I just want more automation honestly. I love that the Saturn 4 Ultra takes away half the slice settings I have to worry about. It would also be nice to just get some more feedback about failed prints, I don't know how you'd do that but anything that tells me stuff like when the resin is too cold, the file is corrupted or the motor is busted can save me a lot of grief. The biggest headache for me so far has been diagnosing failures- I simply do not have enough experience to recognise why a print failed by looking at the print.
Adjustable feet are nice, only need to adjust 3. But, out of all the printers I own, Ive never bothered to level a single one. You are better off just ensuring your work table is levelish. One concern with levelling feet on some less rigidly built machines (plastic bases) is that it could cause the printers frame to be twisted if one does not level it properly.
Also a 360 degree bubble level is a pretty cheap low tech feature that could be added to a set reference plane on the machine to make it easier for the customer to actually level it.
I have a different reason for loving up and over lids. I keep my printer in a cupboard I built in the shed - it holds heat well and I can lock it away for extra safety. However, this cupboard is not big enough for my S4U lid to open. You'd think that would annoy me, but removing the lid hinges to give me a removeable front cover is far easier than having to mod a lift-off lid (which included using a dremmel to slice the lid neatly in half) like I did with my old Saturn 8k. Which is to say even if you don't have the height for an up and over lid, you def don't have the height for a lift off one and it is still both useable and easier. The other benefit is that it allows a much stiffer frame for the z gantry. No more wobbling like the Saturn 8k (made worse because the screen ribbon cable fed through a slit that ran the entire length of the mid-plate right in front of where the z gantry was bolted on to it, meaning the mid-plate didn't have the rigidity to keep it in place).
For me the two largest areas for improvement which can be improved but just haven't are slicing and z axis. Slicing should by now be much more straightforward and simple to use for users getting started, and on the other end there needs to be a overhaul for much more customised slicing. I will go one further and say the firmware on the printers need to be changed for more open source g-code slicing similar to fdm printers where users can control every aspect of each layer, as currently same slice settings on different printers will actually run differently given the same settings when running multiple heights and exposures throughout a print. If you know UVTools, essentially that but actually compatible with all printers. And for z height, just better repeatability and tighter tolerances, ideally every printer should be capable of doing layer heights that match their pixel sizes. Currently you are hard pressed to get any layer heights below 30um reliably. Also dual linear axis and ball screws should be more common. I am aware not everyone needs these level of precision but the option should be there
The z axis limitations bug the hell out of me. Literally just gear down the motor. Problem solved. This is a simple, cheap, existing technology, just do it.
I'm hoping someone can answer a question on the auto resin refill systems. What is keeping the resin in the bottle from separating until it is needed? I've seen resin need to be stirred or bottle shook after a couple of hours of sitting. What prevents that before the resin in the bottle is needed? Thank you.
After saying to my self years ago that I wouldn't buy another Anycubic. BUT having, the 7Max I love it great prints and love simple features, manual leveling, heated vat with adjustable temp. Not everyone needs heated resin but with it come better results. The app, shows me how the print progressing, I didn't think I would use but I d. Tells me when the prints finished and that's a plus. My only dislike is the corner pour spout, like you, its on the wrong side for me to. As for the auto fill pump I have not used it because how does it mix the resin after it sits over night? The build plate slope hanger is great. The other feature I like is the clean up feature HOWEVER if the ACF has let resin under the vat DO NOT USE THE CLEAN UP FEATURE. I found out the hard way. So every day I check under the vat before starting a print. Keep it simple works. Happy print to all in 2025
I was wondering. I am totaly new at 3D printing. I love making d&d terrain and diorama's. Till now i worked with XPS foam, but i am thinking to make parts (like windows, doors, railings, barrels and stuff) with a 3D printer. I looked around and i am still not sure if i have to go for a resin or for a FDM printer. I found out that bigger terrain parts where made best with a FDM printer like a Bambu A1 mini, but smaller parts like barrels and other small parts and miniatures where made best with a resin printer like the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra. Since i am (curently) not thinking about printing big parts, or houses and stuff i would go for the Mars 5 Ultra, but knowing myself, if i got something i want to be able to make everything i can think off. So what is wise? Go for the Bambu A1 mini, learn 3d printing and save some money to buy the Mars 5 Ultra also at a later time. (and need to learn a completely other way of working) Or is there a machine out there that can do both? I want to be able to 3d print stuff for a Post-apocalyptic diorama most in 1:35 scale and little stuff like windows, doors, rainpipes, airco units , barrels and stuff is what i would print most, but i would like to try out some bigger parts also.
After I got myself my first 3D printer in ~June '24, I continued to follow the channel and the reviews. I am baffled that only one printer released this year, reflex RS, made me question my decision to go with the 2023 GKtwo. No one can look at the prints I get and tell me theirs are actually, noticeably better then mine. The size, the heated vat and the quality have not been surpassed this year.
Really enjoyed this - not sure I totally agree with all your opinions but thats to be expected. What I do like is the classification levels from "Absolute Wanky Tat" to "Dogs Bollocks" - that is utter genius. And a special mention for the Cockwomble designer too 🤣
I came up with a great idea for a feature a few years ago (I seem to remember seeing one company thinking of my idea too but I'm not sure). Basically, in the slicer have some way of labeling which parts of the print are supports and which parts are the actual model, then adjust the curing time so the supports can cure for a different length of time to the rest of the model (maybe different parts of supports could cure for different durations too). With that feature, maybe supports could come off more easily from the rest of the model.
So this is actually a thing. And I’ve seen it in industrial machines like Asiga. The supports are cured with more intensity to make them more brittle. And I’ve seen them snap off needle thin teeth with no scarring. The reflex and RS do the same thing when you use their supports. But I’ve not tested how well it performs when doing this.
@@FauxHammer Yeah, I could've sworn I'd seen it somewhere. I wasn't sure if I should be glad an actual company had come up with my idea too and it worked or really irritated I couldn't patent it or something first. At least I got there a few months earlier :)
All i really care about is ease of use. Part of why I love my bambu printers is for whatever reason, I don't have to do temperature towers, or flow calibrations, or anything for that matter. If I see a filament I like, I buy it, I select generic pla etc, and I print and it prints great. This is why I am loving the heygears and i'm hoping they and others expand on that. I don't want to dial in exposure settings and bottom and exposures and lift speeds. I want to dump resin in, and print.
