I’m skeptical that Anker, with no experience in the product (I mean, I imagine they have some to prototype their other products), have miraculously found out how to halve the print time without compromising quality. I’d definitely be waiting to see a finished product before paying money.
Not a review, but a hands-on prototype test by a non-sleazy YouTuber.
I’m in. (And the post-Kickstarter price is estimated to be $150 higher.)
Holy shit buy a Prusa instead though.
I thought that this would be priced to compete with the Creality-alikes.
That is a very premium price for a brand new player in the industry.
I would hope it can live up to their hype, That reviewer is using a prototype model too. Who knows how well they will work when they are mass produced. Anker is a good company, but so is Prusa.
I can’t see what the huge benefits are for this over the 750$ Prusa model other than a webcam and the proprietary direct drive stuff. As a hobby, print speed is not the biggest issue.
The printing speed boost is just being shown on pla right now with the anker specific pla brand. I noticed in that video the use of brimming, which is super important to keep prints stuck to the bed. If those are necessary for the speed, that is a trade off.
I guess I am very wary of early-adopter woes, and would worry about something as complicated as a 3d printer working well from a manufacturer starting in the 3d printing space.
One of the reasons Prusa is ahead of the competition is that they dogfood their own products religiously, and at scale. If you buy a mk3s+ you are buying a printer with lots of parts printed by the same model.
Which isn’t to say Anker can’t have an awesome product, I have several of their products including their doorbell which I like. But I would definitely wait for reviews. That preview on youtube looked promising, especially some of the test files. They all had minor issues, but at that speed, that’s just impressive.
Ringing was pretty severe though I noticed, so they don’t have any resonance compensation, which at those speeds starts to become more and more necessary.
Yeah, he didn’t go into ringing at all in that video, and it is pretty important to note that with speed there will be trade-offs in quality.
They have a proprietary direct drive extruder, which should address some of that, but I would definitely wait for the reviews to come out before jumping in. This was a sponsored preview, so I don’t think it was looking at the product critically.
Though, I am sure it can run at 50-60 mm/s as well, which would fix any speed related issues, it just gives you the options of a fast print.
I would have liked to see some more in depth looks at the calibration tests he ran, outside of the pre-sliced model. Also, it would be nice to see it print with PETG and TPU.
Anyway, I definitely think Anker makes some good products, but I would be wary of a kickstarter being a place to jump in to 3d printing.
Thats part if why they are so trusted. They make their own filiment, then use it in a huge farm thats using the same 3d printer you would be buying. To build parts. So any issues a customer would have, prusa would have on a much larger scale. So they address is.
In terms of recommendations.
How about Resin 3d printers?
Thoughts?
2k vs 4k vs 8k.
Brands etc.
As I said before, the Elgoo Mars 2 is a great printer for the money.
In terms of resolution, I gotta say that for the print areas we are talking, I don’t think that moving to 4k serves any useful purpose at all.
You gotta think, you’re talking about the resolution of the LCD screen being used as a mask… this screen is generally gonna be around 4"x 6" or so, right? At that point, 2k resolution is already sharp enough that there is no way to perceive the pixels. Increasing the resolution beyond that point serves absolutely no functional purpose. When I look at the edges of prints with the Mars 2, I cannot detect any pixelation as a result of the resolution at all. If you are going to see any kind of printing artifacts, it’d be more likely a result of the layer height, but that’s going to be entirely unrelated to resolution of the LCD.
Now, if you had a really huge print bed, THEN the resolution might matter? But for most commercially available printers, with relatively small print areas, the LCD resolution seems to be marketing bullshit and nothing more… basically just trying to tap into the idea of 4K TV’s. (and 8k seems even more nonsense)
Now, be advised that maybe there’s something I just totally don’t understand about it as well, which is totally possible.
On a separate note, one thing that is really cool about resin printers, is how speed is related to print orientation, and largely disconnected from actual print volume. It’s entirely a factor of height, because each layer is printed all at once, as opposed to a filament printer which needs to move across the surface. So, that means if you have a tall print, it’ll print a lot faster if you orient it on its side.
I have heard of the Elegoo Mars 2 as being recommended as a good printer for the money. Wondering if it is worth shelling out the extra for the Mars 3 (4k) version. Sounds like, probably not… unless I can get a better deal. I think the Mars 3 has a slightly larger print area too.
Right now, I print a lot of TTRPG terrain and minis with my FDM printer, but I haven’t gotten into a lot of the real minatures printing due to the difficulty with FDM. You can print some stuff that looks good, but it is fiddly, and most of the places selling .stl files are doing so with resin printers in mind, so models are built with tons of overhang etc, and all of the supported models are for resin printers.
Anyway. I will probably end up picking up a Resin printer at some point. I am planning on running my own Pathfinder 2E campaign. The ability to print props/minis specific to my campaign will be super awesome.
A buddy of mine uses his Mars 2 for miniatures and it’s very happy with it.
I don’t know about the nerd 3… Upgrading to 4k on it’s own is useless, but it may have other advantages.
Yep Mars 2 is great, love mine too. Only advice I’ll add is to ensure build volume suits your needs.
Well, the Resin printer is for the small detailed stuff, the FDM printer is for the big things.
One interesting thing about the elegoo printers that is a bit of a turnoff is that they require you to use the chitubox slicer.
There is a free version, the paid version costs 170$ a year.
Kind of sucks that it is limited to one piece of software for slicing. And the software is subscription only.
Edit: I see the elegoo printers using the chitubox hardware now work with lychee slicer as well.
So, there is a bit more flexibility. They were initially hardware locked to chitubox.
Had to change my plans from a Prusa mini as I need an enclosed one for PETG and I didn’t want to build one. After searching high and low decided on a QIDI I Mate S that was on sale for 450€. It arrived today, but the mail misplaced the second package with all the filament in it :-(
You don’t really need an enclosed printer for PETG, for ABS and Nylon yeah, but not for PETG. That is one of the selling points of PETG.
It’s suggested by all my printing pals to have PETG in an enclosure for stable temperature while printing.
I mean, an enclosure is good for anything, to stop drafts, but PETG doesn’t need heated air really.
Yeah, definitely don’t need an enclosure for PETG. My printer is in the garage and in between the door opening and closing and the car coming and going it’s probably far from a great environment for drafts.
Never tried to print ABS because I assumed it would have issues.
Prusa did release an enclosure for the mk3 but it’s not available for the mini and it’s expensive. Be nice to save a bit of energy I guess, but I have yet to want to print anything that cares about drafts.
I mean, an enclosure isn’t going to hurt you in the long run. It makes it possible to print ABS if you want.
One of the things about 3d printing is that everyone is an expert and everyone has different opinions. So, uhh… nobody is really right? Tinker around and figure out your best settings.
Like, auto bed leveling. I am on year 2 without an auto bed leveler on my Ender 3 v2. Some people think they are necessary, and that bed leveling is a chore. It takes me about 1 minute to check the level on my bed, and I honestly haven’t had a failed print in probably 30-40 prints. I got er dialed in good, and I just use hairspray for every print on the glass bed. It sticks so well.
This is the fun of 3d printing, you get to tinker a lot, discover new tricks, figure out your own best practices. Great hobby.
I replaced the bed levelers on my ender 3 with the aftermarket ones, and use the glass build plate that I just clean with alchohol. Havent had to relevel the bed in over a year.