The thing I learned early on about the 3D printing community is that everyone has a preference and they tend to be pretty damn dedicated to it. So, as usual with any of my tutorials, take from it what you will and leave what doesn't work for you.
I've moved to a family of Creality FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printers because despite their different bed sizes, they have the same mechanics and use the same parts. This means I've been able to really get to know my machines and only have to keep a set of backup parts on hand. I promised myself early on that I would not upgrade parts until I found it a necessity and after all this time, there are really only three things I'd suggest.
The first only applies if I start noticing any issues with my filament getting shaved or hung up, in which case I'll swap out my extruder feeder drive with a metal one.
Second, I have not regretted a penny that I spent on switching from Cura to Simplify3D. Now, Cura is where I started because it was free and I understand that it's more robust now. At the time I wanted something with a more intuitive user interface and easier application of supports and have been happy with the swap. Below you'll find the settings I use for all of my Creality machines which are pretty much the default. My changes are mainly in the temperatures (210 for the extruder and 60 for the bed using PLA+) and the speeds and retraction distances. I originally had some stringing issues but those latter changes cleared that up. Hope you find these helpful!
EXTRUDER
I believe I kept everything to the default with the exception of the retraction distance and speed. I did some research and found these to be the recommended values for Bowden tube machines.
LAYER
The only thing I alter here is my primary layer height. Almost everything I build requires some sort of post-processing so .2 is the ideal sweet spot between quality and time. You can play around with layer heights and see how they impact your print times.
ADDITIONS
I always use a raft. Always. Yes it adds a bit more print time but it's also an immediate indicator of my print quality. It's also fantastic for helping prints adhere to the bed.
INFILL
My standard infill is 15% and I probably use this for 95% of my prints. If I'm printing something small and want to ensure it's sturdy, I'll jack that up to 50%. If I'm printing something large but am not worried about sturdiness, I'll drop it down to 5%.
SUPPORT
The only thing I alter is my support pillar resolution and I use 15mm as my default. I'm generally doing large prop pieces and have found this size to be perfect but there's a great tool for creating custom supports that also lets you add a variety of sizes.
TEMPERATURE
I use PLA+ and run it at 210 with a bed temperature of 60. I've actually had success with it as low as 185 but 210 gives me really smooth and beautiful prints. I almost exclusively use Inland Pro's PLA+ in silver so that's something to keep in mind. I have found that different filaments and colors give different results.
Cooling, GCode, and Scripts
I don't mess with these settings. The only thing that is changed under G Code is the build volume to fit my machine size.
SPEEDS
I believe I adjusted my default print speed but you can't hold me to it.
OTHER and ADVANCED
Two more settings I use as is.
