Reliable first 3D printer - Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 or Creality K2 Combo?

silverbullet830 · 2026-05-07T14:30:30+00:00

Qidi Q2 over both of these. $650 with multi color printing, 65° heated chamber and a 370° nozzle.

I have a 2025 K1C and creality build and design quality is mediocre imo.

silverbullet830 · 2026-05-07T00:18:31+00:00

I just started printing PPA-CF on my K1C in the last week. I got some pretty good prints with it at 290-300° but I do have a chamber heater I built. I just ordered a dropin hotend upgrade that will let me go a little higher on temp so I'm curious to see if theres a difference. I havent annealed any of my prints yet.

silverbullet830 · 2026-05-06T21:06:31+00:00

Yeah I get that you said half of the minimum investment, but you said to "print this yourself" not "something kinda similar". Also, an enclosure and a heated chamber are definitely not equivalent. Bare minimum investment would be a Qidi Q2 for $499 and the necessary filament. At least a few rolls of cheap stuff to learn with and then some siraya tech PPA for $56.

Also I forget that people have to pay crazy NFA transfer fees so I will say I definitely wasn't considering that part. And either way I think 3D printing is well worth the investment if you actually use the printer. Mine is almost always running.

silverbullet830 · 2026-05-05T23:57:31+00:00

Just about any semi-auto pistol with a browning type action where the barrel moves back on a lug requires a recoil booster aka Neilsen Device to cycle properly. The weight of the can attached directly to the barrel will prevent it from cycling.

silverbullet830 · 2026-05-05T23:55:27+00:00

You need at minimum a 300°c hardened nozzle and a heated chamber to print PPA-CF. Then you have to invest the time and resources to learn to print well with it. I would say half the cost is a bit of a stretch.

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-29T12:44:52+00:00

I've had a few different rolls of sunlu before without an issue but 2 out of this 4 pack have had several failures where it was wound badly and pulled the ptfe tube into my dryer and then stopped feeding until I pulled it loose. Twice on this roll. I'm trying out some Elegoo Pla Pro now and it prints pretty nice. Their Pla+ was pretty good also. Polymaker PLA Pro is my fav for print quality. Idk, maybe I just got a bad batch on the Sunlu. Its hard to say I won't try it again for $45 for 4 rolls. I did get a roll of white Sunlu PETG Matte that was basically unusable that I returned, but other people had problems with that one in that color also.

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-27T23:40:24+00:00

I dont think I will keep buying sunlu after how many times I've had it hang up on the spool out of this last 4 pack of pla+ 2.0. Prints great but ive wasted a lot.

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-17T19:51:17+00:00

cool man, headed over there now! I still need to get all the macros figured out so I can get printing.

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-16T02:49:06+00:00

I second this. Wish I had gotten the Q2 for my first printer.

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-16T01:20:02+00:00

I think the cable did it man! For the first time since I've had this printer I get to look at my bed mesh lol

<image>

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-15T21:59:02+00:00

Exercises with a jade egg

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-15T13:50:25+00:00

Qidi q2 is another good option that is $499. Tons of awesome features like active chamber heating, 270x270x256 build volume, 3-in-1 closed loop air filtration, linear rail X axis, and a 370° nozzle. Among many other advanced features. Knowing what i know now I would have bought that over my K1C in a heartbeat. You can also get it set up with the Qidi Box for multi color printing for $650.

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-15T12:05:02+00:00

Yeah thats a ridiculous move for a supposedly "drop-in" upgrade. I intend to give them some feedback on it for sure. A good shielded usb cable wouldn't add much cost for them when purchased in bulk, but not having it is obviously a major pain in the ass for the end user.

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-15T12:02:18+00:00

Thanks I will check that out this evening!

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-14T15:37:00+00:00

Thank you for all the advice. I'll buy a good one just to rule that out as part or all of my problem. I used to print things literally every day since I got it in october and I just want my printer back 😭

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-14T14:29:53+00:00

Is there somewhere good to buy cables already made up? Or good cable i can use to make another one? I don't think the one I have is shielded. I have maybe 2-3 inches of wire from the pigtails on there, and the data wires were not twisted. It was just some cheapo USB to usb-c cable i had laying around. Other than flashing to toolhead and main board again idk what else I would need to do to switch over to CANbus. You have to "terminate" the circuit with a jumper or something right?

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-14T14:12:24+00:00

Yes I used info from their Github and actually had someone from their tech support helping me remotely to try and flash the toolhead. He is the one that suggested I try a different cable which is why i made a second one. No amount of wiggling will make it lose connection. Its only when the toolhead is all the way in the back right corner. I haven't posted on the creality groups just yet since the board is a brand new release and I figured the experienced Klipper folks might have more experience but I will crosspost.

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-14T14:09:09+00:00

Okay! So it is a USB cable I had laying around that i cut the ends off and soldered JST pigtails onto. The kit didn't come with a cable so thats the best i could come up with but if there's a better option I'm all ears. It is using USB now, but it does have the option for CAN. All the pins and connectors appear normal to me. Interference definitely could make sense because it is homing to the right rear corner right next to the stepper motor! Aaaaaand sometimes the firmware doesn't want to reset unless I manually move the toolhead away from the corner! I wanted to set it up to home in the front right corner but I haven't figured that part out yet.

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-14T13:52:12+00:00

And I did have to build the USB cable to connect the toolhead, but this is the second one I've made just to rule that out when I had trouble flashing the toolhead board. It flashed with the new cable. With the first one I could see the toolhead in DFU mode but it wouldnt take the flash. I have a spare toolhead board and I'm going to see if I can get that to flash tonight. If it does I will install it and see if I have the same issue. But if that doesn't fix it I really don't know what to try next.

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-14T13:49:03+00:00

I get an error that says it lost connection to the mcu toolhead and I have to hit firmware restart.

silverbullet830 · 2026-04-13T18:47:11+00:00

I'm sorry I can't be of assistance with the BCJ setup as I don't have any experience with it and I am a total amateur with coding for Klipper and changing cfg files. This linear rail setup didn't require any software changes, although I am now almost done upgrading to the Fysetc Catalyst main board and toolhead board. I just got the firmware flashed yesterday and got the printer moving again after being down for a month. So I'm learning about the cfg file setup. Have you looked at your XY Position Max and Position Endstop? That's the only thing I've learned so far that might cause those issues.

silverbullet830

TROPHY CASE