappeared. I had to order it special from creality and it took 2 months to get it. I attach it with some low profile 3d print bed/mirror clips. Auto bed leveling is unaffected by the glass. The adhesion to pla is incredibly strong, even after cooling but it fixes much of the problems expressed in this video. If you try one I think you’ll like it.
Very helpful review, I've been extremely happy with my K1C, decided to retire my old large format printer and pick one of these up, price was excellent, even if it has a few short comings, the K1C also passed WAF, so hopefully the Max does the same :)
Hi! I have mine and im super happy. Im designer and wow the speeds, i dont care about quality but i can really push it to 600 mm/s so this is just the machine for me
I've only been able to get close to those speeds and that's with a 0.4mm nozzle and with 0.08mm layer height, but yeah at that speed it does seem to give good results still which in itself is pretty impressive. I like the machine, I think it'll be better when we can put a thicker bed on it.
@@NeedItMakeIt well im printing 0.18 layer height 285/110° at 600mm/s infil, inner wall and 500 outer wall. And the best thong is that im printing PC blend from prusa 🥹😄 and the machine just does it.. im super impressed
Don't waste your time with meshing. Root it, get klipper installed, run the Klipper bed level, and let it do the compensating. The OEM bed leveling with the K1 series is dogwater and you'll spend more time tweaking it then printing for a marginal difference.
Do your PID calibrations, filament calibrations, and resonance tuning. Slap some glue down and call it a day.
Only issue I've had after hundreds of hours, is that the cable chain sags over time and causes print issues because the chain will rub on the axis rod while printing. I removed the chain completely, put a cable sleeve over the cable, installed a riser, and have been cooking since.
(I run two K1s and two Maxs about 20hrs a day)
Hi there, could you give me a minute of your day to help me with my decision, I run a car wrap shop and we are adding 3D printing for our custom car services(I'm a hobbyist since 2021). I'm toward the P1S or x1 carbon but your comment made me rethink the K1 Max due the bed size. How long you have your machines?
@pxtmotors4478 The printer you get should be based on the largest size print you want to do. I bought the K1 Max's because of the bed size and the ability to print large items in one piece.
However, if BambuLabs offered a printer in the same volume. I would have bought those. The build quality and print quality is superior.
I've had my printers for about about 8 months now.
The benefit of creality is that they have a lot of aftermarket support and community support. Bamboo Labs does not, they are for more proprietary. Which makes it more expensive to maintain.
It's like comparing Android to Apple.
@@secritsquirrel4994 I'll be printing a few body parts(that are really big) in sections to after that, put together and make a mold for carbon fiber or fiber glass. So I can print in more parts and put together but a bigger bed would make the process less "puzzle".
@@pxtmotors4478 If all you're doing is trying to make molds from prints the Max would be totally fine. It has solid dimensional accuracy.
@@secritsquirrel4994 thank you so much for your feedback and input, helped a lot, just ordered the K1 Max. It's your fault. 🤣🤣🤣
Hey Mike.. i guess that the print bed after the print finishes cools down faster in the middle of the bed than on the edges. So the shrinkage that happens in the material (although it's minimal) first happens in the middle. That leads to a small amount of lift on the big part you printed. Perhaps that's why although your bed is lower in the middle than on the edges your final print is the opposite. So yeah that's my idea: It could be an issue of temperature differential while cooling down.
Yeah, the RED card tray lifted up on the ends, but the white throat plate went down, so maybe a cooling issue, or related to how heavy the print was? The white print was light duty, and I almost never print that way. It threw me off a bit actually I was not expecting that at all. Good theory though, I'll have to do some testing to see if I can find a consistent reason.
I love your 3d printer videos. Does your K1 have the updated Unicorn nozzle? It REALLY improves the reliability of the machine and lets you get basically clog free and blob free prints forever. My K1C has been so reliable it is truely the set it and forget it printer. I would also suggest using Orca slicer, it seems to be better than creality print.
So if you had a open budget would you buy the K1C OR K1 MAX?
@@Ratbiker48 I would get a K1MAX because new models harbor all the same changes made with the K1C. It is essential a large K1C.
