YOU MUST SEE THIS PRINTER! - UltraCraft Reflex Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 พ.ค. 2024
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Inability to tweak settings or use 3rd party resins is a deal killer. Not to mention the fact that those resins cost $70-120 per bottle. This is even more locked than Bambu, at least bambu lets you change print settings.
absolutely fair comment
Hey Gears does carbon copy FormLabs printers for slighthly less money. Unfortunately up to the consumables market lock. Thanks but no thanks. If I was in the market for an industrial printer, I'd go for the original, not the copycat.
"at least bambu lets you change print settings" and use third party filaments.
@@cidercreekranchyep
@@the_arcanumto be fair, HeyGears have their own industrial printer reputation, as do several other brands.
Formlabs is just the one that most people have heard of.
I run a small 3d print shop for resin minis, I sell about 200-300 minis a month. I was very interested in this printer at first. Anything that streamlined my process and eliminated print failures (which aren't super common but really set back the production queue when you have them) would be great. My attitude started to sour when you said "proprietary resin" and this printer was 100% completely ruled out when you revealed the cost of the resin. Unless customers make a specific request and pay a custom order upcharge, I'm printing all orders in Sunlu standard, which I get for $15 USD per 1000g, Heygears is 4-6x as expensive. I'd have to raise my prices, and I don't know that the market would bear it. No deal.
And even if I'm willing to pay the premium for resin I do that for specific properties. Also easy availability might be a factor.
@@3dPrintingMillennial did you watch the video? It's not just the form factor, I could free pour any resin directly into the vat like I do with my elegoo printers. It's that it uses some kind of RFID or QR code in the resin bottle to set exposure settings and they cant be changed by the end user.
@@3dPrintingMillennial Doesn't help you with the locked down curing parameters.
I deleted my comment. It's a long video. Now I see that the resin cures at a different wavelength. Overall, this seems like a badass printer. If I had a mini figure business, I'd certainly buy this.
I like a lot of the features, but the build plate with the holes F cleaning those they can be a pain, also the price is insane for how fast this technology is advancing it will be out of date very soon. Plus the cost of their resin I am not sure who this printer is for.
Dead on arrival:
- have to use their resins
- have to use their slicer
- formlabs clone
- 385nm vs 390 is a negligible difference. I don’t think that’s what’s giving the better quality it’s probably the combo of their proprietary resin and settings.
- surely layout/orientation should be done before support?
- making slicing a “background task” is not a excuse for slow slicing.
- yes it’s cheap but when you add up the wash station, cure station and PRM it’s not anymore.
- worrying that exposure test cracked, shattering parts of build plate, first print failed.
This thing is awesome!
- Other resins have already been shown to work with it.
- Get to use their slicer
- Clone? Did you watch the video?
- I get the same quality with Siraya Tech resin as theirs.
- The supports will always recalculate after you orientate your files.
- Who said its slow? Did he say that? I must have missed it but its similar to other slicers.
- You dont have to buy their washer and cure station but I got the Christmas deal and saved around 300 - 400 bucks.
- Now you are just looking for stuff to complain about. 😅
That last bit was his fault really. User error
@HeyGears Please make this more affordable for the masses instead of the elite. It doesn't mean you aren't a premium product, but being in every 3d resin printers home would be a statement in and of itself. I agree with Ross on this that , Thousands of units sold is way better then hundreds. Also, with huge sale numbers means the manufacturing itself becomes less and streamlined increasing bottom line profit. The resin for your printers is crazy expensive. This printer isn't for large companies to use for production, they would get industrial machines and write off the cost, so , you cant price the materials the same. I don't want to have to say well , do I really want to print this because it will take this much resin and I cant buy anymore right now because of other living expenses. Make it available to a large consumer base , not just those that have 6 plus figure incomes and large amounts of deposable income.
what you dont get is : THOS IS NOT FOR HOBBY-USERS they dont want stuff like that ,the compete with formlabs and similar printers, not creality elegooo or similar. And suddenly everything makes sense, tje price, the materials, the closed system etc. 😮 and they dont want to support the masses of normal users.
I mean 1399 isn’t that bad for this size / quality. It’s the price of a laptop.
I already love my Mega 8k but I’d think about giving this a shot.
The resin is definitely $$& though :(
Worth mentioning, but write-offs don't mean "free or partially paid for stuff" like people seem to think. Just means not getting taxed on the income that was used for the purchase. The company still pays for the stuff, they just don't have to pay taxes on the equivalence of their expenses on their gross revenue. It's like not having to pay income tax every paycheck, but getting taxed on all income that wasn't used for essential expenses when you file your taxes.
“The elite” lmfao do you really talk like this in real life. It’s literally just an expensive printer. Relax.
I find this request redundant. "Please, make this cheaper so I can buy it" would be a valid demand on something first necessity, not on a resin printer.
I’m an old school FDM guy. I learned to print by flogging an Ender 3 within an inch of its life, and by the time it finally died, I was printing carbon fiber polycarbonate. That was a years long process and I learned a lot, but as soon as the P1P hit the market, I snapped it up. I got into printing because I wanted to make cool stuff. Everything else was ancillary to that goal. I got out of the tinkering game (mostly, I’ve done a few mods to my P1P) as soon as I could, and I haven’t looked back.
Resin printing has always been a pain in the rear, which is why I never took the plunge. I just want it to work. If that was the case here, I wouldn’t mind the price tag. But so long as the ecosystem is so closed that I don’t even have the option to screw around, I’ll keep looking. It just works in 90% of the potential use cases is great, but I need to be able to fine tune to hit the other 10%. If I can’t, why bother?
The amazing BS of voiding your warranty from "damage caused from using 3rd party resins" is a complete load of crap and an absolute no sale for me.
I don't care how well it works.
EDIT: Oops. I forgot to like the video at least.
Here ya go ;)
I AM excited to see companies copy/expand on some of these ideas. The slicer seems pretty damn cool and the air assist does sound like a game-changer.
Great review.
Exactly. As soon as I heard that apple came to mind witz their hate for 3rd party products and overpriced machines
fair
@@leobro6398 Remember the first Macintosh commercial?(I'm that old :p ) THAT'S what I remember when I see Apple these days.
They're the polar opposite of how they saw themselves back then.
I own a Voron 3d printer so you know exactly how I feel about proprietary designs. Heh.
And it's cloud connected. And seems like it won't even let you print if you choose not to log in. That's a real deal breaker
@@leobro6398 I felt more reminded of what HP does with their printer, with the ink-lock-in and now the abo model where you can't even print without their printer being allowed to phone home to the mothership.
Sorry, but we should not allow this parasitic behaviour ruin another industry.
The ability to choose of WHAT you can print is the future of resin printers... we are getting flexible resin in the market that will open up what people will want in a resin printing and wanting to get a resin printer for.
Rigth now this printer feels like a Cricut Maker where you can not do custom profiles for the Knife Blade (most important tool for the Maker line and the reason for getting a Maker) and you have to cheat the Knife Blade pre setting and babysit the cuts to make sure it cutting non tested materials.
Bambu got it right in that it more like Silhouette's Camo 4. ALL the tools you can create customer profiles for your bespoke materials.
