Tag: ElegooSaturn

3D printing, Reviews

Elegoo Saturn 2 Review: Is Pixel Size Everything? In-depth Look & Disassembly.

| Jan Mrázek

So far, all my resin printers are LCD printers, and all of them have approximately 50µm pixels. The pixel size is somewhat the ultimate limit to the precision and details it can print. I was considering buying Elegoo Mars 3 or Phrozen Sonic Mini 8K as they have roughly half the size of pixels, as they could improve the quality of my resin-printed models. However, they have a quite small build volume so most of my molds wouldn’t fit, thus, I decided not to buy them. When Elegoo announced Saturn 2 with 28µm pixels and a slightly large build volume than Saturn 1, I decided to pull the trigger, and I got one from the pre-order.

In this review, we will look at how the machine performs. Don’t expect a traditional review when the reviewer prints a few minis and tells you that it prints nicely and basically rephrases the specs. I assume you have some notion about resin printers, and basically, you are just wondering if Elegoo Saturn 2 is worth the money. I use my printers to print precise functional components, we will explore the limits of the printer, and we will also look inside the printer and its construction.

Note that this review wasn’t sponsored in any way, and I bought my Saturn 2 as a regular customer. All opinions are mine.

Continue reading “Elegoo Saturn 2 Review: Is Pixel Size Everything? In-depth Look & Disassembly.” →
3D printing

Preventing Platinum-cure Silicone Cure Inhibition in Resin-printed Molds

| Jan Mrázek

If you follow my work, you know that I use my resin 3D printers a lot to produce soft silicone molds or pieces (original blog post and a follow-up). Resin printers can create precise and detailed patterns. You can quickly prototype, cast miniatures, dices, chocolate molds… There are plenty of uses for soft silicone molds. However, some silicones play well with resin-printed patterns, and some don’t. In this post, I will explain to you which silicones cause the trouble, why we care, and also, how to prevent the cure inhibition. The recipe I give you is surprisingly easy and doesn’t require any special equipment. It actually outperforms existing commercial solutions (e.g., Inhibit X) both in terms of price and performance.

Continue reading “Preventing Platinum-cure Silicone Cure Inhibition in Resin-printed Molds” →
3D printing

Short Prints and Squished Layers On Chitu-powered Resin Printers: Solution

| Jan Mrázek

Many users of Chitu-powered resin printers complain that when they print flat on the bed, their prints are shorter than they should be – usually around 0.3–1 mm. This forces the users to print on supports. Back in the days when I started with resin printers, I observed the same thing on my Elegoo Mars. The cause of that was poor construction (see full explanation). I haven’t observed such problems on Elegoo Saturn ­– until now. Let’s explore what causes it and how to fix it.

You see people fighting this problem by leveling against a paper folded various number of times, setting arbitrary numbers to Z-offset and similar. Everyone has a custom recipe. I will give you my recipe which I think works the best – and unlike the others, I will explain you why. I tested everything on Elegoo Saturn, but I believe it applies to all Chitu-based printers.

Continue reading “Short Prints and Squished Layers On Chitu-powered Resin Printers: Solution” →
3D printing

What Screws Does Elegoo Saturn Use?

| Jan Mrázek

There is a common question regarding damaged and lost screws on the resin tank on Elegoo Saturn. I have answered several questions for this on the Facebook groups, but those are not indexed by Google so you are out of luck when Googling. This is why I publish this really short blog post – so people can actually Google up the screws used on the Elegoo Saturn resin tank.

There are three screws:

  • M3x5 with countersunk head,
  • M4x10 with countersunk head, and
  • M4x10 with cylindrical head.
  • The vat is attached via M4x40 screws with overmolded cylindrical head.

This is it. I hope the search engines will pick this up well.

3D printing

Fixing the “backlight always on” problem on Elegoo Saturn

| Jan Mrázek

Recently, I noticed in the Elegoo Saturn Facebook groups that many users report a broken Saturn. The symptoms are that the UV backlight is always on. Elegoo has been really helpful and it seems that when a user reports the problem, they send a replacement mainboard.

I was wondering what causes the problems, so I reached out to a few of them if they would be willing to send me the broken motherboard. One of them did (thank you!) and I started to investigate what’s wrong. TLDR: The fix is easy and costs you nothing if you know how to solder.

Continue reading “Fixing the “backlight always on” problem on Elegoo Saturn” →
3D printing

Full CAD model of Elegoo Saturn

| Jan Mrázek

Having a reference model of the printer is suitable when I design new components to tune my printer. I publish the model, so the others can benefit from it! You will find the model below:

If you like the model, you can consider supporting me on Ko-fi or buy something from me on my Tindie store.

PS: Be sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram if you are interested in knowing what I am up to.