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Buy the Creality K2 Here: https://geni.us/CrealityK2
UPDATE: I've gone back to my X1 for now, i;m just sick of errors in Crealitry Slicer and it's annoying me that this is so opposite to the workflow I use on other printers (Orca/Bambu Studio or other similar derivites) Once Orca is fully workking with the CFS, I'll be using this full time unless something else comes out of equal size and a better workflow. Still a great printer for anyone who wants One Printer, but the Slicer differences and bugs annoy me too much to have this as my primary machine right now.
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0:00
I had a lot of questions about City's
0:02
latest enclosed core XY printer is it
0:05
good will it replace my current favorite
0:07
fdm printer and why the did I lift
0:09
its 40 kg onto my worktop just to show
0:13
the box I think if we cut to the chase
0:15
the biggest question is whether or not
0:17
creality have been the first to properly
0:19
Trump Bamboo's two years of domination
0:22
or whether this is just another cheap
0:24
large clone and honestly I'm kind of
0:26
hoping it's the former so we can all
0:27
move on from the is this better than
0:29
bamboo thumbnails that yes we're all
0:32
doing anyway honestly there's many ways
0:35
that I think this exceeds even the X1
0:38
but there is one small and I'm going to
0:41
say up front now and not you
0:42
it's a minor thing where it's clear that
0:46
some things haven't quite fully clicked
0:48
for creality but it's so damn close
0:51
we'll get into all that hi I'm Ross and
0:54
this is f Hammer videos now my
0:56
relationship with creality printers have
0:58
been love hate I've generally enjoyed
1:00
the machines themselves but a lot of the
1:03
ancillary stuff around it with the
1:04
overreliance on so many different models
1:07
on the market and messy applications
1:10
have been an element I've often referred
1:12
to as caless and it's never been meant
1:15
in the most positive of ways but the K2
1:17
genuinely is a clear sign of a new way
1:20
for the brand from unboxing to use this
1:22
has been an absolute joy to use and I
1:25
genuinely hope this is the start of a
1:27
new modern creality let's walk through
1:30
it unboxing can be tricky because it's
1:33
heavy aside the cardboard This is 40
1:35
kilos which is near on 90 to1 something
1:39
like that I don't know how pounds work I
1:41
use them to spend to buy things here in
1:44
the UK anyway this weight is about the
1:47
same as my doctor probably suggests I
1:49
should lose but included within this
1:51
weight is the CFS and a couple of small
1:53
rolls of filament just to get you
1:55
started along with some packaging and
1:58
various plastic retainers setup is
2:00
straightforward unbolt the CFS and then
2:02
unbolt some retainer clips and then
2:04
unbolt the bed and as small as a benefit
2:07
as it is I was genuinely happy to see
2:10
that every bolt you remove along with
2:12
all the bolts I use to connect things
2:14
like the filament reel holder all have
2:17
the same 2.5 mm hex head so there's no
2:21
need to Fumble around with different
2:22
tools despite reality providing a
2:25
decently stocked tool case with this
2:27
machine once you've got it out just
2:29
attach the screen and the side filament
2:30
reel holder plug it in and you're pretty
2:33
much good to go walk through the
2:35
onscreen setup guide connect to Wi-Fi
2:37
and creality Cloud if you like and then
2:40
it's ready to print now if you get this
2:42
as a combo with the CFS that CFS
2:44
connection is a bit of a longer process
2:47
but I do want to talk about that
2:48
separately because it's got its own
2:49
features and I suspect there'll be some
2:51
people out there getting a K2 Plus
2:53
without the add-on now I have to say I
2:56
was immediately impressed by the build
2:58
quality the sturdy metal frame which
2:59
which clearly adds to the overall weight
3:02
is very indicative of a unit that should
3:04
last a long time it's got an almost
3:06
redundant USB port covered on the right
3:09
hand side and I say redundant because
3:11
Network and in regard to network yeah
3:13
it's got ether a it's also got the power
3:15
socket on the back and it's got built-in
3:17
Wi-Fi too one thing I'd like to have
3:19
seen is slightly adjustable feet and I
3:22
have actually seen a couple of
3:23
unfortunate reports of the existing feet
3:26
sharing off in shipping for some people
3:28
and the only solution seems to be a
3:30
thread extractor to get the remaining
3:32
parts of the screw out and then a new
3:34
bolt to put it back on but as someone
3:37
whose hobby is 3D printing more than 3D
3:40
printers again the tech stuff just
