Review on 🖨️ Superior Monochrome Printing with the ANYCUBIC Photon Mono by Jason Unruh

reference. In the last four years, significant advances in the manufacturing process of low-cost, high-resolution LCDs have made SLA printers incredibly affordable. As prices dropped from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred dollars, many 3D printer developers took it upon themselves to capitalize on this booming market and produce some impressive 3D printer kits at equally impressively low prices. Anycubic is no exception and their Photon printer range offers a wide range of SLA printers for hobbyists and professionals at an attractive price, including the Photon Mono printer. So, as a preface to this review, I'd like to say that I've been a fan of FDM 3D printers for a long time. who has recently become interested in the world of SLA 3D printing. Prior to this printer, the only SLA printer I owned was the Creality LD-002H, a device with similar price and features to the Photon Mono. Of course I can highlight some differences between the two printers that represent both advantages and disadvantages of owning one of them, but TLDR: I think both are great and you won't regret buying this printer. Photon Mono is a small masked SLA printer that individually cures ultra-thin layers of resin under a powerful 405nm masked UV light source. The printer has a 6-inch monochrome LCD with a resolution of 2560 x 1620 for a mask with a pixel width of approximately 0.051mm. The printer has a fairly basic touchscreen on the front that allows the user to set up their printer and start printing. The built-in volume is small, but typical for this class of printer, 130 mm x 80 mm x 165 mm. The entire printer itself is quite small and for the most part has a pretty solid build where it counts. For my prints I used Anycubic clear biopolymer resin. Pros: This printer has many features out of the box. In comparison, leveling the bed was a breeze and doesn't suffer from the problem my LD-002H has when tightening the bed screws causes it to level. There was virtually no time between decompressing, adjusting/aligning, and printing the sliced file, and I got stunning prints almost immediately (my slicing settings weren't perfectly timed, but that might be less of an issue with the proprietary Anycubic slicer that does I have not used). The printer itself is by far the quietest I've ever owned, and the dual Z-rail is frankly more solidly built than my LD-002H single rail (and less squeaky, too!). The guide feels a bit slow (probably due to my slicer settings), but it makes up for it with stiffness. The removable build plate is another thing I love about this printer - there's something of a "processing zone" here. It extends much lower than my LD-002H, making it much easier to grip and preventing the toxic resin from getting on your hands when moving the plate to the wash station. Not surprisingly, the plate fits my Anycubic Wash/Cure Station perfectly. While I have one major criticism of the tub, I really like the excess resin in the stout. Many casks have a much less directional stout, resulting in toxic resin spurting out of the walls when trying to pour it back into the bottle. The stout in this vat is shaped so that it can be poured directly and washing is much easier. Another interesting feature of seemingly only Anycubic products is that they have automatic lid detection. While it's not a great feature, it's nice that it will pause printing if it detects that the UV cover has been misaligned or removed. At the same time, attention to user security does not go unnoticed. As stated in the specifications, this printer uses monochrome LCD technology. The IMO monochrome printer should become the de facto standard for mSLA printers as they deliver significantly brighter and more focused UV through the mask. This results in both longer LCD life and *significantly* faster print times compared to a traditional LCD. While it's not a unique feature of this printer, I definitely think it's a must-have (unless you really want to spend money), and I'm glad it's here. It's also worth noting that the LCD's 2k pixel density is indicative of what I would call a "high quality" SLA print. There are many cheaper printers with much lower resolution LCDs, but print quality suffers greatly. 2k is very good and the resulting prints look great on the Photon Mono. Finally, it goes without saying that this printer is quite competitively priced and you get impressive printing performance for this $250 range. While there are definitely other good options at this price point, Anycubic's Photon Mono does it right enough that I can't recommend it for that. Cons: While many things go right with this machine, not everything is perfect. One thing I really dislike is the plastic bottom of the case. While this doesn't affect how the printer works, it would be nice to know that it's a bit harder to knock over. My LD-002H has a metal body and the difference in weight is very noticeable. Again, this doesn't really affect how the printer works, but it's just a minor issue. As for the case, I would also like to point out some filter fans, even if they are not very useful. One thing I really dislike is the proprietary FEP replacement. While there are benefits to the fact that this type of tub allows for much faster and more consistent FEP replacement, the user only needs to replace it after a reasonable period of use. I personally would rather spend the extra time installing my own FEP panels than paying extra for a branded FEP replacement and contributing to more plastic waste. Luckily it's not the end of the world as you can just buy (or craft) a replacement container that will allow you to do this, but I still feel I should mention it. After all, it's less harm than harm. Filet. I noticed that this printer recently enabled anti-aliasing support. In my opinion AA is a pretty important feature to get the highest quality prints and some slicers (mainly Lychee) don't support it for this printer yet. Considering that the printer uses a somewhat strange proprietary slicer format, it may take a while for it to be fully supported in your favorite slicer. Luckily, the latest Chitubox beta, as well as the proprietary Anycubic slicer, support this feature, so it's not a big deal. Therefore! Although there is some competition for mSLA printers in this price range, I think this printer is very reliable and deserves a pretty strong recommendation. It's definitely not perfect and has its own quirks, but I've had a good time with it and I'm sure you will too!