But the thought put into te machine it's self is SUCH a game changer that it will change what other brands will aim towards their printer functions.
yep, and that is the "BUT" in this whole setup. This is amazing, for the people it is amazing for, but that is a limited audience
This would have been an instant buy from me if they didn't take the proprietary resin approach. I want the full premium product that this is, cost included because I need my prototypes to work first time, but let's say I wanted to sell the physical versions of the prints. No access to print settings and the sheer cost of the resin hurts that return way too much if I used this for a kickstarter.
I’m so glad everyone is saying this because I’ve been telling them this for months. So nice to see it echoed without me prompting such a response. Thank you, I feel validated
They’re leveraging their existing technology from the commercial prosthetics market that they compete in. It would be really nice if I can use another vendors resin with this printer by selecting its profile from within Blueprint. Pouring it into the vat and pressing print, or pouring it into a bottle and letting the printer handle the dispensing. The Form 2 would allow the use of third party resins. The $500 and below tier of resin printers is crowded. It’s shows almost no differentiation between the brands. They use the same chitu based hardware, and slicers out of the box. Lychee slicer is probably better than chitubox, but both are hot garbage. They work but not as well as they should. I would like to see third party resin profiles integrated into the ecosystem, but it has to be seamless. The only other printer that’s coming out in this price range is the Athena ($1500).
its crazy how amazing the proof of concept works for the resin filling system, a collapsible bottle and sluice that auto-regulates how much resin is in the vat is amazing
and then it just shot itself in the foot with a shotgun because of how expensive it is
like they couldnt make a variant where the bottle is refillable, or you could get an empty bottle to fill it with a third party resin? "damage can be caused by third party resin" bs claim aside, that is
The printer, cure station and vacuum pump thingy will push the total to around/over $2700. You could get 3xGK Two's for that and they are expensive! Pity.
exactly :(
Yeah, and the money they are asking for the cure station and air pump are absolutely ridiculously overpriced for what they are. Hey Gears is trying to push the b2b pricing model into consumer-level sales.
@@FauxHammer The air pump idea is exactly the same as the good old Photocentric's blow-peel [look it up], the small [tiny?] support tips on a large amount of supports has been done for ages in pro slicers, and is completely doable and being done even for huge models on Voxeldance Tango slicer , just FYI.
Great video, extremely informative, your efforts in this video are greatly appreciated, now that was a review! 😀
@@FlesHBoX Almost like some dimbulbs charging >$1,000 for a mid-range chinese printer with chinese NanoDLP boards and a cheapo strain-gauge, except this HeyGears printer actually works out of the box, and prints excellently, LOL
@@retromodernart4426 wow, you really holding onto that grudge for a while eh?
It appears that the Bambu Labs' success can be attributed to several factors, including the quality of their printers and software, as well as their competitive pricing. However, it is important to consider that a closed ecosystem may deter potential customers, particularly with regard to the availability and cost of materials.
I think the resin bottles and RFID is my biggest concern.
Bambu have managed to do it the acceptable way by using it to identify their own filament and pre-load the settings into the slicer for good prints.
But I worry about others getting aboard the same kind of system with less than stellar plans for the future, where they could easily go down the HP ink route but for 3d printing, which I am already feeling uncomfortable about with this printer given that they lock you out of setting exposure settings and lock it to the resins that they sell. It wouldn't shock me if down the line the printer can track unique identifiers on the rfid tags and register a bottle as empty so you can't refill it.
in User Experience, Bambu is great, but right now Qidi Max 3 vs P1C, and the new Tech Q1 Pro vs P1S, are a bit better when it comes to printing, especially features and materials that they can print
Don't forget the huge security concerns with Bambu printers, the data they are sending, access to your entire network, and the need to isolate it from your other devices. Add in that they have poor support and tried to cover up a required recall for the A1 fire hazard flaw.
"However, it is important to consider that a closed ecosystem may deter potential customers, particularly with regard to the availability and cost of materials." I think this is definitely the case for some but not all. You can build a computer and a lot of people do, but a lot of people don't want to fuss around with it all. This is probably a sign of the market maturing.
I would say with a young market people need to try and be able to change things to get it to work with their conditions. With a maturing market a lot of people coming in don't want to do that and they just want the end result and this approach sells to that ideal.
I think there will always be a market that demands the ability to choose their own resins so the printers that do that aren't going anywhere. However I suspect that the market that just works will probably end up being bigger. Most people forget that the time for working things out means most people will go for things that just work as they don't want to have to do that.
@@xRaptorScreamx Really? I have yet to find a "consumer" filament that doesn't print well in my X1C--pla, petg, tpu, asa, pla-cf, and that's just my list. And the AMS is definitely still a killer feature.
You can use just about any aftermarket resin with the Reflex. The Reflex prints based on the setting you choose in the slicer, not what's on the bottle. The RFID on the bottle is only there to tell you whether or not you put in the right bottle or not. There is always an option to ignore that message and just print it anyway. You can take off the RFID from the bottle and the Refilex will still print. There are many print settings for different resins that you can choose from in the slicer. Try PAU10 setting or PAP10 setting, I found them to work on ABS-Like, High-Temp, and Flexible resins. I've been using the Reflex since July 2023 day in and day with no problem to date. Also, I'm not telling anyone to use aftermarket resins. 😁
But…
I know the settings do not come from the rfid
The settings come from those I showed you can select in the video.
None of those settings may be right for a particular resin you choose and. Certainly not optimal.
So yes it can work, but it’s not optimal, and since the biggest selling point of this printer vs others is the value of instant perfection.
Then what is the point in getting this printer…???
@FauxHammer I agree, it is very understandable that one may want perfection. However, perfection is in the eyes of the beholder in this case. For me, I have yet wished to change any setting because the prints come out perfect. However, I'm all for HeyGears to enable the tweaking of the print setting, I don't see why not.
Easiest thing for them to do is lower the cost of their resins. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a healthy margin on them. I think they have room to do that.
@@Teddyboy-EM "I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a healthy margin on them. I think they have room to do that."
But why would they? Profit is profit. They're likely already aware that the price point makes their product a boutique printer, so the resin for the captive audience of buyers is where they're making their money.
Not being able to modify settings or freedom to use other resin is a deal breaker.
Bambu's closed system has A LOT of drawbacks and problems. Apple-fication is not a good thing.
Build volume is just way too small for my "needs" also. Still waiting for a 300 cubed build volume for large scale prints.
As someone who does occasional commision works of resin prints (today arrives my new FDM printer for FDM as well) I am now seriously considering this. What I waste most of my time on, is checking pre-supports. Seeing they are bad. Re supporting all the required models, doing the test print, re printing after support corrections, etc etc etc. Usually I need about 0.5-1h for each print job to verify and ensure they are good. This ensures that a 10+h print job is not failing wasting way more time.... The approach they had and how good the auto supports look there, it would be a game changer for me - saving countless hours in the long run.
For bigger businesses, this is a tremendous time saver. It does not matter that the resin is a bit more pricey. For me as well - it is never the material cost that drives up my prices. It is labour.
One of my last jobs needed about 1l of resin (not exactly sure but before delivery the models were about 1050g so a bit more than 1l) and I love siraya tech ABS like. That is about 50 bucks of resin. Compared to labour - print preparation, procuring models. Supporting. Post processing. Sanding. The job was about 20h labour + waiting for 6 plates of printing. The material costs almost don't matter compared to labour time.
I use Siraya Tech with this printer. Works just fine with their settings. Super crisp detail.
