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Anycubic Photon and Mono X 3D DLP Printers


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It will certainly be cheaper than Shapeways. There are mixed views on ventilation. I tend to make sure there is ventilation present. My machine is in the garage and I have a velux window that I open when the weather permits. I am also in the process of fitting a 4" ventilation system for the simple reason it seems to make sense but whether it is essential is another thing. I use Anycubic resins which to my mind have minimal smell. I cannot say this for other resins having only experienced Elegoo ABS like and eSun Hard and Tough neither of which particularly bother me.

 

There are water soluble resins available which as the name suggest mean only water is needed to wash the prints. The resins I use need something stronger. I started cleaning with IPA but have now swapped over to Methylated Spirits which works just as well. I do use gloves and do not wash prints so that the water goes down the sink. I wear glasses but not protective eyewear and don't wear a mask (other than for shopping). Some people do find the resin can react with their skin so the gloves I would say are essential.

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8 hours ago, St. Simon said:

Although fairly cheap, I would like to know whether it is truly worth it,

 

Yes Yes Yes! 

 

I have nothing new to add, other than if you see a Mars for cheaper, its just as good.  I have both and tend to use the Mars more (especially now that my Photon is broke.)  though thats mainly because the Mars is  newer and cleaner, since I knew what I was doing by the time I'd got it so have had less accidents leaving  sticky resin blobs on it. 

 

There is a learning curve, primarily in getting the plate level technique right, getting the resin settings right and learning about supports,best priting orientation, suction caused by large flat sections printed flat on the bed, hollowing out models  etc but once you get it sorted its plain sailing.

 

I've not found the resin to be particularly overpowering smell wise, enamel paint seems smellier, but definitely wear gloves and avoid resin contact with skin. I developed a really bad rash on the back of a hand after I got resin on it, itched like bu99ery and felt like a burn for a few days.

 

As for resin, not sure how the situation there is but here the Anycubic Ebay store has fluctuating resin prices that can vary greatly on any given week. Suddenly 2 litres will be only slightly dearer  than the price  one litre was the week before, then it'll go back up again so I keep an eye on it regularly and buy up when its cheap. The less popular colours seem to be more fluctuating - yellow, blue etc.

 

Cleaning up can be messy, I used IPA before the virus caused it to disappear, but  have been having great success with Monocure resinaway, it goes a lot further than IPA despite its higher per litre price, though again I look out for sales and given that its factory is here in Sydney, its easy for me to get hold of.

 

Like Mike said, Metho is a good stand in and users report success with something called Simple Green which seems to be a US cleaning product. They have it here in hardware shops but at $10 a litre its as dear as IPA so I  haven't bothered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by monkeysarefun
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I made a fume unit (see photo) which the 3D printer sits. It is used in the utility room and I can nip outdoors to clean in IPA (the wheelie bins are at a useful height!). I wear a respirator, gloves, goggles and apron. The fan unit has a variable speed fan (controller is hidden behind the duct).

 

The fume box is a mix of MFD (lower parts) and plywood (upper parts) and acrylic sheet. It actually folds fairly flat for storage.  It has a LED lamp and adjustable feet. It is lined with Formica laminated sheet which I found hard to find and expensive but fortunately stumbled on a gumtree advert at a £1 a sheet just 50 miles away. I wanted it to be able to contain any spills.

 

It was built to double up as a spray booth, hence the filter but the fan is not suitable for flammable paints or for cleaning with IPA. Non  flammable fans cost an arm and a leg. The silver box is a bread bin lined with UV LEDs controlled by a timer for curing.

 

I have my "network room" in the adjacent garage with a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) so I brought a cable through the wall to a 6 gang sockets so I can guard against power spikes and power failures while printing. [the black and yellow switches are nothing to do with all this - they are for the solar panels]

 

I can also take the fan unit, ducts and the board covering the window opening to my modelling room for when I do a lot of soldering.

 

 

Fume Spray Unit LR.jpg

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14 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

There is a learning curve, primarily in getting the plate level technique right, getting the resin settings right and learning about supports,best priting orientation, suction caused by large flat sections printed flat on the bed, hollowing out models  etc but once you get it sorted its plain sailing.

 

I've not found the resin to be particularly overpowering smell wise, enamel paint seems smellier, but definitely wear gloves and avoid resin contact with skin. I developed a really bad rash on the back of a hand after I got resin on it, itched like bu99ery and felt like a burn for a few days.

 

 

Couldn't really add to that great summary - beyond saying I that I get the impression that all of the people complaining about the smell as if its the worst thing ever, have never before worked with enamel paints, or mek-pak, or epoxy as part of their modelling. To the vast majority of users, at least on the Anycubic Photon Users Group on Facebook, model paint is simply Games Workshop acrylics (or equivalent). Anything solvent based seems to come as a shock to them!

