The Best 3D Printers of 2023 - FOR MINIATURES AND MORE - ULTIMATE RESIN BUYERS GUIDE

okay let's do this I've promised this video for some time but please don't blame me for the delay blame the brands they keep releasing new printers and by the time I'd have recorded this video and gotten it online it would have been about 3 weeks out of date so now things have quietened down I'm finally finally doing a summary of the absolute best 3D printers of this last year and I vow to end your printer analysis paralysis by the end of this video no matter what your budget is so hi I'm Ross and this is f Hammer videos now I've got to say whilst I've spoken directly with the main Brands and they've all but confirmed they've got nothing major coming out soon yes there could still be some unexpected drops that find their way among our top picks later on so make sure you don't miss out on anything that appears after this video goes live by subscribing to this channel I've actually typed up this whole analysis five times and what I realized is nobody wants to watch a 2hour long video so this version is a very brief and conversational version if you need more detail please check on my individual reviews this video is based on my opinions and that's having tested all of these printers from all of these Brands if you've also tested any of these against another and disagree I welcome that discussion in the comments right then start with your budget what are you looking to spend there's no point looking at the current $1,500 printer if it's going to take you a year to save that by that time there'll be a whole new list of printers to consider also when you look at all these printers online they're typically always shown at some discounted value from some seemingly madeup number that I've never actually seen any of these printers sell at it's all marketing BS the real discounts tend to come around sales periods like Black Friday Christmas January Easter and summer though they do also have the very occasional flash sale that you can never predict I'll name the prices in this video right now as they are in dollars because that currency is universally listed across all the brands and if you can see them cheaper than what I've mentioned them for here consider that a win right enough waffle let's get into it if you're new to 3D printing you'll probably be looking at small printers believing all the bigger ones to be cost prohibitive well no but let's take a look anyway for comparison purposes if you want just the cheapest possible printer get the GTE alcade don't expect much but it's only $100 and well it works but a much better quality printer though in terms of both build and resolution is the Mars 3 at $150 I've never touched this myself but I've had the pro version and that's incredible and it is more than worth the extra to get one of these over the $100 option at $190 you've got the photon mono to but honestly this isn't going to be any better than the Mars 3 really for $40 less it's got the same build area as the Mars 3 but 1 cm less in build height and things like the vat are cheaply plastic it's fine it does the same job and it produces the same result but the mazas are both the better value option with the Mars 3 or the more feature Rich option with the Mars 3 Pro speaking of I do think it's worth spending just an extra $10 over the mono or $50 over the three basic to get the Mars 3 Pro which is basically a Mars 3 but with a glass screen protector an imperceivable sharper light source and an internal carbon filter it's a better product out of the box you'll need a screen protector for the Mars 3 and the mono 2 anyway although the mono 2 has an oversized plastic one which isn't flush to the edges of the display again though they really all do the same thing so if that's your budget area just pick one before you do decide consider what extra you could get for just another $50 $60 because $250 to $300 is a very competitive range which not only contains some of the highest resolution printers out there but also some bigger printers too and I need to reiterate that yeah whilst many of you new to 3D printing you're probably assuming you should start with a smaller printer the truth is that it won't be any easier an experience if you get a smaller build area you may be sacrificing something far more convenient to you than a print quality metric Which is far more obvious in specification than actual result so hang around for the bigger printers section but for now let's just stick with the small printers because we were already talking about them so the MS 4 is just $60 more than the m 3 pro at $260 and whilst prints on this will be smoother than most other printers without anti-aliasing they are still a bit soft too for this resolution most likely because eligo haven't quite figured out how to control the light direction as well in these small modules than they have in their larger satins so you will get smoother surfaces on prints from this but not sharper prints than the likes of the satin 3 Series the Mars 4 ultra is just $50 more than the basic Mars 4 and that's for the addition of Wi-Fi and a better build plate leveling mechanism though to be honest this is a hotly debated topic I personally prefer it for stability the Mars 4 ultra is also the first printer mentioned here that uses ACF release film this is a frosted film and it reduces some print sharpness further in favor of faster lifting speeds and yes you can get all of the features of the Mars 4 ultra and the print quality of the Mars 4 if you just replace that ACF film with a normal PFA film and don't forget I'm not here saying any of these printers are bad this is just what I feel is a sensible way to order of them so you can have a quick scan over what's available to give you a taste of what you may want but this is likely just the start of your journey when you narrow Your Lust down to just a couple or three printers remember to then check out those reviews to see all of the features and decide what matters to you more and if you've got any further questions please just drop them down in the comments below and I'll do my best to answer them now still within this small print area you've also got the new Sonic mini AKs and whilst this only has 22 Micron pixels rather than the 18 on the Mars 4 it's slightly sharper in my testing of it and thanks to its better build