@@Blue-eu5qn it sure does
3:17 those orange lights actually serve a purpose. They help to counter UV light leaking into the print chamber. These same lights are used in custom printer boxes to reduce UV leakages.
This printer sounds amazing. And the feature set is perfect for someone like me. I’ll wait until these features trickle down to the sub $600 printer. In the meantime I will continue playing with my bamboo labs A1.
I'd be happy with a slightly smaller plate and non-feeding system, the basic pour lip and the slice system is SUCH a game changer that an "A1" or more like "P1S" level printer would be an absolute BEAST in the market.
As someone looking at buying a resin printer, this appeals to me the same way Bamboo labs does, no nonsense printing/slicer, that works when I want to print something to fix a problem BUT unfortunately I have to, for the timing being pass on this because unlike Bamboo not allowing for that tweaking if you want, and are not limited to their own filament/resin is an instant deal breaker. I live in an area where I can't immediately get proprietary consumables, and for wear parts that's no a big deal because keeping a small stock on hand take up little room, I can't keep a bunch of reels and bottles, I mean I could but I don't do enough consistent printing to justify it right now. Being able to quickly have a roll or two of filament shipped to me in a day or two from a few different suppliers is a plus, the possibility of not being able to print something because I have to wait several weeks for a bottle to be delivered because the supply chain isn't there or their resin is out of stock is a no go, and not being able to tweak to adjust for climate or altitude is not ideal. Hopefully they can do something like Bamboo where they allow us to make a resin profile that the printer will recognize. I realize I'm probably not the target audience for this printer but it feels like I am just outside their target.
Yep, I hope HeyGears reads your comment
It sounds/looks amazing, but a closed ecosystem is an absolute dealer breaker for me. Hopefully like anything the improvements they have made roll down through other manufacturers. I'd love to see heated vats or enclosures become the normal rather than something found only on the high end models.
Agreed on everything you said
Plus the pour spout. Genius
15:20 or someone will create a hacked version of the software/firmware on the machine that exposes the settings. This is purely a software limitation imposed by Hey Guys. The printer is capable of this when you insert a specific resin bottle, so the settings are there, just not exposed to us in the software. Another option is to reverse engineer the device on the bottle and create your own with the right settings.
Epsom: "Here's a printer that has lots of features, sorry it's a bit expensive"
Brother: "Here's a cheap printer but you're stuck with using our expensive inks"
Hey Gears: "Yes our printer is expensive, but you're stuck with using our resin"
They seem to want their cake and eat it too.
It wouldn't be such a problem is only their resins were competitively priced. Maybe just a bit more expensive even would still be fine.
@@1stRanger And you then have the problem of being locked into an ecosystem that's reliant on the manufacturer not only staying around, but continuing to provide the consumables.
The system is really designed for a commercial setting to allow a small business to train a monkey to press a button to make what is needed. Unsure its usefulness/ in a hobby situation.
The heater function of the curing station isn't for drying, it is for enhanced curing. Turn the heat on, cure with /both/ heat and uv for better strength in your models.
Hey there I have a question about this unit that I can't find out online and was curious about the support quality when working with flat/geometric surfaces. I am considering this unit for printing electronic shells and mechanical prototypes, and a lot of samples I see are primarily about minis. I'm accustomed to printing flat on the print bed historically, but given the holes and nature of the auto supports (which don't get me wrong, I'm all for convenience!) it seems that printing directly on the bed for something like a rectangular case isn't feasible. How is the quality of printing like a box? Often times with most resin printers you'll see sagging, stair stepping, or need a larger amount of supports which can lead to scarring/dimples/support marks and unfortunately for me, surface quality and finish are very important to my work.
Side question, does this device support any kind of fuzzy skin/texturing to make a matte or satin finish? Normally I'd use UV Tools and apply some noise filters, but that wouldn't be an option here, so maybe I'd have to do it on the models themselves unless the parts actually come out with a satin finish, which may be the case? It's tricky to tell without holding a part in hand lol.
In regards to your video and comments I've seen about this: First off, great video. I think you explained the objective facts with a very fair and prefaced personal bias for us to make our own educated decisions. I know a lot of people are looking at this from a hobbyist perspective, but I think for a small business where you're cranking out hundreds or even thousands of parts, but injection molding is not viable or economical, this is a good solution. Some people don't want to spend hours setting up prints and troubleshooting/dialing stuff in when we have other things we would prefer to invest our time in. I wouldn't really buy this for personal use, but in the context of running my business, there is a lot of potential with this machine
Absolutely this, I’m testing this printer at the moment and this out performed the Form Labs 3L in my last video.. amazing machine!
WOW! that;s great to know, I can;t wait for that video
So the comparison to Bambu ends at consumables. Bambu is a premium printer whos company recognizes the need for inexpensive consumables. Their parts and filament are only slightly more expensive than the average competitors. This has been stated as an intentional fact from bambu. This printer is chasing the same market at form labs, not bambu. A more accurate title would be the best form labs competition...but that gets less clicks
"Their parts and filament are only slightly more expensive than the average competitors." I would say their parts are lower than competitors.
I would like to see how this printer is sell in Europe as we have some laws that forbid the companies to stop de warranty if you don't use their consumibles
Formlabs had a slide in vat, auto resin fill and a heater, and great, industrial build quality in 2015 with the Form 2.
This machine feels very Formlabs.
At 3x the price of other comparative printers. Maybe wait 6 months and see if many of the good features are replicated in cheaper models.
make that 18 months and you may be onto something. It;s been over a year since we got the GKTwo and only now are other brands adding heaters, and not great ones at that
During your tests, have you experienced any detachment of models from the build plate? And what about the noise of the motors and fans during printing? I've owned a UNIZ Slash Plus for a very short time, and it was a nightmare for each of these points (plus it was very messy with the resin, unlike this one).
Hiya, I don't mind a relatively closed ecosystem, but how would you compare this to the Uniformation GKTwo? I've been eying that one too, and while I love the no hassle feel of this thing, not being able to dial in settings - a function most other printers have at a fraction of the price - when I want to is a real tough sell.
I got one a couple days ago as my first resin printer. It feels like a well thought out product. I do wish they had more engineering resins. But so far I'm very happy
As someone who's been in the market for my first resin printer for a couple of months (and who's first fdm printer was indeed a bamboo), this is now at the top of my candidate list.
If I haven't stated it before, your Wargamer resin is incredible.
How do the HeyGears resins work on miniatures in terms of flex / durability?
Like every other resin. Their miniatures resin PAP10 here is too brittle, the softer resins loose a bit of detail
9:50 the pen that was developed to write in space is one of the most commercial sold pens in existence making back its development cost several times over, even their competitors switch to using pens in space because graphite pencils could contaminate electronics in a space station.
Does the heater function work while curing. Because that would be a game-changer. Higher temperature final curing can lead to significantly stronger parts and prints. heat treating post-curing can also do that but not as consistently as with during curing.
Ah, far from a Bambu Labs X1C, P1S, P1P, etc. Lots of lots of issues this has for my uses (engineering parts):
- Need to be able to tweak the leveling. No printer I've seen is really well leveled straight from the factory
- Perforated build plate - un-usable for direct to plate printing of flat-ish parts that can't have supports or the supports are individual (not on a raft) and smaller than the holes.
- Needs a flex plate option - WhamBam where are you?
