Buy the Geetech Alkaid Here: www.geeetech.com/365.html Get any printer working easily with the Photonsters XP Range Finder - www.thingiverse.com/thing:6023738 (watch my video for full instructions ruclips.net/video/Gm0-z971tgY/видео.html) Join this channel to get access to perks: ruclips.net/channel/UC_9Jsf3SP8aMJgn0xv5jHjAjoin Buy WARGAMER - The best Resin for Miniatures yesthats3dprinted.com/pages/wargamer?ref=FauxHammer 3D Printer Cleaning Mat: geni.us/3DPrinterCleaningMat This Video is part of our series looking for the Best 3D printer for Miniatures; www.fauxhammer.com/top-10/the-best-3d-printer-for-miniatures-models/
"But it's only $100" is a dope tag line, lol. I have the geetech cure station, and while it's just a laser cut acrylic box held together with o rings, it works great for how cheap it was.
Thanks, yeah my original script was, THIS, but $100, THAT, but $100. ALSO THIS, but $100. I cut a load out and then my editor put them back in in text captions on his own lol!
the one problem I see with this is that for 100€ over here you can get a Photon Mono 4k, for as low as 60€ I've seen brand new Mars 2 units, and for 150€ you can get a Saturn S. And I have no doubt in the US it's all probably cheaper
The only Photon Mono 4k I can find that's cheaper than this printer is listed as "unrepaired", with the cheapest new at 130 USD, and the average closer to 160. The Mars 2 has been discontinued, with the Mars 3 at 170 for the cheapest new one. The Saturn S is showing up at 230.
huh, kinda tempted, as "its only $100" means i aint breaking the bank to snag one, and it would let me get started learning some of hte ins and outs now, rather than waiting to fund a bigger machine
That's really good for the price. I imagine there's going to be a trend of cheaper but perfectly serviceable printers hitting the market in the coming year
A few other brands tried already. I think Phrozen did a $99 printer a while back which was actually really good. hardly anyone bought it though. people are more than happy to spend at least 200-300 on a new printer. this is a very niche product, but I thought it was cute and a bargain and had to cover it!
@@FauxHammer for detail tests I'd reccomend J3D's detail cube, and for bend tests just print out a range of cylinders like 0.5mm 1mm 2mm 3mm 4mm, there are a good bunch of reviews of resins already by people like denny wang so the tests are more comparable which is very useful (if you want to be a bit more scientific then hold the posts over a protractor with some pliars and bend to see at what angle it breaks, I've got a video showing this which I can post on your discord if you want). Do not though that not fully cured resin bends more than it should so cure for a good hour and consider letting them settle for a day if not a full week because sometimes that makes a difference. The only problem with the bendy posts is that often with minis when something breaks from bending it's because the geometry is made in such a way that there is a small point where all the bending happens, I'm going to make a test to simulate such breaks but it will lack the advantage of the posts being so comparable because many people have already bent posts
I saw this and thought "I wonder when FauxHammer will talk about it" - and here is the video. Lol. The $100 staring price seems great, even though I do expect problems with it, or just 'not able to do' things with it. Only time will tell if something really breaks down inside or burns out with normal expected use or not, unless someone with actual circuit knowledge wants to open one up and give it an exam.
this looks kinda great.. and all the other drawbacks are forgiven in 99$ price tags😂 alkaid will only have to compete with the clearance sale of other models..
Exactly, they actually have a sale on at the mo themselves. this is not discounted. I don;t think it can go much lower. They also offer the lowest affiliate revenue of any brand I've worked with. I;m not complaining, it is what it is, I'm just pointing out how tight their margins are. For every one of these I sell via this video I make less than $2 lol
I mostly make model kits and movie prop replicas and this would actually be a decent secondary printer for stuff like Star Trek Tricorder shells and buttons, where I just need something better than the layer lines stuff a filament printer would spit out, leaving the better printer for the high-res parts.
