LCD 3D Printer, Sparkmaker SLA 3D Resin Printer UV Photocuring with Fully-Assembled, Fast Slicing & Free SD Card, One-Button Operation & Off-line Printing Easy-to-Level Most-Affordable DIY Printer

First, my experience level: I’ve been printing with this seemingly constantly since I got it a month ago and have learned a lot about it and SLA printing in general in this short period. This was my first 3D printer though I’ve used the FDM printer we have at work a fair amount.For those reviews stating “It works straight out of the box,” either they had experience with SLA/DLP printing, know someone who helped, or simply got lucky with the print bed surfacing as well as the leveling process. Also, they must’ve had some experience with SLA support generation and slicing as its vastly different from FDM.The Cons: The setup is a bit tricky. The instruction manual clearly states “read the entire manual before beginning setup.” They mean that. More specifically, make sure you understand all the part terminology before beginning as it’ll save you some headaches when walking through the setup instructions. I say this because while I can tell this manual was written by people who seem to legitimately know the intricacies of the machine, they don’t have a full grasp on the English language. Some places they’ll say one thing but very clearly mean something else that, once you understand the terminology for the machine, you should be able to deduce. Basically, take everything you read with a grain of salt. There are better written guides to SparkMaker setup On the r/3DSparkmaker subreddit and Thingiverse that may be worth checking out.Issues I had:1) The Allen screws are tiny and in an awkward spot for the leveling process if you have bigger than tiny hands. The first time I did this it took me nearly an hour to level it while having to rest my hands from the strain. When I went to check the leveling a couple weeks later, I discovered I’d over tightened the Allen screws which will keep digging because the platform attaches to some sort of fiberglass like material that will continue to give. So just make sure it’s tight and secure and then STOP. Thankfully it didn’t seem to have harmed it significantly.2) The print platform surface is too smooth. After printing a few ~30mm sized minis, I tried some larger ones that failed miserably several times even with a thick raft for the supports. Two things helped this: increasing exposure time and lowering lift speed slightly, and seriously roughing up the platform surface. I was hesitant to do this as some of the aforementioned guides and advice talk about cringing at the idea of people saying to sue sandpaper on the bed. Some suggested steel wool so I tried that first but decided to take my metal flat needle file to quickly and thoroughly roughing up the surface while being careful to keep it flush so as not to dig into it or make it uneven in any way. This did the trick and keeps the print stuck tight. It won’t affect print quality at all since you should be using rafts and lift supports to keep your print off the platform.3) Use the included Chitubox software and completely ignore the SparkMaker software. Their website has tutorials using Chitubox and Chitubox has further helpful guides though you’ll probably have to piece together information to get things just right.4) Cleanup is messy and the Resin is TOXIC when uncured so make sure to wear gloves, eye protection, and face mask. I learned some of this the hard way. As far as toxicity goes, it’s not at least immediately lethal but overtime can cause you to develop an allergy to it. There’s more to it than this, so make sure you read up on it from somewhere besides a forum.5) No control screen. Just a platform control knob which doubles as a button for starting, pausing, and stopping.PROS:1) Great print quality for the money.2) Easy to use once you’re setup.3) While cleanup is a hassle and messy, it’s arguably less of a hassle than dealing with FDM printers and filament/extruded maintenance.4) Despite my complaint about leveling the print bed, theres it’s easier and eliminates the guess work of leveling printbeds that I’ve had in my experience with FDM printers.5) Large and seemingly active support community on Thingiverse, Reddit, and probably other places.6) Can use any resin but the SparkMaker resin is quality enough for most uses and is cheaper.Advice: Buy plenty of 99% IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) for cleanup and dissolving the uncured resin off finished prints. 99% matters and you may have to order it here on Amazon as I did since I couldn’t find anything above 91% in any store. 91% for the record does NOT effectively dissolve it thoroughly enough. Also, buy plenty of disposable gloves and don’t feel wasteful about using them. Safety first.

So, this is the most affordable SLA printer out there. For what it cost, it worked out very well. I was able to get some good print with it. But there are lots of things that you should be prepared before went into SLA printing.First, is the Resin:They are toxic and you should know that. So take care of yourself, get gloves and a mask. Good thing they did provide one set of those in the box so you can get started. The resin itself is hard to clean too as it is oily and smells. Also, Resin is not as cheap as normal 3D printing material. So do mind that.Second, The leveling:I level my bed every new print, it is not a fun thing to do. I need to empty out the resin first, clean the tray and then level it. I did get away without leveling them for 2 or 3 prints, but I don't want to risk it if I don't have to.Third , the slicing :It is very important to get the right setting with your slicer. Also, I recommend adding support manually. Without the right amount of support, most prints will not turn out great. Go watch some video on that and you should be good.There is also an FHD version of this printer that has a much better resolution than this one, but it does cost more. But it can have much better surface finishes.If you get those things sorted out. You can do great things with this printer. Have fun with it.

Bought this for the attractive price of $185.00 spent the days waiting for its arrival studying how to set up and work it correctly so I would be ready to "run right out of the box" as several other reviewers put it, well it doesn't come with any sample resin ( guess it is my fault for not combing over the description better/ nearly every other printer supplies a small sample). After a few days more of waiting for my resin, I'm ready to print, I level the platform, adjust the slicer settings for 3rd party resin choose my print and wait. 10 hours later its done, my cleaning and post curing station are ready to go and I'm giddy like a little girl only there is no print just a round blob in the vat. Go through all the motions again, same results, alright I figure it must be me so I choose the test print, same results. This goes on for a few days, I watch video after video for a clue to what is wrong even tried tech support ( not very helpful and I am not a patient man when it comes to a company who knows nothing about the product they sell ) so sadly it has to go back and my journey from filament to resin will have to wait until I invest in a better quality unit. Please keep in mind this rant is simply my opinion based on my experience, yours may be different and better, who knows, good luck.

Purchased this printer for prototyping, & printing small parts, and miniature figures. Setup was quick, and overall the printer is easy to use. The software is pretty basic in that it gives you a 3d box representing the printer footprint to fill. The auto support feature makes quick work of ensuring your print comes out in one piece, and it has 3 settings for print quality (which will greatly affect the print time). I printed a batch of eight 25mm & 35mm mini figs, and printing on "best" quality took approximately 17hrs. This is a great starter 3d resin printer, and I have already recommended it to friends.

Works well, after I got all the extra stuff you need to get clean prints. Using it for 6mm scale wargame. Needed to get new slicing software, UV lamp, and cleaning paraphernalia. no card reader comes with it and needed a normal SD card reader.

Took a few tries to get the settings fine tuned (my first resin printer) but can now get good quality prints reliably. I was able to get help with the settings from the online community. This is an excellent value printer.