Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 12K Resin 3D printer: Auto Leveling, Motorized resin tray for print releasing

00:00 Intro
03:19 Setup and first print
05:54 Printing multiple objects
07:06 Printing high-resolution model
08:28 Printing Nylon-like function model
09:24 Pros and Cons
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Resins used in this video:
Creality water washable resin:
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Buy SUNLU filaments from official website:
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[@UncleJessy]

Fantastic review. You all are killing it with your videos! Keep up the amazing work!

[@AuroraTech]

Thanks uncle Jessy!

[@FlesHBoX]

The elephants foot is common among all resin printers, and is caused mostly by the increased exposure of first layers. This can be reduced, or even avoided by using a very long wait before print/wait after retract and lower burn in layer times. Though this is only really acceptable if you can set bottom exposure wait before print/after retract values separately from normal layers, otherwise you will be massively increasing print times, because you need wait times of 20-40 seconds for the best results. The elephants foot is caused by resin still moving when the exposure occurs. As it starts to cure, it's still being pushed out from between the plate and screen, and the result is cured resin moving out from the masked area.

[@dontburnmeplz]

Saturn 4 ultra is clearly the first of a new type of resin printers that make it far less tinkering then it used to be. Just like moving from a stock ender 3 to a K1 things go from tinkering to printing with ease. I doubt ill get this generation but the next few years resin printers will get some amazing advancements it might be time to upgrade.

[@Shadow_Banned_Conservative]

I was thinking the same thing. I still have my Creality Halot-One and a EPAX 4k clone from years back. I don't use them much though, mostly print FDM on a Creality K1. It will be interesting to see what the coming years hold for resin, and FDM printing.

[@samhillier4427]

I'm hoping Bambu Lab will release a resin printer to give the resin side of the industry the same kick up the ass. Elegoo and Anycubic are getting there though. Fliptop lid, heater, auto calibration and lauto-level need to be essential features

[@isaacruizandero6407]

​@@samhillier4427 vamos, que Bamboo copie a otros fabricantes para que los hooligans de la marca se emocionen pensando que han descubierto la pólvora. Es una marca normal más que cada vez que se tira un pedo, su legión de fanáticos dice Amén. Patético.

[@ilprof2154]

Can this use transparent resins?

[@SavageJacek20]

Aurora, I must strongly recommend Simple Green for resin printing cleaning. Everyone I know that does warhammer and miniature prints swears by it! It can be reused almost infinitely unlike 99% IPA.

[@manicmartyr69]

Been looking at the Saturn 3 Ultra for awhile, and now that this dropped I’m glad I waited. Time for a new printer. Great review as usual.

[@tuerty]

Best reviews in KZbin! Nice job!

[@tsbrownie]

Another thorough and excellent review. Thanks!

[@RocktCityTim]

Thorough and deep as always. Thanks Aurora. Also, thanks for sharing your settings in Chitubox.

[@patrickroos739]

Best resin printer review I have seen so far, very infomative, no nonsense and professional, many thanks!

[@Jbobonline]

Aurora strikes back 💪

[@7kortos7]

I just preordered two of them. can't wait to get them running!

[@divyajnana]

Well Aurora, yet another great printer review, the Saturn 4 Ultra ticks all my boxes, UNFORTUNATELY, so did your previous review of the Sovol SV08 (WHICH YOU made me BUY) so I guess I need to save up some more Samolians before I can buy this one! Thank you (and you brother), again, for a great printer review.

[@netnoob77]

Hmm the compression of the first few layers is a significant problem especially for those of us who print directly on the build plate. Kudos for highlighting this. You are the only reviewer who did. 🤔

[@Doogleraia]

This is great, one step closer to a multi-tray resin printer for multi-color resin-prints

[@Omri.Collects]

Fantastic review

[@rondlh20]

Great review, seems to be a good printer

[@perfectscotty]

Great video, You sold me on this printer.

[@Liberty4Ever]

Great review, as always! I was excited to see this next generation MSLA printer and was happy to see this positive review. This looks like a good candidate for a small print farm. Now if only a manufacturer could make an integrated system that ejects the parts from the build plate, cleans, dries and post cures them automagically. MSLA has too much messy slopping around with chemicals. A structural resin that uses soapy water would be a huge boon to MSLA printing.

