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Anycubic Photon 3D printer


bootneck

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Thanks S-B.  My comment on the cover was its size. Not everyone has a large space for modelling/printing and, if I was limited on space, I would be thinking "where would I put that box whilst working on the printer?" The front access to the Photon is fine and not limiting at all.  One of our club members has an Elegoo Mars and we share each other's files (saved as .chitubox) and we both get the same good results.

 

cheers,


Mike

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23 hours ago, bootneck said:

If anyone is thinking of buying an Anycubic Photon resin 3D printer then now is probably the best time for it.  Anycubic has a sale of the Photon for only $169, that's around £130 including and free shipping.  That's a massive saving on Amazon pricing.  Anycubic has a distribution centre in Germany, so VAT is included and no customs charges for us in UK.

I bought mine from Anycubic and delivery took about 4 days.

 

The sale is on from now until 20th August and the Photon comes with all you need to get started straight away, including a test print, 500ml resin, masks, gloves and tools etc.

 

Mike

Thanks for the heads up Mike, I've been thinking of getting one of these since november last year. Back then they were a lot more expensive so I'm glad I waited.

Cheers,

Stuart

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Hi how good is the non toxic resin to the toxic version. Is the detail the same and does it produce 'layers' or does it meld into one without seams ?

 

Regards

Robert

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Hi Robert,

 

the Bell 47 Sioux, in post #11, was printed in plant-based non-toxic resin and the output was as good as the HH-3 Jolly Green Giant in post #3.

 

Mike

 

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Well Thank you to all of you for your help and input over the last 24 hours........I have just placed an order for an Anycube printer, cleaning station and a batch of the plant based resin, as it is not much more expensive and then I have no IPA to worry about for purchasing or for any of the health type issues.

My thoughts on this, because my intentions are very business based I will start off with this printer and can achieve much with this size wise but will almost definately be splashing out on the soon to released Elegoo Saturn as that will help with bigger modelling and has even better specifications again.

 

Oh well I best be off to produce more products for the Aerocraft range now....... far too many distractions, even the weather is great in Scotland today😀

 

PS and Mike (bootneck) this is all your fault.........(but thanks anyway)

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4 hours ago, Schwarz-Brot said:

Elegoo Mars and standard Photon are basically the same machines. Main difference is in packaged slicing software and cover. The cover of the Mars is very basic but functional. The benefit is you can reach into the printer from all sides without being constrained by sidewalls like on the photon. To me this is a huge plus. The slicer for the photon is probably a variant of chitubox and can be used with chitubox, while the mars uses chitubox right away.

 

The glove information needs to be clarified. No matter the color or the price - DON'T USE LATEX. This is the message. Use Nitrile gloves.

For others that are interested.

 

Photon has a carbon filter, Mars doesn’t

Photon’s build plate is slighter smaller than Mars’s

Different software, Photon’s is more complex but has more functions

Photon comes fully assembled, have to attach the build plate on the Mars

Levelling is easier on the Mars

Builds stick to Mars better - down to levelling

USB socket more awkwadly placed on the Mars

 

Reviews will also say that the Photon comes with resin but the Mars doesn’t.  Ignore that because the $169 Photon doesn’t come with resin either.

 

Not much in it - interested to understand the levelling though as it is child’s play on the Mars where the review described it as more like FDM printers on the Photon.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

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Thanks Nigel,  it is good to get feedback from anyone who knows both machines.  

 

I have levelled my Photon only twice; however, each time was quite simple I found.

Advice I received said to get a sheet of copy paper, A5 size is good, and place it on the LCD glass (base of printer)

lower the printing plate, via the up/down buttons on the screen to just before it reaches the paper

Using the supplied hex allen key untighten the screw in the printing plate. It only needs about a half to one turn.

continue lowering the plate, via the screen, until the plate holds the paper but not too firmly.  You should be able to pull the paper out but feel it rubbing both surfaces as you pull.

If there is more pull on one side then gentle push with your finger on that side, until the pressure on the paper is even on all sides, Tighten the screw and return the plate up towards the top.

Having looked at videos, this method looks very similar indeed to the Mars, although that machines printer plate is spring loaded.

 

I hadn't noticed the lack of resin with the $169 (c £130) sale item.  I've checked and the addition of 500ml resin is an extra $24 (c £18.30) and a 1 litre bottle is $37 (c £28.35).  Those prices compare very well against normal retail prices.

 

cheers,

Mike

 

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19 hours ago, bootneck said:

Thanks Nigel,  it is good to get feedback from anyone who knows both machines.  

 

I have levelled my Photon only twice; however, each time was quite simple I found.

