I have had my Creality Ender 3 Pro for a while now and I have upgraded it quite a lot. Lately I have been thinking about wether I should put in some more money (better hotend, maybe new steppers, maybe enclosure, maybe part cooling fan) or if I should buy a new printer that is a more of complete package. A bit more build volume would be nice as well.
I am intrigued by the Bambu Labs printers but I don’t like their somewhat proprietary approach. So I have been looking around for competitors and I saw that Creality has shown their new K2 Plus with an AMS. I wonder if it’s worth waiting for that. The specs sound good. Is the K1 good now? I heard it had some problems in the beginning.
Do the math.
Buying new might be cheaper than upgrading the ender 3:
hotend+extruder: orbiter v3 110€
stepper (not sure why you would want): 2x (5-phase 0.72° stepper and 5 phase stepper driver): 200€ [2 phase 0.9° would be significantly lower cost but even less of an upgrade]
cooling fan: larger 6023 blower: 13€
enclosure: Not great for a bed pusher. Core XY is compact. Regardless approx. 100€
Between those, you would already look at approx. 425€ in parts and still have the basic Ender 3 frame and electronic that if you haven’t done might want to upgrade to.