3D Printer Creality CR-6 SE, Upgraded Design with Silent Motherboard, New Nozzle and Extruder Structure, Resume Printing and HD Color Touch Screen

I’ve been wanting a 3DPrinter for quite a while and finally made the decision on this one after reading reviews online and comparing the various printers. This one has one of the largest print areas available at this level of machine and that was a major selling point for me as I have some fairly large things I want to print.

So, after parting with the money I confess I sat in dread waiting for it to arrive. No real clue what I was getting for the money or how complicated it would all be, and also trying to justify it to my wife. The printer arrived very quickly – which was a good thing as I did not manage to wind myself into a lather over it. It is very securely packaged in a good solid carboard box and surrounded by cut foam to protect it from the excesses of our delivery services. Unpacking was painless and easy, as was arranging the various parts for assembly.

-NOTE – No tools are supplied with this item. You will need a hex key set and a little patience to assemble this.

It took me about 30 minutes to put the thing together following the instructions. There’s not a lot to do to be honest, as it is mostly assembled already. All that is needed, is to fit the upright travel arm, connect some plugs to their relevant sockets, attach the touch screen control, add a handle and the PLA support arm. I took my time over it not wanting to get anything wrong and of course, I had to find the relevant tools to screw the thing together.

It is surprisingly light to be honest, though there is a bit of weight, so two hands to lift, carry and move it.

Setting the machine up again is relatively simple following the instructions. However, the recommended settings for this printer are no good. I tried a print with those settings and it was a mess. Had to cancel part way through. It was a simple model so not like a lot of filament was wasted. I highly recommend you choose a very simple small model as you first print as there will be some fiddling with settings to get it to work right. Creality provide software for setting up and cutting models. You can either use a 16gb (no larger) SD Card or connect the printer via USB to your laptop/computer. Honestly the USB works fine for me and is more convenient.

One thing to note, if using the SD card, it needs to be inserted into the printer with the connector teeth facing UP, pretty much the opposite of the way they are normally inserted. Do NOT use an SD card larger than 16gb as the printer will not be able to read it.

USB works fine, but if you are using Windows you will need to disable the sleep function on USB via the power options in settings.

Connecting the printer via USB is a bit of a fiddle, as Windows will not recognise the printer. However, if you are comfortable with using Windows, you can get around this by using the device manager and downloading the relevant driver from Creality. If you are not familiar with this, there is a lot of help on the internet and most of it easy to follow.

Another thing to note. The PLA supplied with the printer isn’t really very good. It doesn’t give a very satisfactory finish, or work too well. So if you order a printer, get a roll of PLA from one of the various companies who provide such things.

In regards to everything related to 3D Printing, the internet is your best friend. There is a huge amount of information and assistance available on the net to help you get started with this (and other) printers. Just make sure you type the name of the printer into the search with your query, or you may get results that are for a different printer and which won’t work.

Again, Creality has their own website and forum which contain a lot of very useful information. I would suggest these sources above others to start with. Don’t buy a book on 3D Printing, they are generic and won’t help you as much as specific information for the printer you buy.

The two software applications that are recommended are the Creality Slicer which is available on their website and one recommended by most people who print with these machines – Ultimaker Cura. I’ve tried both of these and Cura has more options and control, but the Creality Slicer is more than adequate and will do pretty much anything you require.

Printing with this machine is advertised as being faster than most other printers. Yes, this is probably true. However, print quality drops dramatically with speed. As such, one thing you are likely to do is slow down the print speed to get better quality, and less risk of ending up with blobs or a bird’s nest mess. As a result, printing a model will take time. My first successful print took 7 hours. A more complex print took 18 hours. One of the models my daughter wants to print is going to take several days.

Patience is not just a virtue, it is absolutely essential for 3D Printing.

If you have any skill modelling, there is a wide variety of software to help you make your own models. Either software you install on your computer or use online. I don’t personally like the online things myself as I like to walk away from something if it’s taking too long and have a break. With locally installed software and files this is a much easier thing to do. Learning to model in 3D is not simple. It is a complex and time consuming task. However, it is extremely satisfying and there are various places on the internet where you can read and watch tutorials on how to do this, and some of the software is free – such as Blender, which is a very popular application for 3D modelling and has a huge amount of support from the users. ZBrush is used mostly for complex figures. Again, lots of applications, many of which have free trials to let you play around and see if the software suits you. With this in your tool bag, you can start to design and make things around the house and office. The possibilities are virtually endless.

In Summary

The printer is excellent, the build quality is superb, it is surprisingly quiet the only real sound is from the cooling fan and the belt whine when the unit travels quickly to it’s next location. None of this is invasive or annoying. There are various housings (casings) available if you want it to be quieter still. I would suggest also that you set the printer up in a spacious area, as the heat and melting of the PLA does have a faint aroma indicating that there may be particulates in the air. So, good ventilation, and somewhere there is space for it.

Print speed is very good, although if you want quality, it is not that different to other printers and things will take time.

The learning curve is pretty steep to start with as there are a daunting amount of settings to learn and fiddle with. Each print is going to be slightly different so it is well worth paying attention to these settings and when purchasing a model, make sure you get a copy of the print instructions.