- Heating only the VAT is not optimal - for accurate z-dimensions the resin and build volume temperature must be the same to prevent part shrinkage as the newly-printed part surfaces aren't as hot as the resin. Best setup is heating the LCD from underneath + vat heating + build volume air heating.
- Closed resin system - ugh. There are many many superior 3rd party resins out that that one must use
- The air compressor system to inflate the area under the vat film is overly engineered/complicated - there must be a better way (I can think of a couple). Plus you want a vacuum between the vat film and the LCD surface during the retract and cure so that there is absolutely no trapped air between them. You want that film sucked down to the LCD surface as soon as the retract phase has started.
- Proprietary bottles . . ugh. I'm sure someone will produce 3rd party bottles and valves eventually.
- Overly-complicated vat - they need to have a simpler vat design w/o heater and auto fill features as people like me will not use either (I would install a heater inside the machine to make the whole machine be at my desired printing temperature ~35C or so)
- Really need to be able to see what's going on inside w/o having to raise the lid. That's just plain silly. Other machines suffer this as well and I've had to install interior LCD (no UV) lighting.
- Make the interior lights usable by being brighter
- Cure station needs to be able to cure while at elevated temperature to get the best post-cure properties - can it (pre)heat to 80C AND cure at the same time? Wasn't clear (maybe I missed it).
- Wash station is totally silly - I don't want my parts crashing into each other while they are in the soft pre-cured state. Currently I keep my parts on the flex plate and put the whole flex plate on an oscillating table inside a glass sealed container and that works really well. Otherwise for loose parts they need to be still and the IPA swirled around them to prevent damage
- And probably a few other issues one would uncover during actual use.
I had hopes, but alas they are dashed, especially for the asking price. Yes it is kind of like an iPhone, but in all the bad ways.
Oooh, a lot to respond to here, lets go..
- Need to be able to tweak the leveling. No printer I've seen is really well leveled straight from the factory
-- this is, and if it isn;t it tells you which screws to turn and what direction and how much of a rotation to turtn it.
- Perforated build plate - un-usable for direct to plate printing of flat-ish parts that can't have supports or the supports are individual (not on a raft) and smaller than the holes.
-- but when printing from the build plate you get expansion of early layers due to excessive curing of base layers. I don;t understand this arguement in resin TBH,
- Needs a flex plate option - WhamBam where are you?
-- If this is popular I;m sure they'll make one
- Heating only the VAT is not optimal - for accurate z-dimensions the resin and build volume temperature must be the same to prevent part shrinkage as the newly-printed part surfaces aren't as hot as the resin. Best setup is heating the LCD from underneath + vat heating + build volume air heating.
--- fair, I honestly didn;t check for chamber heating, i should.
- Closed resin system - ugh. There are many many superior 3rd party resins out that that one must use
-- agreed
- The air compressor system to inflate the area under the vat film is overly engineered/complicated - there must be a better way (I can think of a couple). Plus you want a vacuum between the vat film and the LCD surface during the retract and cure so that there is absolutely no trapped air between them. You want that film sucked down to the LCD surface as soon as the retract phase has started.
-- yep, I like it but not optimal, it does allow the vacum during cure, it releases before lift
- Proprietary bottles . . ugh. I'm sure someone will produce 3rd party bottles and valves eventually.
--yep
- Overly-complicated vat - they need to have a simpler vat design w/o heater and auto fill features as people like me will not use either (I would install a heater inside the machine to make the whole machine be at my desired printing temperature ~35C or so)
-- 6 of one, half a dosen of the other, it is a lot of expense for marginal benefit
- Really need to be able to see what's going on inside w/o having to raise the lid. That's just plain silly. Other machines suffer this as well and I've had to install interior LCD (no UV) lighting.
-- again, fair
- Make the interior lights usable by being brighter
--agreed
- Cure station needs to be able to cure while at elevated temperature to get the best post-cure properties - can it (pre)heat to 80C AND cure at the same time? Wasn't clear (maybe I missed it).
-- yes it can, sorry
- Wash station is totally silly - I don't want my parts crashing into each other while they are in the soft pre-cured state. Currently I keep my parts on the flex plate and put the whole flex plate on an oscillating table inside a glass sealed container and that works really well. Otherwise for loose parts they need to be still and the IPA swirled around them to prevent damage
-- exactly!
- And probably a few other issues one would uncover during actual use.
I had hopes, but alas they are dashed, especially for the asking price. Yes it is kind of like an iPhone, but in all the bad ways.
-- and i totally understand that flavour is not for everyone, I'm just glad to finally show something truly next-gen, but is this what people want? most people, probably not. and that's sad because it won't push the technology forward as well as it should
@@FauxHammer Thanks for your response. I agree, it's not for everyone. It feels like they are trying to make a mid-level printer between the $1,000 and $10,000 industrial printers, but optimized for figurine printing (which is fine - it's a big market), but they kind of muddied things a bit. Anyways, I may have gotten some things wrong in my comment, but you've set me straight. Much appreciate your reviews and your style!
@@FauxHammer
"Perforated build plate - un-usable for direct to plate printing of flat-ish parts that can't have supports or the supports are individual (not on a raft) and smaller than the holes.
-- but when printing from the build plate you get expansion of early layers due to excessive curing of base layers. I don;t understand this arguement in resin TBH"
As I'm also primarily printing functional pieces (both SLA and FDM) I would like to give my input to your answer. Yes, printing directly to the buildplate can cause "elefants foot" (as you know), but typically a slicer allows for dedicated compensation in the first layers. On parts that need to be dimensionally accurate or have needs for better form tolerances, printing a big flat surface of the model directly to the buildplate can be beneficial.
That said, it should be a very easy fix by simply offering a buildplate without the holes (maybe already fitted with some kind of magnetic plate?).
@@BenGi551yeah I see the for and against with perforated build plates, I support everything because I don’t trust elephants foot compensation, but I’m not buying one printer and dialing it in. I’m testing 5-10 printers a month.
So for me, i guess I just don’t care. I’m sure a flex plate will be available with enough demand
@@johnhinkey5336yeah, I think it’s more than mini printing, that’s just my thing, it has its benefits. But I agree. And I worry the market for this printer is not there. And I’ve told HeyGears as much.
Hopefully the read these comments and get the message
Fantastic Video! Very impressive machine! It will be a long time ...if ever i could afford it..but If I could buy another it would be this. May be faster to get large enough that they will send me one lol. I do have a off topic question, I was told by a resin printer person to use PTFE Lube on the FEP to get rid of the pulling/poping sound when the print pulls away from the film. Is this a real thing?
No, lubing the fep is borderline a meme. Don't do that.
Hey, I liked the fact this was a 40 minute video. 40 minutes well spent I think.
Deal killer was the resin and tweak lock, for sure. There's a reason why I don't buy Apple products, and this machine reflects that.
Also, kinda wish there was a "lite version" without the heated vat, resin level detector and resin refill thing for a cheaper price.
Aaaand only available in 7 countries, so I couldn't even get one if I wanted to.
That being said, I love how well built this machine is, how well built the software is, and how they've focused on print quality. The machine seems excellent for what the task it's set to do.
thanks, and I appreciate the approval of video length. i was worried this would do terrible, but it;s my best performing video ever - in a day.
totaly get your position on the printer too, same for me
@@FauxHammer To be honest I never noticed I had spent 40 minutes watching, since I never felt my time was wasted. So good job 😁
"We got you exactly the puppy you wanted! It's perfect! Except it's incontinent, constantly. Just a constant dribble of pee. We're sure you can over look it."
