The Creality CR-10S Pro www.creality3d.shop/products/creality3d-cr-10s-pro-300-300-400-3d-printer) has become my daily driver 3D printer, replacing my Monoprice Mini V2 (https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=21711).
There wasn't anything wrong with the Mini, in fact it is a great printer for anyone wanting to get into 3D printing in general as a hobby, however it needs some TLC to get going, it needs to rewire the bed wires (which requires drilling through the chassis), replacing the bed material if you even think about moving to hotter filaments, and quite a few other enhancements to get it to be really really good.
That being said I didn't get into 3D printer solely for printing small trinkets, I always intended to print larger full size props (Iron man being my go to, much like everyone else on this forum). I have managed to do that with the mini, printing a helmet in ABS in 20 pieces and then time consumingly welding them together, sanding, and filling to get an "okayish" result.
Enter the CR-10S Pro, unboxing and setting it up were straight forward, and right out of the gate I flashed it with the Tiny Machines firmware, which improves on the bed mesh leveling and some other minor things. That was the only change I have done to the printer (thus far). After a very quick leveling, applying my tried and true washable gluestick, I exported a helmet from Cura using the CR-10S Profile and pressed print. Around 4-5 days later I had the helmet printed, and it was basically perfect. I had printed it in two pieces just to mitigate any possible failure however I could have printed it in one.
Red Helmet (CR-10S Pro) Prusament PETG, Green Helmet (Monoprice Mini V2) ABS
Currently I am working on printing the DO3D Doctor Doom helmet:
As you can see in the picture above, my bed is all sorts of angled and and not by any means "level", however the printers mesh leveling is so good that I haven't had an issue whatsoever printing this helmet level relatively to the axis. The mesh leveling is absolutely amazing and I haven't had any issues with the stock capacitive probe whatsoever. The heated bed heats up quick and has been a good surface to print on (I always apply gluestick no matter what so I can't speak to the printing surface without it). The volume is the main reason I purchased this model as I can print basically any helmet in a single piece, which I don't foresee any issues doing just that. Some of the other great features include:
Filament run-out sensor - I have had to use this being that some of the prints exceed the 1kg amount of standard spools. It works wonderfully albeit with one catch I will discuss later
Resume printing after power outage - I have yet to test this but it is very nice to have
trinamic drivers - Almost silent motor driving as well as supporting the advanced features noted above
Brand name power supply - This is just a nice to have for reliability, however has a catch
Dual gear extruder - thing SHOVES through filament.
Overall for pros, as I said you can get going out of the box without really doing anything other than screwing the base together and leveling the bed. If you are looking for a prop printer, I highly recommend this without having to worry about tweaking.
Now for the cons:
It is LOUD. While it is true that the drivers make the motors silent, the power supply fan is absolutely blaring. Sounds like a jet, guess that means it runs cool though...
Filament run-out sensor design - While it does prevent running out of filament, there isn't an easy way of getting the old filament out other than removing the bowden tube. It can be a pain, but it is better than a failed print
Filament run-out sensor part Duex & filament feeding - The top mounted spool position and the way it feeds into the runout sensor puts a lot of strain on the gears (more than I would like but they seem fine...) it could prove to be an issue, at minimum it causes the gears/spring setup to squeak in an annoying fashion. There are solutions to this such as using a different spool mount and printing a filament guide, both of which I plan to do.
Those really are my only cons, it's a really good platform. You can upgrade to a BLtouch (more accurate bed leveling regardless of the surface), change out for a direct drive extruder such as the hemera by E3D or microswiss to better handle flexible filaments and have all metal hotend for things such as nylon or exotic filaments. For an FDM printer this is one of the best options in my opinion. It has made my monoprice mini V2 basically obsolete. The only way I would replace this machine is if I got a large format resin printer, which currently they are extremely expensive, only to cut down on the sanding.
Hope this helps any of you looking for a minimal setup 3D printer to start printing some awesome props!
UPDATE:
All make sure to get this: https://tinymachines3d.com/products/creality-10s-pro-modified-extruder-lever-1?_pos=3&_sid=9ddd67760&_ss=r&variant=31588881236086 It fixes a flaw in the lever arm that causes increased wear!