Very good review video, objectively focused on the key points. Quick question.... What's the model at minute 16:40??? (looks like a segment of the K1/K1 Max frame corner)
As always, really good content.
They should have been more serious about the bed.
It's too curvy and I saw in other videos the heat is not correctly distributed.
The Hepa filter doesn't protect you from gasses (they advertise it does) it's only rated for dust/particles, It will collect smoke. Filters only last 48 hours when the seal is removed, your printer comes with the seal already removed, the time it takes to ship to you means it's already dead. An adaptor should be modeled and printed up that takes the NATO 40mm thread or the 3M bayonet style attachment. An 3M bayonet adaptor can be threaded to fit on the 40mm thread so it could take either. The filter would need to be sealed after each print to extend the filter life. On the Max, there would still be some areas the smoke would escape. My design to collect it would be a hose positioned almost exactly where the hotend is to vacuum the smoke directly into the filter which wouldn't a big open side and this can help isolate the filter for longer use. If you smell the prints with everything sealed, the filter is obviously not working.
Yeah, I don't think these filters are nearly enough, it's more of a gimmick. The HEPA is for particles but it doesn't capture particles which are as fine as the ones produced from a printer, they are so small that they can be inhaled and absorbed through the lungs into your bloodstream and make their way around your body. Long-term we don't know yet how this will impact us, but I would have to assume at this point that foreign plastics coming into our bodies isn't going to be good. I still think venting outside is the best option while enclosing the entire printer(s).
I'd like to see some models of other filter options which are much larger, the issue is of course that the small fan at the back will not be able to move air through the filter. So the Bento box solution might be a better way.
@@NeedItMakeIt I had the thought even for laser etchers that maybe there should be a small vacuum tube very close, slightly above the laser or 3D printer nozzle to suck it in straight to a small gas mask filter. I don't think I'd want to let other people smell it outside lol I mean having a little suction system right at the source would prevent the need to massive vent systems, especially lasers! At least the K1/K1 Max has it's own enclosure.
one thing I don't like about k1 max is the filament runout position. you need to do a lot to put a new filament. I am going to to move outside and without tubing so I can very easy pull out finished filament.
Getting mine tomorrow for my bday yay 37 me. Lol beem seeing ur videos❤
Creality doesn’t specifically say it, but it is rather expected that you are supposed to remove the flow calibration lines just before your print begins printing. I’ve never seen anyone leave them on the bed.
EDIT: As for the LiDAR, it does work, and it does adjust the flow. However, it currently only does so when using Creality Print, and when the checkbox in the configuration is checked. Then, if you print with Calibration, it will do all of the above. At this time, print Calibration does not work with any other slicer. BTW, when using a different slicer, the acceleration controls under the Print Settings MUST be configured correctly.
Really, oh, I don't think that's something I would do, I'd have to watch the printer and automatic is supposed to be automatic. I think they need to work on it.
I have run some tests and it does do PA compensation, that's true, however it does not do flow, all of this of course through Creality print, they made it clear early on that it was not possible through any other slicer at this time.
I've gone quite a bit further and attempted to get it to do flow calibration, and again, it performed PA tests only, flow even when I set it to 2X what it should be was unaffected. Maybe it's something I've not set correctly, that's possible, however when you activate it in the software, it should work.
I will perform some more tests with the help of a few experts on my Discord, it's worth a bit more time to trying and figure out exactly what it is doing. However it clearly does not work the way it is supposed to, and it is not LiDAR. LiDAR systems do use lasers, however they use a sensor to measure the time it takes for light to go and then come back to the source. A laser at an angle can also work, but Bambus version uses two lasers, and maybe that's why it is far more accurate and does perform the flow calibration as well.
Let me know how you came to the conclusion that flow was compensated for. I've performed quite a few tests to see and it is not working on my printer and there seems to be no way to get it to activate.
@@NeedItMakeIt by default, when the extruder is not calibrated, it under extrudes. AFAIK, this is the default for all Creality printers. If you calibrate the extruder, you are always increasing the the amount of filament that is extruded. I have never come across a case where it is right on, or over extruding out of the box. When I have the Print Setting setup for Calibration, and I print something with Calibration turned on, it automatically corrects the flow. If it is turned off, every print comes out under extruded.