[@aberodriguez4149]

Nice review thank you for your time and work. It would of been nice if Elegoo incorporated a heating system within the printer along with filtering the VOC's. For those with limited real estate the cover lifting back is appreciated however the cover requires additional space behind the printer itself in order to be out of the way. Maybe Elegoo can look into modifying this printer in it's next evolution stage.

[@alexbandayrel]

Awesome video! Best Saturn 4 Ultra review on KZbin!

[@Davidlahall]

I was curious as to what you would find as a con on this printer. I was about to tell you that you don't always have to have cons but I must say that I honestly value the cons that you have found and they are truly relavent. You are just better every day. As a fan of resin printing can you please forward to Elegoo to make a 15 or 17 in size printer. I bought the phrozen mega for 2700$ and it's was a total waste I would definitely buy this printer in a bigger size. As always great job. You are simply fantastic. ❤

[@9thebear]

I’m blown away by this machine. The Chinese are really starting to impress with their tech. I just bought a 50cc 2 stroke motor off of Amazon for €60, how do they do it! Very tempted to buy this machine as I’m sick of failed prints on my old AnyCubic

[@tweekFPV]

👍🏻👍🏻

[@liammercado8139]

Nice review. I would like to see a review on a EMCO comcept 55 cnc. It's more complex than any cnc I've seen on the channel so far but for it's size and price point I think it's a good cnc to do a review on. Thanks!

[@sbnathanson]

Great review! Is there a link you could share for the lizard model you used in this evaluation?

[@-Primer-]

Love your reviews !! What water washable resin do you use? How do those prints hold up to moderate heat, like sitting in a vehicle in summer time?

[@petercallison5765]

She said Creality.

[@jaspercallahan3318]

Correct me of im wrong but the elephant foot you get on resin is a compansation adjustment in the bottom layers because of the longer exposure time. Unless chitubox doesnt give u that option for compensation for the printer as i have it for my anycubic on chitubox.

[@DominequeTaylor]

So would you say this it the “Bambu printer” momentum for resin printers meaning it has increased speed and accuracy right out of the boxes compared to traditional resin printers? I feel like it. I stick with Bambu printers but I do have a resin printer but haven’t used it a lot because all the extra stuff you have to do to print it but this may bring me back to using resin printers again. Just got to sell my old one first.

[@deviouscat0]

Do you plan on reviewing the new anycubic photon mono M7 pro?

[@gedgicat2063]

Great video as always, does the printer support a low resin (resin run out) feature when printing? I've seen this feature before but can't remember which resin printer I saw it on.

[@AuroraTech]

Yes, the Saturn 4 Ultra supports resin leveling monitoring.

[@BREACHERCAT]

13:04 Quick question 😄 For this scenario, will the tiled vat motion benefit if I position the model horizontally instead of 45°? Usually, prints will fail if the first layer after support is flat like that. Anyhow, great review! Is there any chance you are testing the Micronics SLS printer?😆

[@AuroraTech]

I believe so. No matter how you orient the model, it still has to contact the film of the tray, so the tilted motion should still be beneficial for release.

[@B0BBYGAMER]

Pretty cool innovations for resin. Are you planning on testing kobra 3?

[@AuroraTech]

Yes, scheduled in July.

[@Ryxxi_makes]

would you guys be getting a new camera, i think the better quality will help a lot.

[@Milkex]

I also use cooking chopsticks! you can buy aluminum ones these days!

[@patrickmckowen2999]

👍

[@Solista670]

Great that it has a camera. One question though, is the interior of the machine illuminated? BTW one of the cons of this printer certainly is the two layer build plate - must be a nightmare to clean it between the plates :(

[@AuroraTech]

No, it's not illuminated. I simply wipe it with IPA and a paper towel and don't clean it completely every time when switching resin; I just let a tiny bit of resin mix with the new one.

[@petercallison5765]

I presume it allows you to put a lot more resin in the vat.

