Purchase the Creality Ender 5 Pro printer from Banggood HERE!

Hey guys, here again for another 3D printer review, this time the Creality Ender 5 Pro!

This is an interesting printer, it takes pretty much all of the features from the ender 3 pro but puts it in a cube frame design. It looks much like a Core XY printer but is not to be confused with one as it is technically still a cartesian printer, just a different orientation.

Also, Banggood asked me to mention that they are having a big AU warehouse sale as per below:
Up To 50% Off & $9.99 Snap Up FAST SHIPPING AU Stock Clearance Sale:  https://ban.ggood.vip/X1Ql Feb, 5th to 15th

I would like to thank Banggood for their continued support in my review efforts, I wouldn't be able to do these without them!

Unboxing:
The Ender 5 Pro came packaged like most of the Creality printers I have received, but with some differences due to the design of the printer







Underneath the top part of the cube, the whole piece of foam lifts out to reveal the base of the printer.


Here is everything that was in the box laid out. It definitely looks like assembly will be much simpler than the TwoTrees Sapphire pro I did a while back.


A quick note after unboxing:
I really like to see this Metal Extruder setup, this is a simple and very common upgrade, so it's nice to see it already done. Something you don't get on an Ender 3 Pro.


Instructions:
I have taken pictures of each useful page of the manual for this printer, this should give you an idea of the assembly required.










Assembly:
The first assembly step is mounting the 4 upright extrusions. 
Make sure you orient them correctly as per the manual or you can't connect the top of the printer correctly (I made this mistake and had to redo 1 of them)



Next step is to place the top on, not sure what to call this so the top of the cube shall be its name.
There are 4 bolts straight down through the top, and another 4 in through brackets on the side, which makes a very strong connection.


Next is to install the Z-Axis, this is just a couple of screws at the top and bottom.




Next is screwing the bed assembly to the Z axis, I personally think this joint is a bit flimsy, so i might make some sort of printable strengthener.


Then, I mounted the Extruder Drive.


Spool holder is a typical creality unit


Screen mounts on the front, looks like the same one as the ender 3 uses


This is what the finished assembly looks like:


I really think this cable area here could use with some management or improvement. I tried to tie things up etc but really a lot of them are slightly short to neatly hide. I might have to print a box to cover this area or something.


First Print

As I have been doing recently, I did a live stream print for this printer. You can watch it on either Facebook or Youtube below.

https://fb.watch/3fdhKwtk2K/




Final Thoughts:

If you are wanting a printer to build an enclosure around, this type of printer is an excellent option because it is built with its own cube around it so you can easily add side panels without wasting materials or space. I do think some improvements can be made, firstly the creality magnetic beds are not great, and I immediately replaced mine with a glass bed after I had one print lose adhesion to it during my test Live Stream. Also, I think the bed mounting is a bit flimsy and could cause inconsistencies with larger and heavier sized prints.

These issues aside, this is a great printer for the price, especially if you are looking for something with a Cube frame. I have had some questions as to why this is more expensive than an Ender 3 Pro if it has most of the same parts, and that's quite simple. It takes a lot more Aluminium extrusion to make this printer over an Ender 3 (almost double) so that's why the price is different, you also have linear rods and bearings for the Z axis which can be a little more expensive.

Please let me know what you think of this printer and if you would buy one.

Cheers,
Dave

Hi, I purchased one of these for my krimbo pressie, first printer..

As a noob to 3d printing I went slow while building, I did have one frame hole around 5mm out but sorted this with a new hole quite quickly.

Build quality overall is very good, with the magnetic bed it took a while (learning curve) to get this right and although it was brand new the bed is not completely flat, with fine tuning I started to get decent prints off using Cura Slicer.

I tried Octoprint, prusa slicer and one other pc program (matter hackers) but couldn't get on with these, slice with Cura and pop in the SD.

I upgraded* to a glass bed (original), I say upgraded - this was a nightmare, couldn't get anything to stick to it, even tried a glue stick as recommended even though I hated the idea of this. Which didn't work either, was about to remove the glass plate but it had adheard itself to the aluminium plate. So here I was naffed off with a printer that wouldn't print.

Fix- I used the original magnetic bed on top of the glass bed with a couple of bulldog clips, got it levelled again >1H.

And it now prints like a dream, the glass bed is perfectly flat as is the mag bed on top of it, sometimes use a bit of Pritt but it's excellent now..

Cons, takes some setting up - and good luck getting help on 3d forums, they look but don't touch your posts.. Would have been handy too know how to upgrade the FW, too many options with no forum help - cheers for this anyone from over there. I'm still on stock FW as I don't want risk a brick.