I know what full blown LiDAR is, and neither Creality, nor Bambu, come anywhere close to that. Creality is using their LiDAR for 2 purposes, 1) to simply detect the width of the extrusion, and 2) to detect the existence of filament. They use the width to calibrate both Pressure Advance and Flow.
@@cnc-maker Gotcha on the first part, before it runs the calibration sequence, however as far as correcting for flow, it does not. I have tested this and I can see that it corrects for PA, but not flow. I have tested just for flow by setting the flow of the filament to 2 times the value (2005) and the process runs and flow is not adjusted and the print turns out horribly. Additionally, the touchscreen calls for Motion advance calibration, not flow, and their user manual also says this, it does not state that flow is being adjusted for.
I'm happy to do more testing, just tell me where to turn it on, but I do not believe that it does flow calibration, or would be able to accurately, 7 probe sites on a bed of that size will not be accurate enough to be able to do flow calibration.
Can I ask you, is the laser coming on for scanning the calibration zone for you, or is it using the light and camera? It could be that we're running different versions of the FW, or something else is different that's unexpected. I'm on the newest release, just updated 1 week ago.
@@NeedItMakeIt it’s been a couple months since I did the testing that I did, and I do remember that the flow adjustment was not perfect, but it was good enough. If you specifically set the flow that high, that would affect what I had observed. Do I know for an absolute fact that it is adjusting flow? No, but Pressure Advance / Motion Advance would not account for the differences that were observed. The setting in Creality Print is “Experimental / Exact Flow Control” which I think is only available in Advanced mode.
As for the laser scanning, I see the spread laser scanning the test area before it runs its test, and then again after it prints the test. The only time I see it using the light and camera is when it is reading the barcode. I have always thought that that is used for a height calibration, but for what purpose, I do not know.
P.S. Now that I think about it, the camera and barcode could solely be used to calibrate the camera to compensate for lens distortion.
@@cnc-maker Okay, thanks. My plan was to make a follow up on only the 'LiDAR' and have it as it's own video when I can wrap my head around everything that its doing. I have the point cloud info from the laser, I want to convert that into a visual to see what it's doing. I believe the laser is being used for first layer detection for issues. Most of the people I know don't use the scanner any more, they say it's not good enough and causes more problems that just manually calibrating.
Personally I think it can be a lot better, but we need to understand what it's doing.
I don't mind running the tests and doing follow up videos if it can help.
I've switched to KAMP for the bed, and that is giving a far more precise bed mesh for smaller prints, anything the size of the bed will have the same first-layer issues unfortunately.
Also, I've done testing on the bed warpage at 45C, 60C, 80C and 100C, and the bed warpage goes from 0.5mm Concave to 0.6mm Convex. Another reason to do a mesh before each print unless you always print at the same temps.
Have a good one.
What is that red sparkle filament you used? It is beautiful. Thanks for the video.
It is pretty nice. That is Bambu Red Sparkle PLA; it seem to be one of the better ones as far as consistent size and how it looks. Thanks for checking out the video!
Hey you left that setting turned off if you go to 11:30 in the video and watch. You checked an option "on" in the settings but the feature it was for was left off on the right of the screen just fyi
you can get the li dar senser for the k1 i have it a addon i got mine from ebay and you just screw it in the same side and plug it in to the back also the multi colour printing is coming soon for both printer creailty told me
Really, that I did not know. I'm off to Ebay to check it out right now! I assume that it doesn't do flow calibration still?
Do not now never asked that I ask a company I use technology outlet they said it works there a port on the back of the hot end remember you need to enable it on the control pad
Good look
I have just got the P1S combo 2 days ago I like it so much may be getting another soon
One would think the parallel adjustment would have been done at the factory. Creality not doing this just reafirms my belief the Creality QA has not improved over the years. They are still lazy in this department. Not trying to hate on them but they really need to change their ways. Anyway it was a great video. Very informative.