Yes, you are crazy. But that doesn’t mean you are wrong. Integrated cameras that worked would be nice and I haven’t even used the pump on my Jupiter. As for heated vats: you could just store your bottles of resin in a warm place or pre-heat them before adding them to a machine. Then the ambient heaters inside the printer should be able to keep up.
Would be good to see the construction of a final "frankenprinter" at the end with the best build plate, best vat, best interface, best heater etc all together. These brands seem to copy each other anyway, might as well make it easy.
For most of the features you are spot on, but I still wait for a company that will shake this printing segment and rule the standards and features for next generations. Keep in mind that I am coming from FDM printing and despite that I have spent 1-2 years with SLA, I am still learning. I still want automatic refill of the vat, but done properly and cleaner. What I mean, is to calculate or guestimate the required amount to refill based on the current printing job in such way that after printing a very small amount of resin is left in the vat and you can clean it easily. Other thing I wish to see, it is a standard slicing software that have all required features FOR FREE, not behind a paywall or subscription, and it is open source, so all SLA manifacturers can build on top of it. Elegoo's SatelLite 3D might be the way to go, but they are using their own propriatery format.
Ross, I have a Wham Bam flex plate on much Saturn 4 Ultra and it hasn't given me any issues with the pressure sensing or adhesion. What i don't like are the holes in the build plate on my Phrozen Sonic Mega 8K. The plate is a pain to clean, and i always run into issues getting prints off the plate.
00:06 on the top bearing thing, I'm not sure if they are needed, nico and some other people I've talked to who make printers say you are better off without it, but on my m3 premium when I remove it then it's possible to lift the z axis a bit due to vertical play in the motor which suggests it was better off with the top bearing for that reason but I've not seen much difference printing with/without it, that being said I haven't tested it too closely so I might do that at some point.
I was reading about that somewhere earlier, yeah having 2 could cause issues if the screw is warped....? But I'm seeing FDM printers with this all the time?
Coming from the FDM world as far back as when Prusa wasn't even a company and my "leadscrews" were m5 threaded rods :) I'm really surprised there aren't more 3rd party upgrades in the Resin world. I just got my first printer - a Saturn 4 Ultra, that tank mechanism makes so much sense to me compared to just lifting the plate straight up. But as you and many have said, that build plate is one of the worst ideas anyone has ever come up with ... why is there no 3rd party replacement ?
8:25 yeha love me some vertical limit screws, it just makes so much sense, unfortunatlye the gk2 (idk about new ones) don't have fine control over z offset so if all the corners are at the same height but off overall, this can just happening when leveling or if you change fep or screen protector etc, you can't just adjust precisely on the machine you have to do it with the screws. Also it would be nice if they printed markings around the screws showing like marks at angles of say 10um and bigger lines at 100um so you can see how much to adjust the screws in each corner after measing a print in each corner. and on the elegoo plates, they have gone ahead and pretended like adjusting the 4 screws on top was intentional but it never was it was a user hack job and as a result without loctite or something I wouldn't trust it, also the travel distance isn't enough for a lot of people to adjust so it still either may not get level or you may need to adjust z offset which isn't a thing, you can only change g code to adjust the sensor sensitivity when zeroing which is just a messy fafff
GK3 ultra has a heater issue for many people. The issue is it doesn't get hot enough and continues to cut off and on. Uniformation is aware of this and is trying to do a firmware update, but the beta version I got did not work. The solution is to turn off the heater or add additional heat within an enclosure.
Love the rating system! What happened to the other part of the video? (Sorry if this was explained somewhere) the time stamps indicate that there was “more”?
I am inclined to thing the M7 pro cycling heat pump is (allbeit clunky) not a terrible solution. If given enough time to preheat the thermal mass of the resin and tank. If it had filter/debris purge function also it would be an absolute beast for people who don't swap out resins all the time which seems to be peoples biggest complaint beyond it's bulk.
Honestly, going forwards, Pour Spouts are my Go/No-Go feature for any new or replacement printers. Does anyone make a 3rd party resin tray for a saturn2 that has a decent pour spout on it?
Do you know in what month of 2025 Elegoo will present new printers? I wonder whether to buy the Saturn 4 ultra printer or wait for the new model? Greetings from Poland
Oh this make my decision even easier... Thank you. BTW you are great. My decision stands between elegoo Saturn 4 ultra, M5s PRO or M7. I want to print headsculpt for marvel legends and mafex figures. And accessories for them. Or is the mars 5 ultra the best one?
I've had to go round and round with Elegoo about leveling the Mars 5 Ultra. They started with the "just adjust the screws on the plate" canned response. But after a handful of times of them sending me gcode to run and me sending them the results, they eventually send me a video with steps on how to "properly" level the machine. It's all in the lifting mechanism now. The problem is, the video they sent it unlisted on youtube. I guess it's a closely guarded secret on how to get your machine level that they don't want to openly share the details on it. I'd say that alone makes Elegoo support an Absolute Piss-Take. If anyone is looking for that video, I'd be happy to share it. Just let me know, I just don't want to post random youtube links on someone else's channel.
Love your rating system lol There's so many "features" in newer printers that are just really meh to me. I think companies should focus a bit more on heating and ventilation before they worry about better speeds and resolutions going forward. I really hope Elegoo do away with that stupid build plate
Can't beat a good British rating system. USB and power switch not on the front of any printer is just bloody stupid. Bonus points for getting a male Chicken Womble into a video, it has to be my favourite adjective from the last few years.
How about a sealed printing chamber which is exhausted to a hepa filter (there are now hepa filters designed for resin vapour) plus locking lids for safety
2:44 I still know what's wrong with doors and why everyone abandoned them. Oh and about Resin pumps it depends the one from Uniformation and Heygears, which include Resin Cartridge tanks seemed okay.
