Review on 🖨️ KELANT 3D Printer with Z-Axis Printing Screen by Justin Zilinskas

With so many resin printers to choose from, sometimes you'll come across machines from companies you've never heard of, but their printers are just as good (and quirky) as any other. developed a printer that works better than expected and looks good at the same time. ---- For those who want to skip the detailed test, take it with you: This device is for printing sessions that consume a lot of resin. It has a wider tank and footprint than competing printers and uses more metal in its construction, resulting in a higher cost. ---- [ROOF RAISING] The first thing I knew when I opened the low profile box was, uh. Snap, I gotta build this thing. The Colum s500 comes disassembled, but that's an acceptable amount of parts. You just have to deal with a bunch of screws and a quick connector. A cheap set of allen keys is included, but I suggest you use your own good quality wrenches to avoid stripped bolt heads. Assembling the lid is a simple process, but assembling the parts can be tricky. If you find the parts don't fit, simply loosen a few screws to create some play at the connection points and try again. Try changing the order in which you pack things. Do not fully tighten the screws until all parts are installed. However, not all screw holes were added with precision. No matter how much I fiddled with the lid, some connection points don't want to sit flush. This doesn't affect the functionality of the cover, but I think it would really bother anyone with mild OCD. It is uncomfortable if there are gaps near the door through which external ultraviolet light can penetrate. The lid assembly screws onto the base unit and the door is used to access the interior. I like the door because I'm short on space and don't like putting a giant lid on top of all the other junk when I'm removing prints. However, you can just ditch the lid and use it like a regular (albeit heavy) detachable case. Remember that if you do this, you will also need to tape the underside of the left and right acrylic panels with masking tape to keep them from slipping out of the underside. Bye. It's like a cold metal egg, a child squeaking loudly instead of crying. ---- [BAKING A CAKE?] When I checked the printer, I immediately noticed that the resin pot is HUGE compared to the build plate. Size, this pan is huge. This raises some concerns. For example, you may need to purchase FEP in rolls and cut it yourself. More importantly, a large tank will need a lot of resin to cover the bottom. I loosely poured in about 500ml. In comparison, the Photon Mono X's resin reservoir fits snugly to the size of the build plate. When the worktop is lowered into the tub, there is little free space around the worktop. On the s500 there is about 2cm of space all the way around and when you add the tub walls yourself you have a gigantic tank of resin. It also means that the printer itself has to be larger to accommodate everything, so the Colum has a larger footprint than the PMX despite the same XY build size. Why is the vat so big? Well, you wanted a big printer, right? Large prints require a lot of resin! With more resin in the bath, you can print larger, denser models without having to refill them too often. In that sense, a large resin tank is definitely an advantage. That's why Kelanth named it. I would just make the sides of the vat taller instead of making it wider, but I'm not an engineer to know if that's a good idea. Maybe Kelanth originally designed the case/tub for a larger screen, maybe 10.1 inches. ? However, due to current world events, it has become unusable and an 8.9-inch screen has been installed instead. I think it would be nice if Kelanth drilled a few extra holes in the chassis so we could use the smaller vat. Maybe drill holes so we can screw in other useful accessories like a small heater or a camera. ---- [PRINT THE CAKE!] As I was going through the files on the included USB drive to set up a Chitubox profile, I encountered one of my biggest grievances: conflicting instructions. I can't stress enough how frustrating it is to buy a $700 machine and not get direct answers on how to use it. The default resin settings in the PDF are VERY different from the settings shown in the attached images. As if the settings were for two completely different machines. (There is an older version of this printer so they may have mixed up the settings.) Kelant claims the build plate was already pressed against the screen (and it turns out it was) so I went straight to print, to figure out the correct settings for my own. I use Elegoo White ABS, it's a reliable resin that hasn't let me down for almost 2 years. The exposure numbers I finally chose are as follows: Normal exposure: 2.4s (50µm layer height) Bottom exposure: 40s On my other printers some of my settings for 50µm layer height are: /min Height spacing: 5–7mm. Light-Off Delays: 0-8 sec (variable by printer and resin). figure hands. I used Kelanth's suggested high speed raise and retract settings to see if they work or completely destroy the models. I figured this would fail because it's generally recommended to use TFEP (Teflon-coated FEP, also called "nFEP" in the resin printing community) when printing at these speeds, but I've already left the standard FEP in the bath. Settings: Understroke speed: 120 mm/min. Lifting speed: 200mm/min. Retraction speed: 500mm/min. While it was great to see the big printer running so fast, only 1 out of 4 arrows prints successfully. But well printed! No broken supports or anything like that. The finish quality is excellent, if you told me this was printed on a Phrozen Sonic Mini 4K at 35um XY I would believe you (and I have a SM4K). Perhaps the orientation I used was optimal for these models and that's why they look so good, but it's still an indication of the quality of prints the s500 can produce. Extract should fix that. ---- [TEST 2] I used the same high ascent rates and increased the bottom hold to 40 seconds. This really