Creality CR-6 SE Review – Worth Buying or Not?

Right off the bat, the Creality CR-6 SE from opening the box gives you a look of professionalism, something we expect from this staple 3D printing brand. The machine is packaged very well so you won’t have to worry about any issues during delivery to yourself.

How does a low maintenance, high quality printing, 5 minute setup timing, greatly priced 3D printer sound to you? Sounded pretty good to me to!

Most of the CR-6 SE is pre-assembled so it won’t be a long process like you might have seen with the early Ender 3 to get to printing.

The Kickstarter event had serious momentum and has almost 2,500% funded as of the upload of this post ($100,000 goal & actually funded $2,448,000) and over 2,500 comments of people discussing and giving suggestions for things to be added into the CR-6 SE Kit.

Specifications of the Ender CR-6 SE

• Machine Size: 442 x 462 x 540mm
• Build Volume: 235 x 235 x 250mm
• Printing Technology: Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
• Product Weight: 9.5 KG
• Layer Thickness: 0.1 – 0.4mm
• Filament: PLA, ABS, TPU, PETG
• Filament Diameter: 1.75mm
• Maximum Heated Bed Temperature: 110°C
• Maximum Extruder Temperature: 260°C
• Maximum Print Speed: 180 mm/s
• File Formats: STL/OBJ/AMF
• Connectivity: SD Card & Online

Features of the Creality CR-6 SE

• 4.3in HD Color LCD Touch Screen
• Foldable Spool Holder
• Auto-Leveling with Force Sensitive Resistor
• Bright LED Beside Nozzle
• Toolbox Storage Drawer
• Adjustable XY Rotary Belt Tensioners
• Photoelectric Filament Sensor
• New Extruder Locking Design (Flexible Fixator)
• Seamless Wiring System
• Creality Tempered (Carborundum) Glass Hotbed
• Optical End-stops
• 8-Bit (32-Bit – Kickstarter) Trinamic Drivers
• Resume Print Function
• Portable Carry Handle
• Dual Z Axis
• Unique Caved Heatsink

4.3in HD Color LCD Touch Screen

You have this very responsive, color-rich LCD touchscreen with the CR-6 SE  which gives you a user-friendly experience when operating the machine. It’s a big step up from the rotary knobs that a lot of people are used to.

The smart and simplified interface gives people a seamless experience when printing.

Foldable Spool Holder

The spool holder can be mounted on the side or the back of your printer, whatever your preference happens to be. It easily snaps right into the extrusion itself for a sturdy printing experience.

The benefit of this is so the weight of the printer is not being placed on the main machine but towards the side or back. Looks wise it just looks better and professional.

Auto-Leveling with Strain Gauge

The way this 3D printer does its leveling is by touching the surface of the bed, then based on the resistance that is sensed, smartly adjusts itself to be in the perfect position for 3D printing your parts.

This is a feature that is changing the game, 3D printing features only get better over time! All it takes is just one click of the touchscreen interface and the auto-leveling process will begin.

A 4×4 grid is displayed on the interface and your nozzle will first establish the center of the bed then hit each spot until complete.

Bright LED Beside Nozzle

Being able to see your prints under a strong light gives your bed surface an almost cinematic effect. You’ll quickly be able to identify any issues or take pride in the high quality printing you’ll experience with the CR-6 SE.

This is where you wanna get your Raspberry Pi’s out with a camera and get some beautiful time lapses of your prints being extruded layer by layer. Blue LED

Toolbox Storage Drawer

This is a neat feature where you no longer have to scramble around to find your tools. We’ve all been there looking all over the place for one of our tools. That issue will now be a thing of the past with the toolbox storage drawer within the actual printer frame.

Adjustable XY Rotary Belt Tensioners

No need to adjust your belt with screws like old times, now it has been made to be much easier. Just rotate the knob on the X or Y axis to tighten or loosen your belts whenever necessary.

Maintenance and higher quality prints gets that much easier with this feature.

Photoelectric Filament Sensor

Instead of worrying about your printing performance, you can rest assured that if your filament runs out or it somehow gets broken while printing, the photoelectric filament sensor installed in the CR-6 SE will detect this and react by stopping the printer.

This feature although not used often, does its job when faced with this problem. Your printer works for you rather than you having to pick up on the smaller issues that people sometimes skip over.

Once you re-apply your filament and feed it through, it will resume operation so you are right back to where you were before the mishap started.

New Extruder Locking Design (Flexible Fixator)

I really like this feature when it comes to feeding filament through your extruder. Not only will it make it easier to feed filament through for a smooth extrusion, but it should lead to faster, quieter and smoother prints overall.

It feels like a big step up from the Ender 3 which required us to press in the tension springs quite firmly to feed filament through. 3D printing machine development focuses on not only the big changes and additions, but the smaller add-ons which make life easier for 3D printer hobbyists.

Seamless Wiring System

In some cases, you can experience your bed wires being knocked into or obstructed by something because of the moving parts. With the newly designed seamless wiring system, you won’t have to worry about your wires fraying or knocking into something.

The wires that power the extrusion are also on the side of the 3D printer, similarly out of the way.

There is an all-new silicon hotbed cable protector installed with it.