Great video! What kind of oil did you use to lube the rods?
Thanks. I use sewing machine oil, I've been running the X axis with no oil lately and it seems to be working well with the graphite lube alone. with oil it tends to get a bit messy and needs more cleaning.
@@NeedItMakeIt I'll do a lite cleaning then. Thanks for the reply!
@@mironccr345 That's probably the best, I did some research and graphite is an excellent lubricant, one of the best out there and those bushings look to be nice quality and the fit is very precise. They will wear just like anything, but adding the oil may counter the graphite's performance, I can't say for certain, we'd need someone with more experience on that front that I have.
@MakeIt I was leaning towards that as well. I quickly did some reseach on graphite bearnings. I'm not that invested, but your video had me intregued. Thanks for the videos, keep them coming!
@@mironccr345 I'm glad I took it apart, I ended up doing it when I was editing the video, I thought I had better do it to be sure. Thanks for the taking the time to write some comments and for the support, I really appreciate it!
I always just remove the calibration lines before the print starts. Never had an issue.
You peel them off? I've done some more testing and the PA is certainly being adjusted just before the print starts, but flow is not and I have some samples where I increased flow to 2x and no changes are being made. PA testing is good, but I think it could be improved. Maybe they need the dual laser setup that Bambu uses, or it's an issue with the type/color setup of the laser. A little strange that it also doesn't reach the entire bed as well.
2:56 Do you usually run your spool that direction? The spool should be flipped so that the filament path comes from the bottom of the spool and feeding rotates the spool Clockwise.
That's right, there is a reason for it, though it's no intuitive, it feeds better that way. On the back of the printer there was a sticker to say that the 'backwards' feed it the correct one. I was careful as well because in a previous video someone pointed out my mistake. That extra bend seems to help the filament feed in smoothly, and the cracking noises I was getting from the spool don't happen anymore either, which was super annoying with PETG.
the 110/220 is on the left side the on my k1 got it 3 days ego its with a upgraded extruder and better door
Maybe I just feel spoiled after using an ender 3 for years, but I love my k1 max, it works just fine, it’s fast, and I can make my kids superhero masks and Mandaorian helmets in one go with great quality. I just wish the darn spool holder was on the side and not the back
You know it's really about perspective. I drive a minivan, and I'm plenty happy with it, because before that I had a small Hatchback.
My only major complaint is that they've touted the AI LiDAR as being able to scan the bed and calibrate the filament. From what I can see, it only calibrates for Pressure Advance I think they could re-vamp it and it could do everything without too much work. The printer itself is good, the frame is good the whole structure is well done, just a few small things to address and it could be great.
I have the Bambu printer and I think that's where I have something that far exceeded my expectations to compare against, so maybe I've been tainted a little bit.
I'm with you, I still like it, and having the extra space to print in is really nice.
I'll have a few more videos on this printer coming out showing how to get better results and speed up the bed probing process and a bit about the warpage that I've learned as well.
Thanks!
@@NeedItMakeIt hopefully creality will put out a firmware update will fix it. But probably not. Glad you reviewed it though!
@@---ey6hj I'm a bit surprised that they haven't been pushing hard with little adjustments, the calibration zone and the way it works, isn't very good. I tried some PETG yesterday and because it moves right back with a long travel, the PETG strings and oozes, and leaves a zone with no filament on it.
I've found the file to tell the printer what to do, but if I start changing it, I'd end up messing up the way the camera uses that info... maybe.
If Bambu can do it, Creality can too they need a better setup for scanning and calibrating and then it would be amazing, and it could be an add-on to existing printers.
I hope they do come out with something!
Hey there! Where can I get the file for the clips to hold the tube on top of the cable chain? Thanks in advance!!
