Wrench
[H]F Junkie
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- Sep 9, 2004
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Father's Day sale not OMG amazing but definitely cheaper then Amazon. Free shipping over $100 BUT it's coming out of China so there's also the wait.
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Elegoo "up to" 25% off sale resin and FDM printers.
- Thread starter Wrench
- Start date
Tengis
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2003
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- 5,685
Any of these particularly good/worth it? I don't follow printers but I've been considering getting one for a while.
Wrench
[H]F Junkie
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- Sep 9, 2004
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Don't know about their FDM printers, all of their resin printers are highly recommended and easy to use. For someone new the Mars 2 or 3 would be great to learn on. If you want FDM I would look at an Ender 3 for 190 or an Ender 3 v2 for 100 more
NightReaver
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2017
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- 2,494
I had an OG mars and it was neat for getting into resin printing. Then I got my hands on a Saturn a little while after it came out. Some people have no issues with theirs, but I think there's some fundamental design flaws with it. The motor is only mounted to the printer using 2 corners. During one of my prints the screws vibrated loose enough that I came home to find the entire Z motor had fallen off. The FEP retention mechanism was annoying enough on the mars. Many little screws to remove and put back everytime the FEP needs to be redone. The Saturn only makes this worse with many more screws.
Then we come to what finally made me return it. The leveling mechanism. On the Mars it's a simple ball joint with what are essentially 2 set screws to hold it in place. You level the plate, then tighten the 2 screws and done. It worked reasonably well on the Mars because small surface area = less suction force pulling against the plate. On the Saturn they decided to use the same exact system. I quickly noticed that for the type of printing I was doing (as full of a plate as possible), that the much greater suction forces involved would get that ball joint to shift a little in due time, throwing the whole print off. Well they give you a big hex wrench so you tighten them more, and more, and more, and then...whoops. You just stripped out the internal aluminum threads in the build plate itself because for whatever reason they made the harder to replace (and more expensive) part have the softer threads.
Idk, could just be my bad luck. I also don't get the incredible praise their customer support gets. It always seems like it has to do more with appeasement by giving out free parts and whatnot than actually addressing some of these design concerns that still carry on in the Saturn 2.
I'd probably get a Mars again if I needed a small format printer. As for the Saturn, I decided to get an Epax E10 instead. Pricier, but much better designed.
Then we come to what finally made me return it. The leveling mechanism. On the Mars it's a simple ball joint with what are essentially 2 set screws to hold it in place. You level the plate, then tighten the 2 screws and done. It worked reasonably well on the Mars because small surface area = less suction force pulling against the plate. On the Saturn they decided to use the same exact system. I quickly noticed that for the type of printing I was doing (as full of a plate as possible), that the much greater suction forces involved would get that ball joint to shift a little in due time, throwing the whole print off. Well they give you a big hex wrench so you tighten them more, and more, and more, and then...whoops. You just stripped out the internal aluminum threads in the build plate itself because for whatever reason they made the harder to replace (and more expensive) part have the softer threads.
Idk, could just be my bad luck. I also don't get the incredible praise their customer support gets. It always seems like it has to do more with appeasement by giving out free parts and whatnot than actually addressing some of these design concerns that still carry on in the Saturn 2.
I'd probably get a Mars again if I needed a small format printer. As for the Saturn, I decided to get an Epax E10 instead. Pricier, but much better designed.
NightReaver
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2017
- Messages
- 2,494
I just don't get why on a $500 printer they couldn't have put a dab of threadlock on those motor screws? Or at least, you know, used all 4 mounting holes on the motor.
I have not had a problem but I have not printed a ton with it. I bought it about 1.5 years ago.