I'm getting one of these in a few days, it's jank but it'll also let me know if me and the missus will have health issues with it and if so it's way less of a monetary risk. If It's all good I'll run it into the ground then upgrade to either a Mono 2 or one of the better 8k ones.
Have a Mars2 for the smaller stuf..saturn2 for the big/unit stuf..This small thing is a good way for a beginer..thanx for looking at the "not mainstream" stuff as well👍
I’ve been wanting to get into 3D printing for years, but could never justify the cost. This printers price has had me reconsidering that since I saw it first a couple of months ago. I primarily want one just to print some bits for kitbashes and conversions. I might see about picking one of these up once Xmas is out of the way and bank balance has recovered. 😂
Beat you to it. I got the Creality Halot One on a sale for 99 bucks. And that INCLUDED a full liter of resin! For that price, I basically just jumped at it without thinking. Ordered the printer and washing/cure station immediately and have been printing on and off with it since. It performs really well and prints look really nice too. Right now I'm finally testing water washable resin since I got tired of the IPA dance. (Mask up, wash, filter, store on shelf in sunlight for several weeks to cure the resin and let it settle, use again, wash out the cured gunk at the bottom of each bottle, put IPA back in. ARGHHHH) I'm just going to wash the prints, put em on a paper towel and let dry, then put the water outdoors and let it evaporate.
What I found in shopping for my first printer is that Amazon is massively inflating the prices. I picked a Mars 3 Pro and it was 180 USD from the Elegoo website while Amazon wanted another 100 USD for the same piece. With quality 4K printers coming down in price, it's going to be more difficult to compete in this low price segment.
I think the issue there is third party suppliers glbuting stock in and then Elegoo dropping the prices I have a friend in the Uk who sells these and he bought 15 to sell on, 2 days later they dropped the price for the customer to lower than it was for him to buy it in as a reseller and refused to discount it retroactively. So he’s now sat in stock they he either has to take a loss in or sell at the price Lee discount Amazon peeps will be the same.
@@FauxHammer That brings up a whole new set of concerns. I've not heard much negativity about Elegoo's products, but if they're not managing stock and distribution correctly, it may be a problem for future viability and support.
@@brent8491 it’s just overseas companies being shitty with how they treat resellers. I only have the Elegoo example because he got Elegoo as more people are buying that brand.
Hey there! I can't decide which to choose for my first printer even after watching your videos on the different models, but I am looking at the Mars 4 9k and Mars 4 Max 6k and I honestly don't know which I should choose. I plan on printing miniatures more than anything with the occasional larger project. What would you recommend? Or would you recommend a different printer? Trying to stay around that $250 USD mark for my first printer.
Honestly, despite the Mars 4 having slightly better quality, you’d be better off with a Max at that price range because the build plate size is more useful and convenient than the quality difference. Or if you could squeeze a bit more into your budget. The Saturn 8k (not the Saturn 2) could be the sweet spot, bigger size again and slightly better quality than the max…
@@FauxHammer Than you for such a quick response! And I was eyeing the Saturn 8k since the price isn't far off. So I think I'll go with that! I'll be sure to use one of your links as well your content has been amazingly helpful in narrowing everything down.
It's like the original Photon Mono but 3 years late to the party with an even shittier resin vat fixture and USB port placement. Do I have to say I'm still sporting an og Photon Mono and perfectly content with it. 51 microns pixel size is still reasonibly good even nowadays. But those emphasised layer lines are weird...
It's amazing that they made it so cheap, however saying a good budged buy simply isn't true, after two or three bottles of resin you will have spent more on resin than the printer anyway. You can't just print for 99 dollars, it's going to cost a lot more to reisn print, so either don't get into it or spend at least a hundered dollars more on a printer or you will either regret it or just not be able to afford any resin or the other equipment you need.
i dunno, yeah you're right like at most you'll get 5 bottles of resin for the same price as this, but this is still a bargain on it's own. you can keep printing after you;ve spendt $100 on resin. there will be people who out there who love this.
