Elegoo Saturn 2 8k resin printer Preorder

Here is the preorder link for the new 8k printer (I’m tempted to get one myself)

Elegoo Saturn 2

and another article explaining what the heck a Fresnel Collimating Light source is
A Fresnel what?!

It’s so pretty!

The Fresnel Lens is “the invention that saved a million ships.”
It redirects light to make practical long-range lighthouse beams.
Elegoo’s is same basic light redirecting technology as first used in 1823.

I have a Mars 3 which is a similar design. It’s not a bad printer, but it’s fiddly. I have one really big gripe and bunch of smaller ones:

The big gripe:
Elegoo uses Chitubox which has been really obnoxious about DRM lately. That meant that you couldn’t choose a slicer other than Chitubox for the newer Elegoo machines until the outcry finally got them to relent somewhat. Caveat emptor. If I buy another machine, I will probably avoid a Chitu-based system.

Unique good points:

  1. The way the Elegoo attaches the FEP film seems nicer than most. There are two different sets of screws for mounting and tensioning.

  2. External power bricks–Normally not a fan of these, but these require a bit more power than most semiconductor things. Having the bricks outside where they can be replaced if they fail is likely a good idea.

Small gripes:

  1. The build plate two-screw mechanism is suboptimal. It gets out of alignment every time you remove a print. I’d like to have a build plate that I don’t have to calibrate every run.

  2. The resin tank really doesn’t help you. It’s far too easy to spill things.

  3. The resin isn’t warmed or refilled.

  4. My build plates always come concave from Elegoo. I have to flatten them once.

  5. I don’t like the slip over UV covers. They require too much vertical clearance to use and they’re not really protecting you from UV (unlike the curing stations). They’re protecting the resin from the UV emitted by fluorescent lights. A more convenient cover for the resin tank itself would be a better idea.

None of these are showstoppers and I suspect other manufacturers will have different ones. I use my Mars 3 just fine.

Things I’m looking into:

  1. I’m not overly happy with quality/consistency of the Elegoo resins. I’m going to try some of the Siraya resins to see if I get more consistent results.

  2. Slicers, slicers, slicers. Not happy with any of them, really. None of them seem to take into account the primary problem which is minimizing release tension. I now understand a bit why the Formlabs slicer software tends to put builds at weird angles.

  3. I haven’t tried the flex release systems yet. Still trying to convince myself it’s worth it.

Let me know if anybody has other questions.

Chitubox has the market cornered with their mainboards in most resin printers. There is a group of developers working on an open-source slicer but it’s in the early stages.

Your calibration issue is odd as I haven’t recalibrated my machine yet after numerous prints.

Larger format machines have an auto resin fill and in a pinch, you can buy a beer belt from a brewery supply company to warm up your resin.

It’s good practice to self flatten your build plate when buying a new resin printer as you can ensure flatness and that there is a good texture on the plate.

My go-to resins are Eryone and JAYO for the moment.

I have a flex plate on my small resin printer and its pretty nice. I have one for my Saturn but haven’t bother to install it just because I don’t feel like adjusting the endstop switch.