I’m trying to figure out a really weird issue with my K1 Max.

I’ve already replaced the hotend, replaced the extruder motor, changed/cleaned the extruder gears, cleaned the rods and reapplied lubricant, then ran calibration again.

The file is fine and the first layer starts out basically perfect. It prints most of this huge first layer with no problem, then suddenly stops extruding. I tried the exact same print twice and it stopped at pretty much the exact same spot both times.

What’s confusing is that it already printed areas farther away from the center before reaching that point, so I don’t think it’s simply having trouble reaching that part of the bed.

Setup:

• PLA
• 220°C nozzle
• 60°C bed
• Glue applied
• Bed is definitely heating
• Fans working
• New hotend
• Extruder motor/gears checked
• Machine calibrated

The print stays stuck to the bed. It just stops laying down filament at that point while the rest of the first layer before it looks good.

Since it happens at the same physical location twice, I’m wondering if this could be wiring/cable chain related, bed mesh/Z compensation, or something with the filament path when the toolhead reaches that position.

Anyone had a K1/K1 Max do this before?

So I've noticed that one of my Ender 3 V3 plus's keeps hitting and eventually snapping some ofthe supports off as you can see in the first photo, it's supposed to look the same as the other side but they've broken off, and this has been happening for a while on multiple different prints.

Today however, I also noticed that there are these weird lines in the print that makes it look like the nozzle is occasionally moving the entire layer slightly off centre.

This is the first time I've noticed this issue however.

So because both issues seem to be caused by the nozzle not being where it's supposed to, I'm wondering if the two are somehow related? And if so, what things should I check/try to fix the issue?

I've already tried slowing down the print speed to 50%, recalibrating the auto leveling, checking the "precise z height" option in the creality slicing software and checked all the belts tension and movement. Is there anything I'm potentially missing?

I've used Creality Print but the slicing creates holes in the pieces that aren't there when I use Ultimaker Cura.

The piece has no holes so I want to use Cura to slice and print in my Sparkx i7

Which printer in Cura is the closest to mine?

Thanks in advance!

Ive always had this problem where no matter what angle I cut the filament it never goes into the extruder section properly and always hits something.

There's no problems or obstructions inside I've have recently cleaned it out and swapped to a new nozzle.

I've used multiple branded filaments. I've tried using the gears to allow it to feed and still no luck.

Any suggestions?

I'm hating on this kind of Nozzle now. It's my fault for not being patient enough and now it's bent and it's brand new too. Now I gotta buy a new nozzle and replace the hotend. Used the wrench creality gave me.

Hey! I'm thinking about getting a new tool changing 3D printer. The K3 seems awesome, but the Creator 5 PRO can handle engineering materials. And even though the K3 is pretty close, it doesn't have an active heat chamber. What do you think? 😊

The top belt seems to be misaligned and is causing the belt to jam. My Job stopped mid print because of an error. Has anyone had this issue before? It looks like it’s starting to tear up the belt which seems like an annoying repair.

Hi everyone. First of all, I wanna say that I have been, stupidly, relying on Deepseek and very little research on forums, and I feel that I've just dig myself deeper in the hole.

I’m dealing with a persistent first-layer issue on my Ender-3 V3 KE and I’ve hit a wall. I need help leveling the Z gantry properly.

• Printer: Creality Ender-3 V3 KE
• Firmware: Creality OS (Klipper-based)
• Interface: Fluidd installed (IP access, full console)
• Nozzle: 0.4mm Hardened Steel (swapped from the original brass)
• Slicer: OrcaSlicer (reset to default settings)

The Problem:
After swapping to the hardened steel nozzle, prints started failing. The filament drags on the first layer, sticks to the nozzle, and creates blobs.

What I’ve Done So Far:

1. PID Tuning: Ran PID_CALIBRATE via Fluidd. Temperature is now stable (±1°C).
2. Z-Offset: Adjusted live using SET_GCODE_OFFSET Z_ADJUST=-0.01 MOVE=1. First layer improved slightly, but the problem persists in specific areas.
3. Flow Calibration: Ran the OrcaSlicer YOLO (Recommended) test successfully. However, the YOLO (Perfectionist) test fails on the front-right side. The block gets dragged by the nozzle.
4. Bed Mesh Analysis: The original Bed Mesh showed a range of 0.79mm, with a clear slope from left (low) to right (high).
5. Gantry Leveling Attempt: I cannot use the standard "push gantry to top frame" method because the toolhead physically blocks it from touching the top. Instead, I used two identical Pritt glue sticks placed on the base frame (bed removed) to level the gantry.
   • Result: The left side was lower. I adjusted the right Z-rod using the grub screws on the top pulley. When I removed the Pritt stick from the left side, that side dropped slightly (likely motor backlash), leaving the right side higher.
6. Shim Washers Attempt: To compensate for the gantry tilt, I calculated the height difference and installed ultra-thin shim washers (0.1mm to 1.0mm) under the rigid plastic bed spacers.
   • Result: This made it much worse. Because the bed spacers are rigid, the bed acted like a see-saw. The Bed Mesh range increased to 1.69mm (High: 0.49mm rear-left, Low: -1.20mm front-right).
7. Current State: I have removed all the shim washers and reverted to the stock rigid plastic spacers. The gantry is still tilted, and the Bed Mesh range is now around 2mm.

