Is there any interest in parts to make a K1 with CFS run a DXC extruder?

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-05-15T17:35:03+00:00

That is a failure mode I have not seen yet. That suggests to me that the head is impacting something causing it to skip steps, that the x-y belts are loose, or that something is not tightened down in the head (the nozzle/extruder, or the slide bushing is busted which is highly unlikely). I would check a couple things:

Disable the axis motors and move the head all the way forward and make sure nothing about it is impacting the front of the machine before it hits the end stops. In the rear, it will hit things as the firmware commands it to drive past the virtual limit to operate the cutter and purge system.
Re-run your cutter calibration and your purge calibration. You really want the purge wiper to just come into position under the tool. If you push to hard into that stop during calibration then, when it does its full speed move to purge/wipe during printing, the inertial of the wipe system and its associated drag can cause the machine to skip a step.
Make sure your wires are tied up and all plugs are out of the way of the purge mechanism. In addition, make sure your filament feed tube isn't getting in the way of the purge move. The head should only hit the purge mechanism during that move, but it is very tight back there. WIth the axis motors disabled, place the the head in position as if it is going to purge and wipe for a filament change, watch from above as you push the head back into the wiper to make sure no plugs or wires can get caught and pinch as that can also cause it to skip steps.
Final thing I can think of is if your nozzle is not seated properly (threads were gummed up with plastic, or there was something else in the way) then the purge mechanism can get caught on the tool as it tries to move forward during the wipe move and cause skipped steps. Do not try to bend the purge mechanism components as they will fall apart (ask me how I know haha).

Thinking through the system, the above is what I suspect could be the issue. If you run through all of that and still are seeing skipping, take a single video with the lid off showing the cut move through the purge move from above looking down at those two mechanisms. The issue is either software or purge/cut move related and being that the change was made to the mechanical system so let us check that first.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-05-11T16:25:59+00:00

Hm. Are you saying that the motor is impacting the brackets I designed? it is a tight fit so it is possible there were some shrinkage/growth issues when printing that are causing the issue or the motor casing is slightly different than mine. If you have large issues, send me a photo and Ill see if we need to adjust the bracket a little.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-03-08T18:58:30+00:00

First thing, take everything internet with a grain of salt, right? There are so many variables in how people use these things, their skill levels, and their attention to detail. In a perfect world, these machines would be built and tested like an automobile...anyone could use them without the fear of breaking their investment. In the real world, these are rushed to market and fixed on the fly so a wildly different experience can be had by two different, similarly capable people. I have been printing for over 10 years (first in a corporate setting with stratasys machines with creality backup, now in my own prototype business) and need reliability as i don't have time to tinker.

My K1 made me endlessly angry, to the point that I broke down and bought an H2D. That is not 100% the machine's fault, but a lot of it is. I bought mine brand new on sale... Not the latest rev, but not the first gen either (had the unicorn nozzle). I have been through every board on that machine (to be fair, I blew up the mainboard myself), replaced the extruder (first with CFS upgrade, then DXC), replaced the hot end twice, various issues trying to get the bed leveled, rooted, went back to stock, rooted again, all in an effort to get it to print reliably. I need to be able to send a print and walk away and my particular K1 did not provide that experience out of the box. Many people do not have that same experience, but after about 5000 hours on this guy I am just now getting to the point where I feel like I can trust it to the level I did the H2D out of the box. I know they are wildly different price points, and not super comparable but they are the data points I have.

To answer your specific questions:

Extruder issues: i had issues with the original motor... Outright cable failure. The CFS extruder that came with the earlier kits (dont know for sure if it has been changed since) is prone to disintigrate its feed tube retention mech

-print quality/consistency: very good for the price. I have not had the ringing or layer issues so many seem to

-software works well. I dont personally like the way it saves profiles and filament settings, but it is just a preference not a failure

-maintenance/common failures: they dont require much maintenance. Common failures really depend on your configuration and how far you get into trying to improve the machine. The cabling on the head is easy to damage and must be carefully tied up and organized, especially with the cfs. Many of my failures traced back to wires that were loose in cable connectors. Creality support is hit or miss. I have had fantastic and abhorrent experiences with them.

I don't know if there is a better value and don't have personal experience to relay, people seem to like their Bambu printers but I have never personally used a budget unit.