What do you mean you know why people abandoned them? They took upp quite a bit of space. I like the type of resin refil that heygears and Nova 3D used, but the one from Uniformation has seemed worse than most others.
@@FauxHammer I meant doors with hinges that open to the front and just the front not top or side. I never have anything in the front anyway because I need access to that space anyway.
Absolute number one is a quick-change film system. 30 screws to change it is absolute bull penetration of a chicken. (Same could be said of screen changes) For adds I would like to see a method to remove excess resin from the print prior to removing the plate. Setting it on the side to drip help a tiny bit but who wants to wait a day before getting the print? There are so many small upgrades but those would be game changers.
@@FauxHammeroh man that sounds interesting! Any idea when you might be able to talk about such a thing? Don't need to be specific but are we talking weeks or months?
@@theawesomejames1 right now I have no idea. I need to reply to them but dealing with some family stuff at mo. Hopefully in next couple of months at a guess
I think we'll see more of those features you've listed as missing eventually become more common. Now an advancement for resin printing I would love is resin that isn't toxic as that would be a game changer. Edit: Black boxer briefs 😂
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the slang but... it seems like "bollocks" is an insult but "dog's bollocks" is a compliment? I might need that explained to me.
I still haven't had a retail GK3 Ultra, they are dealing with issues that people are having with the first batch and catching up on preorders, I'm not gonna take one from somebody who has been waiting.
who said anything about waering unnderpants? we can always wish someone will sole the puzzle next year we have all the pieces. happy new year to ross and all that follow
I've got some dashing orange and blue boxers on this evening. They're as horrible as they sound! For me, the tilting vat from Elegoo has been the killer development of this generation. Ridiculous print speeds (I've clocked my S4U as roughly 2.5 times faster than my Mars 3 for matching prints) without the drawback of a loud and expensive addon to achieve such speeds (looking at you, Heygears)
I'm gonna go through the long and difficult process of upgrading my old Phrozen Transfrom from a 4k RGB screen to a 7k Mono screen, i'd like to thank Phrozen for abandoning this machine in order to sell other printers. A screen upgrade would've been great but oh no u got to buy essentially the same printer with a higher rez screen, parts are getting harder to find.
I've watched a lot of your videos and I'm still confused as to what printer to seriously look at. I'm torn between Elegoo (Saturn), AnyCubic, and Phrozen. My budget will be under $550 Canadian. I will be printing things for my railroad at 1:160. Some parts will be cylinders so I need to avoid striation. Other parts will be rather fine in detail. I'm hoping there will be more offerings in 2025 so I can be even more confused. Fine detail is what I'm looking for. I'd also like a good vent port and an RJ 45 connection so I can run the device like a true PRINTER instead of saving to USB key to transfer the file. Heaters and pumps are things I'm not interested in. Speed is good but not at the cost of lost quality. Rick
Heygears not really being able to use other resins is a 3, I find if I print 10mm miniatures on its built plate you have to pry them off so I have to support them, it also has problems with them sticking to the plate on the edge with Elegoo abs, with the Sunlu no problem on the edge. On my GKtwo no problem they stick even to the edge. The form labs pop off plate is a solid 5 looking that it might solve the miniature problem. I rate the Heygears heater a 3 because you have to jump through loops to install it ( set it aside to install later).
19:24 I believe they did fix the dodgy time laps but like why the hell would you ship something that broken knowing that reviewers are going to show it in it's broken state, not a few months down the line when it's working.
7:20 'i would love to see something like this on more budget friendly machines' yeah it would be great but it's patented so they would need to figure out something else
Flex plates shouldnt cause issues with force sensor systems if they are good quality. Cheap ones with shit magnets that allow the plate to come loose might give some false peel force readings, but good ones are fine. Also magnetic fields dont have an effect on the load cells used to measure printing forces as they are resistive strain based and measure a changes in resistance and not electromagnetic interactions.
Thanks sir, I’m more just thinking if something like a Saturn 4 where it has an expectation of where 0 is. So if it uses a flex plate and increases the thickness of the plate. Will the printer read that as an obstruction? As I said, just a theory.
Only downside to the m7 max, the resin heater only pre heats the resin, it doesn't stay on during the printing, but I've heard they are working on a firmware update to fix this,
@@FauxHammer Thanks again for your incredible reviews; your videos lead me to choose a Photon M7 (non-max) and my first prints have gone SUPER well thanks to all I've learned on your channel.
I use the heater most days 32 deg and before I start printing I lower the build plate into the resin so the build plate is almost the same temp as the resin. This seems to maintain the resin temp for the rest of day.
really? what do you feel is the benefit of it t you? I often see it and miss the begnning becasue I wasn't looking at that, then, I have to wait for teh scroll so i can start reading the thing. Worse when i;m comparing multiple things on one screen like the print filenames on Creality's printers (which don;t have pictures) can you read that fast?
@@FauxHammer well i kinda find it as if it was a phone ui, and i got very used to this type of ui on my Klipper fdm machine that has a screen. finding a bit easier to control and can get to setting quicker. Yeah picture would be great on the print files but i dont mind reading since my day to day job is looking through engineering data sheet and massive excel spread sheet but that might just be me getting so used to it.
Elegoo should ditch the drip trays and replace them with an integrated gasket.... Another piece of tat to lose or break, and another step to remember!!
no sympathy for what? how would a funnel, stop the resin running down teh side of the vat lol, i know i didn;lt use a funnel in the shot, that is just to get the shot. but the point is about how the resin runs down the vat, rather than off the lip of the funnel... I don't understand why this is so hard..
