I am currently in the middle of upgrading my ancient Creality CR-10. A good printer at the time (circa 2016) missing modern quality of life features. I first toyed with the idea of building a Voron, see this as a learning prerequisite.

A friend bought a Prusa Mk1 kit at the time (2016). He had endless problems with it, upgraded it over the years to Mk2, Mk2.5 and so forth. While all this time, I had a rather pleasant printing experience with my cheap CR-10, about 330€ on release. My first Layer were never perfect, good enough though…

I had done minimal upgrades over the years.

A Printed Extruder block that’s supposed to improve TPU printing (never tried). (I think it’s just the stock model but 3D Printed).

A printed Filament guide, as otherwise the Filament would pick up schmu from the Z lead screw. See this thing.

Also this fun Extruder Indicator thing :3

Let’s talk about the big UPGRADES

The PTFE lined Original Hotend has become a little crusty over the years. I’ve also never changed the 0.4mm Nozzle…

I will install the Pheatus DragonFly BMS Hotend. Capable of up to 500°C and more filament/melt flow (I think my ultimate limit is the motion system though).

I also bought a new PEI bed, to replace the glass bed that came with my CR-10. It came pre-warped from the Factory: the middle is a valley and the edges (where homing takes place) are way too high.

I hope the new CR-Touch will help with that too.

Also, a Filament run out sensor, just in case, you know.
I hope the mainboard has enough spare GPIOs…

This is part of a relatively new feature of hugo (my website building tool).
This is #01 of my 3D Printer Upgrade series.
More to come pretty soon(-ish) :3