Anycubic’s latest Photon Mono M7 Professional is a step up from the earlier Anycubic resin machines. It’s smarter, loads sooner and in some way has much more decision for tremendous crisp particulars. Nonetheless, with a pixel dimension of solely 16.8 x 24.8 microns (roughly the scale of a white blood cell), we’ve reached a stage of element the place the human eye would have problem distinguishing the distinction.
One enchancment that I actually loved is its velocity. It makes use of a specialised movie within the vat that appears sturdier than what Anycubic has used earlier than. This movie ought to ship 45,000 layers earlier than needing alternative, in comparison with the Photon Mono M5s, which might tear after 30,000 layers. It’s additionally fairly a bit faster, printing a three-inch mannequin in 35 minutes, in comparison with the M5s doing the identical in 53 minutes.
The M7 Professional will monitor the lifespan of your vat’s movie and ship a reminder when it wants altering. It could possibly additionally detect print failures and low resin ranges. It comes with an auto refill system, nevertheless, this wasn’t useful on our check unit and couldn’t be reviewed. The construct plate comes factory-leveled, with guide leveling obtainable must you want it.
The key to Anycubic’s lightning velocity is a mix of skinny “excessive velocity” resin and larger-than-normal layer heights. This leads to prints which can be surprisingly good for a excessive velocity printer. In reality, when in comparison with its regular printing velocity, we had a tough time telling the prints aside.
At present on sale for $549, the Photon Mono M7 Professional is effectively definitely worth the value for a excessive decision, mid-size printer and is without doubt one of the greatest resin 3D printers available on the market right now.
Specs: Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Professional
| Construct Quantity | 223 x 126 x 230 mm (8.7 x 4.9 x 9 inches) |
| LCD Display | 10.1″ Monochrome |
| Gentle Supply | COB (Chip On Board) with Fresnel Lens |
| X/Y Axis Decision | 16.8 x 24.8 microns |
| Regular Publicity Time | 1.3/1.7 seconds |
| Interface | 5” Contact Panel |
| Connectivity | USB, WiFi |
| Machine Footprint | 310 x 315 x 520 mm (12.2 x 12.4 x 20.4 inches) |
| Machine Weight | 12.8 KG (28.2 lbs) |
Included within the Field: Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Professional
The Anycubic Photon Mono M5s consists of every part you must get began as quickly as you unbox the printer. You get a steel scraper for the construct plate, a plastic scraper for the discharge movie, a big display protector, paper funnels, disposable gloves, disposable masks, a set of Allen keys, an influence twine with adapter, and a printed guide.
This machine additionally comes with a resin pump and a powered air filter.
The field features a USB thumb drive loaded with Anycubic’s Photon Workshop slicing software program, a PDF of the guide, and two pre-sliced check prints.
Printing Security with Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Professional
The Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Professional requires the identical security precautions as different resin printers. Uncured resin is harmful, and the solvents used to scrub your prints might be irritating to the pores and skin. Use gloves and security glasses when pouring resin and dealing with uncured prints.
Be sure the room you utilize your resin printer in is well-ventilated to keep away from inhaling fumes. Spilled or dripped resin ought to 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 hold your resin tightly sealed and safely saved out of attain of pets and youngsters.
Assembling the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Professional
The printer comes totally assembled. You solely must take away the LED display protector used for transport, screw within the vat and construct plate, you then’re prepared to start out printing.
The printer comes with each a resin pump and powered air filter, which plug into the machine with a USB port. Sadly, it’s an both/or scenario, and also you’ll have to decide on which to make use of. Should you go for the pump, you will want to take away a small part of the UV hood. The cutout part of the hood is taped in place, so it may be changed should you select.
Calibrating the Construct Plate on the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Professional
In contrast to older resin printers, the Photon Mono M7 Professional ships factory-leveled. Merely put the construct plate in place and also you’re able to go. Guide adjustment is accessible must you want it.
Design of the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Professional
The Photon Mono M7 Professional is a mid-sized resin printer with a classy black-on-black coloration scheme. The glossy black UV hood continues to be of the lift-off selection, which is irritating to make use of after the enjoyment of discovering tilt again lids from the competitors.
The very first thing I wish to level out is the facility, which is supplied with a normal equipment plug with out an annoying energy brick. Nonetheless, the system won’t activate should you solely flip the change within the again. You additionally should push (and maintain) a button within the entrance. I assumed for certain the entire printer was broken, as this technique was surprising.
