Does anyone have anything good to say about the K2 with CFS?

Flagship K Series Creality Flagship K2 Plus & CFS
21

Thank you all for your thoughtful thoughts. I am not new to printing (I have a Taz 6 and a SEEMECNC Rostock), I am a machinist and tinkerer so learning to tune any machine/program/toolpath is not new and working with any printer/machine tool to improve quality is also not new. My concern is that there seemed to be problems with the printer related more to machine manufacturing quality control. You are right @iron3Dad, those who have no issues have no reason to try to find solutions in user forums. I think that the wise thing to do is that I will wait until the K2 matures a bit more. Manufacturing will find a steady state and many bugs like those pointed out in these types of forums will be iterated out of the machine.

If/when I do buy a K2, I will be sure to add my experiences to this forum.

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22

Thats the nature of forums. This is where folks come to problem solve so its normally you only see issue posts. If you want to see positive or experience posts look 9n YouTube. Forums and FB groups are generally about fixing things.

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23

I also have no problems with my K2.
But I only used pla ad this moment.
The software from Creality print is Realy good in my opinion.
So much ways to fine tune.
Only it woud be fine if you the menu where adjustable to your denieds.
Like brim is not a standard way to find.
In dutch it cold ā€œrandā€ in the software not brim.
Took a while to find.

24

Does anyone have smooth experience printing engineering materials that require high chamber temp (55c), such as PA, PA-CF, ABS-CF etc? Just wondering whether its just me being unlucky for having a ā€œless than perfectā€ printer. As Iā€™m able to print PLA and PETG smoothly, but not ABS and beyond.

25

Iā€™ve print a lot of ABS on my K2, and some PA (long prints on a high temperatures) It prints good, but the same common issues as i told, loosing screws (now iā€™ve fixed by loctite) and second! broken spring washer in the extruder shell PTFE connector (now iā€™ve remove this washer and fix PTFE by forming over the black cap by the soldering iron at 450 C).
P.S. If iā€™m start from a cold printer, i preheat the camera and the plate at least 15mins before table measuring. And sometimes clean the outer part of the noozle by brass brush. Wiper is not effective with our ABS.
And, of course, some fimware quirks. Now itā€™s not the printer ā€œsend and forgetā€. But can be in the future, i hope.
I have no choice, when i need the big part in ABS.

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This part is from our special ABS, UL94 V-0 (non-flammable). Its very hard to print, and K2 now have best quality for this from others.

photo_2025-02-25_19-00-31
photo_2025-02-25_19-00-31960Ɨ1280 125 KB

27

Iā€™m an industrial electronics repair tech with two degrees in engineering and decades in the field. Have had an Ender-3 since they were new. Also use a BBL X1 Carbon at work. Got the K2 also at work, specifically for making larger PETG parts than the X1C; mostly things like covers and jigs.

Now my original Ender-3 was totally modded; everything was updated, upgraded, and/or fixed. Required constant tinkering. It was a manual tool, like an artistā€™s clay sculpting table, that needed skill and knowledge to use. The results were totally dependent on how much work was put into the setup. Things failed often and repair was routine. It was hard to use.

Then the BBL X1C came along. In contrast, that is a convenient workhorse; slice and print, done. You know it will just work. Auto-recognizes filament, AI detection that will actually stop the print, filament end-swapping that works. Have done all manners of filaments in it, including -CF, -GF, TPU, and PC. This allowed others at work to actually use the printer, since it didnā€™t require artisan skills to operate.

But the K2+ (for Creality Hyper PETG only) has been a disaster, even for an artisan. Maybe we just got a bad one, but it has been nothing short of a nightmare. Numerous fault codes, filament bunching up in the extruder, retraction issues, jams, CMS issues, AI does not work, bed came taco-warped 0.85mm (managed to get to 0.35mm with kapton tape and manual leveling, but Creality claims 3mm is ok?!), etc. Canā€™t get PETG layers 1 and 2 to print to save my life. PLA will print all day long - but we must use PETG. Out of about 100 test prints, only 12 tiny ones were useable at all, with zero being of good quality. To print PETG at all, requires setting the Z offset to -0.10 or so for me, and varies up to +0.10 for others. This Z offset also varies with temperature and nozzle changes, so is not a set-it-once-and-forget-it thing. Co-workers have no idea how to do any of this, so cannot even try the K2 (not like it would work anyways.) We have two artisans at work - Iā€™ve given up on the K2; the other guy is gonna check for anything I may have missed.

So is the K2+ currently sitting next to the X1C, powered off, because leaving it on causes the extruder motor to get hot and lead to filament bunching (and subsequent extruder disassembly.) Iā€™ve suggested to our manager to return it. We want the K2+ to work - but it is proving to be riddled with bugs. Perhaps firmware and software updates will help, but weā€™re concerned with by how much.

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28

Yes, rdtsc, iā€™m agree with you. Weā€™re also electronic engineers. And also have X1C, and Enders. But we need to print a lot of parts, so we cannot allow to idle a big printer. So it prints around a clock for last two month. Many jobs aborted (but close to start), and sometimes after a month i wants to throw it out the window. But it can do big parts (Bambu cannot) and prints our ugly ABS better (and now we understood K2+ main problems).
Of course, i wants to do my main job, and not to fight with the printer.
If i have choice, for now i will choose a big Bambu. Bit it havent big.