 

It does smell of solvent, and I would generally try and avoid being in the same room as it when its running (not least as the fans on the original Photon seem badly set up, so they distribute the smell more than they cool) - but not the end of the world to be near it for short times. If you can run it in the kitchen, with window open and door to your other room shut, that would be fine. 

 

I suspect the complaints about difficulty levelling etc that you've seen also come from the Anycubic Photon Users Group, or similar. The Facebook group in particular seems to be absolutely brimming over with bad advice, new users following that bad advice and the same hitting problems, and then good answers again being drowned out by the bad. YouTube doesn't seem much better, with self-appointed experts jostling to get more clicks for their "you'll never need another method!" tricks and over-complicated hokum. (such is the way with social media in general, huh!)

 

The real experts seem to be the group calling themselves "Photonsters", who i think grew out of the Facebook group, and maintain a really good wiki type guide on their GitHub page here: https://github.com/Photonsters/anycubic-photon-docs . Personally I'd just follow the guidance there and ignore pretty much everything on Facebook and YT!

 

J

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6 hours ago, justin1985 said:

The Facebook group in particular seems to be absolutely brimming over with bad advice

 

I've given up on the  Facebook group, partly because of its self proclaimed experts and partly due to the format. A long string of continual postings is absolutely useless for hosting an information forum,.

something like this site here (rmweb)  would be much more useful

 

Useful information or questions appear in the stream to be quickly lost as someone posts pictures of their latest creations which spawn dozens of replies and 'amusing' gifs etc, pushing the useful informative post up and out of sight.

 

If you aren't there to see the question or tidbit of usefulness there is no way of finding it other than endless scrolling up through it all. If you do have a problem you either have to spend the rest of time trawling up through the stream to see if omene has posted a similar question or repost the question yourself and run the risk of jaded replies, from members understandably tired of re-reading and answering the same questions multiple times a week,

 

Hence the same questions get posted over and  over again  - and are answered with a dozen or more theories, informed and not.

 

The Elegoo forums are the same, I just really think Facebook is the complete wrong place for hosting these sites. Unless I'm using Facebook wrong? I only joined it for the Photon group, I don't have any other use for it or spend any other time  on it so maybe I'm just making a  noob mistake?

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2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

The Elegoo forums are the same, I just really think Facebook is the complete wrong place for hosting these sites. Unless I'm using Facebook wrong? I only joined it for the Photon group, I don't have any other use for it or spend any other time  on it so maybe I'm just making a  noob mistake?

 

I don't think you're doing it wrong - I completely agree. Facebook just isn't suited to these kinds of discussions, but weirdly seems to have a stranglehold on 3D printing and laser cutting communities.

 

A large part of the market for both gadgets seem to be American gun nuts, which might explain the popularity of Facebook as a forum (along with plenty of the weird trinkets that people post).

 

Sites like StackExchange or even Reddit seem much better suited to the kinds of discussion about 3D printing, laser cutting, machines, etc., because threads, and individual answers to them, can get up or down voted. So the most useful posts, and best answers, stick around.

 

StackExchange is super popular for programming questions. The best part is that the original poster can "tick" the answer that worked for them, and everyone can vote. There is a 3D printing forum but it covers both resin and filament types, so it's not so useful. Reddit does have an Anycubic Photon forum, but it doesn't seem particularly lively.

 

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I have had my Anycubic Photon for just over a year with variable results. I recently upgraded with the Twin Rail and Levelling products from here:  https://jacksonproducts.net/shop/ols/products. I also upgraded the firmware to v4.2.18. There was no immediate improvement but then I followed up with a new Elegoo LCD screen. The printer has been transformed. I have been printing solidly for over a week with 100% success, no relevelling, no cleaning of vat or platform just one print after another.

 

So far I have only using the Anycubic resins. Does anyone know of  a resin than can be glued to plastic components using a solvent like Mekpak or Butanone? 

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18 hours ago, JSWalker said:

I have had my Anycubic Photon for just over a year with variable results. I recently upgraded with the Twin Rail and Levelling products from here:  https://jacksonproducts.net/shop/ols/products. I also upgraded the firmware to v4.2.18. There was no immediate improvement but then I followed up with a new Elegoo LCD screen. The printer has been transformed. I have been printing solidly for over a week with 100% success, no relevelling, no cleaning of vat or platform just one print after another.

 

So far I have only using the Anycubic resins. Does anyone know of  a resin than can be glued to plastic components using a solvent like Mekpak or Butanone? 

 

Glad to hear a fresh LCD made a difference for you! I haven't had to do that yet. I did find the Jackson products twin rail upgrade did virtually eliminate banding in my models though!