Do not expect to print amazing models straight out of the box if you are new to this. Take your time, learn what each setting does and read as much as you can if you don’t understand something. Also, when you do manage to get a good or excellent print – make a note of the settings used. Get yourself a journal or something to keep these notes together and in an easy to reach place.

Assembly is simple, nothing complex. But you need to be careful not to use too much strength screwing the thing together. The frame and mounts are light alloy and if you force it too tight, you might stripe the mount threads for the screws. Also, pay careful attention to the various connectors. They only connect one way, but you can force them in the wrong way, so take care.

Quality printing takes time, if you have no patience, maybe some other hobby would be a better choice. In this case, for most things, slower is better.

Check that the drive belts have a reasonable tension and are not loose. You can do this by the simple expedient of pressing lightly with a finger. If it moves easily it is loose. Use the tools provided to tighten the belts but do not over-tighten them. There must be some flexibility or you risk snapping the belts. So, a light resistance to finger pressure is good. Floppy is bad. Heavy resistance is also bad, so loosen the belts if you need to.

Personally I am extremely pleased with this purchase. It is pretty much everything I hoped for and as I have a history of modelling, I can get into making my own stuff as soon as I have learned what the machine expects from a model. In my opinion this is an excellent printer that – after you figure it out – produces extremely good quality prints.

Allowing that there are tens of thousands of models on the internet, a huge number of them completely free. I figure there’s something for everyone out there, somewhere. Finding it is the trick.

Users and fans of the Creality series of printers have made a huge variety of tools, bolt on parts and expansion pieces to help make your life easier when using these printers. So take a look around and see if any of it is useful to you. I won’t list what is out there, but I figure you can probably completely rebuild the printer if you feel so inclined.

This is, in my opinion, an excellent hobby level printer and offers a money saving option in being able to design and print things I need around the house without having to go out and pay premium prices in some chain store that is only interested in profit not quality. One thing that convinced me to get one of these was that so many things we have in our homes are plastic. With a 3D Printer, decent software and some skill modelling – pretty much all of it is replaceable and there are solutions to a great many problems. Just think, a guitar hanger costs anywhere up to around 50 quid. You can design and make your own for a fraction of that cost and make it precisely how you want it.

Above all though. Patience. It is essential for 3D Printing.

And lastly, in the end I didn’t have to justify the purchase to my wife. As soon as she saw it printing she was fascinated and is now looking at how it can make her life easier. The thing sold itself, to her. Who would have guessed?

My daughter is extremely excited, my wife is looking at how she can use it and I’m just very satisfied that it works as well as it does.

Just in time for Christmas too…. Or is that being “cheap?”

— Edit

Had a while to play around with this printer now, and I am more impressed with it the more I learn about it and how to make it work. The Creality Slicer software and Cura software are basically the same. Slicer has settings more oriented towards the Creality products but other than that and the UI colour there is little difference. Personally I find the Creality Slicer a bit more friendly but that’s just me.

Initially when you use the software the options seem to be rather limited. They aren’t, not by a long shot. There are four built in options for printing, and under the settings menu you can expose all of the controls available to you. This is where things get really daunting. However, the plugins section has a couple helper tools that tell you what each setting does and how to use it.

I also invested in some new extruder heads. The reason for this is that I have some fairly small game related things that I want to print and I figure I will need a smaller head for that. Trying a 0.2 at the moment, see how that comes out.

Cleaning tools are also essential. There is a PLA style roll you can buy here to clean out the extruder head – this should be done semi-regularly to make sure there are no particles or dust collecting in the head to block it. Extra heads are always useful as they do have a lifespan and it is worth having different sizes for different jobs. Large prints such as vases or household items will be considerably faster through a 0.8 or 1mm head. Anyway, right head for the job.

Don’t worry too much about the huge amount of stuff you can get to add on to the printer from various sites and other users. Chances are you won’t need most of that anyway. Upgrades to the machine are provided by Creality in the shape of software that you “flash” onto the system via an SD card. Just keep an eye on the Creality site every month or so to see if there is an update. I don’t know how frequently they modify their firmware but it’s worth keeping an eye on it.

Decent quality PLA is just as important as decent quality models to print from. So, be careful that you are buying your products from a reliable company. The cheaper it is, the higher the chances of impurities – which can cause blockages. Also, the most expensive is not necessarily the best. Just a thought.

I have managed to get several successful prints out of this tool now, and I’ve been playing with the smaller heads today. So far I’m very impressed with the level of detail and quality of the prints. It takes time to get them though. Time printing, and time learning the various parts of the tools available to you and how the settings influence the final print.

As I said above, steep learning curve. But, it is so very, very worth it.

(Edited to add)

So, I finally got around to painting the model that was the first successful print from this machine – and my sixth attempt at printing something. Finally managed to get the settings and various parameters sorted. No experimenting with different print heads to see whether the quality improves and by how much. The model is a critter called Duckpool, the references should be pretty obvious. The model is available on the internet via one of the many sites which supply models to print. I don’t think I can link to it from this review, but it’s easy enough to find. Just thought I’d share so readers can see at least one successful print.