3:42
doesn't excite me the things that I love
3:45
are mostly just the nice convenience
3:47
features so it's got dual Park calling
3:50
fans either side of the chassis which
3:51
are great and it's also got dual VOC
3:54
filters at the back of the machine and
3:56
what I love about this the most is that
3:59
they can also be used to cool the
4:00
chamber which means no longer do I need
4:03
to have the glass lid off or the door
4:05
open just to ensure my filament doesn't
4:07
get too hot so when compared to the K1
4:09
or any other open printer this
4:12
significantly dampens those fan noises
4:15
to the point that I'm comfortable
4:17
sharing a room with it not like that but
4:20
anyway the point is the CFS itself
4:22
changing filament is actually louder
4:24
than the printer and this also has a
4:26
heater between those exhaust fans too so
4:29
for tougher filaments it can heat the
4:31
chamber up to 60° it's got some usual
4:34
modern stuff like the Pei plate slides
4:36
into place easily and the hot end has an
4:38
easily removable cover for better access
4:41
to the components that frequently need
4:43
maintenance or Replacements which is an
4:45
upgrade from the K1 series and speaking
4:47
of Maintenance the dual lead screws on
4:49
either side of the print plate are much
4:52
simpler to get access to for cleaning
4:54
and regreasing when compared to what
4:56
I've seen on similar printers but it's
4:58
work reality have included the CFS that
5:01
really impresses me and this is intended
5:04
to be backward compatible with the last
5:07
year of Cali printers too once they get
5:09
round to releasing the conversion
5:11
Hardware packs for them now setup of
5:13
this was also straightforward thanks to
5:15
every part being clearly labeled okay
5:18
the translation isn't that great but the
5:19
pictograms make it obvious where
5:21
everything goes and with the Hub
5:22
included you can actually connect up to
5:24
three additional CFS units for a total
5:27
of 16 automatic material changes in in
5:29
one print now one thing I've just got to
5:31
say and this isn't about this printer
5:33
but just these in general we really need
5:36
to pick a brand agnostic acronym for all
5:38
these different filament loading systems
5:40
we now have AMS acce mmu whatever elegu
5:44
plan to make and now CFS for creality
5:47
filament system and again I'm not
5:49
blaming creality here but I just don't
5:51
think we need this many names for what
5:53
is essentially the same thing across
5:55
different brands now personally I prefer
5:58
AMS or mmu because AMS was the first one
6:01
I had and mmu just means multimaterial
6:03
unit it's agnostic on its own anyway
6:05
rant over what's your preference let me
6:07
know in the comments but yeah I really
6:10
like this not only does it come across
6:11
as a better sealed unit than other units
6:14
which should increase the likelihood of
6:16
filament staying dry and it supports
6:19
both the plastic and all the cardboard
6:21
spools that have used the accessibility
6:23
of Parts the way it connects up to the
6:25
K2 and the way you load the filament a
6:28
marked improvement over the competition
6:31
now it does have a built-in temperature
6:33
and humidity sensor which is on the
6:35
front display but you need to know it's
6:37
not a heated system it won't dry your
6:39
filament out there are two recesses at
6:41
the bottom to hold desicant bags for
6:44
this purpose but yeah it's the little
6:46
things like the flexible hoses to load
6:48
the filament into where the bamboo AMS
6:50
could often do with a printed guide or
6:53
the lever on the back of the CFS Hub
6:55
which lets you easily remove the PTFE
6:57
tube and swap over to the side Ed re
7:00
should you want to use a filament like
7:02
TPU a material which is notorious for
7:05
being trouble in these loader systems I
7:08
think due to the size of the K2 plus
7:10
though I'd have actually liked to have
7:11
seen them extend the width of this CFS
7:13
to add a fifth reel which would have
7:16
both trumped the existing four-color
7:18
systems and matched the number of reels
7:20
available at once on the prer XL but I
7:23
expect it was kept this size for what I
7:26
presume is an upcoming K2 normal that's
7:29
just a guess but it makes sense to have
7:31
a lower cost version as a direct rival
7:33
right another handy feature I like is
7:35
that creality have even included an RFID
7:38
reader on the side of the printer so
7:40
changing filament on that side reel when
7:43
using a roll with a compatible RFID tag
7:46
is as simple as scanning it across the
7:48
reader and when you hear a beep it's
7:50
been read and you just Mount The Reel as
7:52
normal and I'm saying compatible R FID