Might be okay if someone just wants to try out resin printing before going all in. But otherwise that's a good point, I would reccomend at least going for the mono 2 or mars 4. Resin, gloves, mask etc will end up costing more then any cheap printer in the long run anyway.
They didn't like it, they asked me to change it, but i said please trust me, people will understand the joke and likely find it very refreshing and a fair take on the value of the printer. Like, the people who will buy this are the people who want to just "have a go" as cheap as possible. and yeah, it works...
I have a USB extender cable that I was planning on using on my Saturn 8k. Does it work with an extender cable? Nope. Grrr. I bet I need another cable now.
can depend how long the cable is, I think there is a limit to how long a cable can be and inside the machine there may be an extension cable already. i would expect its a few meters though. Not ware of any USB compatability issues with cables. have you tested the extender on another device t make sure it works?
The Used Market in 3D printing can be quite risky. most printers are hard to get working when new, nevermind whatever the previous owner may have tried to do. Some people wil put more trust in new. But yeah, i hear you. you aren't wrong.
@@FauxHammer Don't the lcd panels on most printers have a limited lifespan? I've looked at used printers, but I'm never sure if they were put through the wringer by a 3d printing business or something like that.
@@Bovineicide they do. But buying and replacing one os cheeper then buying this. And belive me You will wanna print more! I started with mars 2 back in 2021...now i own saturn 12k....;)
I am not sure how much printer cost is important, it is resin and other consumables that cost real money. It doesn't take that many failed prints for a more expensive printer to be cheaper overall given the price of quality resin. A race to the bottom on price isn't good for anyone (consumer or producer)
@@FauxHammerlol, i just sold all my fl sun printers after 3 yrs, i never got into resin printing-im thinking about it, but not sure its for me idk, got bored of reg filiment printing, did huge successes, but want to try something different
Wow. Your videos are decent but your website ia a disaster of advertising. Fair warning if you go to it on mobile, be prepared for the full monty push with banners and pop-ups and full page click throughs. I felt like I'd accidentally landed on a meme page.
Why not? it works? and you just saved $50 over a Mars 2? Not everyone has hundreds to waste on a printer they may never use again after the first go because they don't like it. This shows just how powerful the little printer is.
@@FauxHammer If you try the cheapest printer, you should pair it with the cheapest resin for a logical real life scenario. Nobody who buys that printer will use 50 dollar resin. It just makes no sense
Buy the Geetech Alkaid Here: www.geeetech.com/365.html
Get any printer working easily with the Photonsters XP Range Finder - www.thingiverse.com/thing:6023738
(watch my video for full instructions ruclips.net/video/Gm0-z971tgY/видео.html)
Join this channel to get access to perks:
ruclips.net/channel/UC_9Jsf3SP8aMJgn0xv5jHjAjoin
Buy WARGAMER - The best Resin for Miniatures yesthats3dprinted.com/pages/wargamer?ref=FauxHammer
3D Printer Cleaning Mat: geni.us/3DPrinterCleaningMat
This Video is part of our series looking for the Best 3D printer for Miniatures; www.fauxhammer.com/top-10/the-best-3d-printer-for-miniatures-models/
"But it's only $100" is a dope tag line, lol.
I have the geetech cure station, and while it's just a laser cut acrylic box held together with o rings, it works great for how cheap it was.
Thanks, yeah my original script was, THIS, but $100, THAT, but $100. ALSO THIS, but $100. I cut a load out and then my editor put them back in in text captions on his own lol!
So is the halot one now its on sale and at least it made of metal
@@garylangford6755 well, I did t know that when I made the video. But yeah good. All.