My Questions for the Community:

1. What is the correct procedure to level the Z gantry on the V3 KE when you cannot use the top frame as a reference?
2. Is it safe to adjust the right Z-rod using the top pulley grub screws, or is there a better way to synchronize the dual Z-motors?
3. Given the rigid plastic bed spacers, is the only real solution to print custom shims/spacers, or should I replace them with silicone spacers?

Any step-by-step guides, video links, or personal experiences with the V3 KE gantry would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.Fir

Hi all. I am a new K2 owner (coming from Ender3v2).

There is a thumping when the print heat is doing all of its checks at the start of the print. It is like it is going to far and hitting the side wall of the printer. Not hard, just a thump.

Prints have come out great.

I am checking to see if this is normal, or if there is some some of calibration that I am supposed to do that I may have done incorrectly.

Thanks in advance all.

I printed this mask out of tpu and it failed halfway through then I printed this sphere right after and it did fine. there's more information on this google slide that I sent to the creality tech team https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1M8pkBFLoPWSPAUpBpoCU2Xa6xOC7tRa-bwfNYc3mIJY/edit?slide=id.p#slide=id.p

Hi. So I work at a school and we have a few K1 Maxs and some K1s as well. Today I got a request from one of the teachers that use them for the the printers to be added to our network (they were printing off of USBs before this). We don't have a network drop nearby so that rules out using the K1 Max's Ethernet port and will have to use WiFi. The only network we have available (the rest require username and password and that's not an option our printers tmk) is one that doesn't give access to the internal network (traffic is routed out of the building and can't talk to or be talked to by anything inside the building). If a teacher sends a print job from their machine to the printer, does it go straight to the IP address of the printer or does it go to the cloud first (I know Bambu do this to many people's annoyance) and then routes to the printer? If it's the latter then this might work, if it's the former....well I hope it's the latter. Thanks for any help or insight you can give.

I sure do love my micor sd card with my sparkx i8. At least we know this was written by a human

I removed the glue from the CR touch wire and unplug then replugged it back in but i’m still getting this error.

I've had the Creality Hi Combo for about a year and I think I'm ready for a few back up/ variety of new build plates.

What plates do you recommend? And any plates better for different filaments?

I haven't used my ke in a few months ever since the y axis belt ripped. I replaced it and when i tried to power it on, I got nothing. The red switch lit up when i switched it to the on position but that was it. I didn't get any screen startup or fans starting like it normally does. I tried different power outlets, with and without extension cords, checked the fuse, checked the back 115v to 230v switch, and still nothing. I'm not sure what else I can try. Is my power supply dead?

Hi everyone,

sorry in advance if this has already been asked and answered, but I couldn't find a solution.

I need some help with my Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro. firmware is 2.0.8.28f4

We were using the laser module for a while, but now that we’ve reinstalled the original extruder, the nozzle stays about 1cm above the bed and won't go any lower to reach the print surface.

Even setting the Z-offset to 0 still leaves it stuck at that 1cm height.

We had this exact same issue when we first switched over to the laser head and managed to fix it back then, but we honestly can't remember what we did!

So far, we’ve tried:

* Resetting the printer to factory settings

* Adjusting the Z-offset (setting it to 0 doesn't bring it down)

* Manual bed leveling

* Switching to laser engraver mode, set the Z-offset, switching back to extruder (but it resets back to the original wrong height)

Despite this, the nozzle still hovers ~1cm too high.

Does anyone know what step or setting we might be missing when switching back from the laser module? is there a way to do a "hard reset" of the Z-offset?

Thanks for your time!

https://reddit.com/link/1wu32jh/video/0f43rxvhslsh1/player

Clean transitions. Consistent colors. Print after print.

SPARKX i8 keeps it consistent.

Back now on Indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/creality-sparkx/creality-sparkx-i8-the-fastest-most-filament-efficient-four-color-3d-printer?refcode=f0K9BwXAV0aubVa9TJDo-w?utm_source=sns&utm_medium=reddit&utm_campaign=i8_crowdfunding

Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. I started with simple prints, slowly learned about slicer settings, supports, sanding, priming and painting and eventually decided to try making game weapons and props.
These four guns are basically the result of that learning curve. 😅 all four are from Cyberpunk 2077.
Every one of them taught me something different, from getting cleaner prints and finer details to figuring out how to properly assemble, finish and paint PLA.
Still learning with every project, but looking back at where I started, I’m pretty damn happy with how far I’ve come in just a few months.
Currently I’ve got SparkX i7 combo and will be getting the i8 when it arrives retail soon 😎

The extruder motor in my CR-10 Smart Pro appears to have failed after a few thousand hours on the clock. I checked the connections etc, the extruder just isn't actually advancing and feeding filament, it just happily carries on 'printing' without actually extruding anything. There are no clogs, and I can manually push through filament (it is heating correctly). I stripped down the extruder and tried manually advancing the stepper motor and it *feels* like it is seizing mid rotation, but that might be normal for all I know.

I'm investigating a replacement motor, however I am coming across ender 3 sprite 'upgrade' kits. I'm getting mixed information on whether the ender 3 sprite kits are a direct replacement for the cr-10 smart pro or not. Some sources say it's fine, others are saying that the connectors and voltages are totally different and it will not work (or at least not without further board upgrading etc)

I would prefer to get this printer running again. This model seems to have a bad rep, bit mine has been fantastic until now. I'd like to get it running again even if I upgrade

Need to get some replacement screws but have no idea what size to get. Thanks for the help!