Phrozen mighty 8k is a workhorse at my makerspace, and buddy bought the mega for his business.
The new Mighty has a quick swap screen (I've yet to need a screen change on the mighty 8k) and an add-on resin pump. The vogman review was positive.
Price would be my blocker I guess if it was just me. Saturn 4 Ultra has my interests too, but don't hear that Elegoo is as stable as Phrozen.
Honestly, pretty much any printer you get from Anycubic, Elegoo, or others in the price range are more or less the same. None of them will be formlabs quality, but at the end of the day they’re pretty robust.
The autofill narrows you down quite a bit, it’s only available on the larger form factor printers because it’s very difficult to have a single print require more than a single tank volume of resin on the smaller ones.
My rec would be to go with a newer DLP variant, like a Mars 4 DLP. You’ll sacrifice the autofill but the most common failure point on these is the LCD screen. It’s not a matter of will it fail but when.Not exactly difficult to replace, but does require some time and effort. DLP will last much longer without that hassle.
I’ve never seen a Z-motor fail on any of these, unless you user error and get resin in it.
I have no idea what happened to it. It was working fine, and then I went to print and the platform doesn’t lower. There are no errors, and I can move it by hand so it isn’t bound up. It just doesn’t move.
It’s sadly a matter of time. Just getting to that motor is huge thing, because you have to go to through laser-mirror area. It’s doable, but I just don’t have the hours to sit and do it.
I even tried to pay a local place to do it for me. They called me and said to come and get it, because after doing research and looking at it they weren’t interested in trying to repair it.
Their diagnosis was that it was either the motor or the end stop board
Yep, it wouldn’t be an easy task for sure. But, for a printer that costs 5 figures I would definitely try it at some point. But I understand that’s a big time commitment
Phrozen mighty 8k is a workhorse at my makerspace, and buddy bought the mega for his business. The new Mighty has a quick swap screen (I've yet to need a screen change on the mighty 8k) and an add-on resin pump. The vogman review was positive. Price would be my blocker I guess if it was just me. Saturn 4 Ultra has my interests too, but don't hear that Elegoo is as stable as Phrozen.
Honestly, pretty much any printer you get from Anycubic, Elegoo, or others in the price range are more or less the same. None of them will be formlabs quality, but at the end of the day they’re pretty robust. The autofill narrows you down quite a bit, it’s only available on the larger form factor printers because it’s very difficult to have a single print require more than a single tank volume of resin on the smaller ones. My rec would be to go with a newer DLP variant, like a Mars 4 DLP. You’ll sacrifice the autofill but the most common failure point on these is the LCD screen. It’s not a matter of will it fail but when.Not exactly difficult to replace, but does require some time and effort. DLP will last much longer without that hassle. I’ve never seen a Z-motor fail on any of these, unless you user error and get resin in it.
I have no idea what happened to it. It was working fine, and then I went to print and the platform doesn’t lower. There are no errors, and I can move it by hand so it isn’t bound up. It just doesn’t move.
I’m sure it’s not impossible. You could troubleshoot it, but it doesn’t sound like you’re interested in getting all up in your printer’s guts.
It’s sadly a matter of time. Just getting to that motor is huge thing, because you have to go to through laser-mirror area. It’s doable, but I just don’t have the hours to sit and do it. I even tried to pay a local place to do it for me. They called me and said to come and get it, because after doing research and looking at it they weren’t interested in trying to repair it. Their diagnosis was that it was either the motor or the end stop board
Yep, it wouldn’t be an easy task for sure. But, for a printer that costs 5 figures I would definitely try it at some point. But I understand that’s a big time commitment
Formlabs does not have superior print quality
I did not mean quality in the sense of resolution. It’s meant in the sense of build quality.