This will make more sense when that sale ends
@@garylangford6755 where please?
the one problem I see with this is that for 100€ over here you can get a Photon Mono 4k, for as low as 60€ I've seen brand new Mars 2 units, and for 150€ you can get a Saturn S. And I have no doubt in the US it's all probably cheaper
The only Photon Mono 4k I can find that's cheaper than this printer is listed as "unrepaired", with the cheapest new at 130 USD, and the average closer to 160. The Mars 2 has been discontinued, with the Mars 3 at 170 for the cheapest new one. The Saturn S is showing up at 230.
huh, kinda tempted, as "its only $100" means i aint breaking the bank to snag one, and it would let me get started learning some of hte ins and outs now, rather than waiting to fund a bigger machine
exactly, not a bad one ay! don't expect amazing and you won't be disappointed. but you may be surprised to find it's still pretty darn good!
That's really good for the price. I imagine there's going to be a trend of cheaper but perfectly serviceable printers hitting the market in the coming year
A few other brands tried already. I think Phrozen did a $99 printer a while back which was actually really good.
hardly anyone bought it though. people are more than happy to spend at least 200-300 on a new printer.
this is a very niche product, but I thought it was cute and a bargain and had to cover it!
@@FauxHammer you do this community proud mate!
Someone really needs to come out with a "manual" wash/cure set that's better than an old jar and a nail lamp. Would be a great pairing for this.
they actually do a wash station that is more expensive than this lol
@@FauxHammerLol!
You should test the cheapest resin vs standard resin you would buy or recommend to a hobbyist. But I am talking like dirt cheap.
working on it
@@FauxHammer for detail tests I'd reccomend J3D's detail cube, and for bend tests just print out a range of cylinders like 0.5mm 1mm 2mm 3mm 4mm, there are a good bunch of reviews of resins already by people like denny wang so the tests are more comparable which is very useful (if you want to be a bit more scientific then hold the posts over a protractor with some pliars and bend to see at what angle it breaks, I've got a video showing this which I can post on your discord if you want). Do not though that not fully cured resin bends more than it should so cure for a good hour and consider letting them settle for a day if not a full week because sometimes that makes a difference. The only problem with the bendy posts is that often with minis when something breaks from bending it's because the geometry is made in such a way that there is a small point where all the bending happens, I'm going to make a test to simulate such breaks but it will lack the advantage of the posts being so comparable because many people have already bent posts
I saw this and thought "I wonder when FauxHammer will talk about it" - and here is the video. Lol. The $100 staring price seems great, even though I do expect problems with it, or just 'not able to do' things with it. Only time will tell if something really breaks down inside or burns out with normal expected use or not, unless someone with actual circuit knowledge wants to open one up and give it an exam.
Mine arrived with a dead power brick.
As I look at it, this is a perfect school item
Assuming the kids are taught about safety and protected
this looks kinda great.. and all the other drawbacks are forgiven in 99$ price tags😂
alkaid will only have to compete with the clearance sale of other models..
Exactly, they actually have a sale on at the mo themselves. this is not discounted. I don;t think it can go much lower.
They also offer the lowest affiliate revenue of any brand I've worked with. I;m not complaining, it is what it is, I'm just pointing out how tight their margins are. For every one of these I sell via this video I make less than $2 lol
I mostly make model kits and movie prop replicas and this would actually be a decent secondary printer for stuff like Star Trek Tricorder shells and buttons, where I just need something better than the layer lines stuff a filament printer would spit out, leaving the better printer for the high-res parts.
from what I remember, laminating foil is suitable after minor processing and costs about $5 for 100 or 200 pieces of A4...
I'm getting one of these in a few days, it's jank but it'll also let me know if me and the missus will have health issues with it and if so it's way less of a monetary risk. If It's all good I'll run it into the ground then upgrade to either a Mono 2 or one of the better 8k ones.
Have a Mars2 for the smaller stuf..saturn2 for the big/unit stuf..This small thing is a good way for a beginer..thanx for looking at the "not mainstream" stuff as well👍
Right on
There are low profile usb sticks, they are slightly more expensive though I think, so the usb extension is still probably a better option.