One day i dont have to fiddle around with zeroning, offsets, warped beds ... man i will miss the days fiddling 5 hours on my ender to print a 3 hour piece ... but i wont be buying anything every again until it tells me to automate everything you just showed to do when unboxing that thing ... i have no problems greasing stuff, revisioning stuff that has worn or something replace bushings ect. ect. but i dont want to fiddle around before i can print ... thats like owning a car and to get it running to go to work in the morning you have to wire stuff and programm tables for the ignition to and injection to even get it to start and then wiggle around in it till you arrive at work ... cant take that anymore. I have no problem repairing "wear" but i dont pay 800 bucks just for it to be puking all over the place left and right with uncooked features and mechanics that do 20% of the work but hinder me 100% from using it
Do you have an stl file for those clips you made for the K1. Would like to take advantage of that if possible. Thanks
Great review. I would love to see you do a review like this for the Qidi X max 3. I was underwhelmed by my k1 max. I had issues with the K1 max and have returned it for a refund. I'm looking for an alternative.
They reached out to me a few weeks ago and I wouldn't mind seeing what they're doing differently. What I can say is that the dual red laser scanner that Bambu uses is very hard to beat. The ability to just print and not have to think about the other stuff is pretty nice, I think all printers should have a system like this. Do you know if QIDI has something on their printers that does this or similar?
@@NeedItMakeIt no they don't. But the qidi does have a 6mm thick bed and from reviews it's a set once an forget system because the bed is so stable. I just wish creality would bring out a thicker upgraded flat bed.
@@NaughtyGoatFarm I'll see what I can setup with Qidi, it seems they're trying to make a push to be competitive and I respect that. I like the idea of having a few good solid companies to help drive innovation. I think Creality must realize that the Max needs a thicker bed, it can't cost that much to adopt at least 6mm for the max right?
@@NeedItMakeIt see if you can get one of those Mandela K1 max beds to review. If I can see its worth getting I will order one.
@@NaughtyGoatFarm Gulfcoast Robotics seems to have the entire kits at better prices, but I'm waiting for them to get back to me about it. I had a look at the Mandela and they look really nice, however it looks like we'd need to purchase the rest of the parts ourselves. They're also calling to use a Voron heater pad, I'm not sure that's going to work too well, we need the 4 mounting holes clear to bolt it down. In any case I'll try to find one solution or another that I can mount and test out to make sure everything works correctly.
Do you know if it's possible to remove and reuse the silicone from the original bed? They use a 3M adhesive rated to 200+°C, we could simply buy a new piece of adhesive, assuming we can actually remove it from the aluminum plate.
I've followed all of your videos on the K1 series (extremely helpful) and other videos as well to fine tune and root my K1 Max. Seems that no matter what I adjust or calibrate, I always get very bad ghosting/ringing. So bad that you can physically feel the ripples on the print as well as see them. I've changed speeds, loosened the belts, adjusted jerk settings, rooted and input shaped and still have no luck even slightly improving the ghosting/ringing issue... Do you have any other advice?
I'm using Orca Slicer and Sunlu PLA. I can provide photos too if that would help. Also going to deep clean the X rods to remove the grease that it came with. What kind of light machine oil are you applying to it in this video? I have read that you shouldn't apply any lubricant to the X rod...
Thanks in advance! Love your work!
Can you send me a file to test out on my Max? I'd like to see if I have similar issues to you and then we can go from there. Needitmakeit@gmail.com
@@NeedItMakeIt Absolutely! Thanks so much for responding and helping!!
@@danielmills3945 No worries, I'm sure it's something we can figure out. If you've rooted I might need you to check your config file as well after I run a test, it could be that your G-sensor isn't working correctly, input shaping isn't calibrating for some reason. We'll see.
@@NeedItMakeIt You are already 1000% better than Creality support lol!
@@danielmills3945 haha... laugh tapers off to realizing that I work too much :|
Do you have a link to the rigid throat plate? I have that saw and a K1 Max and would love to give it a try. (Actually, the fence had me thinking it was an R4512, unfortunately the plate for that one is about an inch to long for me to print in one shot).
I’m always so close to buying this printer but then I see a comments of people having the worst time so I just don’t know. I’ve got a CR 10S V2 Pro and it’s crapped itself for the last time. PLEASE IS THE MAX WORTH IT? I don’t mind working on a printer every now and then because it can be fun but I want something I can rely on a little more.