7:54
tags because right now these only work
7:57
with creality filaments but it would be
7:59
nice to see the industry adopt a
8:01
standard of RFID data across all
8:04
material Brands but if you are using
8:06
filament with no RFID tag it doesn't
8:09
matter if you're using the CFS or the
8:11
side reel you can actually configure
8:12
this manually in the UI to tell it what
8:15
the material type is and the color I'm
8:17
going to come back to the UI in in a in
8:20
a minute with this being a multimaterial
8:22
unit it does of course have a purge
8:24
shoot coming out the back commonly known
8:26
as a poop shoot but I don't want to be
8:28
too crass in my video
8:30
well I want to be crass on my terms but
8:32
next to this is also a really handy
8:34
rubberized nozzle cleaner with little
8:37
rubber teeth which personally I think is
8:39
much better and more easily replaceable
8:42
than the little nodule thing on the
8:44
bamboo lab machines now I've got to be
8:46
honest I'm not the biggest user of
8:48
multicolor printing because I just don't
8:50
like the waste of both material and time
8:53
I'd rather print Parts in separate
8:54
colors and stick them together like I
8:56
did on my K1 reviews but there just
8:58
aren't many designers out there making
9:00
models that way I am however a big fan
9:03
of these systems autoloading the
9:05
filament for me and when I've got two of
9:07
the same material loaded it's swapping
9:10
To The Next One automatically when one
9:11
runs out but honestly the handiest
9:14
feature I noticed of this machine as
9:16
Tiny as it is is the same thing I
9:19
noticed on the K1 you see when you're
9:21
printing you can often get errant bits
9:23
of filament loose in the chamber heck
9:25
when it does it's often the pre-print
9:27
calibration that I just PE off and throw
9:30
below the bed so the fact that the base
9:32
of the printer is level with the door
9:34
frame it's a small thing but it means
9:37
you can easily slide out these errant
9:39
bits of crud without having to dig
9:41
around inside yeah small stuff but it's
9:45
handy over time especially for lazy
9:47
people like me who just leave crap here
9:49
this has other great modern features too
9:51
like a 1080p camera used for both
9:54
time-lapse creation and spaghetti
9:56
detection though I do think the fixed
9:58
angle of the camera is a bit high for
10:01
time lapses because it cuts off the
10:03
bottom of your print before it's even
10:05
reached a third of the build height
10:07
there is a second camera in these
10:08
machines and it's actually inside the
10:10
print head itself which replaces the K1
10:12
Max's liar sensor which apparently was
10:15
meant to come to the other k1s but never
10:17
did but this isn't directly monitorable
10:20
it's only used by the system firmware to
10:22
calibrate flow rate and pressure Advance
10:25
which are two great features to ensure
10:27
your filament output is spot on honestly
10:30
I think this is one of the reasons why
10:32
these modern printers are more plug
10:33
andplay most of the time now all you
10:36
need to do is get the temperature right
10:38
which for most materials it commonly is
10:41
so with all these great features when I
10:43
look at the usability of this machine up
10:45
against something like my bamboo X1 well
10:48
I've got to say this not only Stacks up
10:51
and is a larger machine than anything
10:53
they offer in a few simple ways they've
10:55
done what no other brand has done yet
10:58
and actually G Beyond bamboo in terms of
11:01
some of the functional Hardware design
11:03
so what's the catch well I've got to be
11:06
honest it's the software again now don't
11:08
get me wrong creality have done some
11:10
wonders with their phone app for one I
11:13
used to frequently complain that this
11:15
was a very unintuitive mess designed
11:17
more to make you spend money on some
11:19
weird t-u style creality storefront with
11:22
tokens and crap but this has since been
11:25
tidied up significantly but I did still
11:27
have a couple of issues where the just
11:29
wouldn't connect to my camera to check
11:31
on the print and I'm not going to
11:34
complain about the UI I mean I can't
11:35
complain about the UI because this is
11:38
such a direct copy of the UI on the
11:41
bamboo X1 it's it's almost like for like
11:44
including color like I don't want to
11:46
have a go at this but I can't not call
11:48
it out for being so on the nose I
11:51
suppose if it's not broke don't fix it
11:53
is that the right analogy no if if good
11:57
artists imitate great artists steal so
11:59
if creality are an artist yeah yeah copy
12:03
the UI maybe this is a clip of standard
12:05
I don't know but the thing I'm not the