@@FauxHammer with a funnel you can pour faster, I'm not saying we should have bad spouts but if you are trying to pour directly into the bottle you are asking for trouble
If I picked a favourite given my desire to add materials and a file and just make shit then I’d lean towards the reflex / reflex RS as form every thing I’ve seen it’s got more of the plug and play and get stuff. I’d have have to hold my nose on the resin but having seen all greedy3d’s resin tests that’s not even an issue Not very discourse eh. Sorry Ross lol
The worst part of resin printing for me is none of this. It's the slicer, THEY SUCK! the interface is weird, support settings don't make sense, you have 3 different steps of analyzing the print.... They need to hire a UI and UX designer because it's really unintuitive
As long as this beautiful hobby is limited to the lucky few that have access to some extra hobby space that is disconnected from their normal living space where wives, kids and pets reside this whole resin printing thing is wanky tats for me. From my flat-living perspective it's just a hobby for the privileged with extra space. I know, DIY woodworking also can't really be done in a flat but it seems to me nothing much is being done to nudge the innovation towards real home use - while some manufactures have the nerve to produce ads of women with their resin printers in their designer apartments. While i sit here and wait for home powder printers, skipping the whole resin world, i'll have to make do with my 0.2mm FDM to print coarse minis to at least simulate how cool it would be to print own and dl'ed designs at home. Really though, wearing a lab coat and some WW2 face mask whilst having a grade in handling toxic waste products may be adventurous for one but is also the reason why this hobby is a damp squib not about to break through. You can HeyGears me all you want but the real innovations are not screen resolution, wiggly heated vats, phony apps or stupid alibi heaters on a 5v USB port - for me it would be when all the polished marketing pictures of people having these printers on the edge of their working desks like it ain't no thing would become a reality. This is much to ask (maybe too much for the whole resin process) but would result in a REAL innovation.
It's amusing and kind of bizarre to me that someone would care about what a 3d printer *looks like* Totally fine if it matters to you, obviously, it just doesn't make sense to my brain. :)
My perfect printer would basically be a saturn 4 ultra with a good resin heating system. Looks don't matter to me, pour spouts don't matter to me, I love the tilting vat on my mars 5 ultra, and I've never had any issues with bed leveling. Or maybe a heygears at 1/3 of their current price plus a tilting vat? lol
No more cameras. I really do not see the point of these, just makes the printer more expensive and they only serve content creators which are in the minority. I'd rather they focused the effort and money on better heating like my GK2 (living in the UK, that is a must). No more pumps either for the same reasons you've mentioned or at least OPTIONAL like cameras.
What if they had an app and you could remotely monitor them? Still not for you? Fair call, I asked. Just curious. And yes. The more optional, the better.
@@FauxHammer But you said it as well, these cameras are often of such poor quality or do not work well at low light. On top of it some don't even have a dedicated app. Seems like it could shave off around £80- £100 the printer cost. I am happy to be proven wrong if in the future these will "somehow" make the printing process better, like detecting resin levels, helping with the plate levelling and whatnot (but that would be some real black magic stuff).
@@BlackRabbitDigitalP oh yeah, I’m not arguing, I’m curious. I like to have the discussions. This channel is not about me and what I want it’s about what you guys all want and I like to understand Yeah, they are all shit right now. But I’d rather they were better than not included I find myself frequently checking the progress of my prints visually on my fdm printers through their apps. I’d love to do that in my resin printers too. The Timelapse video is just a fun bonus.
@@FauxHammer Yeah that's fair I suppose the fact that I have not been "wowed" yet by the camera feature that I cannot yet see the possibilities with it (which it does not mean there aren't). An App which starts prints would be great, but I am not sure we would need a camera for that (so long as I remember to remove the lid off my GK2 VAT xD). I guess it is kind of like the resin pump idea for me, I do not see the point since the nozzle stuff is the worst part of a FDM printer, why would I want something that can clog/jam and requires extra maintenance, when I can just pour it out of a bottle. But at least I can see how in the far future, the resin pump might be one of those obvious necessary features that people might not even believe we used to print without one. I think in the "perfect" world the resin would be pumped in and then cleaned up as well. Watching a lot of your videos made me realise the real future of 3D printing is reducing the amount of inconvenience, until we will literally just connect it and press "print" done, no cleaning, no slicing, no constant maintenance. Sadly I think only the FDM will be able to achieve this at the level of detail suitable for everything (to the point it will be indistinguishable from moulded plastic miniatures for example) and make resin feel an old and clunky way of printing.
I like the option of the camera on the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra to monitor progress - particularly if a print has failed (I am in the early days of 3D printing) but agree the lack of mobile phone monitoring limits the functionality.
This rating system needs to become an industry standard! 🤣👍
I completely agree with your points! It’s truly delightful to see such a thoughtful and well-made video-it’s been very inspiring for me. 😁
Thank you so much, and especially for the donation. I;m super glad you found this fun and enjoyable.
I just want more automation honestly. I love that the Saturn 4 Ultra takes away half the slice settings I have to worry about. It would also be nice to just get some more feedback about failed prints, I don't know how you'd do that but anything that tells me stuff like when the resin is too cold, the file is corrupted or the motor is busted can save me a lot of grief. The biggest headache for me so far has been diagnosing failures- I simply do not have enough experience to recognise why a print failed by looking at the print.
One more thing about feet - why aren't they height adjustable? Even my concrete bench top isn't 100% flat nor level.
I agree if it has adjustable feet it’s a if doesn’t have rubber feet 0, rubber I’ll give it 2 1/2.
Adjustable feet are nice, only need to adjust 3. But, out of all the printers I own, Ive never bothered to level a single one. You are better off just ensuring your work table is levelish. One concern with levelling feet on some less rigidly built machines (plastic bases) is that it could cause the printers frame to be twisted if one does not level it properly.
Saturn 4 Ultra has adjustable feet :D
HeyGears also has twisty feet. Hopefully this becomes standard from here on out.
Also a 360 degree bubble level is a pretty cheap low tech feature that could be added to a set reference plane on the machine to make it easier for the customer to actually level it.
I have a different reason for loving up and over lids. I keep my printer in a cupboard I built in the shed - it holds heat well and I can lock it away for extra safety. However, this cupboard is not big enough for my S4U lid to open. You'd think that would annoy me, but removing the lid hinges to give me a removeable front cover is far easier than having to mod a lift-off lid (which included using a dremmel to slice the lid neatly in half) like I did with my old Saturn 8k. Which is to say even if you don't have the height for an up and over lid, you def don't have the height for a lift off one and it is still both useable and easier.
