Are you looking for the best budget 3D Printer to get your new 3D printing hobby started?
Bottom Line Up Front
For those of you with someplace to be:
Our Pros: A large print platform. I can’t stress how important this feature is. Not everybody needs a large print area, but if you are looking at Cosplay, or just aren’t sure what you’ll be printing, you’ll want this print area. Best of all the Creality CR-10s doesn’t ask you to sacrifice quality for print area like many other 3D Printers.
Our Cons: Setting up the filament-out detection sensors can be quite a hassle due to a relatively poor setup guide. Some people have their home 3D Printers right in their living spaces. That may be a problem with this machine as it is definitely not quiet. If you have to have this near your entertainment room, beware. If you can find somewhere else to set up though, you should be fine.
Our Bottom Line: As budget 3D printers go, CR -10s is at the top of the pyramid and outperforms most of the other options currently on the market. The huge build volume is key for me. As a hobbyist, I just don’t know what new project will pop into my head. I want to be able to create my project with as little need for post-production assembly as possible. As a nerd family that loves Cosplay this machine is far and away at the top of my list.
Stop reading here and Buy CR-10s Now!
CR-10s review. Build it bigger.
Looking at the current lineup of 3D Printers on the market you might be struggling to find 3D printers with enough build space, flexible printing options, or more importantly, one that falls within your budget! If you’re worried you’ll end up with a 3D Printer that won’t fit your needs, you need to read this review. Here’s why…
The CR-10s is easily one of the best 3D Printers on the market right now, and for good reason. It’s a quality build made with some of the most important hobbyist features in mind.
Let us guide you on your 3D printer journey with this comprehensive review where we will scrutinize all the features you need to consider before making a payment for this 3D printer. Stand by now, as we dive right in.
What most people do when buying a 3D printer is focus on the specs without first considering what they will be doing with it. Not us though. We want to consider exactly what
Need more build volume.
Most 3D printers for hobbyists just don’t have very large build areas. Most manufacturers have opted to keep prices low by sacrificing build volume, and this comes with a number of problems for at homemakers. For most people, this isn’t an acceptable answer because:
- It means more work on the front end while you use software to split a project up into bite-size chunks.
- It means more work on the back end while you assemble pieces together for a final product.
- 3D Prints that have been assembled after the fact inherently have weak points where they have been joined or fused together.
You can opt for a 3D printer with a small build volume, but you’ll be settling for something lesser. You’ll likely become frustrated or dissatisfied. You may just choose not to print large projects. Worse, you may give up on the hobby altogether.
Is the CR-10s the solution we’ve been looking for?
Thankfully Creality has provided makers with the solution we need. The CR-10s is a 3D printer built with desktops and smaller workspaces in mind. And before going into any details—specifications, features etc.—, we would like you to know that the CR-10s is still a domestic or beginners 3D printer. It is meant to be used extensively by both experienced hobbyists and beginners and it’s flexibility allows it to 3D print most filament types.
An upgrade to a proven solution.
The CR-10s is an upgrade based on the CR-10 and was released at the tail end of 2017. Creality took the reviews and experiences from CR-10 users, and used them to enhance the CR-10s. That means this machine has been tweaked specifically to remove obstacles for you. It now gives its users more options and a bigger build space to work with than its predecessor. Read on as we explore the CR-10s to aid you in your decision-making process when purchasing a budget 3D printer.
Note: I used our 3D printer’s buyers guide as the yardstick for this review. If you want to really dig deep I recommend checking that article out.
Unboxing the CR – 10s
If you’re like me, unboxing your new purchase is the most exciting part. When I order a big purchase from Amazon I keep watching for that box to show up, and I can’t wait to break into it as soon as it arrives. Unboxing the CR-10s is a pleasure for those that aren’t interested in long and complicated builds before firing up their printer for their first print. The CR-10s is a semi-assembled 3D printer that comes with little or no fuss. I use the term ‘semi-assembled’ here because you still need to attach a few screws and cable to its three sections—the upper frame, lower frame and LCD control box—to get it ready to run. In its package, you get:
- The pre-built 3D printer
- Micro USB and card reader
- Spare Parts
- Assembling tools, start guide
- AC and USB cables
- Filament Holder and PLA filament
The CR-10s comes equipped with all the items you need to get started right out of its box and the quick start guide includes a step-by-step process for doing so.