 

I'm not aware of any UV resins that can be bonded with styrene solvents - I think the chemistry of the two substances are just too different for that to ever be possible. (I don't know if there are filaments for FDM printers that might be styrene compatible though?)

 

For resin to plastic joints, as far as I'm aware, the usual suspects of epoxy (araldite), impact adhesive (evo-stick) or superglue (CA) are your only real options. For resin to resin, as I said above you can use liquid resin and cure it into place as a joint. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you like the Anycubic resins (or wish to try them) it is worth keeping an eye on them on Amazon. Anycubic have been having a series of lightening deals where prices are reduced below normal. Unfortunately they limit you to only 1 purchase of a particular colour at the reduced price however I have found after a number of days have passed that the offer is repeated.

 

My last purchase yesterday was for 1ltr of Anycubic Grey for £30.59

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Yes, the Amazon flash sales have been quite good for resin and I see someone got a washncure for a steal too.

On the topic of fumes and printers, I am lucky in that I don't seem to be affected by the resin or the very slight smell. I use a Elegoo Mars and a Mars pro a lot, in the room I am typing this in, and have never had a problem, even when I had an original Photon. The Mars pro with the charcoal filter seems to be even less than the Mars without. The rest of the family haven't even mentioned it.

The messy side has always been the clearing up after printing but I purchased an Elegoo Wash n Cure a few days ago and that is working very well and keeping most of the mess away from the bench too. Washing while objects still attached to build plate.

The stronger UV system on the Mars Pro has allowed me to print a 7mm boiler complete, a little less than 1mm shorter than the build area, and although I have the grid gate issue, it only looks horrible, it hasn't actually made any effect on the surface of the print, but Elegoos excellent service team are sending me a fix from China for that.

I am very tempted by the larger printers now appearing with the same resolution as these, as that will allow further experimentation! More anon. 

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I also meant to say that IPA is available again for £20 for 5L from Ebay merchant ixion_unlimited in Sheffield and it gets sent out by courier with next day delivery. Excellent service.

Less smelly than Meths which I had to use for 4 months, and I find kinder to the hands than Meths.

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4 hours ago, ianmaccormac said:

Elegoo Wash n Cure

 

Down here the Anycubic version has had a big price drop, down by 50% or so. Tempting  - and my birthday is coming up but I've pretty well convinced myself I really need a Marvic Air 2 (thats a drone)...

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On 05/09/2020 at 10:46, MikeTrice said:

If you like the Anycubic resins (or wish to try them) it is worth keeping an eye on them on Amazon. Anycubic have been having a series of lightening deals where prices are reduced below normal. Unfortunately they limit you to only 1 purchase of a particular colour at the reduced price however I have found after a number of days have passed that the offer is repeated.

 

My last purchase yesterday was for 1ltr of Anycubic Grey for £30.59

AliExpress is better for Anycubic resin IMO. I paid £28 a litre last week. Anycubic themselves did 3-for-2 last month as well. 
 

I’m excited that Amazon appears to be testing Siraya Tech resins, I’ve been really impressed with Tenacious, but it’s £75+ a litre. They’re currently doing Fast for £40 a litre, so hopefully others will follow. 

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You can buy from different countries, usually it comes from Spain and takes about a week or so. Not Prime speeds, but not bad. I tend to keep a decent stock in though, so I don't really pay all that much attention to how long it takes.


I see Amazon are now doing some of the highly regarded Siraya Tech resins. I've just bought a litre of "Fast" for £40. I really hope they start doing Tenacious, as it's very impressive for adding flexibility, but bloody expensive at the moment!

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  • 1 month later...

I have just received my Anycubic Photon and having read this thread I now need the peripherals, so I have a couple of questions.

 

For a uv light box do the led nail curing lamps work? They all seem to have infrared sensors and I am not sure if this will work with a piece of plastic. I would be grateful for suggestions, I work in 3mm so nothing large is needed.

 

Is it feasible to use the foam packaging that the machine came in to form an insulating shield around the back and sides of the printer to retain heat, my modelling room isn't too warm at this time of year.

 

Thanks to everyone who has posted such a wealth of information on here and also Ian Maccormac for his demos on the Gauge O Guild exhibition

 

 

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I have two led nail curing lamps. Both work fine. One of them can leave the leds on permanently which is useful but can be forgotten. Make sure they are 405 wavelength.

 

My machine is out in the garage and gets pretty cold. I used to leave the build plate, resin vat and resin on an indoor radiator to warm things up however lately I have been using a hot air gun for a quick warm up. I have reverted back to 90s for the bottom layers which helps in the colder weather (I managed to get down to 60s during the summer). Once the machine has started printing, the LED array produces a degree of heat. You can try the foam but make sure the vents are clear.

