Test the new Anycubic Mono 4k + Black Friday promotion

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Resin 3D printers are becoming more and more popular, there are now printers available to the general public for less than 300€, and manufacturers are offering increasingly high performance models. Anycubic, one of the leaders in this field, has just released 2 new machines, the Photon Mono 4K and the Photon Mono X 6K, these models are similar to their previous generations visually, but are equipped with higher resolution screens, which allows to print with a higher level of details.

Today I’m testing the Photon Mono 4K, a resin printer with a 6.23 inch monochrome screen and a resolution of 3840×2400 pixels.

Unlike the Mono X range, which is also a 4K printer but with an 8.9 inch screen, the Mono 4K offers a smaller print area of 6.23 inches, while retaining a 4k screen, this allows printing at a much higher level of detail than the Mono X, or the previous generation Photon equipped with 2k screen.

This machine is offered at an introductory price of about 250€ via AliExpress (you can take advantage of a promotional code of -30€ for Black Friday until November 29th, code: BFAE30). Very interesting price compared to equivalent competing machines

Description of the Anycubic Photon Mono 4K

• Screen size 6.23 inches (13.2cm x 8cm)
• Print height 16.5cm
• Screen resolution 3840×2400 pixels
• Print speed 50mm / hour
• 15 LED matrix lighting
• Touch screen

On paper, the features are similar to those of the classic Photon Mono (except for the 2k screen). The Monochrome screen allows for very fast printing (50mm per hour theoretically), and Anycubic claims 2000 hours of printing for the life of the screen before it needs replacing.

Unboxing the Anycubic Photon Mono 4K

The packaging and accessories are similar to those of the competition, i.e. gloves, spatula, USB key… the machine is fully assembled, so you will be ready to print within minutes of unpacking!

Please note that there is no bottle of resin supplied with the machine, so you will need to purchase resin at the same time as the machine.

Before starting your first print, you will need to check the level of the plate by following the calibration procedure, this is indicated on the instructions, don’t worry it’s not very complicated.

First print with the Anycubic Photon Mono 4K

You will find on the USB stick a sample printout, which we strongly recommend you print before printing your own files, this will ensure that the machine works properly

The print runs successfully, and will have taken about 4.5 hours, the exposure time per layer on this model was 2 seconds per layer, in 0.05mm for the layer height. The result is very clean with a good level of detail.

At this point it is time to start printing another more interesting model!

For the moment the Photon Mono 4K is not yet referenced on the ChiTuBox software, so you will have to use the in-house software Anycubic Photon Workshop, the use is relatively simple, even if I admit to having a preference for ChiTuBox, but the machine having just been released, it will probably take a little patience.

Here is my first impression from Workshop, an eiffel tower about 12cm high, the rendering is really clean. The Slicer announced a printing time of 4h30, but the printing took more than 7 hours, so don’t trust the time estimated by the software. I left an exposure time of 2sec per layer, it is probable that one can go down to 1,5sec or even 1sec per layer, it also depends on the type of resin, I use here standard grey resin.

Another print, this time a benchy, but in a very mini version! 10mm high, once out of the print you can’t see much, but once cleaned in isopropanol, the rendering is really amazing!

More prints are to come, I will update this article in the next few days, with more complex models and more details!

To conclude

This Photon Mono 4K is an attractive machine (less than 250€) that I would recommend without hesitation if you are looking for a resin printer, Anycubic being a recognized brand and leader in the field of resin printers, you can go there with your eyes closed. This machine is perfectly suited for the beginner and will be up and running in a matter of minutes.