Pros, it really does give good prints without an enclosure, easy to use with Thinverse for gcode/stl files, pop the file though Cura on PC and run the print via MicroSD - it works.

Tips, keep your filament dry this was a big issue until I used a dehumidifier in the same room. I find even slightly damp PLA causes adhesion issues.

Get one bought.

(18-Jun-2021, 06:16 PM)Broughski Wrote: and good luck getting help on 3d forums, they look but don't touch your posts.. Would have been handy too know how to upgrade the FW, too many options with no forum help - cheers for this anyone from over there. I'm still on stock FW as I don't want risk a brick.

Have you tried the folks over at https://into3dp.com/

That forum is managed by one of our active members “bffigjam” who posted this original review on the Ender 5.

(18-Jun-2021, 06:16 PM)Broughski Wrote: Hi, I purchased one of these for my krimbo pressie, first printer..

As a noob to 3d printing I went slow while building, I did have one frame hole around 5mm out but sorted this with a new hole quite quickly.

Build quality overall is very good, with the magnetic bed it took a while (learning curve) to get this right and although it was brand new the bed is not completely flat, with fine tuning I started to get decent prints off using Cura Slicer.

I tried Octoprint, prusa slicer and one other pc program (matter hackers) but couldn't get on with these, slice with Cura and pop in the SD.

I upgraded* to a glass bed (original), I say upgraded - this was a nightmare, couldn't get anything to stick to it, even tried a glue stick as recommended even though I hated the idea of this. Which didn't work either, was about to remove the glass plate but it had adheard itself to the aluminium plate. So here I was naffed off with a printer that wouldn't print.

Fix- I used the original magnetic bed on top of the glass bed with a couple of bulldog clips, got it levelled again >1H.

And it now prints like a dream, the glass bed is perfectly flat as is the mag bed on top of it, sometimes use a bit of Pritt but it's excellent now..

Cons, takes some setting up - and good luck getting help on 3d forums, they look but don't touch your posts.. Would have been handy too know how to upgrade the FW, too many options with no forum help - cheers for this anyone from over there. I'm still on stock FW as I don't want risk a brick.

Pros, it really does give good prints without an enclosure, easy to use with Thinverse for gcode/stl files, pop the file though Cura on PC and run the print via MicroSD - it works.

Tips, keep your filament dry this was a big issue until I used a dehumidifier in the same room. I find even slightly damp PLA causes adhesion issues.

Get one bought.

Thanks for your thoughts on the printer, a few things:

With the glass bed, if you put it over the magnetic pad on the original buildplate then you need to put alfoil in between otherwise you can never remove the glass bed (although I have with a paint scraper and some patience). I believe I did this in my live stream where I put the glass bed on the printer.

Also, Getting a clean print on the glass bed requires a slightly different bed offset than the magnetic buildplate, you need to have a lot more squish on the first layer to make it bond correctly. Once you do this the glass bed is FAR better than the magnetic one. Temp also plays a role here, I run a glass bed temp of 60C for PLA.

I use modified food dehydrators to dry out my filament. Just make sure you don't go too far with it or you'll ruin it fully haha.

(19-Jun-2021, 01:10 AM)kafie1980 Wrote: Have you tried the folks over at https://into3dp.com/

That forum is managed by one of our active members “bffigjam” who posted this original review on the Ender 5.

Thanks for the into3DP shoutout, it's appreciated.

For firmware

Ender 5 has a boot loader unlike ender 3 and there's plenty of YouTube tutorials about doing this. Unless you've done anything with code before there will be some learning new things involved but all the info is available on marlin github and YouTube for a simple follow along. After you do this once its really straight forward and you won't hesitate to go back and make changes like enabling linear advance, led lights or bl touch.

Sticking with the creality board makes it even easier as you select files from the folder that matches your printer to replace the generic files in the code so it's instantly configured to your printer. With an aftermarket board you have to figure out what connects to what pin to match the board and component. If this was your first time that would make this a bit more tedicous but pretty basic on a second build or later upgrade once you've worked your way through it once.

It's worth downloading marlin and following a tutorial, costs nothing but a couple hours on the first setup. You'll know right away if this is something within your abilities and have a better understanding to ask questions that might get better responses in the forum. You don't need to erase anything on the stock board to setup marlin it's done on the pc you upload it after it's compiled. But you'll likely be very comfortable with doing it after going through the setup process and it successfully compiles.

Best upgrade I did was upgrading to marlin from creality version. Not because it's any better but because now I know how to make firmware changes when I want to and enable / disable things to suit my mods and needs.