I’ve been wanting to get into 3D printing for years, but could never justify the cost. This printers price has had me reconsidering that since I saw it first a couple of months ago.
I primarily want one just to print some bits for kitbashes and conversions.
I might see about picking one of these up once Xmas is out of the way and bank balance has recovered. 😂
I got an Anycubic Photon Mono 2 for only $169 and it's awesome.
Beat you to it. I got the Creality Halot One on a sale for 99 bucks. And that INCLUDED a full liter of resin! For that price, I basically just jumped at it without thinking. Ordered the printer and washing/cure station immediately and have been printing on and off with it since. It performs really well and prints look really nice too. Right now I'm finally testing water washable resin since I got tired of the IPA dance. (Mask up, wash, filter, store on shelf in sunlight for several weeks to cure the resin and let it settle, use again, wash out the cured gunk at the bottom of each bottle, put IPA back in. ARGHHHH) I'm just going to wash the prints, put em on a paper towel and let dry, then put the water outdoors and let it evaporate.
Yep, better deal
What I found in shopping for my first printer is that Amazon is massively inflating the prices. I picked a Mars 3 Pro and it was 180 USD from the Elegoo website while Amazon wanted another 100 USD for the same piece. With quality 4K printers coming down in price, it's going to be more difficult to compete in this low price segment.
I think the issue there is third party suppliers glbuting stock in and then Elegoo dropping the prices
I have a friend in the Uk who sells these and he bought 15 to sell on, 2 days later they dropped the price for the customer to lower than it was for him to buy it in as a reseller and refused to discount it retroactively.
So he’s now sat in stock they he either has to take a loss in or sell at the price Lee discount
Amazon peeps will be the same.
@@FauxHammer That brings up a whole new set of concerns. I've not heard much negativity about Elegoo's products, but if they're not managing stock and distribution correctly, it may be a problem for future viability and support.
@@brent8491 it’s just overseas companies being shitty with how they treat resellers. I only have the Elegoo example because he got Elegoo as more people are buying that brand.
Hey there! I can't decide which to choose for my first printer even after watching your videos on the different models, but I am looking at the Mars 4 9k and Mars 4 Max 6k and I honestly don't know which I should choose. I plan on printing miniatures more than anything with the occasional larger project. What would you recommend? Or would you recommend a different printer? Trying to stay around that $250 USD mark for my first printer.
Honestly, despite the Mars 4 having slightly better quality, you’d be better off with a Max at that price range because the build plate size is more useful and convenient than the quality difference.
Or if you could squeeze a bit more into your budget. The Saturn 8k (not the Saturn 2) could be the sweet spot, bigger size again and slightly better quality than the max…
@@FauxHammer Than you for such a quick response! And I was eyeing the Saturn 8k since the price isn't far off. So I think I'll go with that! I'll be sure to use one of your links as well your content has been amazingly helpful in narrowing everything down.
This will be interesting. I like test like these.
Glad you like them!
Thanks, Ross! I still use my LD002H for most of my smaller prints. Wish I'd had something like this to start on.
Thanks. If you do but them, please click my link before purchase, Like i said, they are cheap. but they bloody work!
It's like the original Photon Mono but 3 years late to the party with an even shittier resin vat fixture and USB port placement. Do I have to say I'm still sporting an og Photon Mono and perfectly content with it.
51 microns pixel size is still reasonibly good even nowadays. But those emphasised layer lines are weird...
You’re not wrong
It's amazing that they made it so cheap, however saying a good budged buy simply isn't true, after two or three bottles of resin you will have spent more on resin than the printer anyway. You can't just print for 99 dollars, it's going to cost a lot more to reisn print, so either don't get into it or spend at least a hundered dollars more on a printer or you will either regret it or just not be able to afford any resin or the other equipment you need.
i dunno, yeah you're right like at most you'll get 5 bottles of resin for the same price as this, but this is still a bargain on it's own. you can keep printing after you;ve spendt $100 on resin.
there will be people who out there who love this.
