My CR10-S has been a worthy workhorse over the last 7 years. From the sense of potential of the first few prints, creating a fantastically detailed thing where once there was no thing, to the rage of finding a ball of spaghetti on the bed 10 hours into a print. I’ve made a few mods here and there, added a BL-Touch, upgraded the Y-Axis motion system, klipperised it and sometimes it’s been better and somtimes it’s been worse and sometimes it’s probably been the same under the hood but I never noticed the issue until I pushed it a bit. It’s always felt like something I could tinker with and maybe make a little better. Then during 2022 I came across the Voron project and harboured ambitions of a V0.1, that gave me a bit of a push to want to improve things. The plan was to get the printer to the point it could reliably print ABS parts and then print what I needed for the V0, then use the V0 to print the parts I needed to make the CR10-S into something better.
It’s about then I decided to klipperise the printer and then the touch probe shenanigans started, I’m still not sure if the issues were always there, certainly when I reduced the number probe points down to what Octoprint had previously been doing everything seemed fine. Then prints started messing up, not finishing, a stream of potentially clogged nozzles, then prints stopped sticking to the bed, stuff seemed to be binding, banding on the prints, the z-axis screw on one side looks a bit bent. My setup with the printer on a table in a box with the controller underneath isn’t conducive to taking the printer in and out to fix things and check wiring and generally not be a pain. Then in November 2023 I bought a Bambulab P1S. In truth I felt a little grubby, a proprietary machine. I pulled the CR10-S out of it’s box and set the bambulab printer up and it’s been relatively plain sailing ever since.
It took me all of about a week to think of a project. Now I have the CR10 out of it’s box, it’s a lot easier to access, now I have a working printer that can print ABS parts, I’m a lot more relaxed about taking my other printer apart, now might be the time to start a Switchwire. I’ve heard it said, at length, don’t Switchwire, make a Trident, it won’t cost much more and you’ll get a better printer. I’m nothing if not contrary, but also I quite like my CR10-S, the thing has a soul, a scruffy, hacky soul and it deserves to live. I’ll build the V0 at some point, I’ll maybe even venture as far as a Trident or a V2.4, but I want a better CR10-S in all it’s bed-flinging glory.
So I set about formulating a plan…
The Plan
- Make the printer an all in one
- New controller board
- Y - Axis linear rail conversion
- X - Axis linear rail conversion
- Stealthburner toolhead
- Z - Axis linear rail conversion/Full XZ kinematic system
- Start modding it again
This is the rough order I’m planning on doing things, there’s going to be some overlap in the stages and it’ll make sense to order some parts (and do some parts) with others, and most likely I’ll be winging it a lot of the time, but it’s time to get another project on the way.
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