You're quite right, it indeed depends on the perspective from which you view the situation. For example, if you possess a patch of grass, a perfect little puppy could make this lawn brim with vitality.
Why do you pour the resin on top of the build plate and let it drip down instead of just directly into the vat? Is there a technical reason to help with printing or is it just a more interesting shot for the video?
After seeing this I was about to pull the trigger & order the whole kit. But after announcements of the Phrozen Revo Max & now Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra. I’m opting to wait a bit. Any chance you might be doing reviews of them with each launch?
And the Anycubic M7
As someone who just wants the highest quality miniatures to paint this feels like it would be the way to go. I have no interest in it being a hobby unto itself. Avoiding misprints, learning software etc cost time and I'd rather just print and forget about it.
Would have been interesting to see how much more £ the resin is compared to others. Would be great to have a follow up to see if parts need replacing, will it out last comparative printers and perhaps save you money in the long term.
Cheers
Yeah and as I said there are buyers out there for this, so the printer certainly has value, I just personally wish it were open as do many other potential users
Another commenter here said the proprietary resin is 4x to 6x the price of the resin they currently use for their minis!
Great vid and deep dive into this printer!
I've been on the fence on getting one of these for a while... even at the price down here in Aus (over 2k). That closed eco-system and inability to tweak settings are deal breakers though. If they provided the feature set they have while still allowing for resins from other parties and fine tuning of exposure etc it'd be a done deal for me, but as it is the GKTwo or Saturn 3 Ultra are far more likely to be my next printer purchase.
Fair choice
I get it, youve said it before, for some people the hobby is the printer and for some its the printing, and this one is for someone who wants to do the printing. However no user adjustable exposure settings at all? This has more in common with the printers we have in our dental and prosthetics departments at work.
So I only recently made the switch to Uniformation after watching Ross's videos (which I am super grateful for. I love my GKTwo) and now the auto supports, print quality and quality of life options this video shows on the Reflex almost has me wanting to make this printer my next purchase. However, not being able to use a different resin that would give more of a durable model will force me to wait until they are able to at least provide a resin as Ross suggested is somewhere between their current miniatures resin and the more durable one and hopefully with an option of refills to bring the cost of the resin down a bit (like Bambu does with their filament). I can't tell you how many times I watched a player at the table drop or break a printed and painted miniature so even with all of the ease that this printer is presenting if the miniature ends up printed in a brittle material. I would rather spend the $$ up front for a reliable and relatively hands off tool so that I can fiddle less time with hobbying on the printer so I can get back to sculpting minis.
This printer is indeed amazing. The auto supports is next level. The auto leveling, heated resin, auto vat filing and the rest is awesome. I saw another review of this printer and it was said it prints 30% faster than the Saturn 3 Ultra and GKtwo (at least one of those). As others have said the only thing that makes this a deal killer is the inability to use third party resins. I get HG wants to safeguard their proprietary resin and settings but at least allow people to use third party resin and enter your own settings. IF they did this THEN I would throw away my Saturn 3 Ultra with a smile on my face.
Now the elephant in the room = price. Its steep but if you like the true autosupport system, which will only get better over time, is amazing. I figure for this level of printer its warranted but that darn no third party resin kills this for me. Thanks for the great video. Of course you do realize you should probably do a part 2 to go into more details right? hint, hint. ;)
Aww man, this one was enough work. Put it this way, I’d do another video if I thought they sell enough of these to warrant further support from me. I just don’t trust it will and the comments I’ve seen here echo the sentiment I’ve had about this since day 1
I understand. Thanks for the reply.@@FauxHammer
I'm a specialist in filament based printing but this is the first liquid based system that made me interested in trying the method.
Brilliant, I knew this would have an audience
Don't get too excited. The messy resin sticky becomes tiresome.
We have a HeyGears A3D printer at work and it's pretty great, but none of the sales or tech folks I interacted with liked the current Reflex. Apparently there's something new on the horizon though
👀
shhhhhhhhhh - nobody knows about that...
I am a 3D printing noob to all intents and purposes. All the things that put me off; learning to support, levelling and dialling in, etc etc etc are solved by this printer and the ecosystem around it.
My dentist has their pro system and has shown me it quickly and how it works. It blew my mind.
This is a printer for people like me. Happy to pay a premium to print the volume of minis I want without it becoming a full 4th hobby. I can just print then do what I always want to do, which is paint, display and play with them. Not spend 2 weeks troubleshooting and reprinting and getting my clinically diagnosed OCD brain locked by fiddling with tiny settings changes.
Exactly, there certainly are people out there for this machine and it seems like you are one of those people. It's not for everyone but if you are willing to pay for this to do all that for you, then it;s the right one for you.
Hi, can the temperature be changed? I am looking for a 3d printer and this looks promising.
What about fumes etc? I know some resin printers have like a filter or something? If I want to use one in my bedroom what do I need to do?
At first, everything sounds super interesting, but the extreme price for resin scares me off too much
Where did you get that cake display used in the cure station?
As someone who is interested in resin printing from an engineering perspective, not a miniature perspective, the inability to set up the print parameters myself makes this printer a non starter. I totally understand wanting to have automatic settings that adjust to the best settings for first party resins, and it’s great that they have that. But with the things I’m looking to make, I need weird resins that UltraCraft are almost certainly not going to make/sell, ever. If I could adjust those settings, I’d be buying one right now. Instead I’ll be buying something else.
this is the video that's finally convinced me to get the uniformation gk2.
I get that
Same, and what countrys they support limits me.
BUT their blueprint software looks amazing. Is there a comparable software out there that is more refined than lychee and chitubox?
could you use the ultracraft slicer for the support functionality but for other printers?
no. sorry
As Faux Hammer said, one might appreciate all the ease and comfort the machine is offering despite the high initial price and even more so the expensive running cost. And I also get it that the company wants to ensure with its closed system that you always get the absolutely best results without going through the hassle resin printing brings with it.
Having said that, I am a BambuLab printer owner and I love exactly that piece of mind but I also love that, despite being a relatively closed system too, I am still able to use different filaments, can change my print parameters and even have options for another slicer.
I do not mind so much that the initial purchase price for the Reflex is quite high, but like many others noted, being stuck with the proprietary resin and unability to tweak settings is also for me a killer argument to not get one.
Oh, I nearly forgot, thanks for the great review!
Excellent review, really detailed and not too long. I have avoided resin printers for years, just use a Prusa FDM. The Haygear looks like something I might consider but the restrictions would be a concern.
I totally understand
I was on the fence about it being only 33μm. I've never 3D printed before at all but I want to pick it up as a hobby. $3,000 for the whole kit + resins starting out is too rich for my blood so it won't be my first 3D printer but I will consider Hey Gears in the future. Sucks that there is no 3rd Party support so I can't experiment with it but for me that just means it is more specialized. Your test print more than shows that they know what they're doing. When I go pro I do want to pick one of these up though. I need the the smoothest prints I can get cause I want to make 3D-printed masters for high fidelity Platinum Silicone mold making. Something like this would be huge if I can minimize any stepping. I also want to use it for Mini Figs naturally. So one day, but not today.