I’m tossing up between K1 Max and Bambu P1S, they are similar ish prices, I love the build volume of K1 max but the reliability of Bambu labs is better
Can you give me a sense of what types of things you'd like to print?
@@NeedItMakeIt I’m an industrial designer so I print a lot of concept designs and I model everything my self from tech product upgrades, mechanisms, casings, useful house additions, storage organisation as well as prop making for fun. I do enjoy tinkering with a 3D printer, but when it’s every other time I want to print it gets draining.
@@robbspinks4589 If your designs are not big and you want high precision, a resin printer will give you the most detail, they have a bit more post-processing with the curing process etc. The resin can be quite expensive as well. If you want a printer that just works, the Bambu X1 or X1C is probably still the best, it does have the option for color, which I don't really use for that reason, I use it as a backup for when I run low on filament. It has a Dual Red Laser Scanner which is used for filament calibration which does actually work. It is only 1 of two printers I have used where I could open the box, unpack everything and then start printing without any trouble at all. I do have some issues with the color changes on PETG because it's so sticky, but that would be the same with any printer. The QIDI Q1 is the other printer, which has less bells and whistles, but it's reliable and very accurate. It's a bit bulky looking, but it does have the benefit of having a heated chamber, whereas the X1C does not.
Personally I don't think we should be making bed-slingers anymore, I think the idea of "slinging" a big bed around with all of it's mass doesn't make sense when we can instead use a CoreXY setup which moves a smaller and less massive head and rails. In the case of the X1C they are CF on the X axis as well. The X1C is a fair bit more expensive than the Q1, and the X1C is 10mm large in print area for X and Y.
I'm happy to hear that you're using your printer to design things that have a function.
A side note, I am pretty sure there will be a new wave of faster and more accurate printers coming out within the year, the tech is still improving rapidly.
I hope that helps at least a little bit.
If you're trying to determine the flatness of a part with a cold bed you're making a mistake, the bed will change shape when heated to temp
Not saying it's not flat but that's not an accurate way to measure it
Sure, I usually use my granite surface place, which is what I use for metal work and sometimes precision parts that I make in 3D printing, it's accurate to I believe 0.0001 of an inch in flatness, I've no way to confirm this, but if it's close that's fine with me.
The results on the surface plate show that the center is raised about 0.5mm. I wanted to showed this in the video simply as an observation because normally we have the opposite issue, however this being printed lightweight along with the changing shape of the bed like you mention may be contributing.
I have several follow up videos about the bed flatness, and several methods of achieving better results as well.
I have only one regret getting the K1 Max... That I did not wait for version 2.
I'm just guessing here but I would imagine that they'll release a K1C MAX, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have one printer with a bunch of changes, and the other one stays the same. Or they make the changes and leave the name as-is.
Question for bed leveling, if you can drive each lead screw manually can't you get a block or metal ruler and moving the lead screws by hand use the ruler to set each lead screw to the same distance from the frame or nozzle? Since the important thing is parallel to the xy gantry.
How do i get rid of the annoying vertical lines and waves?
Its odd its like the K1 should have been made taller so the drag chain moves inside like the K1 Max
I think so too, sometimes mine jambs really bad and makes a lot of noise and it also disconnects from the mount at the back of the frame. I think it needs a different or modified setup. Do you think there are other types of cable-chain that would work, or a different setup?
Please if i change the filaments it alone choose the temperature
Wouldn’t it be better to do the bed mesh with the bed heated? I get a different result heated
One more, do you have an option to either not print a calibration line set or print a smaller one? I'm wondering if it's really necessary for every print.
You do not need to calibrate every print, you can just select "one click print" at it will print without calibration.
are they going to release a K1C max??
I would imagine that they will. There are a few areas on the Max which could use a re-vamp. I'd like a kit to upgrade my K1 to a K1C. That would be so nice even if it was a bit of work to install the pieces.
11:33 you didn’t enable first layer detection. Only the pause on faults option.
I've completely removed the scanner, I've tried to use it many times after the video and I haven't had success it was wasting to much time and giving me poor results. It could be that they've made improvements now, but I doubt it since they're now focused on the K2 printer.