Advice I received said to get a sheet of copy paper, A5 size is good, and place it on the LCD glass (base of printer)

lower the printing plate, via the up/down buttons on the screen to just before it reaches the paper

Using the supplied hex allen key untighten the screw in the printing plate. It only needs about a half to one turn.

continue lowering the plate, via the screen, until the plate holds the paper but not too firmly.  You should be able to pull the paper out but feel it rubbing both surfaces as you pull.

If there is more pull on one side then gentle push with your finger on that side, until the pressure on the paper is even on all sides, Tighten the screw and return the plate up towards the top.

Having looked at videos, this method looks very similar indeed to the Mars, although that machines printer plate is spring loaded.

 

I hadn't noticed the lack of resin with the $169 (c £130) sale item.  I've checked and the addition of 500ml resin is an extra $24 (c £18.30) and a 1 litre bottle is $37 (c £28.35).  Those prices compare very well against normal retail prices.

 

cheers,

Mike

 

I've now looked at unpacking and setup videos for both as well as a comparative review.  There are a couple of things in the comparative review that I disagree with.

 

The Mars has to be assembled, the Photon comes preassembled

This doesn't seem true, they both come with the build plate detached and that is it - actually with the photon you also have to attach the door knob but that is trivial.  So I would say the two require the same minimal assembly

 

The Photon is harder to level

I can see where they are coming from but to be honest the two methods are pretty much the same.  Both involve lowering the bed so that it is just pinching a sheet of paper evenly across the surface.  The Mars is slightly easy as it appears to have a bed levelling function which drives the bed onto the paper.  It still has grub screws (two in fact) which you loosen then hit bed level then tighten.  It seems the bed is sprung so will settle evenly if the grub screws are loose.  So a bit easier, I agree but they are essentially the same method.  The Photon has a little more room for error.

 

Bed adhesion is better on the Mars

Not really.  This is a symptom that it is easier to set up the photon with the bed not level.  It is the unlevel bed that causes adhesion problems not the bed itself.  Get the bed level and I imagine adhesion is the same on the two.

 

 

For me, I need to look carefully at the build area.  My main interest is wargaming miniatures.  The way I see the printer paying for itself is if I can print out tanks and vehicles rather than buying them - each 28mm vehicle is £20 and 20mm and 15mm vehicles are around the £10 mark.  But the bed is very small so I do need to check that it is going to work for 28mm.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel 

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3 hours ago, nheather said:

 

 

Quote

The Photon is harder to level

I can see where they are coming from but to be honest the two methods are pretty much the same.  Both involve lowering the bed so that it is just pinching a sheet of paper evenly across the surface.  The Mars is slightly easy as it appears to have a bed levelling function which drives the bed onto the paper.  It still has grub screws (two in fact) which you loosen then hit bed level then tighten.  It seems the bed is sprung so will settle evenly if the grub screws are loose.  So a bit easier, I agree but they are essentially the same method.  The Photon has a little more room for error.

 

if the photon is not spring levelled it IS harder to do and comes a lot down to experience. On the Mars it is trivial. You losen the 2 screws, place the paper, lower the platform automatically and tighten the screw again. No fiddling with a tad more pressure here, a tad more there. I now can see where the adhesion problems on the photon could come from.

 

Still - both are great machines for  very little money. With the current photon offering I'd be tempted to get me a second one...

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2 hours ago, Schwarz-Brot said:

 

if the photon is not spring levelled it IS harder to do and comes a lot down to experience. On the Mars it is trivial. You losen the 2 screws, place the paper, lower the platform automatically and tighten the screw again. No fiddling with a tad more pressure here, a tad more there. I now can see where the adhesion problems on the photon could come from.

 

Still - both are great machines for  very little money. With the current photon offering I'd be tempted to get me a second one...

I agree, looking at the two machines, if they were similar price, as they are normally, I would get the Elegoo Mars (probably the pro version).  But currently the Photon is £100 cheaper than the Elegoo Mars.

 

I’m very tempted, but also tempted to wait a little to see if Elegoo respond.  Also whether I should wait for the monochrome 4k models to come out.

 

Actually just looked on Amazon and the standard Mars has been dropped to £190.  Still £60 more expensive though.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

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With the Photon how can you tell where it is being it is being sent from.  It was mentioned that they have a German distribution site but I couldn't see where you can select a distribution centre.

 

Just spotted it but also a warning to risk averse people like me.  It says that it will be sent from your closest distribution centre but warns that if they have no stock it will be sent from China.

 

So there is a small risk of import taxes (20%) plus a courier charge.

 

Though if sent from China it should be cheaper because it shouldn’t include German VAT.

 

Though that does beg the question, does the price quoted include German VAT?

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

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The UK's nearest distribution centre is Germany, there is another in California; therefore over here we would receive it from Germany.  All European purchases include that country's VAT, as part of the EU agreements, at least until the end of December.