I think I will start off with the Elegoo 9K. The full kit is around my budget and from what I have seen it does pretty decent prints.
They did state in their sub-reddit that they were exploring lower cost materials. I suggested that they should lower the cost and allow third party resins. We’ll just have to wait and see how they respond.
Have you tried changing the FEP? It looks troublesome from the shape of the VAT.
It looks promising and good but I'm not sure. It locks me a bit too much into their ecosystem and I'd also would prefer a door instead of a lid for workspace reasons. The Rapid Pulse thing also needs to be build into it it. And the cleaner is an absolut no go just for not being able to clean one thing and print something else on the same surface.
You can easily get or make a spectrometer if you want to test the UV spectrum of all the other printers.
Just curious: what do you do if your prints fail? Aka, the settings need tweaking. Are you just screwed completely then?
They don't fail. the worst I had was I lost a thumb on an ogre as shown in the video.
I added another support and printed it again.
@@FauxHammer All i'm really hearing is "if the predetermined settings don't for for any reason you're screwed". And the fact i have to order directly from them and use proprietary resin kinda makes this the worst best 3dprinter i've seen, at least for me. I see no value in it unless it makes other printermakes up their game.
Honestly I wouldn't mind the closed resin system if they made more resin options like one similar to the Anycubic tough resin. That slicer program is a game changer.
Actually, there are many studies about curing the resin in a warm enviroment and the advantages of it in strength.
So, i guess the heater in curing station, is for increasing strenght in models, not only dry it
Yep,
Thorough review. Always appreciate your efforts and the detail level of your reviews. My initial reaction to this printer when I got the emails from them and looked at the pricing was, "WTF?" But as I was watching your video it finally struck me... When I got the first kickstarter promo for the Bambu Lab X1 I had precisely the same reaction. Six weeks ago I bought an X1 Carbon, and now I cannot imagine that I ever dealt with the other brands of lesser FDM printers. The X1-C is my fifth FDM printer and the first one I find actually fun to use.
So am I willing to spend $2k (including the air-assist add-on) to get a similar improvement to my resin printing experience? Not merely a rhetorical question, but one I am now asking myself over and over and over again. That's a lot of money to be locked into an entire eco-system. And frankly if I could more easily use other resins, I would make this spend right now. I have lot's of resins that I need to use. If I didn't then I'd probably order this printer today. Two grand is a big spend for a hobby tool... so what to do about it. Right now the wquestion I need to ask myself and answer is what are the pains that keep me from using the resin printers I have? Mars 1, Mars 2 Pro and Mars 4 Ultra. I think it is the messy and toxic work-flow more than anything else and this printer doesn't really address that completely. Though it does address significant parts of that work-flow.
It addresses the initial dial in and pretty much gives you perfect prints,
But any other printer after being dialed in, will probably give you adequate prints...
both are just as messsy as eachother
hope that helps
Really good vid on this machine. I'm new to resin printing and having a GKTwo for 3 months now with zero failures I don't know what all the fuss is about. I thought I was buying a premium machine and I wasn't wrong or disappointed. GK Two could easily add some of these features into a new unit and probably still bang them out at the same costs. We can still tweek and mess around to our hearts content and keep the cost down using 3rd party resins. Honestly, I'm using sunlu ABS water for convenience. I've dialled it in. I can print without failures at 50 and 30 microns. Despite my best attempts and ignorance the GK Two is proving to be a beast. The price points for everything on the ultracraft system is insane. Thanks again Ross for demystifying 3d printers!!
Potentially yeah
I'd be willing to fork out the cash for this amazing printer... but... it is completely out of the question since you are forced to use only their resin at that RIDICULOUS price.
Maybe if they do end up releasing refill packs, like you mention, at a reasonable friggin price... maybe...
A real friggin shame... damn.
Yep, that's how I feel too
the question i got is, is it worth it compared to GKtwo?
complete wash and cure station with printer from GKtwo right now is about 1k $
same set of devices from Heygears is 2.4k$
I already got my GKtwo during xmass sale few months ago, and i cant complain
but not having the comparison, would you say its worth the extra 1.4k$ ?
The question I have about this is do we have to use their curing station? Surely could use any other washing station, but not sure about curing.
The thing is it's already twice the price of GKtwo with resin easily twice as expensive and those 2 additional stations are making it even worse.
no, use whatever curing station you want
@@FauxHammer The thing is usually curing takes only few minutes with most stations (as far as I’m aware), but this one takes 30 min by default. Is there a different UV intensity or different wavelength or they simply recommend curing for a longer period?
@@1stRanger Well, i thought the point of Wi-Fi was that the printer will know what the recommended curing time would be based on what you have printed but this never seemed to be the case.
I have no idea what the correct curing time for anything is, so I just guesstimate it at the best of times. with this, yeah I have stiuck with the 30 min default and used that for all resins, not just these, I have never had issues, just some slight curling on thinner compnents I can bend back with hot water
Whilst it sucks that they have the locked down approach at present, hopefully they pull a bambu lab and start giving users the ability to use the things how they want to. If they don't, users will find a way to get what they want one way or the other (like always), and it will just be a constant battle for everyone (like with crApple..)
As the nun said to the priest, no need to apologize for the length. There's a lot going on, and it takes time to cover it, and you did a great job of that speaking as an FDM guy who just watched a 40-minute video about a resin ecosystem.
That ecosystem is the key here, and it shows the two sides of the closed ecosystem coin. When you have a system that constricts enough of the potential variables, you can make it a very easy and successful experience for the target audience. The more you open things up, the more you're having to engineer guardrails around "yeah, but some idiot is going to" type situations, which is a rapid tutorial on the law of diminishing returns. Making the process that simple shows who the primary market is.
It isn't you or I or a good chunk of your viewers who are willing to learn the underlying technology enough and spend the time to do a stack of test prints with very minor tweaks between them to eke out every possible bit of performance and quality out of a printer. It's the person who has more money than time and just wants to use it as a tool without having to fuss with things. The different UV wavelength and in-house tuned resins for that confirm that's the business plan. There may be good technical reasons for that, but they're not getting their margins on the printer itself selling tens of thousands of units. They're getting it on businesses or people with other expensive hobbies who will happily keep whacking down 70 pounds a kilo, and if they wind up in that very narrow use case with a model that gives the slicer a headache, they're more apt to tweak the model instead of the printer if the modeling or engineering are their background. If their margins are good enough, they can be a very successful company without selling a million printers, just a million kilos of resin. It means cost savings on not needing a huge customer support department as well if their customer base is restricted between the closed system, the printer price, and the running cost.
This is likely to cause some heartburn in the hobbyist community, as especially the folks who go down the tribalism rabbit hole cannot live in a world where they're not the most important person in the room. But the company doesn't have to care, as they're making enough from their actual target market. If the company really does care about the technology and the 3d printing community as a whole, they can do things like open sourcing the support generation or contributing in other ways.
Prusa have done that in large ways, and they're a low-key similar case as far as target markets go. They came out of the maker community, and they encourage the fans and appreciate the passion because of that, but the financial reality that will probably get me flamed is that their real market is print farms and small businesses, not the hobbyists. They care more about the hobbyists than other companies might because they came from that, but the more we see companies that aren't of those roots, the more we'll see closed ecosystems with innovation in technology and usability that stay closed. It could help the hobbyists, but they don't have to care, they'll still hit their numbers.
