Creality Ender 2 Review
Hello, welcome to my review of the Creality Ender 2. This is a budget printer by Creality, costing only £120 when I bought it. I have had this printer for 2 months now and have been enjoying my time with it. Here’s what I think of the machine:
Assembly
The printer arrived in a large box. Packaged well, all components safe. All the complex parts such as the extruder and print head came pre-built, which is useful for the beginners who have just bought this as their first printer.
The instructions that came with it were not very useful, though they did have a diagram of all the parts of the printer with labels. This would be useful for a beginner to help them learn what each part of the printer is called. There are a couple of guides online you can use to help you construct it if you do not know how to.
Ender 2 Tech Specs
- Price: Around £120
- Build Volume: 150x150x200mm
- Build Plate Size: 165x165mm
- Nozzle: 0.4mm
- Filament Diameter: 1.75mm
- Max Print Speed: 200mm/s
- Print Precision: +/-0.1mm
Features
The Creality Ender 2 has a lot going for it with its cheap price tag, but how does it perform?
First off, the print bed. The quirky thing about this bed is that you level it by 3 points, the 4th directly influenced by the other 3. The bed has a pad that is surprisingly effective, as long as you keep it clean. I would recommend using 70% isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) to clean the bed every now and again, not too often though as this may degrade it. Stay tuned for a guide on how to clean your print bed.
One of the main problems I have had with this printer is bed wobble. Due to the print surface not being removable, and that you have to use a scraper to remove your print. This messes up your level bed after a couple of prints. The eccentric nut also rotates causing the bed to wobble. This can be fixed by tightening the eccentric nut and re-leveling your bed (which is a bit of a faff!) Or you could buy a flex bed system.
The stock nozzle can handle most filament such as PLA and PETG but cannot be used with abrasive filament such as filament with metal fills.
The way that the Ender 2 x-axis is only supported on the left side means that it can become inaccurate with dimensions. In fact, on my first print, I tried to print a fan mod, but it didn’t fit because the x-axis wasn’t 90° to the y-axis. I took the z-axis off and re-aligned it, then it was fine and I’ve had no problems since.
This printer does have almost all the parts exposed meaning it is not ideal for educational settings where it would be around smaller children. But, I’m sure if you wanted to you could print some enclosures for the parts of the printer to make it more child-friendly.
Print using the Ender 2
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3569490
https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-stormwind-lion-statue-57055
As you can see, these prints came out pretty well. On the Protocity print, the lines on the tower are all very crisp, and the overhang on the top of the arch was handled pretty well. However, on the yellow and white Pikachu print, you can see some horizontal lines across the head of the print. This is down to inconsistent extrusion. The Ender 2 stock extruder is plastic and I’ve read that others have also had this problem.
The Ender 2 Benchy Test
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:763622
Here I have printed 2 benchies. 1 at 0.2mm layer height, and the other at 0.16mm layer height. As you can see, there is not much stringing and the overhangs on the benchy’s doorway are not handled brilliantly. I have also had many problems in the past with layer shifts. On the hull of the boat, you can see some more signs of inconsistent extrusion.
Who is this for?
This machine is small, unintrusive, easy to build, comes partly assembled and does not cost a whole lot. This printer would be perfect for a beginner looking to ‘test the waters’ in 3D printing. Perhaps someone who wants a machine to print small miniatures for tabletop gaming. Or maybe an experienced maker would use this as a secondary printer, a reliable side-printer whilst his/her main printer is tackling more intensive projects.
Really, this printer is for practically anyone. And is perfect as a first printer.
Summary
I recommend the Creality Ender 2 as a solid option. There is a lot of space to upgrade this printer. It is small, compact, reliable and cheap. I think this is perfect for almost any maker!
However, if you wanted to spend a bit more money you could go for the Ender 2’s big brother, the Creality Ender 3. It has a larger build plate and a much larger modding community.
Thank you very much for reading my review, if you enjoyed it perhaps you would like to check out some of my other articles. You can follow my social media accounts on Twitter and Instagram for updates on upcoming posts and see what I’m printing!
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