Anycubic’s latest Photon Mono 2 was made particularly with first time resin customers in thoughts. It delivers high quality 4K prints with a smaller sized vat and a petite footprint that requires minimal house. Its options are about the identical – and infrequently higher – than the Photon Mono 4K (opens in new tab), which will probably be changing within the Anycubic lineup.
The Photon Mono 2 retails for a all-time low worth of $230. We’ve observed severe lower backs within the machine’s base unit and canopy, each of that are plastic relatively than metallic or acrylic. Aside from making the printer feather-light, cheaper supplies don’t appear to be doing any hurt. The print high quality is kind of crisp, the velocity is sweet, and the machine may be very simple to make use of.
Anycubic actually delivers the products on this entry degree machine, making it one of many finest resin 3D printers in the marketplace.
Specs: Anycubic Photon Mono 2
| Construct Quantity | 165 x 89 x 143 mm (6.5 x 3.5 x 5.6 inches) | Row 0 – Cell 2 |
| LCD Display | 6.6″ Monochrome | Row 1 – Cell 2 |
| Gentle Supply | Parallel matrix | Row 2 – Cell 2 |
| XY Axis Decision | 34 microns | Row 3 – Cell 2 |
| Regular Publicity Time | 2.5 seconds | Row 4 – Cell 2 |
| Interface | 2.8” Contact Panel | Row 5 – Cell 2 |
| Connectivity | USB Kind A 2.0 | Row 6 – Cell 2 |
| Machine Footprint | 390 x 229 x 235 mm (15.4 x 9.01 x 9.5 inches) | Row 7 – Cell 2 |
| Machine Weight | 4 kg (8.8 lbs) | Row 8 – Cell 2 |
Included within the Field: Anycubic Photon Mono 2
The Anycubic Photon Mono 2 contains all the pieces it’s good to get began as quickly as you unbox the printer. You get a metallic scraper for the construct plate, a plastic scraper for the FEP movie, a big display protector, paper funnels, disposable gloves, disposable masks, a set of Allen keys, an influence twine with adapter and a printed handbook.
Additionally within the field is a USB thumb drive preloaded with Anycubic’s Photon Workshop slicing software program, a PDF of the handbook and two pre-sliced take a look at prints.
Printing Security with Anycubic Photon Mono 2
The Anycubic Photon Mono 2 requires the identical security precautions as different resin printers. Uncured resin is harmful, and the solvents used to wash your prints will be irritating to the pores and skin. Use gloves and security glasses when pouring resin and dealing with uncured prints.
Make certain the room you employ your resin printer in is well-ventilated to keep away from inhaling fumes. Spilled or dripped resin must be instantly cleaned with 99% isopropyl alcohol. After printing, be sure that to wipe down your printer and bottles to take away smudges of uncured resin. At all times preserve your resin tightly sealed and safely saved out of attain of pets and kids.
Assembling the Anycubic Photon Mono 2
The printer comes principally assembled. You solely have to take away the LED display protector used for delivery and apply the recent one supplied. Screw within the vat and construct plate and also you’re prepared for calibration.
Calibrating the Construct Plate on the Anycubic Photon Mono 2
Like all 3D printers, the Anycubic Photon Mono 2 requires calibration earlier than its first print. Leveling the construct plate is pretty easy and solely takes a chunk of paper and an Allen wrench.
To degree the machine, take away the vat after which place the piece of paper supplied by Anycubic on the LCD display. Loosen the 4 adjustment screws on the perimeters of the construct plate. The construct plate ought to wiggle freely.
Place the construct plate on the Z axis and tighten the highest knob. Click on the Instruments image on the contact display, then Transfer Z. Click on the Dwelling image and the Z axis will decrease to the glass and cease robotically.
Press the construct plate agency and evenly to the glass. Now tighten the screws.
Click on Z=0 on the contact display. This units the Z peak. Press Enter and exit the menu.
Subsequent, take a look at the UV mild. Increase the construct plate up (Transfer Z) till you may see the LED lights contained in the machine. Whereas nonetheless within the Instruments menu, press Publicity and choose a picture and the period of time it ought to flash. Press subsequent and you need to see the picture. If, for any purpose, you don’t see the complete picture, contact service for assist.
Design of the Anycubic Photon Mono 2
The Anycubic Photon Mono 2 has a black base that’s largely plastic and a blue plastic hood. The machine may be very mild and could possibly be improved with rubber ft to forestall it from sliding across the counter. The hood feels a bit like Tupperware, however it nonetheless does job shielding the print space from UV mild. There’s metallic the place wanted, like across the glass and Z axis.
The Photon Mono 2 packs a variety of element in its prints. It has the identical “LighTurbo” system you’ll discover on newer Anycubic machines, which gives smoother particulars. Its 4K mild supply on a 6.6 x 3.5 inch construct floor equals an X/Y decision of 34 microns. For comparability, a human hair averages 70 microns, relying on the particular person. This boils right down to tremendous crisp particulars in your tiniest prints.
The construct quantity of 165mm x 89mm x 143mm, 20% bigger than the photon Mono 4K it’s changing. That is on the smaller dimension of resin printers, however I used to be nonetheless capable of match 6 presupported miniatures on the construct plate without delay.
The Mono 2 has a laser-etched construct plate that helps prints stick. Issues nonetheless come off simply sufficient with a little bit prying from the metallic scrapper. The highest of the plate has sufficient slope to permit a lot of the resin to empty again into the vat.
It comes with an additional massive display protector for the LED glass, which covers the glass and the slight hole round it. This makes maintaining the printer clear tremendous simple.
