I knew I had to do it, after all I do have a resin printer going here and not knowing the other side of the coin just makes it difficult to be in the not knowing how printing in plastic works. Besides, these are better for printing terrain (will find out soon), and can print household items I need to repair (got a couple things I would like to make on the side to replace)
So I ended up buying an Ender 5 Pro before Christmas came and finally got it assembled. Overall assembly was just an issue of figuring out where things go.
ASSEMBLY
First problems. It has to be assembled! OK, this was not bad. Instructions were mostly easy, but this being my first FDM printer it DID NOT take 20 minutes to an 1 hour (like all the videos claim) to put together and get set up. That being said it was my first one and if I had to do it again it would take probably about 30 minutes (or if I had any clue at all on how these things go together) so I will give them a break.A lot of videos say this is one of the easier FDM printers to assemble, large print bed, etc.
Resin printers require non of this set up like this. Are much easier to set up and start printing. My first issue was where to put all these wires so they do not get caught in anything. Since its my first printer like this, its been some guesswork. I watched the video carefully from the Creality, who made the machine, and put them where they did.
PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED
The 2nd Issue is there was some problems. Lets list them since there was a couple and these took some time.
First Problem
Leveling the build plate. Unlike just about every other printer for 3D printing this one was hard to find the exact model to see how to level the build plate. Most people skip over it. This model did not have an auto leveling option and I am going to be the first to tell you that if you are new to this type of printing.... get the autoleveler. I will most likely be upgrading to this feature later.
Leveling the build plate they want you to do it manually for this Ender 5 Pro, while every other Ender 5 has a different system that assists or does it for you. Once you unlock the arms, you can manuever it where you want and then level each corner of the build plate. I did mine twice around to make certain I was level. (no confirmation yet, as I will be printing my first print later today.)
However, when new to this type of printer, I was not certain what I could or could not do with the arm in fear of damaging it. So this was not pleasant to figure out. The instructions were very vague on how to do this.
Second Problem
Loading the PLA (the plastic spool) requires you to heat up the nozzle and thread it in. I did this (the first two times without heating up the nozzle...). The problem arose when I did try and heat up the nozzle and I did this through the digital display following the correct prompts.
The digital display turned off and reset itself! Crap.
It did this several times and then I spent the next 10-15 minutes trying to find out why. It turns out that on the very back of the machine behind everything there is a 220 and 115 switch. Mine was set for 220 and being in the United States we are on the 115. So once this was switched with a screw driver to move it, the display was fine.
Third Problem
Now with my other Photon moving the bed with the Z axis is pretty easy. Set it to the distance you want to move it, push the button. Push the button several times to get it to move that distance.
The Ender 5 Pro however the dial pushes to select something. If you have a touchscreen I am assuming this is easier. So to move the platform you select the Axis and distance. Once there you can set how far it moves. I was trying to select it again, like a touchscreen, but instead what you have to do is just turn the dial and it moves up and down.
This may seem minor, but its the minor things that can always hold you up.
OVERALL
Over all the set up was not that difficult. The problems were easy to figure out. The instructions are decent but assume you have done this before or can watch a video to figure it out.
Now that I am loaded and ready though, I will be printing something interesting. I think I spent about 2 hours with assembly and getting everything set up. This is because I was being careful and had to look things up online to figure out how to fix any questions or problems I was having.
So looking forward to getting this going today. Will let you know the results.
I am set up now........ and later today will be doing my first print!