@@NeedItMakeIt ah yeah. I heard they don't waste much time to support "older" printers as well.
At some point they have to do it because there isn't much changing anymore on 3D printers.
@@Todestelzer Bambu did it successfully, but when I watch theirs it uses IR light... well they claim that it does, I can't actually see it. They're also using dual red lasers, Creality only uses one. But mainly the bed warpage would prevent the K1 Max from having any level of accuracy, the adjustments are very fine and it doesn't know where the bed is truly in space, how could it compensate accurately? LiDAR or no LiDAR, it doesn't really matter, Bambu's works and Creality's did not. I found a section for the extrusion under experimental in Creality Print, and when I tried it, the results were not good at all, so that was the end for me.
Thanks!
Thank you very much!
A Lidar uses a laser for precise scanning . What do you mean by saying this is not a Lidar but only a laser scanner. That is what a lidar is. Am I missing something?
True, LiDAR uses lasers, this setup also uses a laser, this uses a standard camera to visually measure what the surfaces looks like, a LiDAR scanner measures the distance via the time it takes for light to go and come back to to the sensor. Bambu also uses a laser in the same way, however they have 2 lasers, they are far finer, and not in the visual spectrum, the precision with the Bambu lasers seems to work regardless, they are calling their system Micro-LiDAR, which is also inaccurate, on their site, they re-define it as dual-red laser measurement.
It's all light and light, the point is that they're using the laser set at an angle to capture the offset of the laser line due to the extrusion. as opposed to sending light out and receiving at the sensor and measuring the amount of time it takes.
In the end, it doesn't matter how they do it, what matters is that it works, and this one did not work well. I found out how to turn on the flow calibration on and it caused far more problems. Not having an extremely precise bed mesh to begin with is part of the problem, and I have addressed that in several follow up videos to this one.
Feel free to message back if you want to continue the discussion!
I want one of these ... if only Creality would offer some sort of multi-material solution :(
I believe it's coming, I just don't know exactly when. I'd like even one more color, unfortunately the setup of the feed system will also need to change, they'll need another sensor inside the extruder or below it, currently it does not know when the filament ends precisely and also filament can get hung up pretty badly when trying to feed it through the current sensor. I hope that whatever they do, it allows people with one already to upgrade and use it.
Good, honest review.
A car with square steering wheel. Thanks, but no thanks.
I like having the printer because of the size, but the quality isn't quite there, I think their K2 could be a different story, but Bambu now has a good foot-hold so we'll see where this goes. I feel like the competition is ramping up.
HI AT THIS POINT IN TIME, NO ONE SHOULD EVER HAVE TO WORK SO HARD TO FIX A BED , HAVING LEVELING ISUUES ESPECIALY AFTER PAYING SO MUCH FOR THIS K1 MAX.
I agree, I have videos to correct the issues if someone is struggling. It's still a pretty good printer, but there are better options out there now in the same price range.
@@NeedItMakeIt thank you for your reply , most people do not reply, . i have been looking for a printer with the same bed size with an ams , like the new k2 plus from creality , but i understand creality will make available their cfm system for the k1 sieries printers, , but i have notice by watching many videos that this k1 max is having a leveling issue , this being the most important in 3d printing today is the perfect first layer.. plus the open source is a plus . i am hoping creality fixes this leveling issue , plus their lack of customer sevice is questionable , i am hoping this k2 plus does what it says it does , thank you
Hi, thanks for the video, very useful. Thank god I stopped by as I was going to buy one. What would be a better printer around the same price point? Thanks
Is the AI lidar calibration fixed?
I haven't had any success with it. I'd have to check again, maybe they've released an update. It has only a single laser scanner and also the bed changing shape during the heating process will throw off the tests. It could probably be made to work well, but they needed to understand a few things better before they tried to implement a laser calibration scanner first.
I'll try to get back onto this soon, the last Flow test calibration I did (Experimental) did not go well.
Looks like practically every other Creality printer on the market. Cloned and cut corners with a healthy dose of Engrish instructions to compensate for shoddy construction.