Not like its FDM printer cousins, the Anycubic Photon Mono 2 reads recordsdata from a USB stick relatively than a microSD card. The port is situated on the facet with the facility swap, located the place you’re unlikely to drip resin.
Navigating the menus on the colour contact display is simple as a result of there are solely three sub menus: Print, System and Instruments. The Print menu shows thumbnails of all of your fashions on the USB stick. System is for choosing language and displaying info you may want for service. Instruments is the place you progress the Z axis, take a look at the LEDs and degree the mattress.
Slicers Suitable with the Anycubic Photon Mono 2
The Anycubic Photon Mono 2 ships with a duplicate of Photon Workshop V3, its customized slicer. The slicer has improved vastly and I didn’t have any issues utilizing it. It handles helps nicely, each robotically and manually. It additionally has instruments for hollowing the mannequin and including a drainage gap so you may preserve resin.
There are not any profiles at present accessible for Lychee Slicer or Chitubox.
Washing and Curing Your Prints
Earlier than you may admire your prints, you’ll have to wash them with Isopropyl alcohol and treatment with UV mild. I like to provide prints a 30-second hand rinse in a container of 95% Isopropyl alcohol, then a 2 minute rinse within the Anycubic Wash and Remedy (opens in new tab), which is offered individually, and retails for $249 at Anycubic.com.
Utterly dry the print with a hair dryer on cool – IPA left on the print will flip white. You may as well let the print air dry in a spot away from daylight.
Helps are simpler to take away earlier than curing as a result of they’re softer. Clip the helps off with facet cutters and use tweezers to take away cussed helps. Keep in mind to all the time put on gloves whereas dealing with uncured prints.
Then place the print in a UV curing station for quarter-hour, or outdoors in shiny daylight for a couple of hours.
Your IPA ought to by no means be flushed down the drain, particularly after being contaminated with uncured resin. As a substitute, preserve utilizing the resin till it’s too soiled, then depart the container open to evaporate. The remaining sludge will be cured with UV mild or the solar earlier than being thrown away.
Helps also needs to be cured earlier than being thrown away.
Pattern Prints on the Anycubic Photon Mono 2
The primary print you need to all the time run is a take a look at print, and Anycubic supplied a really detailed publicity take a look at. It is a particular pre-sliced file known as R E R F (Resin Publicity Vary Finder) on the USB stick that has 8 practically similar fashions. Every mannequin is numbered 1 to eight. The primary mannequin will print on the default publicity, and the opposite fashions every print at .25 second longer. This permits one plate of take a look at prints to provide you a good vary of publicity settings – from 1.5 to three.25 seconds utilizing a default of 1.5 seconds.
I ran this mannequin of Boba Fett at 70% to suit on the plate, with the bust and base printing individually. This printed utilizing Siraya Tech’s Quick Navy (opens in new tab) resin and a 3-second publicity time, taking 5 hours and 15 seconds for the bust alone, then one other 3 hours and 10 seconds for the bottom. The mannequin has unbelievable particulars, right down to the cracks within the helmet and wrinkles within the sleeve cloth. There are not any tell-tale layer traces when considered with the bare eye and you must look tremendous laborious to search out any with a digicam set to shut up.
Desk-top avid gamers love resin printers as a result of they will produce miniature figures with tiny particulars. I printed this assortment of adventurers from MZ4250 in Anycubic’s Gray Water Washable Resin. The resin has a low odor and printed with out bother. The fashions took 2 hours and 4 minutes to print at a 2.5 second-per-layer publicity. They’re tremendous detailed, proper right down to the buckles on their belts.
The resin cured with a satin shine, as a result of I used alcohol already in my wash station to wash them. It’s vital to notice that water washable resin remains to be poisonous to wildlife and shouldn’t be poured down the sink. For those who select to scrub with water you’ll get a flat end – and nonetheless have a gallon or so of nasty water you’ll have to eliminate like a family chemical.
Anycubic despatched a pattern of its new Excessive Clear Resin (opens in new tab) to check with the Mono 2 printer. It is a new formulation of resin that may create crystal clear prints if you comply with a easy curing technic (opens in new tab). The mannequin printed as regular, utilizing a barely longer publicity and fewer curing time. It printed in 2 hours and 13 seconds with a 4-second layer publicity and no helps. The entire print was cleaned in alcohol, then the perimeters got a lightweight coat of recent resin with a brush to seal the advantageous layer traces. Then it was cured for two minutes. It was cleaned a second time in alcohol and put again within the curing station WET for an additional 2 minutes. The completed result’s as clear as glass the place sealed, and frosted the place it was simply cleaned.
Backside Line
The Anycubic Photon Mono 2 is a money-saving resin printer with glorious 4K print high quality. Its smaller dimension makes it simple to search out house for, and its mild weight makes it simple to maneuver out and in of storage. The printer might use ft with extra grip to forestall it from sliding round, so I’d counsel placing it on a non-skid mat.
Priced at $230, the Anycubic Photon Mono 2 is a very price range printer that makes it simple for makers to begin their journey in resin. The standard is superb with tremendous crisp particulars and publicity instances are not any totally different from different top-of-the-line printers. The construct dimension is a bit small, however not an issue in case your focus is on miniatures and small fashions.
If you wish to spend a bit extra money on a machine that has an even bigger construct plate and a heavier base, strive the Anycubic Photon M3 which has a 219 x 123 x 250 mm construct quantity with a finer, .28 micron decision and air filters. Nonetheless, if you need high-quality resin prints at a really cheap worth, the Anycubic Photon Mono 2 is tough to beat.
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