The printer is extremely sturdy, and at 28 kilos, very strong. The vat is big and may maintain greater than a full-sized bottle of resin. The vat itself weighs a number of kilos because of its materials, giant dimension and the awkwardly mounted heater pump completely hooked up to the again nook. This makes it off balanced while you’re attempting to pour out leftover resin from the only spout positioned on the entrance proper nook.
The aim of the heater is to hurry up the print time, as heat resin is thinner (thus sooner) than chilly. I’ve not seen a heater fairly like this one. It’s really a pump that sucks up the resin from a channel across the fringe of the vat. It pulls resin in, warms it, after which pumps it again out.
This slowly circulates the resin across the vat because the printer works however doesn’t appear to intervene with layers as they remedy. It’s additionally not sturdy sufficient to essentially stir the resin, so that you’ll nonetheless wish to get in there and manually stir the resin should you’ve let it set a day or two.
The pump works as a cleansing assist after you’ve dumped the resin out and refill the vat with a cleansing agent like isopropyl alcohol. In reality, you HAVE to make use of the cleansing cycle should you change resin sorts or colours and don’t need contamination. The resin will get trapped within the pump and people channels, so cleansing it with only a paper towel will not be an choice. And naturally, you can’t clear the vat by submerging it in a bucket of IPA because of the electronics within the pump.
I wasn’t in a position to check out the opposite pump, which is designed to fill the vat with resin and hold it topped off. The pump plugs into the again proper nook and has a cap designed to suit Anycubic resin bottles. It has sensors to measure the quantity of resin in each the vat and the bottle, and may be capable to switch resin out and in. Mine did neither.
Should you don’t like the concept of a pump – and I’m unsure if I’d wish to attempt to clear it – you’ll be able to drop an air air purifier in that very same nook. You need to choose one or the opposite, as they each slot in the identical spot.
The massive secret to the M7 Professional’s velocity is a bit of cheaty. Just like the M5s earlier than it, the quickest mode really combines shorter publicity occasions with thicker .1 mm peak layers. This setting is designed particularly to work with excessive velocity resin, which is tremendous skinny. We’ll get extra into this after we take a look at the check prints.
The Photon Mono M7 Professional has an insane 14K decision (13,312 x 5120) on a ten.1 inch monochrome LCD display. I wish to level out that while you get into this stage of decision, you’re solely going to get out as a lot element as you place in.
The construct plate on the M7 Professional is laser-etched, which grabs onto prints to maintain them protected, however isn’t too tough to scrape off. The highest of the plate has sufficient slope to permit many of the resin to empty again into the vat. There’s nonetheless a spot the place the screws are that catch some resin, which makes cleansing the plate a bit of annoying.
This 3D printer can take recordsdata off a USB thumb drive or over WiFi – should you don’t thoughts working it by means of Anycubic’s cellphone app and Cloud system. I’m not a giant fan of cellphone apps for my printers, so I didn’t check it out.
The contact display is effectively thought out and simple to make use of, with giant graphics that can assist you alongside the way in which.
Slicers Appropriate with the Anycubic Photon Mono M5s
The Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Professional ships with a replica of Photon Workshop, its customized slicer. The slicer has improved significantly over time and I didn’t have any issues utilizing it. It could possibly add good helps robotically, has instruments for hollowing the mannequin – and including drainage holes so you’ll be able to preserve resin.
The M7 Professional can be utilized with Chitubox, however we’re nonetheless ready for Lychee Slicer.
Washing and Curing Your Prints
Earlier than you’ll be able to admire your prints, you’ll must wash them with isopropyl alcohol and remedy with UV gentle. I like to present prints a 30-second hand rinse in a container of 95% Isopropyl alcohol, then a 2-minute rinse within the Anycubic Wash and Remedy, 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 can too 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 aspect cutters and use tweezers to take away cussed helps. Keep in mind to at all times put on gloves whereas dealing with uncured prints.
Then place the print in a UV curing station for quarter-hour, or exterior in shiny daylight for just a few hours.
Your IPA ought to by no means be flushed down the drain, particularly after being contaminated with uncured resin. As a substitute, hold utilizing the resin till it’s too soiled, then go away the container open to evaporate. The remaining sludge might be cured with UV gentle or the solar earlier than being thrown away.
Helps must also be cured earlier than being thrown away.
Pattern Prints on the Anycubic Photon M7 Professional
The Anycubic Mono M7 Professional has three settings inside its customized slicer:
Excessive Velocity/Quick Resin: .1mm layer and 1.3 second publicity
Excessive Velocity/Commonplace Resin: .1mm layer and a pair of.1 second publicity
Regular Velocity/Commonplace Resin: .05mm layer and 1.7 second publicity
All three speeds produce high quality prints, with the quickest setting being just a bit bit softer on the main points. As I discussed earlier than, while you use the quick/regular mode and excessive decision resin, you’ll get the perfect outcomes. Contemplating the price of resin, and the quantity of bother to change supplies, I feel preserving your M7 Professional stocked with a high quality “regular” velocity resin is the perfect mixture of high quality and velocity.