The other benefit is that it allows a much stiffer frame for the z gantry. No more wobbling like the Saturn 8k (made worse because the screen ribbon cable fed through a slit that ran the entire length of the mid-plate right in front of where the z gantry was bolted on to it, meaning the mid-plate didn't have the rigidity to keep it in place).
For me the two largest areas for improvement which can be improved but just haven't are slicing and z axis.
Slicing should by now be much more straightforward and simple to use for users getting started, and on the other end there needs to be a overhaul for much more customised slicing. I will go one further and say the firmware on the printers need to be changed for more open source g-code slicing similar to fdm printers where users can control every aspect of each layer, as currently same slice settings on different printers will actually run differently given the same settings when running multiple heights and exposures throughout a print. If you know UVTools, essentially that but actually compatible with all printers.
And for z height, just better repeatability and tighter tolerances, ideally every printer should be capable of doing layer heights that match their pixel sizes. Currently you are hard pressed to get any layer heights below 30um reliably. Also dual linear axis and ball screws should be more common. I am aware not everyone needs these level of precision but the option should be there
The z axis limitations bug the hell out of me. Literally just gear down the motor. Problem solved. This is a simple, cheap, existing technology, just do it.
Not many channels I follow have the ability to pull of an Army of Darkness quote. But you Sir did a damn good job.
Groovy…
I'm hoping someone can answer a question on the auto resin refill systems. What is keeping the resin in the bottle from separating until it is needed? I've seen resin need to be stirred or bottle shook after a couple of hours of sitting. What prevents that before the resin in the bottle is needed? Thank you.
Absolutely nothing, you;ve genuinely highlighted another valid problem with these systems.
After saying to my self years ago that I wouldn't buy another Anycubic. BUT having, the 7Max I love it great prints and love simple features, manual leveling, heated vat with adjustable temp. Not everyone needs heated resin but with it come better results. The app, shows me how the print progressing, I didn't think I would use but I d. Tells me when the prints finished and that's a plus. My only dislike is the corner pour spout, like you, its on the wrong side for me to. As for the auto fill pump I have not used it because how does it mix the resin after it sits over night? The build plate slope hanger is great. The other feature I like is the clean up feature HOWEVER if the ACF has let resin under the vat DO NOT USE THE CLEAN UP FEATURE. I found out the hard way. So every day I check under the vat before starting a print. Keep it simple works. Happy print to all in 2025
I was wondering. I am totaly new at 3D printing. I love making d&d terrain and diorama's. Till now i worked with XPS foam, but i am thinking to make parts (like windows, doors, railings, barrels and stuff) with a 3D printer. I looked around and i am still not sure if i have to go for a resin or for a FDM printer. I found out that bigger terrain parts where made best with a FDM printer like a Bambu A1 mini, but smaller parts like barrels and other small parts and miniatures where made best with a resin printer like the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra. Since i am (curently) not thinking about printing big parts, or houses and stuff i would go for the Mars 5 Ultra, but knowing myself, if i got something i want to be able to make everything i can think off. So what is wise? Go for the Bambu A1 mini, learn 3d printing and save some money to buy the Mars 5 Ultra also at a later time. (and need to learn a completely other way of working) Or is there a machine out there that can do both? I want to be able to 3d print stuff for a Post-apocalyptic diorama most in 1:35 scale and little stuff like windows, doors, rainpipes, airco units , barrels and stuff is what i would print most, but i would like to try out some bigger parts also.
Love the end. Army of Darkness is an awesome movie 😆
After I got myself my first 3D printer in ~June '24, I continued to follow the channel and the reviews. I am baffled that only one printer released this year, reflex RS, made me question my decision to go with the 2023 GKtwo. No one can look at the prints I get and tell me theirs are actually, noticeably better then mine. The size, the heated vat and the quality have not been surpassed this year.
Really enjoyed this - not sure I totally agree with all your opinions but thats to be expected. What I do like is the classification levels from "Absolute Wanky Tat" to "Dogs Bollocks" - that is utter genius. And a special mention for the Cockwomble designer too 🤣
I came up with a great idea for a feature a few years ago (I seem to remember seeing one company thinking of my idea too but I'm not sure). Basically, in the slicer have some way of labeling which parts of the print are supports and which parts are the actual model, then adjust the curing time so the supports can cure for a different length of time to the rest of the model (maybe different parts of supports could cure for different durations too). With that feature, maybe supports could come off more easily from the rest of the model.
So this is actually a thing. And I’ve seen it in industrial machines like Asiga. The supports are cured with more intensity to make them more brittle. And I’ve seen them snap off needle thin teeth with no scarring.
The reflex and RS do the same thing when you use their supports. But I’ve not tested how well it performs when doing this.
@@FauxHammer Yeah, I could've sworn I'd seen it somewhere. I wasn't sure if I should be glad an actual company had come up with my idea too and it worked or really irritated I couldn't patent it or something first. At least I got there a few months earlier :)
Love my Anycubic M7 Pro!
13:25 Hey, we use kettles in Canada too
All i really care about is ease of use. Part of why I love my bambu printers is for whatever reason, I don't have to do temperature towers, or flow calibrations, or anything for that matter. If I see a filament I like, I buy it, I select generic pla etc, and I print and it prints great. This is why I am loving the heygears and i'm hoping they and others expand on that. I don't want to dial in exposure settings and bottom and exposures and lift speeds. I want to dump resin in, and print.
Forgot to add, Dogs bollocks of a video as usual.
+100 points on the damn spouts! And None. See? I did hang in until the end.
Yes, you are crazy. But that doesn’t mean you are wrong. Integrated cameras that worked would be nice and I haven’t even used the pump on my Jupiter. As for heated vats: you could just store your bottles of resin in a warm place or pre-heat them before adding them to a machine. Then the ambient heaters inside the printer should be able to keep up.
Would be good to see the construction of a final "frankenprinter" at the end with the best build plate, best vat, best interface, best heater etc all together. These brands seem to copy each other anyway, might as well make it easy.