Might be okay if someone just wants to try out resin printing before going all in.
But otherwise that's a good point, I would reccomend at least going for the mono 2 or mars 4.
Resin, gloves, mask etc will end up costing more then any cheap printer in the long run anyway.
Interesting review. Hilarious. Will Geeetech embrace the absurdity?
They didn't like it, they asked me to change it, but i said please trust me, people will understand the joke and likely find it very refreshing and a fair take on the value of the printer.
Like, the people who will buy this are the people who want to just "have a go" as cheap as possible.
and yeah, it works...
Use my tweezers EVERY print when getting hard to reach supports.
i bet they are stronger than these
@@FauxHammer but it's only $100 🤣
@@Gawl88 you shoulda done a mic drop after that!
I use them to not touch IPA/resin when I can help it all the time!
I always wear gloves but I don't like touching that stuff even with gloves.
I have a USB extender cable that I was planning on using on my Saturn 8k. Does it work with an extender cable? Nope. Grrr. I bet I need another cable now.
can depend how long the cable is, I think there is a limit to how long a cable can be and inside the machine there may be an extension cable already.
i would expect its a few meters though. Not ware of any USB compatability issues with cables. have you tested the extender on another device t make sure it works?
Actually I use tweezers to remove the tiny supports lmao
There’s always one
For a 100$ you can buy used Mars2 or Saturn printers - so.....what do i need this little thing for?
The Used Market in 3D printing can be quite risky. most printers are hard to get working when new, nevermind whatever the previous owner may have tried to do.
Some people wil put more trust in new.
But yeah, i hear you. you aren't wrong.
@@FauxHammer Don't the lcd panels on most printers have a limited lifespan? I've looked at used printers, but I'm never sure if they were put through the wringer by a 3d printing business or something like that.
@@Bovineicide they do. But buying and replacing one os cheeper then buying this. And belive me You will wanna print more! I started with mars 2 back in 2021...now i own saturn 12k....;)
yea, typically around 2000 hours is the number most frequently mentioned.@@Bovineicide
I could buy a few of these to build a SLA 3D printing farm and not break my bank.
Good call, if you do though, please use my affiliate link, lol
I am not sure how much printer cost is important, it is resin and other consumables that cost real money. It doesn't take that many failed prints for a more expensive printer to be cheaper overall given the price of quality resin. A race to the bottom on price isn't good for anyone (consumer or producer)
👍
thanks as always for the comment
These will be incredibly cheap to buy used soon...
They won't last that long
exactly this. these are throwaway machines. that;s what they are targeting.
Hmmmmmmmm🤔
Good hmmmm or bbad hmmmm?
@@FauxHammerlol, i just sold all my fl sun printers after 3 yrs, i never got into resin printing-im thinking about it, but not sure its for me idk, got bored of reg filiment printing, did huge successes, but want to try something different
Looks anodised, not painted, to me. Anodising will be quite durable.
Thanks, I didn’t know the process
Wow. Your videos are decent but your website ia a disaster of advertising. Fair warning if you go to it on mobile, be prepared for the full monty push with banners and pop-ups and full page click throughs. I felt like I'd accidentally landed on a meme page.
I know. I’m gonna sort it as soon as I get through these reviews. I set up with an ad agency that screws the site over big time
Thanks for checking it out, sorry your ad agency sucks @@FauxHammer
yeah great, buy a cheap 100 dollar printer and pair it with a 50 dollar bottle of resin
Why not? it works? and you just saved $50 over a Mars 2? Not everyone has hundreds to waste on a printer they may never use again after the first go because they don't like it.
This shows just how powerful the little printer is.
@@FauxHammer If you try the cheapest printer, you should pair it with the cheapest resin for a logical real life scenario. Nobody who buys that printer will use 50 dollar resin. It just makes no sense
"Alkaid" Have you checked if there is a bomb inside ? :D