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Mike, if it helps at all, my printer is in the shed that’s kept to a minimum of 7C, so pretty cold in winter. I bought a controllable greenhouse heatpad, which works wonders combined with a rigid foam insulation case. I just need to turn it on 30 minutes before I start.

 

On the 405nm resin, I’ve just realized my Moai resin is exactly the same wavelength, so I might see if it’ll work in the Photon when it arrives.

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I've got the Wash & Cure, having previously used an ultrasonic cleaner, toothbrush and jug of IPA, pickle jar, and merely shaking in two successive ziploc bags. The Wash & Cure is definitely the easiest, and for me, yields the best results. 

 

It's also less than £80 on AliExpress today in their 11/11 sale.

 

Resin is also really cheap - £21/litre, with a discount code to get £26 off over £105, ie 5 litres is £80.

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On 08/11/2020 at 16:39, JCL said:

On the 405nm resin, I’ve just realized my Moai resin is exactly the same wavelength, so I might see if it’ll work in the Photon when it arrives.

Yep, it will. Most resins/printers are 405nm (most printers are basically the same bits bolted together slightly differently after all!), so Phrozen, Elegoo, Epax, Anycubic, Longer, Peopoly are all cross comaptible.

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Hi All,

 

Its been a while since i've posted, but I'll give an update on my own efforts.

 

I have a Photon S, I actually have two, but one is for work, but this allows me to double up trial and error in developing test pieces.

 

This is the latest print, and is a cut down LH&JC No.29, to make a fictitious 0-6-0. 

 

I have held off on full DLP/SLA prints for shells, as getting the running plate/frame straight has been difficult. So I harboured ideas of making my own support interface, in the shape of a knife edge blade, which would act as the snap-off intermediate between the shell and the normal support columns. this would absorb misalignment before the shell proper, as the area of the cab opening is a weak point that was likely to distort, even at 40 degrees incline. It worked rather well. 

 

Resins, I've used a handful now, Anycubic Grey, Elegoo Grey, and Elegoo ABS-like Grey, Anycubic Translucent Green, and Sariya Tech Fast. 

 

The best at the moment seems to be the Elegoo ABS grey for this work, but I've only just started on the Sariya Tech. 

 

The other pic is of a GCR Water Column which i'm working on for a customer, and lastly, the Green LNER Q1 in the Anycubic wash and cure station, another very useful product.  

 

I'll put a couple of pics up of my other printed projects presently. 

 

Cheers, Paul. 

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Interested you cure on the plate, and with the supports in place. I find it far less destructive to remove the supports prior to curing, heating the model/running under warm water makes them even easier. 

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36 minutes ago, njee20 said:

Interested you cure on the plate, and with the supports in place. I find it far less destructive to remove the supports prior to curing, heating the model/running under warm water makes them even easier. 

 

Not always, sometimes I remove beforehand, it depends on how marginal the shape/strength of the part is without them, some warp for fun. 

 

For cabs, I tend to cure with supports for half of the cure time, remove them, and then finish off. its easy on slim structures to over cure, and then they become too brittle, and the parts break rather than the support joins. I wouldn't care, the ball ends of the supports are 0.6mm dia, and 0.25mm engagement into the part.

 

Paul. 

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First pic is Lambton 29, Bachmann Midland 1F Chassis, and printed bogie. this is all FDM, but subsequent prints that I made for others, used FDM running plate, tanks and bunker, with Photon S printed smokebox/boiler, bogie and cab. 

 

I subsequently sold the No.29 CAD to Model Mania, In between pic 1 and 2 you can also see an Austerity with Lambton cab, this is printed purely on the Photon S, and slips over the existing Hornby (Dapol) cab mounting. This is with MM now and being worked on to go on the DJ versions as well. 

 

Second pic is Lambton 61, a fictitious loco, basically cut down from 29, to run on a J72 chassis. this one is also all FDM, but as seen above, is now all Photon S

 

Third Pic, LNER Q1, first loco I modelled, Bachmann O4/ROD chassis. this one is all FDM, but now I print this in one go on Photon S

 

Fourth Pic, LNER S1/1, Bachmann O4/ROD chassis and Boiler, FDM printed running plate, tanks, bunker, Photon S printed cab. 

 

Fifth pic, freelance Diesel shunter, loosely based of a TH 4 wheeler (Ex-Ron Rothwell on NYMR), Tenshodo motor bogie, FDM chassis, Photon S top. 

 

Hitherto FDM printed locos were generally done in separate bits, i.e. 1. the running plate, 2. the tanks, 3. the boiler, 4. cab. with resin printing, I try and print as much in one piece as I can, as it gives better strength and flatness when the part can support its structurally, particularly for curing. FDM in polycarbonate it matters less, it prints perfectly flat.

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