For most of the features you are spot on, but I still wait for a company that will shake this printing segment and rule the standards and features for next generations. Keep in mind that I am coming from FDM printing and despite that I have spent 1-2 years with SLA, I am still learning.
I still want automatic refill of the vat, but done properly and cleaner. What I mean, is to calculate or guestimate the required amount to refill based on the current printing job in such way that after printing a very small amount of resin is left in the vat and you can clean it easily. Other thing I wish to see, it is a standard slicing software that have all required features FOR FREE, not behind a paywall or subscription, and it is open source, so all SLA manifacturers can build on top of it. Elegoo's SatelLite 3D might be the way to go, but they are using their own propriatery format.
Loving the m7 max 😍
Ross, I have a Wham Bam flex plate on much Saturn 4 Ultra and it hasn't given me any issues with the pressure sensing or adhesion.
What i don't like are the holes in the build plate on my Phrozen Sonic Mega 8K. The plate is a pain to clean, and i always run into issues getting prints off the plate.
00:06 on the top bearing thing, I'm not sure if they are needed, nico and some other people I've talked to who make printers say you are better off without it, but on my m3 premium when I remove it then it's possible to lift the z axis a bit due to vertical play in the motor which suggests it was better off with the top bearing for that reason but I've not seen much difference printing with/without it, that being said I haven't tested it too closely so I might do that at some point.
I was reading about that somewhere earlier, yeah having 2 could cause issues if the screw is warped....?
But I'm seeing FDM printers with this all the time?
Coming from the FDM world as far back as when Prusa wasn't even a company and my "leadscrews" were m5 threaded rods :) I'm really surprised there aren't more 3rd party upgrades in the Resin world. I just got my first printer - a Saturn 4 Ultra, that tank mechanism makes so much sense to me compared to just lifting the plate straight up. But as you and many have said, that build plate is one of the worst ideas anyone has ever come up with ... why is there no 3rd party replacement ?
8:25 yeha love me some vertical limit screws, it just makes so much sense, unfortunatlye the gk2 (idk about new ones) don't have fine control over z offset so if all the corners are at the same height but off overall, this can just happening when leveling or if you change fep or screen protector etc, you can't just adjust precisely on the machine you have to do it with the screws.
Also it would be nice if they printed markings around the screws showing like marks at angles of say 10um and bigger lines at 100um so you can see how much to adjust the screws in each corner after measing a print in each corner.
and on the elegoo plates, they have gone ahead and pretended like adjusting the 4 screws on top was intentional but it never was it was a user hack job and as a result without loctite or something I wouldn't trust it, also the travel distance isn't enough for a lot of people to adjust so it still either may not get level or you may need to adjust z offset which isn't a thing, you can only change g code to adjust the sensor sensitivity when zeroing which is just a messy fafff
GK3 ultra has a heater issue for many people. The issue is it doesn't get hot enough and continues to cut off and on. Uniformation is aware of this and is trying to do a firmware update, but the beta version I got did not work. The solution is to turn off the heater or add additional heat within an enclosure.
😂…bec the bad QC examination
Love the rating system! What happened to the other part of the video? (Sorry if this was explained somewhere) the time stamps indicate that there was “more”?
i hope the brands watch this and get serious about vat warming.
I am inclined to thing the M7 pro cycling heat pump is (allbeit clunky) not a terrible solution. If given enough time to preheat the thermal mass of the resin and tank. If it had filter/debris purge function also it would be an absolute beast for people who don't swap out resins all the time which seems to be peoples biggest complaint beyond it's bulk.
Honestly, going forwards, Pour Spouts are my Go/No-Go feature for any new or replacement printers. Does anyone make a 3rd party resin tray for a saturn2 that has a decent pour spout on it?
could u post a "table" with all the puntuations for easier overview? 👉👈
Punctuation?
Do you know in what month of 2025 Elegoo will present new printers? I wonder whether to buy the Saturn 4 ultra printer or wait for the new model? Greetings from Poland
Oh this make my decision even easier... Thank you. BTW you are great.
My decision stands between elegoo Saturn 4 ultra, M5s PRO or M7. I want to print headsculpt for marvel legends and mafex figures. And accessories for them. Or is the mars 5 ultra the best one?
I've had to go round and round with Elegoo about leveling the Mars 5 Ultra. They started with the "just adjust the screws on the plate" canned response. But after a handful of times of them sending me gcode to run and me sending them the results, they eventually send me a video with steps on how to "properly" level the machine. It's all in the lifting mechanism now. The problem is, the video they sent it unlisted on youtube. I guess it's a closely guarded secret on how to get your machine level that they don't want to openly share the details on it. I'd say that alone makes Elegoo support an Absolute Piss-Take. If anyone is looking for that video, I'd be happy to share it. Just let me know, I just don't want to post random youtube links on someone else's channel.
I'd love a video on anycubic dynamic lift height and RERF test PLEASE. thank you
Thanks, I have one on RERF alreaedy and one coming on Dynamic lift height
th-cam.com/video/kMjHbv7-INk/w-d-xo.htmlsi=hKvN2kdLdL0HHruF
Love your rating system lol There's so many "features" in newer printers that are just really meh to me. I think companies should focus a bit more on heating and ventilation before they worry about better speeds and resolutions going forward. I really hope Elegoo do away with that stupid build plate
Can't beat a good British rating system. USB and power switch not on the front of any printer is just bloody stupid. Bonus points for getting a male Chicken Womble into a video, it has to be my favourite adjective from the last few years.
How about a sealed printing chamber which is exhausted to a hepa filter (there are now hepa filters designed for resin vapour) plus locking lids for safety
Where can i find such devices?
2:44 I still know what's wrong with doors and why everyone abandoned them. Oh and about Resin pumps it depends the one from Uniformation and Heygears, which include Resin Cartridge tanks seemed okay.
What do you mean you know why people abandoned them? They took upp quite a bit of space.
I like the type of resin refil that heygears and Nova 3D used, but the one from Uniformation has seemed worse than most others.
@@FauxHammer I meant doors with hinges that open to the front and just the front not top or side. I never have anything in the front anyway because I need access to that space anyway.
