heygears ultracraft reflex

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Kev T

Western Thunderer
If you've read the saga of Simon d's printing problems with his Saturn printer, then you'll understand why I'm considering the Heygears printer.
I'm having similar problems with my new Saturn 4 Ultra, namely intermittent failed prints with no obvious cause. When it does do a good print it isn't as quick as the claims, as I've had to use quite a lot of pauses in the process, and on top of that the support and slicing is a black art to me. I want to spend my time modelling not spending my precious time treating resin printing as a hobby. It should be a tool.
For background I used to use a Mars3 pro and when the screen packed up I decided to "upgrade" to the Saturn.
My question therefore is, does anyone have experience of the, "bloody expensive" Heygears printers for our modelling, and are they as easy as the YT videos suggest? Almost all of the videos online test all printers for gaming miniatures where dimensional accuracy is not an issue.

cheers
Kev
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Hi Kev,

I just had a quick look at the Heygears website, a few things spring to mind. It’s twice the weight and three times the price of the Saturn, but a smaller build volume, and it’s got features like automatic refill of the resin tray, which seems to me to be an unnecessary feature. I haven't dived into the detail, but does it require specific resins, as the wavelength is different from the others? I saw something about automatic washing? That would be another feature that I don’t see the value of. And it’s another Chinese supplier doing what they do. I doubt it’ll be massively different in quality or capability from any of the others. Might well be made in the same factory!

I take your point about wanting to do modelling, not spend your modelling time problem solving on the modelling tools, but I’ve had my printer for two and a half years, and really not suffered very many issues at all. The current issue has me stumped because I haven’t solved the mystery, and the clues are confusing. We’ll get there. Overall I’m very happy with my Saturn, if it fell off the bench, I’d probably buy another.

Regarding print times, it’s always wrong, usually by about twenty five percent. I don’t care, I very rarely wait for a print to finish. I usually put them on in the morning before going to work, or in the evening before going to bed. It takes the time it takes, and then it can sit and drip til I get round to washing it and cleaning up.

Cleaning up has become routine. Gloves on. Wipe top of build plate with bogroll. Take build plate off printer, place in wash bath, turn on for five minutes or so. Rip off half a dozen pieces of bogroll, place them on draining board next to resin pot. Put filter in resin pot funnel. Remove print tray, drain into funnel, scrape down with plastic spatula. Check nothing stuck to FEP. Wipe outside of print tray with bogroll moistened with IPA. Return print tray to printer, clean carefully with IPA and dry off. Put screws back. Put funnel & filter in old yoghurt pot to drain. Put lid on resin pot and return it to reptile mat. Remove print tray from IPA, leave to drain (~ 30 minutes), gloves off, and dry (4 hours or more). Put prints in curing chamber for 30 minutes. Total time about five hours, total workload, ten minutes.

I spend far more time drawing the things I want to model. I’m reasonably handy on Solidworks, but the coal wagons will have taken many hours of CAD time. I tend to do ten or fifteen minutes every day after eating my lunch, and sometimes a few hours in the evening. It’ll be finished when it’s finished, and if I get fed up, I’ll do something else.

HTH
Simon
 
K

Kev T

Western Thunderer
Hi Simon
I had far fewer problems with the Mars than I do with this Saturn. I'm tempted to go back a model. I wonder if this tilting vat and strange build plate are part of the issue.
The reviews I've seen of the Heygears say that the print quality is excellent even thought it's "only" an 8K machine. The big plus is that dimensional accuracy/ warping and shrinkage are supposedly minor, and the process is very straightforward with automated everything. IF the reviews are to be believed the automated supports work well with few failed prints. Therefore it should be a tool not a hobby. Problems are of course the high price and the locked down system.

The printer is setup to use their own resins but users find that 3rd party resins work just as well. The auto filling is a simple mechanical valve/float system that you don't need to use. The wavelength of the UV is I believe the normal 405um, with their more expensive printer using 385um and the washing is only available if you use their washers and curing.

I'm not sure if I want to take a punt on something so expensive without being sure of the product.

kev
 
P

Paul_H

Western Thunderer
Kev T said:
IF the reviews are to be believed
Click to expand...
Believe online reviews at your peril, they're often wrong.
I'd now always suggest spending some time on the support forums for high tech kit before purchase to see what goes wrong, or what fails to live up to it's advertised promise. The smart bit is working out what problems are just user errors, as opposed to manufacturing or design faults. It also should give you an idea of whether you'll get good support from the manufacturer if there is a problem (nothing is perfect, even the best kit will sometimes have a problem).

It sounds from you've written you'd be better to repair the Mars if you were happy with it. My understanding is that with resin printers screens need to be regarded as consumables anyway.
 
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