One month with the K2 Pro Combo : tuning, bed leveling and first impressions

Hi everyone,

I’m one of the winners of the “Community Pioneers event” for the K2 Pro Combo.

I haven’t started my “big” project yet (a 2 m printed RC sailplane with foaming filaments), because the first month went into something else I really enjoy: getting to know the machine and tuning it.

So here’s what I’ve been doing so far and how the printer feels in real life, what I like, and what I think could be improved.

1. Small upgrade – the CFS “poop chute”

One of the first things I printed and tweaked was a front redirect “poop chute” for the CFS purge.

I posted it on Creality Cloud, and the V2 version seems to be getting some nice feedback so far:

Poop / Waste Chute – K2 PRO (CFS front-redirect), symmetric

683.34KBRelated 3D Model

It’s a simple 3-piece symmetric add-on that redirects purge to the front and keeps the mess under control. Nothing fancy, but it makes cleanup a lot easier and keeps the ouside of the machine a bit more civilized.

2. Bed leveling – from 0.9 mm to 0.09 mm peak-to-peak

Then I fell into the rabbit hole of leveling.

• Starting point: My first measurements showed about 0.9 mm peak-to-peak variation across the build surface. That’s enough to feel it in first layers.

• What I did:

o I started with the basics: adjusted the mechanical leveling knobs as carefully as I could and it ended up about 0.3mm peak-to peak which is already good but I chose to improve it again

o Then I wrote a small app that takes the mesh data and tells me where to put strips of aluminum tape between the build plate and the heated bed to compensate locally.
On my screenshots, the colored heatmap is the “before”, and the white map is the “theoretically after” according to the app.

• Where I am now:

I’m down to about 0.09 mm peak-to-peak variation, which is a huge improvement for first-layer consistency.

So mechanically, the platform can be brought very close to “flat”, and the K2 Pro reacts well when you put in the effort to dial it in.

3. What I really like so far (+)

First, the general feeling:

• The machine feels robust, good-looking, and capable.

• I haven’t had a single actual issue with the CFS or the printer so far – it just does what it’s supposed to do.

• I’ve owned several printers from different brands. For more than a year my favorite was the K1C: not flashy, but a real little tank.

Now the needle is clearly moving toward the K2 Pro. It’s not perfect, but it has some very strong points.

After using it daily for about a month and digging into what’s inside, there are a few design choices I really appreciate:

• The CoreXY motion system and stiff frame give it a very stable feeling, even when it’s moving fast. Infill and gyroid patterns stay clean, which matters a lot for lightweight parts where you can’t hide defects under mass. That’s one of the issue I had with my ender 3V3 and my Creality Hi. They’re great but bed slingers are not forgiving!

• The heated bed and closed chamber behave nicely and stay stable. That gives me confidence for when I start pushing into more demanding materials than the usual PLA.

• The direct-drive dual-gear extruder and quick nozzle changes are really comfortable. For now I mostly run a standard 0.4 mm setup, but I know I can switch to different diameters easily when I move to special filaments.

• The built-in input shaping / motion control is already doing a good job: surface quality is decent at reasonable speeds without me having to battle ringing all the time. For a “high-speed capable” printer, that’s a very good starting point.

• The CFS integration feels solid. I’m not yet abusing it with crazy multicolor prints, but even in simple use it’s reassuring to see automatic filament handling working reliably.

• And I like the ecosystem side: Creality Print, Creality Cloud, remote monitoring and the camera all tie together fairly well. It’s practical to push models, watch prints, and share things like the poop chute with other users.
Only downside of CrealityCloud are the print settings though...It is a gigantic mess and no moderation....

Overall, it feels like a platform with a lot of headroom. The fundamentals (mechanics, motion, extrusion) are strong enough that it’s worth investing time into tuning and building serious projects on it.

4. Things that could be improved (−)

Now for the parts that could use some love.

1. Protective cover – very hard to remove the first time

On my unit, some of the screws were really tight. I had to use pliers on the Allen key to get them to move. (and there is not a lot of place to do that !)

It would have been nice if that unboxing was a bit less of a fight.

2. Small crease in the anti-shatter film on the glass

The protective anti-shatter film on my door glass has a small wrinkle.

It’s purely cosmetic and doesn’t affect use at all, but visually you do notice it when you look closely.

3. Behavior when stopping a print as automatic homing can be dangerous

Right now, when you hit “Stop”, the printer immediately do a partial home.

That can be a problem if you stopped the print because of a big blob on the nozzle: during homing, that blob can drag across the print and wipe everything off the bed (and even damage it)

Personally, I’d much rather see something like moving Z up a few millimeters and stop or at least have an option in the settings where the user can choose what happens after a “Stop”.

I might try to tweak this myself, but I think a safer default in the firmware would help a lot of people.

4. Camera placement and resolution

The camera on the K2 Pro is smaller than the one I had on my K1C, and it’s only 720p.

720p is usable, but it’s a bit on the low side nowadays if you want to see small details.

Ideally, I’d love:

o a camera placed below the chamber light for a better view and lighting,

o and, if possible one day, a 1080p option (I will most likely add the one from the K2PLUS)

After a month of printing, tuning and poking at the machine, I’m really happy with the K2 Pro Combo so far.
I even did a lamp with it !

Pumpkin Palace Lamp

23.58MBRelated 3D Model

It already feels robust and reliable, and with a few mechanical and firmware refinements it has the potential to become an excellent platform for more advanced stuff – like the lightweight foaming-filament glider I originally proposed.

Next step for me: https://forum.creality.com/t/your-project-our-k2-pro-pioneer/44506/44?u=alex2lab

Finally start that printed RC glider project, and see how far I can push the K2 Pro with LW-PLA, LW-ASA and HT-LW-PLA in parts that actually go into the sky.

Thanks for reading. If anyone is interested in the bed mapping, the aluminum-tape trick, or the poop chute model, I’m happy to share more details.