solved the problem, all models printed fine. Same excellent print quality, see how clear the tiny hexagon pattern is on hands and fingers. I bought this printer as a backup for PMX but I think I will use it as my main printer from now on. ----[TEST 3] The recommended lifting speed of 200mm/min may be too high depending on how sensitive the model is and how strong your supports/contact points are. Time; small helmets. At this print, some of the light supports broke off during printing due to the strong peel force. There are also thin streaks in some parts of the print as if some of the layers were slightly delaminated due to the peel force. When lowering the stroke speed to 100mm/min (much closer to what I use on my other printers) the supports no longer broke. and random stripes stopped appearing. Since using 100mm/min instead of 200mm/min only adds 10-15 minutes to the print time on my 2 hour print, I think it's worth sticking with 100 to ensure successful prints. ---- [TEST 4] I printed the same model again but with 8x anti-aliasing, the highest AA setting Chitubox has for the printer. I didn't turn on grayscale, just anti-aliasing. Printing was successful again, and anti-aliasing almost completely eliminated the "jaggies" on sloping surfaces along the XY axis without affecting the sharpness of the rest of the model. Your results will vary based on geometry, but this can mean the difference between smooth surfaces immediately after assembly or the need for additional sanding afterwards. ---- [BUILT-IN TWERKING] Low exposure, normal exposure, light-off delay and lower level value can be adjusted on the printer itself. It's a simple, basic user interface, similar to Sonic Mini, so don't expect anything beyond that. Adjusting the turn off delay on the fly is useful as sometimes you will find that you need more or less depending on the temperature/viscosity of the resin. and even the shape/structure of the model. For example, I often have to add 1-2 seconds in some hollow areas to allow the resin to fully settle for many of the things I print. I then switch back as needed to reduce typing time. However, changing this setting on the machine does not lead to anything! I set it to 30s and it still didn't matter. Adjusting the exposure time allows you to go from printing something like white to black resin (significantly different exposure times) without having to re-cut the file. Changing this setting on the device works. This printer can also take advantage of the ability to adjust the stroke distance directly on it. When printing small objects at high lift speeds, models detach from the FEP almost instantly when the build plate is lifted, allowing you to have up to 2-3mm extra height, adding unnecessary print time. The recommended lift height of 7mm is probably suitable for large prints that may not detach from the FEP immediately. This may also become necessary as FEP stretches over time. ----[OTHER NOTES] There are holes in the build plate, I suspect they have something to do with reducing the drag force or letting the resin pass through to reduce the light. Delays, but they seem small. And they won't do anything if you cover them with the model anyway. Printing directly onto the build plate leaves raised circular marks on the model where they also cover the holes. It would be nice to have some kind of overlay in Chitubox showing the location of the holes so we can avoid placing models on them. I think the top of the build plate is flat to keep costs down as it doesn't require additional aluminum milling or anything and also suits the aesthetics of the machine. However, almost everyone these days prefers a slight slope at the top to allow the resin to drain while printing. I don't mind a flat top, but I run a scraper over the top to quickly pour the resin back into the vat; it takes about 5 seconds. The feet on the printer are adjustable and can be unscrewed if necessary. The printer has grilles on both sides for air to enter and fans on the back of the printer to ventilate it. The one directly above the activated carbon filter gives off air that smells like a warm car engine. The opposite one releases air that smells of nothing. I'm guessing one vents the air out of the chamber and the other just cools the electronics. I don't smell tar in a room with the case door closed, but you'll have to see if the smell of warm metal bothers you. If the hood has gaps at the seams due to poor fitting, then the odor will seep there. As long as there's enough room in the chamber to remove the buildplate with your hands, it takes a little getting used to unscrewing the large top handle, twisting it from the side like a doorknob, rather than resting your palm on it like opening a soda bottle. There is little room for your hand. The connector will not fully insert into the device, so do not damage anything by trying to fully insert it. The printer emits a loud, angry beep when it turns on. Come on, keep evil big eyes on him. I smeared some resin onto the screen and cured to see if the screen was actually protected by glass. I used a metal scraper on it and it was absolutely fine. I suggest you use plastic blades for this. ----- The Colum s500 costs more than something like the Elegoo Saturn or the Phrozen Sonic Mighty due to the additional metal and manufacturing costs. The lid is made from aluminum rods and thick cast acrylic panels, all of which require machining. The body of the printer itself is also machined aluminum and is actually larger than other similarly sized printers. The resin tank is also metal and much larger. All of this means more weight and more shipping costs. This machine is not designed to make 2 or 3 miniatures at a time (although you can do that very well), it is designed to create an army or print sessions that consume a lot of resin. So be prepared to pour an entire bottle down the vat if you need to print something. I definitely recommend this printer, but I also recommend that you get a smaller printer for smaller batches of prints.