Get 5% off an Epax E10 with discount code GULFSTREAMOUT5 – https://gulfstreamoutdoors.com/epax
I’ve been in a relationship for four months with Epax E10 and I’m ready to marry it.
Oh man, mid-sized resin printers. It seems like every other week a new one is coming out. I started with the Elegoo Saturn, a great printer but I found that I was always having to adjust the build plate. It has a ball and point designed build plate which is just not a great design. So I had some down time on my Saturn and started looking around. I founds the Epax E10 for $699 which is about $200 more than the Saturn and decided to give it a try. I immediately loved its design and the best thing about this build plate is that it uses four screws to hold it in place. So even if you’re really hammering on a lure you have stuck to your build plate, you’re not going to impact the level. It’s been four months and I’ve yet to level this printer. Straight out of the factory, started printing and really I have not printing in those four months. It’s a work horse and that’s really what you want to think about when you’re buying a 3D printer, of any size or any configuration, FDM or resin. You want to think about how much time you’re going to spend working on the printer versus actually printing. That’s why usually the more you go up in price, the less time you’re going to spend working on it. The Epax E10 certainly qualifies there, it’s not the most expensive mid-sized printer out there but it certainly isn’t the cheapest either. I spend almost no time working on the printer, I’ve only had to replace the vat once and that was my fault since I forgot to clean it and some junk punched a hole in the vat, my bad. Another great thing about this printer is that when it’s printing, it’s smashing the light button.
So is it all rainbows and sunshine with the E10? Pretty close! I have one bone to pick- whoever designed the vat system, needs to be fired. Just kidding, don’t actually fire them! I’m sure they’re actually a great engineer. Cost had to be cut compared to the Epax X10 which is about $1400, but this vat screw system leads to disaster almost every other day. The bolts are built into the printer, you sit the vat on top of the bolts and then you have these nuts that you screw over the top. This is fine when you’re putting them on, but when you’re taking them off you’re spinning and spinning and they either go shooting off onto the floor and underneath your work station or they take a dive directly into the resin which just sucks.
The other kind of annoyance I have with this printer is the vat itself in conjunction with the build plate. So with the build plate they cut corners again compared to the X10 by using a kind of plastic dome build plate. This places a ton of resin in the vat and I’ve gotten dangerously close to overfilling my vat with resin on numerous occasions. Why? Well, mostly because I’m an idiot but I blame the vat. There’s no max fill line on this vat that I can see. I’ve kind of figured it out because I print a bunch but who actually knows. People that are smarter than me have told me that what you do before you print is lower the build plate all the way down into the vat, pour your resin in until it gets to a safe level and then you can start printing. That’s the smart thing to do.
It’s a great printer though. If you want to compare it directly to the Saturn I have a video here.
Get 5% off an Epax E10 with discount code GULFSTREAMOUT5 – https://gulfstreamoutdoors.com/epax
Take care- tight lines