Bambu is a bit of a peek into that trend. Long term, the X1C isn't a printer for someone who can and will do replacement of the carbon rods. It's someone who will buy it, get 2k+ hours out of it, more than make the money back selling whatever, and if the rods fail, they toss it and buy another. Or have a service contract with someone via the X1E who will come in and replace the larger, more expensive portion for them, so they glue em in and say, "Not user servicable." The closer we get to commodifying printers, the more we'll see that. Hopefully, some of those companies will kick back to the community, but we'll see. I dearly hope we get more companies willing to contribute to the technology for all than we do companies like Stratasys.
Good lord, that went on forever, I guess a 40-minute video got me in a wordy space.
Hey i know you compared that wash station to the pencil and the overegineered pen story in outer space.
It's actually a lot more complicated and theres a reason why they made it.
Basically the pencil was a very dangerous item to bring to space due to the fact that its easily breakable, leaves a lot of graphite floating around messing with the rocket, suit. And the pen is very flammable.
The pen was designed and enginnered to work in space to reduce such risks and it uses pressure to push ink out of the pen tip.
Both Nasa and Soviet Union actually used these pens instead of the pencil on the later space missions.
I know i probably ruined the fun but keep in mind this fact when you mention that space pen
I know, but don't worry, I don't plan on taking pencils into space
Is the Uniformation GK2 still your favorit printer? Or would you go for the UltrCraft Reflex?
If I had the money for the reflex and the resins suited my purpose. easily the reflex. but I like flexibility in my choices, so I'll stick with the GKTWO.
Thank you 👍
The xp2 test is awesome, never seen something like this. How about testing HeyGears resin on other printer and dialing xp2 test for a cross check?
What I love: release film tension sensors, heated resin vat.
What I like and is so easy to implement that it is surreal that it isn't a standard yet: easy release build plate, reflective inner curing station (you can fix it yourself for almost free), double layer curing station, more pronounced resin exit on vat.
What I like too: perforated build plate (for less suction?), door in front of curing station
What is overengineered here: resin feed, vat structure, surely cleaning station.
Curious: prm pumping station if it can be done any cheaper, 385um wavelength to transfer more energy
Don't care: predefined resin settings, other slicers seem to bring this feature too and don't require special resin since it is community driven
All good points
Don't really care if I can't tweak settings, when they provide consistant good print.
But I'll be interested in the v2 or v3 when the price will drop by 50%.
I mean, for a majority of people, it's still a hobby (yes there are expensive hobby but we don't all get 3k$/month)
For the resine, sure get the first bottle special shape. But at least sale resin in bag to refill that bottle (you know environment things)
The compressor thing seems good (perhaps the noise), could it be integrate in the printer base ?
Anyway, I'll still love my GK Two for now, but it's a fantastic machine for the market and the future of 3D Printing !
absolutely fair pooints to make
Say what you want about Bambu Lab, at least they don't force you to use their own filaments or stop you from calibrating your settings. $80/kg of resin is also a ridiculous price. If HeyGears wants to make a Bambu-style disruption in the resin space, they need to make their ecosystem more approachable to get people on board.
Agreed
Difference is the Bambu lab is extremely competitively priced, both printer and spools. They also offer refills to save paying for the spools every time. Also you can use whatever plastic you want and the Bambu will even calibrate it for you. Also free shipping. The price of that Cure station alone is rather insulting. Also air compressors with a tank start at $100 why the hell is that thing so insanely expensive.
Thanks for taking the time to make all of your videos. I am researching 3D printing and yes this is the printer that I want. I am more interested in being a creator than a technician.
My wife and I just came to this same conclusion. "Spend the money" she said, "Enjoy your old age exploring your creativity, not figuring out technical issues." I love this woman!
The Bambu Lab filaments are roughly the same price as any other brand, and their printers work with any other brand.
Hint hint, nod nod Heygears.
I hope the thing competitors take from this shot across the bow is improving Slicers and Auto Supports. Those Supports look basically magic.
This. The hardware has been plenty good for years, but the software is still way behind. Auto supporting is a very solvable problem, and it's surprising no one has done it well.
Another great video, thanks. I would love to hear more about your support setting
They seem to be following the Formlabs model. How often do you need to replace the resin tank film? Do you need to replace the whole tank? That's another major consideration.
TI;ve not had to change a film yet, but they do sell the frame with Filam attached, which is also expensive
As it happens I'm in the market for a new printer, as my voxelab is feeling rather old hat these days. I'd never heard of HeyGear until your video, and the printer sounds incredible, but those limitations on tweaking settings and using other resins are just too much I think. It feels like their slicer needs an "advanced" mode that gives access to various hidden settings like exposure etc, while allowing people to print out of the box of they want.
Yep, I hear you
Yeah, the lock down approach is pretty off putting, I own a bambu lab x1, and I'm looking to buy a resin printer and have been for a while now, but what stops me is that it doesn't seem like a resin printer brand has managed the user experience that bambu has, so when I read the title of this video, I honestly got a little excited, and mostly through out this video, but even bambu lab lets you use other filaments from other brands, while giving you a reason to use theirs by adding the RF tags, I mostly buy Bambu lab's filament for that reason, sure I could setup my own profile setting for each filament, save a few bucks but, what can I say, I'm lazy, I honestly was on the edge of picking this printer, with so many user friendly features, it felt like bambu lab's ease of use, and the print quality, just amazing, all and all this printer seems great and I honestly think it is, for me it just comes down to if I want to support a lock down mindset, and honestly, that answer is leaning towards no. I really want to get into resin printing but I feel like I'm waiting for not just the same ease of use level of bambu lab's X1, but also a company that lets users a reasonable amount of freedom of what they want to use in their printer. I feel like HeyGear has open the door for another company to steal the top spot from them, basically copy the new features of this printer and make one of their own that isn't as lock down, I feel like reviews for the Reflex will always point out the lock down only their resin works approach, I'd be surprised if another company doesn't notice that, and takes advantage of that, taking the top spot that could of been theirs, for me, I think I'll continue to wait for the right resin printer.
Excellent review!
One claim they’ve made that gives me pause is saying that the printer adjusts the wavelength of its UV.
Huh? I thought LEDs basically just output a given wavelength. I know that dunking them in liquid nitrogen can shift the valve length, but is there actually a reliable way to shift wavelengths short of that?
So I know with certain LEDs and this is when I was making my own LED fish tank lights ages ago back before that was really a thing and high power LEDs were relatively a new thing that changing the current that you're driving them out will slightly shift the wavelength 385 nanometers is not a new thing there are plenty of other resins that are made for this wavelength It's just not common to the user
@@Texas3DCustoms Interesting, good to know and thanks for the reply! It’s surprising that they have things tweaked to the extent of slightly shifting the UV wavelength. Something they can do given that it’s tied to their own resin: Can you imagine the madness if we had to worry about tuning the wavelengths of our printers for different resins 🤯
(Hmm, makes me wonder how much variation there might be between nominally 405nm printers, and whether different resins might work better on different printers as a result.)
When they build a follow up printer that has the option to use my own resin, I'm all over it. Everything else about it is amazing. Sure, prices are high, but I'm 100% willing to drop a cool $3K on the printer + cure station + PRM if it delivers even half of what you showed. I mean, not having to deal with Lychee's broken "stable" release that corrupts my files (oh just use the beta! ...that also corrupts my files, but in a different way! but I digress...) is a godsend. But paying all that just to be locked into $80 bottles of resin from a single company I've never heard of until now.... uh.... no. Definitely excited for the future though.