I got that reference at the end.
Absolute number one is a quick-change film system. 30 screws to change it is absolute bull penetration of a chicken. (Same could be said of screen changes) For adds I would like to see a method to remove excess resin from the print prior to removing the plate. Setting it on the side to drip help a tiny bit but who wants to wait a day before getting the print? There are so many small upgrades but those would be game changers.
I’ve actually seen a quick change release film. I can’t talk about it but I’ve seen a video of it. Very intrigued to test it and understand more
@@FauxHammeroh man that sounds interesting! Any idea when you might be able to talk about such a thing? Don't need to be specific but are we talking weeks or months?
@@theawesomejames1 right now I have no idea. I need to reply to them but dealing with some family stuff at mo.
Hopefully in next couple of months at a guess
@@FauxHammer hope all is well, or at least will be soon!
I think we'll see more of those features you've listed as missing eventually become more common.
Now an advancement for resin printing I would love is resin that isn't toxic as that would be a game changer.
Edit: Black boxer briefs 😂
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the slang but... it seems like "bollocks" is an insult but "dog's bollocks" is a compliment? I might need that explained to me.
Love it, and doesn't everyone have a kettle in the kitchen Army of darkness nice.
@FauxHammer where is your GK3 Ultra review?
I still haven't had a retail GK3 Ultra, they are dealing with issues that people are having with the first batch and catching up on preorders, I'm not gonna take one from somebody who has been waiting.
@@FauxHammerthanks still looking forward to the review. I got lucky and got mine in the second wave and so far it's been awesome.
who said anything about waering unnderpants? we can always wish someone will sole the puzzle next year we have all the pieces. happy new year to ross and all that follow
I've got some dashing orange and blue boxers on this evening. They're as horrible as they sound!
For me, the tilting vat from Elegoo has been the killer development of this generation. Ridiculous print speeds (I've clocked my S4U as roughly 2.5 times faster than my Mars 3 for matching prints) without the drawback of a loud and expensive addon to achieve such speeds (looking at you, Heygears)
😮😮😮🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Dude I haven’t laughed so much in ages thank you.
I'm gonna go through the long and difficult process of upgrading my old Phrozen Transfrom from a 4k RGB screen to a 7k Mono screen, i'd like to thank Phrozen for abandoning this machine in order to sell other printers. A screen upgrade would've been great but oh no u got to buy essentially the same printer with a higher rez screen, parts are getting harder to find.
Seeing "ANYGOO" in the thumbnail made me do a triple-take thinking I was having a stroke
I've watched a lot of your videos and I'm still confused as to what printer to seriously look at. I'm torn between Elegoo (Saturn), AnyCubic, and Phrozen. My budget will be under $550 Canadian. I will be printing things for my railroad at 1:160. Some parts will be cylinders so I need to avoid striation. Other parts will be rather fine in detail. I'm hoping there will be more offerings in 2025 so I can be even more confused. Fine detail is what I'm looking for. I'd also like a good vent port and an RJ 45 connection so I can run the device like a true PRINTER instead of saving to USB key to transfer the file. Heaters and pumps are things I'm not interested in. Speed is good but not at the cost of lost quality.
Rick
Heygears not really being able to use other resins is a 3, I find if I print 10mm miniatures on its built plate you have to pry them off so I have to support them, it also has problems with them sticking to the plate on the edge with Elegoo abs, with the Sunlu no problem on the edge. On my GKtwo no problem they stick even to the edge. The form labs pop off plate is a solid 5 looking that it might solve the miniature problem. I rate the Heygears heater a 3 because you have to jump through loops to install it ( set it aside to install later).
19:24 I believe they did fix the dodgy time laps but like why the hell would you ship something that broken knowing that reviewers are going to show it in it's broken state, not a few months down the line when it's working.
Love the vids but I hate that the stuff is toxic, I wont invest before I know its safe :(
Perfect consumer printer when?
someone needs to make a super cut with every time hes said whilst
7:20 'i would love to see something like this on more budget friendly machines' yeah it would be great but it's patented so they would need to figure out something else
i hate lids. the gaps are too wide, fumes easily get out and preheat takes longer
Flex plates shouldnt cause issues with force sensor systems if they are good quality. Cheap ones with shit magnets that allow the plate to come loose might give some false peel force readings, but good ones are fine. Also magnetic fields dont have an effect on the load cells used to measure printing forces as they are resistive strain based and measure a changes in resistance and not electromagnetic interactions.
Thanks sir, I’m more just thinking if something like a Saturn 4 where it has an expectation of where 0 is.
So if it uses a flex plate and increases the thickness of the plate. Will the printer read that as an obstruction?
As I said, just a theory.
Alternative title: "How British can FauxHammer get?"
Only downside to the m7 max, the resin heater only pre heats the resin, it doesn't stay on during the printing, but I've heard they are working on a firmware update to fix this,
They are, it was meant to be done before release 😓
@FauxHammer it's still an amazing printer thou,
@@markmcguire6984 totally. Still my favourite of the year.
@@FauxHammer Thanks again for your incredible reviews; your videos lead me to choose a Photon M7 (non-max) and my first prints have gone SUPER well thanks to all I've learned on your channel.
I use the heater most days 32 deg and before I start printing I lower the build plate into the resin so the build plate is almost the same temp as the resin. This seems to maintain the resin temp for the rest of day.
So far seems like its best to wait for 2025 releases for resin printing?
I am using Anycubic M7 max and I am printing only one type of resin and the resin pump is really useful.
is it just me that i much prefer the scrolling ui than anything else?
really? what do you feel is the benefit of it t you?
I often see it and miss the begnning becasue I wasn't looking at that, then, I have to wait for teh scroll so i can start reading the thing. Worse when i;m comparing multiple things on one screen like the print filenames on Creality's printers (which don;t have pictures)
can you read that fast?
@@FauxHammer well i kinda find it as if it was a phone ui, and i got very used to this type of ui on my Klipper fdm machine that has a screen. finding a bit easier to control and can get to setting quicker. Yeah picture would be great on the print files but i dont mind reading since my day to day job is looking through engineering data sheet and massive excel spread sheet but that might just be me getting so used to it.
