ELEGOO Mars 4 MSLA 3D Printer With 9K LCD

When the Mars 2 Pro works, it boy does it ever do a great job! Expect failed prints, but when it works, the prints are amazing! There is a learning curve. You have to learn to follow their (sometimes shaky) instructions precisely. If you do, look at my picture. This what the printer can do, and it is amazing! Follow the instructions. Yes, they read like a Japanese stereo manual. They are a Japanese company, after all. They do have a library of videos to help you with problems. Part of the learning curve.

Clean up after every print. Buy a few gallons of anhydrous alcohol (99% or better, available on Amazon, of course) for cleanup. REUSE YOUR ALCOHOL! Put it in a clear jar and leave it in the sun a day or two, or buy a curing chamber and do it the convenient (and slow) way.

The printer died after 2 months. I had a rocky start with Support. The LCD died. When I replaced it (following their video exactly) after a few tries the new LCD works perfectly. There were other problems. Support tonight informed me they are shipping a replacement printer.

I was using the printer to print fabulous items like pictures for my family. With the new printer I can finish printing them.

Look at the three eggs in the picture. I printed 6 eggs on one build plate and the vehicles that fit into the eggs on another build plate. Three are pictured. They are TINY. The wheels turn. The ladder and backhoe arm are articulated, and they work! And every one fits precisely into their egg with literally no room to spare. That is just amazing. The tiny elf village, villainously painted by me, is intricate and superbly detailed. The Go Away Gnome, printed 2 to a build plate, will be great gag gifts for family and friends. The deer, poorly lit, are for my hunting friends, a guaranteed hit. The quality of the prints is obvious. The painting, well… Never tried it before. It shows.

I found a few million printable objects on Thingiverse, my salvation since I don’t know how to create things. I downloaded several hundred for christmas including everything in the picture. Load the STL file into Chitubox,
load up the build plate with as many things as possible, then slice and save it and you’re almost guaranteed a great print – most of the time. There is the aforementioned learning curve. Sometimes everything but a couple items print. I have not figured out why some items don’t materialize. The Harry Potter chess set had 15 pieces on one build plate. 13 printed. Go figure.

The machine is built like a Sherman Tank. Heavy. Solid. Getting inside to replace the LCD was a bit of a pain. However, if you precisely follow their instructions and pause the video at every step, it is still a pain, but it is very doable. Just be patient. REALLY patient!

The Achilles’ heel is the FTP, in my humble opinion. The ones that come installed on the tanks work great. They have play in them. So far I’ve wasted 7 FEP sheets trying to reproduce their results.

HEY ELEGOO! SELL US YOUR FOAM PAD!!! PLEASE!!! THAT is the Achilles’ heel. I have found it impossible to get the FEP right using their video and my approximations of the pad they use to make sure the FEP has play in it.

Here’s how this thing works: The build plate descends to a tiny fraction of an inch above the FEP, which lays flat on the LCD. A thin thin layer of resin remains between the build plate and the FEP. The UV light turns on for a programmed length of time. Then the build plate rises. IF YOUR FEP IS RIGHT, the printed layer is peeled up from the REP from the outside edge to the center of the print. If it ain’t right, the sucker sticks TIGHT to the FEP, pulls off of the build plate instead, and you print a slug of resin in the rough outline of what you thought you were printing!

Moral of the story? FEP RULES. Good FEP = Excellent prints. BAD FEP and you are sunk. I have so far bought two sets of two spare tanks so I at least have something that works. I truly hope they will sell their sponge pad because I can’t afford to keep paying 25 bucks apiece for new tanks just to get working FEP. Argh squared and cubed!

Here are the Pros:
The Mars 2 Pro -CAN- product absolutely stunning 3D prints.
It is a pretty machine. Really.
It is SOLIDLY built.
They provide everything you need with the printer (except the resin).
Their resin works well.

And the Cons:
The printer is a bit tempermental.
The documentation is written by the same guys that write Japanese stereo manuals.
Prints -will- fail. There is as much art as there is practice in producing prints.
Setup is a real pain.
Full setup is required for EVERY print., a huge pain, but NECESSARY. Fill those build plates! Save LCD cycles!
Cleanup is another real pain. Wear gloves. The resin is toxic. Clean up WELL. It matters.
You have to do the full cleanup after every print.
Elegoo Tech Support is super sparing on words. English isn’t their language. Be patient.

And the resin… Unlike FDM filament, the color pickings are slim. They ain’t many, period. I have bought an acrylic dye kit. I will be experimenting with dyeing the white resin. One thing is for sure, you print in one color. Only. On that issue, FDM has resin printers beat, but the quality of the produced models is SO MUCH BETTER THAN FDM’S BEST that there just is no contest.

The short of it? GREAT 3D prints ARE possible, even for neophytes like me. The devil is in the details. FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS PRECISELY. Every time. I am very impressed with the performance and quality of this printer, and even more impressed with the gifts I made. I know they will be appreciated!

And don’t forget Thingiverse. What a wonderful FREE source for printable objects! Try it out. You will amaze your friends and family. Even more if you can paint worth a durn!

Es un equipo muy intuitivo fácil de usar, las impresiones son de muy alta calidad, pero lo malo es que no había un vídeo en español para saber cómo nivelar la cama, solo encontré uno en portugués que pude subtitular, por lo demás ya impresa la figura, fue entender cómo limpiar y curar las piezas que si tiene su cuidado por lo tóxico de la resina.

Excelente maquina de entrada, la encontré barata y al ser mi primera impresora de resina no quería gastar mucho, sin embargo quedé fascinado con la calidad de impresiones que puedo obtener, la recomiendo muchisimo como una impresora de entrada, me ah servido mucho para hacer algunas figuras y prototipos, la uso por hobbie y en algunas ocasiones vendo figuras, muy recomendada.

Es la primera vez que utilizo una impresora 3D y quedé muy contento con el resultado de esta, no es difícil de usar, solo hay que seguir bien las instrucciones, sin duda la recomiendo.