ELEGOO Mars 4 Ultra 3D Printer

I have only operated FDM printers before getting this, I have used this fairly solidly for 2 months now and just wow, first the setup is so simple, then sort your routine, safety and post production processes are key and your good to go. I have been using water washable resin and haven’t had a single print failure from over 40 print runs, I have literally levelled the build plate, used the slicer provided for supports and hit go.The build quality is sound with metal used in all the right places while applying plastics to reduce costs where they could and it has been done well while making sure it is very stable.I really like this printer an awful lot and once you have the post production setup In order you can really get great results and turn them round quickly.Update on the product and my experience.I had a flood, rather a large one as the vat was full, it covered all components inside and out. From 8pm till 1am I was cleaning and dismantling and re-cleaning, rinse and repeat for hours.Then another session the next morning repairing a sensor housing the resin made brittle and re-cleaning before leaving in the sun to be safe.Rebuild started and went smoothly, all the connectors and internals survived nicely, the black plastics have been weathered by the experience and gives it some bonus character. Then the moment of truth, power on and ………… bazinga on it goes. Screen protector gasket lost its stickiness so replacement on order. Test LCD showed a mark on the screen that is strange as it is the only part untouched by the experience so it was probably already there but never had a fail (before the flood).To summarise, I do not want to do it all again any time soon and what happened to me was a very unlikely scenario, however I can now confirm with confidence this is a pretty tough machine indeed and I look forward to running again soon.Final update after another 4kg of resin has been converted into various things I haven’t gotten around to painting, it’s still going strong, I have the wash and cure station and they have made a big difference to my post processing as well. There is one side consideration that people don’t seem to talk about, I will use a pre wash tub say 500ml then the wash station has 5-6 litres of water. I use 4 pre wash tubs to extend the wash station cycle and that will do 3-4kg of resin. I can probably get more through it but I like it clean. So I’m evaporating 7-8 litres of water. This is fine in the summer, pour onto old cooking trays and it’s gone in a few days. It’s backed me up in the winter however and I might try standard resin and IPA in colder months.Other worthwhile additional purchases, magnetic build plate reduces resin wash and allows for near continuous printing and spare resin vats you can install new FEP films to.

Thought about getting a resin 3d printer for ages and finally decided on the mars 3 Pro after lots of research on Google and youtube etc.Really happy with this printer. Easy to set up and get going, seems pretty easy to maintain and the main thing is that the prints coming off it are really nice.Excellent quality and detail. The only issues I've had have been my own fault or due to bad resin.Hooked on printing things now.Just make sure you know what you're getting into. Lots of other things required as well as the printer. Washing and curing equipment. Isopropyl alcohol and loads of gloves and kitchen roll. Worth it though so don't let that put you off.

Get this one while you can. I was astonished by my first prints. Working with resin takes a bit of getting used to. The only mistake I made was not seeing the film on the print bed, having removed all the more obvious ones, and I've had no difficulty since. The picture shows a pair of Crusader tanks that I found for free that print as hull and turret. The detail is silly, which includes pipes on the rear cowling. The figure has the same detail but I think I should have left the support on until it had hardened (it leans a bit). Seriously good value and, for me, the air cleaning fan that goes inside does make a big difference to the smell associated with resin.

Where to begin? Well YouTube, whilst doing my research on 3d printers for beginners, which one is best ect I came across this little fellow. Now I knew of Elegoo before due to their amazing resin printers and assumed the FDM was just as good!Well I was half correct in my assumptions. This printer is fantastic for beginners but suffers the same issues as any 3d printer that is not enclosed or £1500! This will print PLA like it's nobodys business and this will print in a fabulous quality right out the box. However just like any other printer it will require tinkering to print harder materials such as ABS, PETG and nylon.That last point isn't a bad thing for £260 this will do the job for most people. For I love it and I've printed some awesome things with rather tight tolerances.Pros1. Easy enough to assemble if experienced.2. Great prints with PLA with little amount of tuning.3. Great software Elegoo skinned cura just works, however upgrading and tinkering will yeid better results.4. Very quite.5. Rather fast for a small machine.6. Good bed leveling springs and surface PEI Flexi plate.7. All metal duel gear extruder.Cons.1. There is not where near the same amount of eco system for the Neptune 2s as there is for the ender 3 however with work most things that'll work on a ender 3 will work on a Neptune such as all metal hotends and enclosures.2. Can be difficult to assemble if you've never picked up a spanner before. Will take about a hour or two with belt set up and learning cura. YouTube is your friend.3. If you want to print with other materials other then PLA you have to tinker with it. If you want to do that out the box you need to spend £8004. There is no where near as much information as other 3d printers however there is an amazing Reddit community that will help with most problems as well Elegoo tech support.All in all is this printer worth the cost?.... Absolutely!Is it worth buying?.... Maybe not the Neptune 3 will be releasing soon and that even better at a cheaper price point so unless the Neptune 2s drops £100 then I would get the Neptune 3.Thanks for reading