Pro Tip: when setting up the Cr-10s, it is important to ensure that the six barring wheels at its z-axis move under the same force in order to achieve a smooth transition of its print bed while 3d printing. It also eliminates wobbles and ensures higher print quality.
What are the CR-10s features and specifications?
The CR -10s is a Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)/ Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) 3D printer which is aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and was designed for easy use. Therefore, there’s really no complexity to working with its control box, feeding it with filament or initiating the printing process. In terms of its build volume or size, its breadth, width and length of 300*300*400 mm/11.8×11.8×15.7 in. provides you with an extremely large space for printing your 3D prints.
We’ve already discussed some of why the build area is so important. Here is where I put a plug in for Cosplay again. When you are building costumes made to fit people you’ll be frequently working with larger prints, and build volume is critical. While this isn’t the 3D printer for every hobbyist it is the best for Cosplay by far.
How versatile is it?
Fortunately for every hobbyist, the CR-10s is quite versatile when you consider the different types of filament it can print. Although it works optimally with a PLA filament, you can still make use of wood, copper, carbon fiber, ABS and TPU filaments as long as you get the settings right and pace the printing process. I guess this is also the time to state that it comes with a heated glass print bed which reduces the possibility of warping when 3D printing with any material.
Assessing its 3D printing abilities, one immediately notes that the CR-10s is a single extruder with an added advantage. And that advantage is the possibility of swapping nozzles—of different sizes—when 3D printing. While you can make this modification on many 3D printers, not all handle the swap as well as you might expect. the CR-10s does admirably in this department. You can swap nozzles from the standard 0.4mm diameter size to either the smaller 0.3mm option or the larger 0.8mm one which adds versatility to what you can achieve. This versatility strongly affects print speed and quality.
Speaking of print speed the CR – 10s prints at a maximum print speed of 200 mm/second. When working on more intricate or delicate designs you should reduce the speed of print to a reasonable level to ensure high print quality.
With it’s print speed, and 100-300 micron resolution this 3D printer is able to churn out quite accurate 3D prints.
If you’ve read my buyer’s guide you’ll know that connection is pretty important to me. You can run the CR-10s completely offline if you want using an SD card, but most importantly there is a USB hookup. Looking for a wireless 3D Printer? Don’t worry, you can turn any 3D printer into a wireless one. I cover the best software to accomplish this in this article.
What kind of software should I use with my CR-10s?
In terms of software compatibility, versatility is once again the watchword. CR-10s gives you the option of using your favorite printing software and the option of making use of the more popular software apps out there. The CR-10s works well with Simplify3D, Slicr3r, and Repetier Host etc.
What are some other cool features of the CR – 10s?
The LCD control makes it easy to keep track of certain parameters while 3D printing. One of its very helpful readings is the ‘filament out’ alert controlled by its ‘filament-out detection system’. This really works well and compliments the ‘filament resume’ feature which ensures that your project restarts from where the filament ran out once you put in another spool.
You might be thinking this is one of those little on the top features that is there more to sell than for usefulness. You’d be wrong. Consider quality 3D prints of large size are going to take quite awhile to print and will use quite a bit of filament. This filament out feature not only lets you know when you’ve run out, but it also allows you to resume from where you left off. Printers that don’t have this sometimes leave their users stranded with the dilemma of figuring out how to finish their incomplete work.
Is it decision time already?
The CR -10s truly delivers a seamless 3D printing experience as long as you get its settings right. It gives you the ability to 3D print large prints with fine details even while on a budget.
Now you have a choice to make. Do you want to do nothing at all, and keep putting off the decision to start on this awesome 3D Printer hobby? You know how that will turn out. Do you really want to continue to procrastinate? Take action and turn your daydreams into reality. Finally get that 3D Printer, and make your thoughts real objects you can hold in your hand.
It’s time to say goodbye now, but first here’s what you do now. Click the button below to go to Amazon, add this bad boy to your cart, and proceed to checkout. Don’t forget to stock up on filament to start too.