12:07
biggest fan of is creality print now
12:10
again it's usable sure but it's got a
12:12
lot of the aforementioned creality so
12:16
for those who aren't aware this is based
12:18
on Orca slicer which is a good thing
12:21
Orca slicer is based on bamboo studio
12:24
and that is based on prer slicer and the
12:27
bamboo element in all this creat created
12:29
what I would call a more visually
12:31
streamlined workflow it's a little thing
12:34
but like having the settings on the left
12:36
the editing in the middle and the output
12:38
Data before you send it to print on the
12:40
right you know in the order of input
12:42
process output in that left to right
12:44
Journey it worked creality have now
12:47
reversed this back to what it was with
12:49
prer slicer and well I just don't like
12:52
it in the same way an old man would yell
12:53
at a cloud and there were a few odd bugs
12:56
as well like at one point I tried to
12:57
delete a part because it had started
12:59
failing mid print but I couldn't
13:01
actually navigate round that part of the
13:04
UI in the network connection to do it is
13:07
that an own Ora book or is it is it
13:09
something reality have done I I just
13:11
don't like it at all but yeah I think in
13:14
this area and a few people have pointed
13:16
it out creality have got a few bugs to
13:18
sort out and they need to improve this
13:21
software they could do with just going
13:23
back to how it was and changing The
13:25
Branding I think that would have been a
13:26
bit better for everyone I genuinely feel
13:29
we don't need this many differing slices
13:33
on the platform when they're all based
13:34
on each other and then we're changing
13:36
the interface but I get how getting used
13:39
to one potentially not locks you into a
13:43
Brand's ecosystem but holds you a bit
13:46
more riant on that Brand's ecosystem and
13:49
not wanting to go elsewhere which is
13:51
good for the brand but not for everyday
13:55
users who might want to chop and change
13:56
printers every few years depending on
13:58
who who got the best one there's so many
14:01
elements of the printer and the hardware
14:02
where they've taken what exists already
14:04
and made it better but in my opinion
14:06
creality print they've taken Orca slicer
14:08
which is great and made it worse so now
14:12
there's the bit that I need to say to
14:14
cover my ass is just the fact that we've
14:16
got Cali's history of quality to
14:20
consider but we aren't going to truly
14:22
understand where this machine faes until
14:24
a good year or so into its life and on
14:27
the whole the k1s have been pretty
14:30
decent but honestly I think this is a
14:33
great machine and since I've only got
14:34
room to store one in my office to use
14:37
yeah I'm actually going to be replacing
14:39
my bamboo X1 with the K2 plus and that's
14:42
not any kind of political anti- bamboo
14:45
thing based on what they've done
14:46
recently it's just that I've got this
14:49
printer this printer does what the
14:51
bamboo printer does for me but this one
14:54
gives me more print volume and it's also
14:57
got potentially more upgradeability too
14:59
because this is more open source it
15:01
means that the more technical users out
15:03
there can connect to it and use it in
15:05
whatever ways they like so yeah whilst
15:08
I'm not going to be Pro or anti- recent
15:10
changes from other brands because
15:12
despite my own views on it I have to
15:15
remain objective as a reviewer I would
15:17
say it was probably a bad time for
15:19
bamboo to release an update which makes
15:21
their machines more restrictive with
15:24
things like this coming
15:26
out let's just see where it goes shall
15:29
we there's still some software work to
15:31
do here but I'm going to trust slh hope
15:34
that creality are on the right path
15:37
seeing them Implement a more upto-date
15:39
technical Wiki is a decent step in the
15:42
right direction too I think it's a bit
15:44
too early to tell where this one's going
15:45
to end up because there's a lot of
15:47
competition on the horizon but this is
15:50
certainly one that's on track to
15:52
becoming the new Top Dog and putting
15:53
creality back at the head of the home
15:56
user market and it's been a while since
15:58
the Ender do you think we'll see a
15:59
smaller K2 let me know in the comments I
16:01
want to say thanks for watching with a
16:03
huge thanks going to our members who are
16:05
on screen now please consider joining
16:07
them you'll get your name up in lights
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along with Early Access exclusive videos
16:11
and Discord roles until next time movie
16:14
quote fa hammer out
16:20
[Music]