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29

And of course, i think, only software/firmware polishing will not helps. IMHO, Creality must change the construction of the extruder shell (and send it for free to each owner, with the loctite for screws and something else for a compensation).
And i think, lidar for z-levelling will be more reliable (at least for our purposes).

30

BTW, one small plus for Creality.
Weā€™re using our RFID tags for all filaments (thanks to deusrex). Its very useful, for example for auto-continue (thanks to crooked hands of Creality firmware engeneers).
And we choose K2+ (not the next Bambu) also because of Bambu firmware scandal (see Louis Rossmann on Youtube).

31

There are more people with the fillaments getting melted problem when the machine is in standby. Dont have had that problem ( dont hope tomorrow i come home and thenā€¦). I go to work 6am and sometimes the printer is almost ready. when i come home at 16 pm it is in standby for 9 hours. I clean the plate and setup the next print no problem. Got problems with everything printing above 240c. With petg i need a z-offset +0,035. From the 50 petg prints i forget sometimes i started a print when my daughter come to the room to play. Not al petg prints failed around 4 had good 2 first layers rest needed a restart and then i need to baby sit the printer to do the z-offset. The bedmesh looks identical its always between 0.5200/0.5500 bed temp 50c. 70c bedtemp around 0.6300/0.6700. 100c 0.7000 . I dont get why sometimes even pla need a +0,020 z-offset that is happening after the last firmware update. From the 150 pla prints i needed to do that 10 times. There must be something that gives the problem hope creality can fix it in the firmware/software and not that its hardware related. Overall i am happy with the print quality.

32

I absolutely love my K2 plus. Would never get into bambooā€™s proprietary system. And the huge build plate has been a game changer. The CFS works flawlessly Absolutely love it when I run out of filament in one roll, just jump into the next. Such an amazing feature. I didnā€™t know I needed. and itā€™s made my life so much easier Though itā€™s hard to get over the amount of waste when multicolor printing but that probably cause I havenā€™t tuned anything I print primarily pla and Petg. And I did do some major tpu projects. The only times I had issue was when I was trying to print TPU too fast had some extruder jams, which makes sense. The one thing I would say about this is Slicer isnā€™t as refined in that material presets wise compared to my MK3S. Specifically around tpu with my MK3S you just pick TPU and the printer changes speed and everything to work with it. Whereas here I had to manually slow the printer down. and create my own slower preset.

PS I am one of the masses that have been using and loving it. The only reason I came to this form was because for some reason I got an email from Creality Tell me about the forms and they had this question in the heading

As to my credentials. I have been 3D printing since 2017. Started on a TEVO tarantula And I am now up to five printers. My favorite of which used to be the MK3S But I feel like the K2 is quickly supplanting it as my favorite

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33

You have to heat soak it before printing high temperature filaments to let the printer stabilize at the working temperature. It is the same for all printers but with smaller ones it is less critical.
Set the bed to 100C and chamber to 60 wait at least half an hour run bed calibration and only then start the print. No need to bash a good printer.

34

Not nearly enough, after 15 minutes the bed still continues changing the shape and the frame keeps expanding. You have to wait at least half an hour for the printer to stabilize.

35

Hello Make_it_work.

Thank you for coming and sharing your great experience with the K2 Plus.

Very encouraging for many that are maybe unsure.

Cheers.

36

I dont get why sometimes even pla need a +0,020 z-offset that is happening after the last firmware update.

Try slicing and printing a small job. Then slice and send the same job but do not print - walk over to the printer, and print the sent file. Apparently, there is a Z issue where the ā€œslice and printā€ has a different Z offset.

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37

Martin, I never used z-Offset for PLA on 500+ prints before (unless I printed on 3rd party flat print bed with carbon fiber pattern) but I changed nozzle now and need to use z-offset of 0.02 even for standard PLA. On other side I needed to use some z-offset for PETG but not for ASA/ABS.
I did not investigate too much in firmware to see if this can be adjusted somewhere else and using anyhow my own printer profile with this macro adoption to automatically change z-offset based on filament or print plate.

38

I think youā€™re right, half-hour for preheat.
Weā€™re using k2+ around the clock, so it heated almost everytime;)

39

K2+ is overkill for PLA. And PETG better to print on the open frame, IMHO.
But our K2+ prints PLA with no issues even with z-offset. Maybe because weā€™re tighten all the screws and cleaning the open side of the noozle often by a brass brush?

IMG_1576
IMG_15763024Ɨ4032 4.26 MB

This is 7 colors, 24 hours of printing. 160g in the model, 500g in the bin;)

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40

Rdtsc is right no problem printing from the printer at least for 2 prints now. My first 150 pla prints no problem. Its also not consistent its not every print. And its not always the first layer sometime it was the second layer that needed the z-offset(maybe not heated long enough). For now i send the print to the printer and start print from the printer. I heat the bed to 55c for 15/30min and set the ambient temp to 35c and the exhaust temp to 40c. This because after 20min printing the temp wil be around that so there is not to much divergence when the bedmesh is made. I clean everything after every print. Al screws are tightened. Belt tension is ok. Here a picture of a good first layer at least good enough for me.

IMG20250224113837
IMG202502241138371920Ɨ1440 216 KB

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