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I was looking to purchase a printer in the 250 x 250 x 250 plus size category and settled on a Creatbot DX01 (01 signifies single nozzle). I have had Flashforge printers before and have printed over 120 parts (mainly PLA) on them. Here are my thoughts on y new DX01 machine…

1) Creatbot machines are definitely not for beginners or home users. They need some level of technical expertise to get the machines up and running. For one, both the extruder and the heated bed are packed separately and need to be installed and connected. Now the instructions are not very clear on how the wires need to be connected. Nor do the connectors themselves look sturdy. It is very likely that someone could connect the wires the wrong way and damage the connectors.

2) The ceramic bed, while it heats up well has lot of issues of bed adhesion. Absolutely nothing seemed to stick to it. I tried using spray, masking tape and masking tape and glue. In the end I purchased a Buildtak surface and solved bed adhesion issues. Now I do not have to use glue or tape even for large ABS prints. The Buildtak does its job well. Only issue now is will it come off the ceramic bed when it needs to be replaced? I do hope it does.

3) My machine came with silent stepper drivers for the X and Y axis and a 6032 based stepper driver for the Z axis and the extruder motor. I guess this was done to keep the noise level of the machine down (since X and Y movements are most frequent and faster). The issue with these drivers is they tend to malfunction when machine gets hot (after 30-40 hours of printing. I had some serious issues with layer shifting at about 80-90% print completion. Small prints are fine and these drivers dont seem to have an issue. So the question now is why does Creatbot not ship the printers with the 6032 drivers for all 3 axis? Especially when the company seems to be aware of the overheating issue. Or maybe provide better cooling?

4) My machine came with X axis timing belt very loose. I had to fix it using a belt tensioner spring. The downside of this solution was my X travel is now 290 mm instead of 300 mm, something that I can live with. However what is more worrying is the X and Y axis rods seem to show scoring and signs of wear after just a month of use. I am a designer and make industrial machines. So properly hardened and quenched chrome plated rods should give good service life. It is apparent that either the rods are SS in which case they do not have case hardening or the hardness of the plating is not sufficient. I guess the rods are SS.

5) The other issue is the limit switches, motors etc are all installed using tiny screws. For adjusting belt tensioning these screws need to be loosened (motor mounting) and re tightened.

However I found that after frequent use, due to the small size of these screws the limit switches tend to shift and move around even when the screws are sufficiently tight. I do hope Creatbot rectifies this and uses larger screws with good surface area for grip.

6) When I tried to replace the silent stepper drivers with the 6032 drivers, I found a big issue in the board. All the 2 pin and 4 pin connectors had been glued in place. When I contacted Creatbot they said they do this to prevent the wires from coming loose during shipping. But doesnt this defeat the basic purpose of having connectors on the board in the first place? The ability to swap parts quickly and conveniently. I mean it migh have made better sense to just solder the wires to the board instead of using connectors.

I see that Creatbot machines have lot of potential. The frame is rock solid and helps in building large parts accurately. However the machine is let down by few technical flaws which I hope the company resolves in due course of time.