[@DuaneBendt-ch2od]

I know you must be very busy but I was wondering. I know you prefer water washable resins, have you compared different water washable resins? I know a while ago, KZbinrs stated that the level of detail with WW resins are lower than standard resins. Or they are much more brittle. What are your experiences with them, if I may ask. Thank you for your videos, I find them extremely informative and very well executed.

[@RogerEberhart]

Using water in these types of wash and cures is generally not recommended as the bearings in the impeller will rust over time. Some people replace the bearing with ceramic ones to use the units with water instead of IPA.

[@raphaelsanabria7505]

One more cool thing is u can use this on lychee slicer

[@MrSpeakerMBurns]

When will this be available on Amazon?

[@testboga5991]

Screw the lacking air filter, nobody needs those as they fill up immediately, but the printer lacks a heater! That's a total bummer! For viscous resins, this makes process reliability poor as the resin heats up only during printing and also decreases print quality due to resin being too sticky.

[@xeraoh]

the resin heats up only during printing?? - use a heatgun (some use hairdryer) and steer the resin, print quality is back in action

[@petercallison5765]

The Anycubic M7 has a heater and auto resin refill so a hard choice between the two.

[@netnoob77]

Informative review.. i just realised they shaved 3cm off the max build height with this new version. Quite disappointing

[@jakobhartenberger2179]

Hi. a printer should not have problems with a full print late even without a tilting mechanism. I often print a 90% full printplate and dont have fails. the correct bottom exposure time for the used resin and the movement speed settings should be dialed in of course. If you want to check your supported print, try doing this before you sliced it and while or after supporting. it should render faster. elephants foot is of course happening on the first layers because the exposure time is greatly higher than the normal time...tuning this in the slicer is really easy and not the fault of the software or printer. did this not happen with other printers you tested?

[@Duckferd]

chopsticks, the secret weapon to resin prints and cooking pasta

[@ilprof2154]

Is it good for tansparent resins printing too? What's about their quality?

[@ArtplusHrApps]

Hi! You keep repeating preference on water washable resin... You may wish to try Sunlu detergent that turns every resin water washable! No need for IPA any more :) I tried it with Anycubic ABS Like + resin. Works like a charm!

[@ArtplusHrApps]

Oh... sorry... I wrote too early... I see you know about Sunlu detergent... :)

[@ClydapusGotwald]

Can you make Timelapse’s without using chitubox?

[@justina208]

Me: Oh that piece came out crooked. Oh wait, that’s the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

[@Gaston12345]

12:38 This, I think, confirms my assumption that there is no such thing as an auto bed leveling, but just a spring-loaded bed. I have never had issues with bed leveling, and if I had, I'd just increase the bottom exposure to fill the gap. So no advantage at all, but at the cost of a massively more annoying cleaning procedure. The tilting mechanism may be a good thing, but it comes with its drawbacks, too. On the Prusa machine, I've seen feature requests to disable it as it introduces warping. All in all, I think this is a downgrade from the saturn 3, although I was very excited at first sight. Maybe the tilting mechanism is really worth it, time will tell, and the hood is - well - all printers will need to change to this now... But the build plate is a deal-breaker for me.

[@petercallison5765]

The leveling uses strain gauges for leveling, springs would not work. A BIG plus with this is residue detection, to save you puncturing FEP.

[@Gaston12345]

@@petercallison5765 Yes, agree, this sensing may be a life saver. But these sensors are not likely to be in the buld platform, are they? I don't see any communication measures like spring contacts. And I'm sure there is no wireless communication. So it's just one single force sensor. And even if there were several sensors on the plate, auto leveling to me would mean that there are motors in each corner of the plate, which would twist the plate accordingly. So on the plate itself it's just springs, isn't it? If you push the plate on a corner, will it retent and then spring back? Sorry for asking again.

[@theogmrbill1]

I’m having issues. Did you have the same issue? When printing the sample print included with the usb. It starts off printing fine but once it gets to around layer 50 the vat tray drops and waits 35 seconds before raising back to to do a 2.5s exposure. And then goes back to 35 seconds wait time before the vat raises back up for another exposure. Etc. A 2 hour sample rook print turns into 15%complete after 3 hours. I’ve reset the printer, tried factor reset, rebooted, tried using the slicer itself, tried a different usb drive. Nothing is working. This printer no matter what I try IT IS SLOW!! I’ve reached out to Elegoo and I’m still waiting for a response.