Elegoo should ditch the drip trays and replace them with an integrated gasket....
Another piece of tat to lose or break, and another step to remember!!
12:32 eh, I don't have much sympathy for you here, IMO you should always filter resin when pouring it back which means using a funnel too
no sympathy for what? how would a funnel, stop the resin running down teh side of the vat lol, i know i didn;lt use a funnel in the shot, that is just to get the shot. but the point is about how the resin runs down the vat, rather than off the lip of the funnel... I don't understand why this is so hard..
@@FauxHammer with a funnel you can pour faster, I'm not saying we should have bad spouts but if you are trying to pour directly into the bottle you are asking for trouble
@@awildtomappeared5925 yeah, I know. Sorry, I though this was obvious mate...
If I picked a favourite given my desire to add materials and a file and just make shit then I’d lean towards the reflex / reflex RS as form every thing I’ve seen it’s got more of the plug and play and get stuff. I’d have have to hold my nose on the resin but having seen all greedy3d’s resin tests that’s not even an issue
Not very discourse eh. Sorry Ross lol
Came for the printer reviews, stayed for the arse.
😘
The worst part of resin printing for me is none of this. It's the slicer, THEY SUCK! the interface is weird, support settings don't make sense, you have 3 different steps of analyzing the print.... They need to hire a UI and UX designer because it's really unintuitive
And they need to fix stupid bugs fir those of us who need to resize the bloody window
As long as this beautiful hobby is limited to the lucky few that have access to some extra hobby space that is disconnected from their normal living space where wives, kids and pets reside this whole resin printing thing is wanky tats for me. From my flat-living perspective it's just a hobby for the privileged with extra space. I know, DIY woodworking also can't really be done in a flat but it seems to me nothing much is being done to nudge the innovation towards real home use - while some manufactures have the nerve to produce ads of women with their resin printers in their designer apartments. While i sit here and wait for home powder printers, skipping the whole resin world, i'll have to make do with my 0.2mm FDM to print coarse minis to at least simulate how cool it would be to print own and dl'ed designs at home. Really though, wearing a lab coat and some WW2 face mask whilst having a grade in handling toxic waste products may be adventurous for one but is also the reason why this hobby is a damp squib not about to break through. You can HeyGears me all you want but the real innovations are not screen resolution, wiggly heated vats, phony apps or stupid alibi heaters on a 5v USB port - for me it would be when all the polished marketing pictures of people having these printers on the edge of their working desks like it ain't no thing would become a reality. This is much to ask (maybe too much for the whole resin process) but would result in a REAL innovation.
French in audio please😅😊
It's amusing and kind of bizarre to me that someone would care about what a 3d printer *looks like* Totally fine if it matters to you, obviously, it just doesn't make sense to my brain. :)
My perfect printer would basically be a saturn 4 ultra with a good resin heating system. Looks don't matter to me, pour spouts don't matter to me, I love the tilting vat on my mars 5 ultra, and I've never had any issues with bed leveling.
Or maybe a heygears at 1/3 of their current price plus a tilting vat? lol
I disagree! For reasons! With everything you haven't said yet, because i haven't gotten into the video yet
I feel free to disagree, but I don't.
dis agree
on which part?
@@FauxHammer none, you said comment if you disagree so i just did.
@@farzanmir4004 sorry. I mean which bit? What specifically are you disagreeing with?
@@FauxHammer nothing bro :) . just a joke
@@farzanmir4004 oh no worries. Sorry. Was responding to a lot of messages yesterday and bet brain was in formal helpful mode lol.
Wtf the video is in spanish. Or, for me, is in spanish.
No more cameras. I really do not see the point of these, just makes the printer more expensive and they only serve content creators which are in the minority. I'd rather they focused the effort and money on better heating like my GK2 (living in the UK, that is a must).
No more pumps either for the same reasons you've mentioned or at least OPTIONAL like cameras.
What if they had an app and you could remotely monitor them? Still not for you?
Fair call, I asked. Just curious. And yes. The more optional, the better.
@@FauxHammer But you said it as well, these cameras are often of such poor quality or do not work well at low light. On top of it some don't even have a dedicated app.
Seems like it could shave off around £80- £100 the printer cost.
I am happy to be proven wrong if in the future these will "somehow" make the printing process better, like detecting resin levels, helping with the plate levelling and whatnot (but that would be some real black magic stuff).
@@BlackRabbitDigitalP oh yeah, I’m not arguing, I’m curious. I like to have the discussions. This channel is not about me and what I want it’s about what you guys all want and I like to understand
Yeah, they are all shit right now. But I’d rather they were better than not included
I find myself frequently checking the progress of my prints visually on my fdm printers through their apps.
I’d love to do that in my resin printers too. The Timelapse video is just a fun bonus.
@@FauxHammer Yeah that's fair I suppose the fact that I have not been "wowed" yet by the camera feature that I cannot yet see the possibilities with it (which it does not mean there aren't). An App which starts prints would be great, but I am not sure we would need a camera for that (so long as I remember to remove the lid off my GK2 VAT xD).
I guess it is kind of like the resin pump idea for me, I do not see the point since the nozzle stuff is the worst part of a FDM printer, why would I want something that can clog/jam and requires extra maintenance, when I can just pour it out of a bottle. But at least I can see how in the far future, the resin pump might be one of those obvious necessary features that people might not even believe we used to print without one. I think in the "perfect" world the resin would be pumped in and then cleaned up as well.
Watching a lot of your videos made me realise the real future of 3D printing is reducing the amount of inconvenience, until we will literally just connect it and press "print" done, no cleaning, no slicing, no constant maintenance. Sadly I think only the FDM will be able to achieve this at the level of detail suitable for everything (to the point it will be indistinguishable from moulded plastic miniatures for example) and make resin feel an old and clunky way of printing.
I like the option of the camera on the Elegoo Mars 5 Ultra to monitor progress - particularly if a print has failed (I am in the early days of 3D printing) but agree the lack of mobile phone monitoring limits the functionality.