As someone whose printer just died, this machine looks incredibly enticing. The only thing that is keeping me on the fence is the closed eco system. I have a bunch of resin in storage waiting for a new printer. This resin would all go to waste if i made the switch.
I think that people should be able to calibrate and use their resin of choice. Heygear have clearly gone above and beyond with the printer and slicer features. If they went the extra mile, they could also make a system that can calibrate resin with far less time and hassle than the current method, and i think that would make this printer a must buy. Sure, not as many people will buy their resin, but having a printer with all of these features and a better resin calibration method would make them the best brand in the hobby and truely the "bambu labs" of resin printing.
Agreed
@@FauxHammer would you take one of these over the GK2?
I‘m using a Prusa FDM printer since 2 years now. To get the full 3D experience I want to add a Resin printer. Until today I planned to buy a Uniformation GKtwo. But with this video I don’t know what to do. This machine is great if you use the companies own (expensive) resin. But I want more flexibility. Also the build plate and air filtering is better in the GKtwo. Is the better slicer and the high print quality worth the money?
Who has experience?
That’s for you to decide. Depends what you are printing for.
If you have the money, this is now the best you can get.
But unless you need these advanced features at this price and you are happy to learn how to expose your resin. Stick with a GKtwo.
As someone looking to get their first printer this product really excited me, especially when it came to supports and other features to reduce failure rate. BUT the big dealbreaker for me was the lack of setting adjusting and locking you into using only their resin so i will have to pass on this aswell.
I definitely want one as my first resin printer. But I feel AUD$4k is a bit rich and would be a difficult hurdle to overcome to sell to the minister of war and finances. But would be a great addition to building models and minis to friends but not at that cost. As you stated it's not really a hobbyist setup.
I was thinking about eventually getting a GK2, but this video was making me rethink that... until I got to the part about requiring proprietary resin unless you want to void your warranty. That's the deal breaker.
Im off to pick up my EKTwo today based off your reviews! I've used industrial FDM printers for years and recently started playing with a Formlabs resin printer aswell.
When I couldn't afford a Bambu and started to lose the love for FDM because of the limitiations on detail and high price point, I took a cursory look at resin consumer printers, not expecting to be drawn in... until your EKTwo review... I nearly panicked seeing this video that I'd already bought a defunct machine before I'd even obtained it! 😂
Having worked with industrial printers, there is absolutely no way I'd ever buy a locked down machine for home... between the price point and inability to keep up with innovations in materials, they very quickly become more of a hinderance than a benefit...
This definitely has a few things that I've been looking for in a resin printer. I considered the Uniformation GKtwo, but as much as it leaned toward the nice usability that Bambu printers provide, it didn't really hit the mark for me. I usually joked that I'd be waiting for the GKthree to see if it got closer to what I want. It sounds like this printer gets pretty close to what I'm looking for. In regard to keeping tabs on your print it is a little disappointing that there is no camera. Sure, the camera isn't as useful with resin as it is with FDM since you can't really see the first few layers while the system is running. (Although, it should be possible for the printer to raise the print, capture a photo, and keep that available.)
In what doesn't seem like an unpopular opinion based upon reading some of the comments, the price of the resin is a bit much. It is a proprietary setup, so that is understandable that it comes with at least a bit of an extra cost, but at least Bambu lets you use whatever filament you want.
Yep, I agree with all of this, I’m also eager for the camera and the Phrozen Revo is on its way to me, that has one.
Just wanted to point out that there is a high pitched whine through all of the audio. It's low volume but it is there. Video is great but once I started hearing it I couldn't stop, thought I was going crazy for a minute.
Someone else said this, I can’t hear it on either my speakers or headphones. I’ll need to double check this somehow, but be some odd frequency my hardware can’t output.
What you watching on?
@@FauxHammer Watching on PC, heard it on Opera and tested in Chrome and Edge to see if it was browser related. Also tested with and without my virtual audio drivers. It almost reminds me of interference whine, the kind of frequency that is low volume enough to not notice until you notice it. My headphones are pretty high range and running through a dac/amp, so if it is imperceptible on most hardware that would not surprise me. I also pulled up another of your videos to compare them and didn't hear it there.
Honestly I didn't even hear it until just before you were talking about the air compressor noise, but I went back in the video and it starts right at the beginning and persists through the entire video.
They should create a program allowing a selection of resins to be submitted for analysis, in order to be added to their store and or their slicer settings. Potentially allowing you to submit your Wargames resin to be added to the usable resins etc
Agreed! or have build in exposure tests teaching you how to dial in settings
Ross well done video, TONS of points to cover, and you hit them in as timely a manner as you could.
When i first saw this printer system a year or so ago i was in amazement. the sticker shock was expected. The cost of resin was the ultimate turn off. I only have one resin Printer (Saturn 2) and i can go thru 10kg of resin in less than a month, not every month but its happened a few times. 10 Bottles of resin on the Hey Gears machine would cost more than getting a GK2, which is also a premium printer, and a few bottles to get you going. I get the VERY closed source options produce the best results, but the resin 3d printer market is dominated by companies like Elegoo for a reason, In expensive printers that do the job. The Blueprint slicer looks like a reskin of Voxel Dance Tango, just with a better smart support system. Tango has a learning curve to it and can produce result just like what we see from Blue print with just a bit of effort.
In the furfure i believe Ross, and any other Influencer, will only use the Reflex when HeyGears sends them resin.
You are correct, Even I will not buy resin for this. I will use what they send and that is it. it's just too expensive.
I hope this printer does well, and that the industry listens. Myself, I haven’t gotten a printer yet because I don’t have the time or energy to have a new hobby. But I’m still interested (enough to watch your whole video), and if there was a plug and play printer system I could afford maybe it would be time to jump in.
Access to the settings, at least as an option, is a must have for me to consider this machine.
Amazing technology for sure, but they need support for the tinkerers, even if locked behind "advanced" settings
Agreed
Much cheaper than I thought but, as a jeweller, I don't see a resin that will cast. My BlueCast X1 is already over $150/bottle so that isn't the sticking point. Also woried that auto supports would not be up to snuff for delicate rings and such with hundreds of micro prongs. That pnumatic feature is cool but UniFormation looks to be a better contender interms open-ness and seems nearly similar. A walled garden is nice to a point but I don't want to be locked into a system. The main reason I would get a Prusa over a Bamboo. Still love my Phrozen mini 8ks.
More interested in the slicer vs the actual printer. Can you use it for other printers?
This looks really good, But I don't think its going to be alone for much longer. Look at the Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra that goes on Pre-sale soon. They have not released everything about the printer. But it feels like a lot of the features here will be on that printer.
Is it odd that the flip top lid is the #1 selling point for me... I hate lifting that lid off, I want to put a shelf above my printers... I'm running out of storage space.
I have the Saturn 4 ultra sat next to me, I can't say anything about it,. but I'm confident this will be in a league of it's own for a good while yet.
@@FauxHammer I know you can't say much, I just bought the Saturn 3 ultra as a second work horse printer. I'm still in the return period, would you return it and wait for the Saturn 4?
@@kikscomputers Honestly, I haven't decided yet.