Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This printer is a huge step up from FDM/FFM (usually melted plastic) printers, but please take some time preparing before you start if you want a good experience. Anycubic support is excellent, and there is a large Facebook group full of Anycubic Photon owners willing to give advice and to help you troubleshoot any issues. The printer comes assembled, and isn’t difficult to level once you understand the process. Prints take a while, but I often go to work and come home to a full build platform ready for post-processing. What’s nice about SLA printing is that you can print a single piece or a full build platform, and it takes about the same amount of time if the layer height is the same. You’ll want to start right away, but take the time this printer deserves and become familiar with common issues and how to fix them. I found that most of the issues I experienced were related to leveling the printer as a whole (the feet on the bottom adjust), leveling the build platform (it has to be tighter than you’d expect, but be careful not to crack the LCD screen), and tension of the FEP film at the bottom of the resin vat (it should be tight, and almost feel like a solid surface). The resin is messy, often smelly, and you’ll be trading your time for some amazing quality prints. There are a few other items you’ll need before you begin printing. You need so many paper towels, high concentration isopropyl alcohol (isopropanol) – 90-99%, small cutting pliers for removing supports, 190 micron cone filters (to filter resin for re-use), and [optional]: a UV light, plastic or aluminum containers. Watch some videos of people printing, understand their process, and make sure you’re prepared with all the necessary pieces before you begin. Cleaning between prints takes some time, so don’t rush it. Unsupported islands and other operator errors can result in cured resin stuck to the FEP film. Understand what these are before you start printing, check your .photon files with the Photon File Validator, and it will be worth your time. Resin is expensive, but there are many tutorials to help you hollow models before you print. Don’t make the mistake I made and order a bunch of boring resin to print gray-scale prints. The opaque resins don’t give you quiet the ‘wow’ reaction that the others do. The Anycubic green is an excellent color, and you can’t go wrong with most of the translucent red/yellow/blue/green/clear resins.