[@jasonjulian1]

The loss of available Z height over the Saturn 3 kills it for me.

[@runklestiltskin_2407]

You can't tell the difference between the 12k and 14k, because they have the same pixel size.

[@Graham_Wideman]

6:54 Huh, that's not right -- that tower thingy got printed at a bit of an angle! Oh wait....

[@rickmellor]

Aaaannnndddd…. I just bought another printer. 😉

[@marcobuso1768]

Hi! nice video, I just have a strong doubt about how well that autolevel system works... Anycubic's M5s used a similar system and it was total rubbish. the build plate was crushed against the LCD and the prints were severely deformed in height. Could you try printing 5 2mm thick discs (4 corner and center) and measure with a caliper how thick they are printed?

[@3dpathfinder]

or you can use Lychee

[@LordNerfherder]

It is needlessly bad to clean for no apparent reason. Your thoughts? I hate cleaning resin.

[@convileedwards8579]

none stick working mine never do

[@ROBOROBOROBOROBO]

If this printer had a cabin heater and a resin pump, I would get it. Also one problem I find is, I think air filters are mostly worthless and a air hose is always a better solution. But I am scared of sucking too much air, fast enough the ambient temperature inside decreases rapidly, to cause a print failiure. So a machine with a controlled fan right before the hose exit, would also be a wonderful addition.

[@petercallison5765]

The Anycubic M7 has both of those.

[@ROBOROBOROBOROBO]

@@petercallison5765 I didnt know, I will take a look at it thanks a lot for the suggestion

[@leonardojoy]

change your processor...

[@kevinpezzi6777]

The review I've never seen: of truly safe resin. Few realize how toxic current resins are.

[@tomfox41]

I wish this wasn’t a paid review :/

[@kitmarshall4084]

Wow that’s cheap

[@ArtificialMaze]

Tons of new features? List of them is 0 😅 like what's new? And still they make this printer half good... Like why? In my opinion the only full and good so far is GK2, that printer should be a start point and from this one they should upgrade things, this printer is lacking of hinge to lift up cover xD Elegoo rly...

[@petercallison5765]

Tilt tray, residue detection and camera and it has a hinge, what is your problem?

[@ArtificialMaze]

@@petercallison5765 it's nothing new 😅

[@Drd4all]

If their fdm printets are mediocer at best, at lest they are doing better in the resin department. At lest till Bambulab comes out with resin and breaks the market again 😂

[@tjCooper88]

Ugh another Bambu fanboy. You do realise elegoo have been at this a long time? You guys are as bad as apple shills

[@xeraoh]

they not going to come out anything similar just because there is nothing to collect(loot) from the open source community

[@mendicantbias5211]

​@@tjCooper88Bambu fanboi here. They dont need to make a resin printer, Elegoo makes amazing printers and have the best customer service. Its alllllll from china.

[@kristiyantodorov6310]

​@@mendicantbias5211 as a reseller of Elegoo brand i can tell your in big dream.

[@orlandojam8]

why does she sounds like an AI? 🎉

[@mackbolan1733]

I'm not sold on this printer...bed levelling has never been a problem for me, so auto-leveling doesn't mean much...my two main conerns are (1) there are now two major moving systems on the machine (build plate and vat), this means there is more chance of components breaking down or working their way out of tolerance/calibration over time, and (2), almost always I like to wash my prints whilst still attached to the build plate, this build plate seems to preclude that possibility.

[@SolarAbyss]

The build plate detaches with the flip of a lever

[@mackbolan1733]

@@SolarAbyss Not sure why you said this...

[@Graham_Wideman]

@@mackbolan1733 Why do believe the build plate precludes washing the prints while they are still attached?

[@xeraoh]

i have 3 resin printers and cannot really remember when I last leveled them, auto-bed leveling is a marketing buzzword. if I remember right formlab had this vat tilting system and they dropped the idea (I guess for a good reason) btw never rush to buy a new system lets wait till other ppl beta testing it lets see how it goes after a year

[@mackbolan1733]

@@xeraoh 100% agree...