With prices like these, they are likely to be popular and, although it is good to check and be sure, too long spent on queries could result in missing out on the stock that is held in Germany.  The sale ends a week on Thursday.

 

Mike

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Do like Anycubic machines (have 2 of their FDM printers inhouse) - This deal is very, very tempting. Only deal-breaker at the moment is i would probably have to spend £50-80 making a small enclosure for it, and the whole post process and cleanup area would eat into my already busy printer room!

 

Ive seen many of these resin based printers count the LCD screen as a 'Consumable' -  is this the same on the Photon? if so how longs the life and the approx replacement cost? 

 

I see they also have the automated wash and cure station on sale at $129, which along with the $179 printer  - so end usp around £240 for both. do any of you have this? It looks like a worthy addition because of the mess of resin based printers! (Currently i have a larger Photocentric LC10 resin printer, but the whole cleanup process means it gets used around 1-2 times a year rather than the FDM machines that are working 4-5 days a week) 

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Yes, it is kind of a consumable and at least on the mars is a sparepart that can be bought seperately. I'd think this is the same with the photon. With the mars the cost is at about 40€. They might even be interchangeable.

 

I don't really know how long they last, mine has probably about 100 hours of printing time and is fine.

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On 8/7/2020 at 9:32 PM, bootneck said:

UV cured resin is, as it states cured by being subjected to UV light.  This means that the resin starts to harden as soon a UV light/daylight is exposed to it.  So don't leave the lid off the bottle for any length of time; also keep your area covered from the effects of light.  I normally keep the shed door closed and windows covered but, in the heat of recent weeks, I had to open the door to get some fresh air.  To compensate for this, I have strung up an old bedsheet to act as a screen.

spacer.png

 

And finally, if I have left any resin in the printer vat, perhaps to do another print of the same the next day, then I will cover the printer to shield it from any UV sources.  The method I use is an old pillow case.

spacer.png

 

Well, a bit long winded but I hope this will be of some help when considering how to set up your printing station.

 

cheers,


Mike

 

If you need something a little easier to deal with, I bought some of the flexible magnetic sheet from Hobbycraft and put it on the metal frame. Easy to remove and definitely keeps the light out!

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Thanks Tinners, I hadn't considered that and it would certainly make the area look tidy.  I wonder if I can get the pillowcases back into the drawer before swmbo notices. :undecided:

 

Mike

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I have a Photon winging its way here as we speak, so will be keeping an eye on this thread.

one mod I really liked(because I like machining stuff) is the Z-axis guide rail mod to increase stiffness (oh er)

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3473868

 

collecting parts as we speak and when the hobby room temp drops, I'll start the mill.....

 

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Ordered printer &  1 ltr of resin late monday evening and was advised 4 - 5 day delivery so expecting delivery from German warehouse. Recieved text this morning to advised shipment had been picked, at lunch further text to say expect delivery between 4:30 & 6:30 sure enough I'd received package @ 5:15. Looks to have been shipped fron Duunstable.

 

No resin yet, I'm presuming this will ship seperately from Germany &that's where the 4 - 5 days comes in. Can anyone confirm?

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An absolutely stunning result there and in the lovely 1/144!

 

Did you design the heli yourself?

 

I'm getting more and more tempted by these printers but I have the artistic skills of a sheep (a dead one too).

 

 

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10 hours ago, Murdo said:

An absolutely stunning result there and in the lovely 1/144!

Did you design the heli yourself?

I'm getting more and more tempted by these printers but I have the artistic skills of a sheep (a dead one too).

I can't design for toffee!   I get all my prints off the web, although the Bell 47 was a test print for the actual designer and producer.  I suggested that a model of this helicopter would be popular as no kit exists in this scale. He agreed to design and produce it but only if I helped with the plans, photo's and research material.  In return, and to QC his work, I received some pre-finished files to test for him.  The model you see in the photo is a pre-production test piece and not fully complete.  Looks good though.  If you want to get any of his stuff, his name is Russ and he can be contacted at:  rdutnell (at) ou.edu

 

There are plenty of items out there on the web, some are free; which I would use for practice, and others chargeable but usually at an affordable price. 

Just a point on buying 3D files (.STL) off the web;  when you buy a mainstream plastic or resin kit you get one kit for your money.  When you buy a file at, say the same price as a kit,  you get as many models as you want to print, all for that one price. So, you could recover the cost of your printer in quite short time.  An example could be someone who builds figure armies, or tanks and softskins for wargaming etc.   A file with a tank might cost £5 or £10 but you could print 100 tanks or more for your army.  Same could be if you wanted a squadron of fighters and so on.

 

Mike

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