quality it would still be my pick in this range of printers and it's only $40 more than the Mars 4 ultra but hey that's me I think this is still the best printer of the bunge maybe Wi-Fi matters more to you maybe price is more important it's your call I'm just here to show you the options in that sensible order now really quickly and also within the small printer category there's also some DLP printers to consider from elegu and any cubic and that's the Mars 4 DLP and the photon D2 but honestly you'll really need to do more research to understand the benefits of DLP to know if this is what you want I'd recommend start with my reviews of those products but generally DLP printers last longer before Parts need replacing and they use less energy dialing exposure times in is much easier too because they've got a significantly wider range of success but but the drawback of DLP is that they have very poor print resolutions when compared to other printers and really small build areas also they're $400 each a lot of people out there are waiting for bigger and higher resolution DLP printers but honestly I can't see that happening for years if ever because there's just not enough industry out there driving that technology forward so as I've said a couple of times now if you're new to printing you will very likely assume you should be looking only at smaller printers but if you have the budget the Mars 4 Max is only $50 more than the Mars 3 Pro which also makes it $10 cheaper than the Mars 4 the print quality is the same as the Mars I but you've got a much larger build area and honestly if you're new to printing you will as I did presume that you want the highest print quality or pixel density but as you'll soon see from my number one pick we really are beyond the point of diminishing returns when it comes to print resolution versus output quality and once you get into 3D printing you may find like me that printing conveniences are far more valuable than very minimal print quality and a bigger build plate in many cases is much more convenient because you can print more and larger things now the Mars 4 Max would be my personal pick when compared to the any cubic mono x 6ks s but there's very little in it the any cubic feels better mechanically because it's heavier but once again the external build quality kind of cheapens the experience against the competitor but you do get an extra 5 cm of build height here it does however cost you $50 more and well you can get a larger 8K printer for the same price also I assume you may be thinking how big of a printer do I need and if this is you then the solution is easy just download a free slicer program either ly or chitu box get some models you intend to print and see if they fit in the build area you can do this test for free and it's a good way to not only know if a smaller printer would limit you but you can also see how many small models you can get on a larger build plate so anyway as I was saying before you go spending money on a 9-in printer you need to know that the current sweet spot for most users are printers in the 10-in range it's fairly obvious how popular this category is when you see how many printers are in it so again for just $50 more than the Mars 4 Max and the same price as the mono x 6ks s you can get a satin 8K which has a Lar larger build area again and slightly better print quality very slight but it's there now personally between the Mars 4 Max and the satin 8K is where I'd say the true best beginner 3D printer really lies both are really good quality printers and will be more than good enough to print incredibly detailed Miniatures and more and if you are buying I would ask that you please click our affiliate links in the description below before you make your purchase this kickback is what feeds the channel and my family and it's at no cost to you other than the expensive two extra button clicks those clicks include read more and the link to the printer you want to buy but anyway once again for just another $50 spent you can get a satin 2 which will give you very very very slightly sharper prints over the satin 8K and this one it is a great pick it's been one of the most popular printers this year you can see the exact difference in print quality from this clip of my satin 2 versus satin 8K video if you can't that's fine don't waste your money on the more expensive printer but if you can and you want that extra detail let's keep going now within that 10-in category we also used to have the anycubic M3 premium which was any Cub's best ever printer and it would still be today if they still made it but someone decided to end production and now we can't get it anymore and this was my favorite of all last gen's 8K printers there is however the Frozen Mighty 8K but this is significantly more expensive for what feel feels like a little bit more reliability and build quality it has a sexier UI and overall feels better to use and if you already invested in one of these you can update it with a 12K screen but to do this from nothing you'd be looking at a $900 outlay you could get two satin 3s for that and still have some change now the print quality on the might akk is the same as the satin 2 and the print quality with the 12K upgrade is the same as the Saturn 3 speaking of the satin 3 is just $50 more than a satin 2 and that's for a 12K printer but on these 12K screens they aren't true 12K the Mars 4 isn't a true 9k either but at least on that you are getting a screen where the pixels are close enough to what you would get from a true 9k screen it doesn't really matter here though the 12K screen so far all use rectangular pixels and whilst the resolution on the x-axis is 11520 which is correct for 12K K the Y AIS is only 5120 Which is less than the 6480 that it should be what this means is that the pixels on the x-axis are 19 microns yay but on the Y AIS they're 24 now it won't cause weird printing issues like stretched prints as though some people have assumed but it also isn't a 12K resolution when you look at prints from the side sure yeah this is only a 5 Micron difference between the different axes but it's also only a 4 and 1/2 mic M difference when compared to AK 28.5 Micron printers like the satin 2 and its competitors but where the satin 3 exceeds is in its sharpness by using a Fel lens like the satin 2 before it you don't get much outward light bleed