I think the lidar isn't working
Come from voron and ratrig. Nice machine but realy don't like the bed.
Do you think it's upgradable? I've been thinking that a thicker plate would go a long way, adding all of that weight might cause problems with premature wear on the z nuts? Too bad there isn't a composite type bed with the element integrated, some type of ceramic which isn't prone to warpage.
I've done testing and the bed will change shape by 1mm total between 45C and 100C. I tested this just 2 days ago because I wanted to understand it more. I think it could also be in part caused by the magnetic sticker, thermal expansion at different rates. More testing is required I think.
All the bed leveling could’ve been avoided if they had the true kinematic bed leveling. Instead they mimic it using a single motor and belted.
For sure, I guess it's a cost saving measure, saving on 2 motors, though I would have thought that 2 more motors, maybe smaller ones would be better than adding the belt and adding the spring tensioner system as well. I suppose It's still possible to change it out for that setup. It would be pretty slick.
The lidar appears to be a complete waste of time.
Good job, but why? Creality k1, k1c, or max is pretty looking but shitty quality printers. The cast aluminium frame held by plastic inserts? Hello why bother with aluminium frame then?
glue stick in 2024? I havent needed glue stick since my CTC printer in 2016.
Creality really needs to get its act together on quality. At this point I'd rather have a Voron 0 or a Switchwire than constantly being disappointed with how they needlessly cheap out in the wrong areas.
The overall frame, the CoreXY works well, the head and the extruder are all good now, but there are still a few lingering issues and I agree that it should be better. For the bed especially, there should be a better way to make the adjustment. With enough pressure and demand, they'll make the changes. I think like many big companies, change is slow and when you pump out the volumes they do, it's probably not something they want to do. There are a few things I really like about their newer printers. The New Ender 3 Plus and the K1 series use a lot of the same components, they're also moving to fully metal frames, injection molded mag. or alum. It's probably not great for vibration, but with Klipper I'd assume it can be compensated for.
With the LiDAR, Bambu also calls their's LiDAR, but it actually works and it performs flow calibration as well. I believe that the difference is that Bambu thought about all of the ideas they wanted to include in the design before the designed it, Creality tried to add them on afterwards. Like designing a car and trying to add the headlights into it at the end.
I believe they'll ramp up to the new level of competition and overall it's better for the consumer if competition is high.
Having to use "shims" on a 3d printer tells me the design is wrong. There should be wheels.
Probably a better way to fix this issue, would be to adjust the belt underneath, driving the lead screws moving the bed.
@@ZappyOh On my K1, I loosened the belt and skipped teeth one at a time on whatever the lowest corner was, then re-ran the mesh, and kept doing this. It took about an hour and a half, but at the end of it the bed that started off with over a 2mm variance from highest to lowest, got down to a little under 0.2mm. I did not need to use shims to achieve this.
Yes the bed should have a way to level it, I believe they've figured this out on the K1C, the design for the bed is completely different.
@@ZappyOh That is a better way, however it is extremely time consuming, there is no easy way to know how much you're adjusting it by. The shim method is something I created for anyone and everyone regardless of their skill level or tools they have. I think solving the problem at the root is better, but it can be hours to do it properly on the leadscrews.
My K1 Max is a total piece of crap. Table unlevel and bent. Creality will do nothing to correct this problem. Smaller parts printed towards the front of the plate will not stick to the plate. One time, they didn't stick to the plate and melted into a ball of filament, damaging the hot end
Use a glue stick
Of course I use a glue stick. In fact Creality states in the instructions that you must use glue on their PEI.
@@tabhinton6678sounds like user error
There are ways to correct this. I agree it’s crap they aren’t responsive to you. I have heard them replace warped beds with others. There are fixes and several videos on here to fix the bed level
Maybe on your part but not on mine.
And the lie-dar strikes again...
...apparently looking up the acronym one uses is too much to ask. L doesnt stand for laser in LIDAR. Nor does K1 max have any lasers on it. As structured light lidars are a thing.
The issue is piss poor software as hardware is there.
Creality…..never again
What are your top picks? Bambu.. Voron?