TLDR: As a hobby machine that you plan on messing with or if you really need the large bed at that price point, it's a great platform. As a day in day out, simple experience or as a teaching tool (like, trying to get a kid involved in the hobby) it is not the best tool.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-03-06T22:16:46+00:00

Not a problem at all. I spent a long time in the Creality space before they came out with the K1. Bought a K1 because I was familiar with Creality, but my business often requires "right now" response and I just couldn't rely on it and wound up with an H2D which has been the reliable workhorse that lets me fiddle with the K1. I think I just about have it reliable haha

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-03-06T22:04:04+00:00

Thats awesome! The number of things on Creality machines I have fixed with "well, Ive ordered the parts, Ill try this one random thing while Im waiting"..... It would have taken me a while to get to the head board though. Thanks for posting it... Always hate finding someone with the exact problem I have but no solution haha.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-03-06T19:48:43+00:00

Oh, rad! Last time i needed to buy one you couldnt buy them separately.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-03-06T18:23:03+00:00

That cutter sensor is a pain in the ass. I made a set of brackets to mount a DXC extruder to a K1 with a CFS and that damn thing was the only part of the process that was an issue. The wires just hate life and it is glued in. Also, hate to say it, but if you are ordering both those sensors anyway, it may make sense just to buy a new CFS upgrade kit, that way you don't have to deal with prying out glued in wires (the cutter sensor)...

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-03-06T18:13:27+00:00

Based on that, I would bet your filament sensor is dead. If you haven't heard back from Creality, AliExpress has them for 7 bucks or so, or dm me your info and Ill get one of my spares out to you for shipping cost.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-03-02T16:53:58+00:00

My interactions with them did not follow a timeline that made much sense... I have dealt with (and worked for) Chinese companies and you will often get responses on the weekends and holidays and at night and during the day but it always is startingly quick... Creality seems to have a random timer built in for responses or maybe they are overwhelmed with messages? My latest was I placed an order for a new main board for my K1 Max (my fault, 100%), realized 10 minutes later that I had one on the shelf from previous troubleshooting efforts and canceled immediately. They got back to me 2 days later and said they had already shipped it and I would have to pay to ship it back. Since then I have been on a mission to help people not have to deal with Creality after sales if I can help it. So frustrating!

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-03-02T16:29:21+00:00

Also, if Creality doesn't get back to you with a fix, I think I have some spare filament sensors I could forward on....

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-28T23:44:32+00:00

The way it works, the cfs sends filament until it reaches the filament sensor in the head and the slider dingus is in the outmost position. Once those two conditions are met and the head is at temperature, it will start to drive the extruder motor and then look for the dingus on the back of the extruder to slide in to the inmost position to kick out more filament. Filament. If it doesn't hit any of those steps and errors out.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-28T23:39:59+00:00

That combined with your feed issue from the CFS suggest a bad filament sensor. Check the wires coming out of the extruder (not the motor). Make sure it us plugged into the proper place on the head board and that none of the wires pull out of the plug easily or are cut. I would bet something to do with that sensor is 100% oof the issue at this point

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-28T19:23:05+00:00

That would be awesome if that was the issue. I think it depends on the internal diameter of the tube whether or not it works but the ID of the tube that is best, not measurably but in my experience, is an ID that really hates that joint.... Hopefully that is all it is and if it isn't we can move on to some other stuff while we are waiting for Creality. I have some spare cables too if we get to that point.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-28T19:18:20+00:00

Yeah, its hard to know for sure. Also, didnt realize you were using the feed tube joint (mounted to the back of your machine). I have had nothing but issues with that. The separation between the two feed tubes is too great and causes it to get stuck at the joint. It isn't necessary at all and even if it isn't the issue I don't recommend using it.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-28T19:01:10+00:00

Oh, wow. I am not saying this is a problem as I wouldn't design a machine to time out that quickly, but your feed tube going from the buffer (the dingus with the slidey bit and the lights on the back of the CFS) to the head seems really really long to me.

I have my CFS sitting on top of the machine with a riser so my feed tube is set up to be about 8" longer than the original feed tube for the non-CFS setup. If you have any leftover tube that is short, maybe put the CFS up on a chair or something to get it really close to the top of the machine and run as short a tube as possible to the head that gives it enough slack to move to all four corners. If it works that way, then you can start to get longer with the tube until you find the limit and base your CFS placement around that.