Creality Tempered (Carborundum) Glass Hotbed 

The CR-6 SE 3D Printer comes with a carborundum glass hotbed platform that is flatter than aluminum and which offers a stellar thermal performance that ensures quick heating up, strong adhesion and prints that are easy to remove.

The glass bed sits on top of your bed surface and has an in-built locking mechanism to keep it in place. It all looks very professional, compact, and clean for an effortless 3D printing experience.

Optical End-stops

It’s a small, exquisite optical limit switch that is sensitive and quiet. You’ll get high precision with accurate positioning without the mechanical collision that you see in older 3D printers.

8-Bit (32-Bit – Kickstarter) Trinamic Drivers

Trinamic drivers have the benefit of ultra-silent printing due to its ability to minimize current fluctuation. The waves exhibited are a lot smoother and cleaner because of this so you’ll only just about hear the fans working, which is a huge benefit.

It’s still undecided whether the main release will come with 8-bit or 32-bit Trinamic drivers but people who backed the Kickstarter will get to choose between either.

Having the latest Trinamic drivers mean you get better voltage control, faster movements and speedier printing, all in silence.

3D printers shouldn’t be annoying in the noise they make, which is why we added a Silent Chipset to the CR-6 SE. Its latest Trinamic driver helps to ensure that voltage control, fast movement and printing in silence are a given. We know: you’ll thank us dearly for that!

Resume Print Function

This is a feature we are starting to see with most modern 3D printers so it’s not exclusive to this printer. It’s still worth mentioning because some printers still don’t have this feature.

In the event of any power outages or a power switch accidentally being hit, you can trust in the CR-6 SE to resume printing from it’s last recorded location ensuring that your print makes it to the finish line.

Portable Carry Handle

Having a carry handle with your 3D printer is a very neat addition just to make things that little bit more convenient. It’s a very sturdy, well-made handle that attached to the top of the printer so you can move it efficiently if need be.

You can attach or remove it when you require so use it to your heart’s content.

Dual Z-Axis

This eliminated X gantry sagging which stops other problems like the Z-axis skipping layers. It’s definitely an upgrade people have wanted on their printers so thumbs up for putting this on the CR-6 SE (BangGood).

A dual Z-axis adds to the stability, leveling of your bed resulting in better adhesion and printing performance.

Unique Caved Heatsink

You want a heatsink that dissipates heat well and this one is designed uniquely to do exactly that. It does it so well that you can barely feel any heat on the heatsink itself.

---

The video below by 3D Printing Nerd gives a close look at the CR-6 SE and goes through these features with some extra information that you might find helpful.

Benefits of the Creality CR-6 SE

• Ultra-silent printing
• Intuitive user-experience
• Several upgrades from the Ender 3 which make things easier to operate
• Easy to use for beginners, giving out high performance and much enjoyment
• Stylish design and structure is useful and looks very aesthetically pleasing
• All-round safety with several protections installed within
• High precision printing
• 5 minutes to heat up
• All-metal body gives stability and durability
• Easy to assemble and maintain
• Power supply is integrated underneath the build-plate unlike the Ender 3

Downsides of the CR-6 SE

• Bowden extruder instead of Direct-Drive which can be either a benefit or a downside
• Doesn’t use an all-metal hotend so it won’t print some materials unless upgraded
• Glass beds do tend to be heavier so it may lead to ringing in prints if not secure
• You’ll have to change PTFE tube to print Nylon

Creality Ender 3 Vs Creality CR-6 SE

When we look at the original Ender 3, there are many differences, some large some small, but overall, it’s definitely a carefully manufactured, upgraded system. It’s had the backing of so many people because they believe in the Creality brand and their ability to deliver major developed machines compared to past machines.

The way Creality develop their printer upgrades is by taking countless feedback from what users have done to upgrade their own printers, then incorporating it into the newest machine without even raising the price as much as they should.

At the same time they have to balance the upgrades & features with the price, so you won’t get everything but you will get a lot of the latest gadgets at very affordable prices.

As the predecessor, they both have many similarities of course but the extra push that the Ender CR-6 SE has makes it very worth it to upgrade to. It’s definitely more beginner-friendly.

Add-ons that the CR-6 SE have that the Ender 3 doesn’t:

• Bigger build space
• Slightly higher max nozzle temperature
• Slightly higher max hotbed temperature
• Uses 350W rather than 270W
• Dual Z-axis rather than Single Z-axis
• Glass bed vs the BuildTak-like heated build plate
• HD Touchscreen
• Silent motherboard & cooling fans
• Filament run-out sensor
• Auto bed-leveling
• Weighs 9.5KG rather than 6.9KG for the Ender 3
• Portable handle
• Belt tensioner
• Built-in toolbox
• Foldable filament holder
• Stepper motor cover
• Silicon hotbed cable protector
• Hotbed fixators

For the difference in price especially during the Kickstarter, this is a no-brainer. The CR-6 SE goes so further beyond the Ender 3 in terms of performance, efficiency, usability and technology.

Verdict – Worth Buying or Not?

I’m sure you won’t regret going with the Creality Ender CR-6 SE either for your first purchase or to add to a wonderful collection of 3D printers.

You can expect several thousand hours of printing with this printer and for the price and performance we’ve already seen in many review videos, along with the extensive feature list, this is one that I know everyone will be happy with.

Purchase your own CR-6 SE from Amazon.