You possibly can see from the pattern beneath that each one three prints look very good and sharp, however the quick resin (on the correct) is only a tiny bit softer. The quick “regular” resin resulted in good high quality, and you may solely see the layer traces on Rocket’s jacket when the sunshine hits it on the proper angle.
The distinction between quick and regular mode on the check prints beneath is over 90 minutes with no vital misplaced of element.
Resin printers are very fashionable with table-top players, so I bought a pair customized figures from HeroForge to check out. These are printed at 100% and are 1/60 scale, customary for Dungeon and Dragons kind miniatures, and stand 35mm tall.
The determine on the left is made with Anycubic’s Quick Resin and quick settings, and the one on the correct is utilizing Anycubic (regular) Bio Resin and Gradual settings. The gradual resin has only a tiny bit extra element, and while you zoom on this shut, you’ll be able to discover extra layer traces. Oddly sufficient, the quick setting blurs the layers traces and appears cleaner.
I used to be shocked that printing in quick mode didn’t lose a lot element in any respect. Let’s take a look at some extra gaming figures. These HeroForge customized figures are additionally printed at 100%, and stand roughly 40mm tall. They’re additionally a typical dimension for Dungeon and Dragons kind miniatures. The extent of element is remarkably related regardless of being printed in three completely different resins.
They’re, from left to proper:
Anycubic Excessive Velocity resin, Quick mode, .1mm layer, 19 minutes
Phrozen 8k Aqua, Quick Mode, .1mm layer, 25 minutes and 23 seconds
Phrozen 8K Aqua, Regular Mode, .05mm layer, 1 hour, 14 minutes, 3 seconds
Anycubic Bio, Regular Mode, .05mm layer, 1 hour, 14 minutes, 3 seconds
Total, I feel the Phrozen resin appears to be like higher as a result of its flat end appears to be like crisper. Each Anycubic resins have been translucent the place the determine was thinner – on the dragon’s head and canine’s ears. Printing at prime velocity with quick resin solely saved about three and half minutes in comparison with utilizing a traditional resin at quick velocity. Printing these gaming miniatures at regular velocity didn’t improve the standard by any noticeable quantity.
I additionally printed a fancy dragon mannequin from Dragon Trappers Lodge. This mannequin was in a number of items and wanted to be assembled with glue. It took solely 35 minutes and 32 seconds to print utilizing Anycubic’s quick resin with the quick settings. It’s remarkably detailed and delicate, and all seven items match on the construct plate. There are little spots from the helps, which might be sanded off with out downside. In any other case, this mannequin is flawless.
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Backside Line
The Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Professional is freaky quick even when utilizing regular resin and has no noticeable lack of element when cranked as much as max velocity. At 16.8 x 24.8 microns of decision, we’ve gone well beyond a stage of element you’ll be able to really admire with the bare eye. The machine is simple to make use of and full of options – and regardless that the resin pump didn’t work on my check unit, I didn’t really feel like I used to be lacking out on something. The heater makes the vat a bit awkward to deal with whereas cleansing, however looks as if an appropriate trade-off for this machine’s velocity.
I went again and checked the final high-speed resin from Anycubic that I reviewed, which was the Mono M5s. It has related options, nevertheless it took 5 hours to print the Rocket Raccoon check mannequin in regular mode with a high-resolution resin. The M7 Professional reduce that point in half taking 2 hours and 25 minutes to print the identical mannequin utilizing related resin and the identical .05 layer peak.
I’m more than happy that Anycubic is ready to make a resin 3D printer that’s superfast whereas utilizing a launch movie that solely prices $10 a sheet to interchange and can final a very good 45,000 impressions. Should you’re printing miniatures, which means you may get at the least 100 batches of prints from a single sheet of movie.
Priced at $669 (and presently on sale for $549), the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Professional will not be precisely low cost for a resin printer. However you’re undoubtedly getting some worth on your cash with all its stellar velocity and good options.
Should you’re on the lookout for a resin printer that delivers the identical high quality at a slower velocity and cheaper value, take a look at our favourite medium-sized resin printer, the Anycubic Photon Mono X2, which is on sale for $179. That is a unbelievable deal! You may additionally wish to take a look at our choose for the perfect resin 3D printer for inexperienced persons, the Anycubic Photon Mono 2, which has dropped to $159.
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