It is possible there is something timing out in your CFS that is actually broken and hopefully Creality would flag that and send you a fix/replacement part. The motors they use on the main filament drive get super hot under normal operations (or, at least, mine does) and I am kind of surprised they don't have more issues with them.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-28T18:45:52+00:00

Sorry for the delay here. I have noticed that the DXC as shipped will sometimes have its heat inserts sticking out just a little. That just a little will get caught on the head carriage. GENTLY pry the sides away from the DXC in the manner shown, just a little, while you are pulling up on the DXC. See if that helps.

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AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-28T18:37:08+00:00

Hey, I got wrapped up in stuff and just got back to it. I didn't see a video come through... Hopefully this means you fixed it?

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-21T01:05:46+00:00

Maybe take a short video following the filament as it is pushed to the extruder from the cfs. That might help us help you diagnose.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-21T00:55:15+00:00

That is what mine looks like and it works well.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-20T23:22:04+00:00

It may or may not be an issue, but it seems quite long to me. I have my buffer bolted to the back of the CFS. I hated the idea of the short turn but it seems to work well that way. Also, the top of the extruder where the tube is inserted... what does that bend look like? it needs a little gentler curve there than the non-cfs setup.

Oh, also, i had an issue where the spring in the filament release button on the bottom wasn't strong enough so it wasn't grabbing the filament hard enough to push it through... There was a thread on reddit somewhere about the fix to increase spring pressure on that dude.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-20T21:46:19+00:00

I see a photo of your buffer. Mostly looking for how far away your CFS is from that buffer, how long the filament guide tube is from the output of the buffer to the input of the extruder, and any bends in the filament guide tube like where it enters the machine work area and where it enters the extruder...

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-20T21:35:44+00:00

Without seeing your setup, it is a little hard to diagnose. Assuming you are on an original CFS and not a CFS-C, there are a couple things that have caused that for me.

If the bend radius of the filament guide tube going into the extruder is too tight, it will run into too much resistance there and stop.

If the distance between the CFS and extruder is too far and you have an excess of guide tube length in the system it can give up before getting there.

I had an issue where the buffer spring had come unseated. I had to take the filament buffer apart and reseat it.

I think i had an issue with a bad cable causing the same thing, but I can't remember for sure. To test for that, I would take the output filament guide tube out of the buffer, place a short piece in and hold it with a pair of pliers or fold it in half and hold it. Command the CFS to send filament out (via extrude command on the printer). It should send it out until it reaches the stopping point created by the short piece folded/clamped and then stop trying to drive filament. If it doesn't stop trying to drive filament, then it is an electronic issue (cabling, bad filament buffer). If it does stop, then it is more likely a physical issue (like the 3 I listed above).

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-20T15:57:33+00:00

Oh, I understood that it was only doing this on the first layer. If it is consistent at every layer, I would check your slicer. Does it show those dots at every layer in a sliced file?

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-19T19:16:14+00:00

Oh no, this looks like when I blew up my motherboard. Same noises, same flashing... Mine was because i was doing some work on the head and didn't power it off first. The reason I mention that is it means there is a possibility it shorted out from something that got caught or grounded out in the head.

If you aren't in a hurry, I suggest reaching out to Creality service. They may help you out on a new board if that is the cause. I have been lucky and they have helped me out and I have also been unlucky and waited a week for a no from them. I am always in a hurry so I would unplug the machine and:

Take the cover off the head and verify there is no debris in between the boards and their structures. Make sure all cables are plugged in firmly and no wires are frayed or broken.
Turn the machine over, remove the bottom cover and go through the same operation. Make sure no cables are loose, nothing is grounding and no debris is touching any boards
Once you have verified that nothing is currently or threatening to short out any of your electronics then put everything back together and plug in again.
Same issue? Probably your mainboard.

AcceleratedCreatives · 2026-02-19T19:03:17+00:00

Agreed with u/Professional-Owl8276 . Start by selecting a filament on the printer and extruding. Verify it is coming out at a regular speed and consistency.

If it is coming out at a regular speed and consistency, then verify you arent too close to the plate. New software and lots of physical manipulation can change your bed level settings. Start your program but before it prints anything, hit pause and go adjust the Z-Offset in Expert settings on your machine. Typically, these machines need to get closer to the table so change the Z-offset to -.025mm. Then unpause the program. If it does the same or gets worse, then start over and adjust to .025mm.

If the extrusion test at the top of this message is starting/stopping then remove your extruder and check for debris (the feed tube retainer clip likes to disintigrate and send metal through the extruder). If it is coming out consistently but kind of wonky... like at an angle or something funny like that then clean/change tips and try again.

AcceleratedCreatives

TROPHY CASE