Looking at buying a Anycubic 3D printer

[utherdracus 2784xp 0]

Hi Hivemind

I am looking at buying an Anycubic resin printer.

At the moment I am looking at the AnyCubic Photon or the AnyCubic Photon S.

The advice that I have found, says that the AnyCubic Photon is better due to there being not as much help with problems with the firmware, but that is now 3-4 months old.

Do People know if there is still that problem or have advice for which printer is better?

Or for that matter, is there a better resin printer?

Thank you in advance

Uther

[blinky465 17028xp 3]

I have a Photon (not S) and I love it! I went with the original, despite originally looking at the S, mainly because of the level of community support for the machine.

I believe the S now supports .photon and .pws files. At the time, it only printed .pws files which was a deal-breaker for me.

My currentl workflow is import .stl into Prusa Slicer (auto supports are far better than ChituBox and are much easier to remove, leaving fewer pock-marks). I then export the entire plate with supports as a new .stl file and import this into ChituBox for slicing. Lastly – and this is critical for me – I run the .photon file through the photon file validator, removing or fixing any islands.

For a full build plate of about 8 miniatures, I might spend an hour or so preparing the files (the entire process, for eight .stl files, slicing and fixing etc). But it’s time well spent – I imagine there’s nothing more galling than waiting four hours for a print and to end up with nothing on the plate and a whole load of nasty half-cured bits in the tank, and a load of baked resin stuck to the FEP! (I’ve only ever had one failed print, and that was because it was 8 degrees in my unheated workshop when I left it running overnight).

Of the two, I’d go for the Photon every time.

If I was buying a second printer, I’d probably go for another Photon. But that’s only because I’ve not seen the Phrozen Sonic Mini at a sensible price in the UK with a metal tank. They look really interesting. But of the Anycubics, I’d go with the original Photon every time.

[utherdracus 2784xp 1]

Thank you for the information.

I am now looking at the best place to buy a Photon from 🙂

 

[lawnor 25939xp 1]

@utherdracus I’d be curious to hear what price you end up paying and where you end up buying from.  I know I shouldn’t buy one right now what with my current financial uncertainty (Furlough is on the horizon), but I can see one in my future, and who can refuse a good deal?  Right now a photon appears to be around £230.  Given conversations with Blinky in the past I’d buy from the official (I think?) Anycubic ebay shop if I was not getting a better deal elsewhere.  I have no clue what the go to 3d printer shops/sites are.  I suppose I’d check around the same places I’d buy computer parts from?

[utherdracus 2784xp 2]

I ended up paying just under £300 on Anycubic’s Amazon Prime shop, to insure that I got it. But that did come with resian.  Part of the reason I decided to get one was when my old firm closed down the boss said that if I were to learn to use 3D software for 3D printers then there could be a job for me in about 3 months. I had already been looking it to 3D printer, but it gave me the motivation to really look at them. At which point i found out that working out the supports for files is just as important as designing the files. The best way to know that you have got the supports right is to print the file, so i paid more for the guaranteed delivery during this time.

I would have probably used the Anycubic ebay shop, if they could have guaranteed delivery dates. There are quite a few UK shops selling them too. That come up in Google searches, but again most of them are closed until everything goes back to normal.

[blinky465 17028xp 2]

Welcome to the club!

If you need any help, don’t be afraid to shout out – I’m no expert by any means, but I’m pretty competent with my own workflow (Prusa slicer for supports – Chitubox for slicing – File Validator for eliminating islands). Maybe there’s a video tutorial in this somewhere?

Maybe, when the world is finally back to normal, @warzan and @lloyd might get the pizzas in and invite us over to make a couple of videos 😉

[lloydKeymaster 17736xp 2]

I do like pizza!!!

[utherdracus 2784xp 0]

I also need to add Autodesk Fusion 360 at the start for design!

 

I also like pizza!!

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

@lawnor – https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-ANYCUBIC-Photon-UV-Photocuring-3D-Printer-Resin-High-Precision-Off-line-Print/274085912436

UK-sourced, with resin + replacement FEP (I’ve not yet had to replace mine, but I spent £20 getting five replacement sheets just in case!) for £260 looks like a pretty decent price.

I bought my printer from seller anycubic3dcom – they have a red/green “official AnyCubic” badge on their items – who is currently selling the printer alone for £229 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANYCUBIC-Photon-Photocuring-3D-Printer-Ultra-Precision-Off-line-Print-UV-Resin/153633269958 ) and the printer with resin for £279 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANYCUBIC-SLA-Photocuring-Photon-3D-Printer-UV-Light-Cure-Off-line-500ml-Resin/153772035855 )

It’s substantially more than I paid in January, but I don’t think we’ll see those kind of prices returning for a good long while yet! These prices are not unreasonable in the current climate. Resin is noticeably more expensive at the minute. And good luck sourcing isopropyl alcohol! (I bought some glycerol alternative which is doing a pretty decent job, but I still rinse in the little bit of IPA I have left just to be sure).

[lawnor 25939xp 1]

I found their ebay page first and assumed the other was the official page.  Its hard to tell who owns an account on ebay.  I was curious how the current situation would affect these prices.  Either material costs go up due to shortages, or prices go down due to low demand.  I guess I have another reason to postpone buying in for a few months.  I can hope prices will drop once we are out the other side of all this.

[utherdracus 2784xp 2]

It’s also worth getting extra filters and one of the Silicone Paint Funnel’s that they fit.

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