from the light source and so far this is the only printer by the mini AK from Frozen that's given me 14 holes and 14 posts on an XP Rangefinder and this shows me that with a balanced exposure the SA 3s are amongst the sharpest and most detailed printers out there now you may expect that the M5 printers from any cubic would be directly comparable but unfortunately for some reason any cubic have chosen to equip these with parts that do not lead to detailed prints despite them having exactly the same screen as the satins prints on the M5 are not as detailed as even 10-in 8K printers like the M3 premium that came before it they are almost on par with softer 8 printers like the eligo satin 8K almost also it's worth noting if you are looking at the m5s this comes with acf2 which like I've said before diffuses the print even further and I went through so many tests on the m5s to see if anything would improve print quality but no matter what speed resin or exposure intensity I tried the prints were really soft now if you aren't looking for Sharp or detail prints anyway these are okay I guess the soft r do have the benefit of reducing layer and voxel lines on Prints but I'd rather have a sharper printer and soften the lines with anti-aliasing in a much more controlled manner rather than have the printer do it for me and soften the entire print but again that's just me and are you seeing a pattern here like elu have pretty much cornered the market with incremental price points and feature availability options their Flagship offering however is the satin 3 Ultra but this time for $100 more this is essentially a 3 with a few extra features that I personally feel make it more than worth the upgrade for those willing to Fork out this much for one it's got Wi-Fi another feature is a better leveling mechanism and it's got a better UI that actually adds some more mid print UI features and another benefit is the Zed rail which has a smooth ball screw rather than a traditional lead screw honestly I can easily see this will be the most in demand printer of this generation but my personal pick for the top printer is still the uniformation gk2 and that's because of all of the convenience editions they've loaded it with as I'm writing this now and heading into winter I know that the resin heater alone will be something that I couldn't live without and for those of you who don't know the results of your prints will vary severely with ambient temperature resins tend to prefer to be around mid 20s in Celsius and that's to cure most optimally whilst they will work at lower temperatures you will need to increase your exposure times to do so which results in overexposure and bloat this can vary wildly and for anyone who's printed in a garage or shed overnight you can wake up the next morning to find half of your print has just failed and it's likely because of a temperature drop overnight print at the right temperature and you'll all but guarantee the most smooth and sharp prints you can possibly get from that screen and you can reduce your layer exposure times quite significantly too I had an almost 50% exposure reduction when using the same resin on other printers in this resolution range and that's not all it does there are so many conveniences like the big vat that up and over lid rather than having to find somewhere to put a loose one the pre-level build plate and the incredibly sturdy leveling mechanism a lip around the build plate to catch resin spills an easily replaceable carbon filter that just magnetizes in the back and it does the sensible thing of copying print files to the internal memory before every print to ensure that no USB errors can cause issues mid print oddly this also makes it the absolute best printer for beginners because of how much it makes things easier for you and despite it only having an 8K 10-in screen rather than a 12K I've already said that those 12K screens aren't a huge Improvement anyway and once you enable antialiasing to eradicate layer and voxal lines on your prints you won't actually see a difference and I know this thing is far from cheap and most people watching this video wouldn't buy it many would even laugh at it but for those of us who've printed for a long time you'll see the value of these conveniences add up so that you spend far less time maintaining a printer and more time just having things printed and getting on with your projects and before you laugh at the price many people have pointed out that most of these features have been taken from the form laabs form 3 and that's a $35,000 printer kind of puts it into a bit more perspective right but there you have it everyone that's my summary of everything we've had released and looked at in the last year year and a half and what's available to you right now I'd really love to know what you chose from these printers and why let me know please down in the comment this isn't even for the algorithm this is cu I want to know who's choosing what and for what reasons why does it matter to you did this video help if you do have any more specific questions then ask away I do aim to answer all of the questions asked in video comments as soon as I can but if I'm short with you it's not intentional rudeness I just have a lot of people to reply to and you may have watched this wondering why a certain printer isn't even included in this video well it's probably because I just don't rate it as a notable choice for most people you can see all of the printers I've reviewed so far by checking my previous videos if I've reviewed it and it's not here there's a reason if this did help you and you decide on a printer based on this starting point I do hope you would use our affiliate links to help us earn ourselves a commission at no cost to you I'm not paid to make these videos I only earn if you buy something in any case though I'd like to say thank you for watching and a huge thanks to our channel members who had this along with our other videos early exclusive content input on future videos too you'll also get priority comment replies and your name up in lights like these credits thanks again let me know what printer you get until next time you have my sword F hammer [Music] out

Channel: FauxHammer

Views: 68,819

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Length: 19min 7sec (1147 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 24 2023