I had a chance to check out one of the latest incredibly cheap printers to be circulating out there. This is the Sparkmaker Original, an SLA printer that retails for $250! Having come from years of 3d printer prices dropping consistently, we shouldn’t be too surprised at this, but even within the world of 3D printing, SLA printers have been typically more expensive than their filament based counterparts. Masked SLA, the ones that use an LCD screen to block UV light, are incredibly cheap to produce though, so it makes sense that they would end up cheaper than a normal cartesian printer.
With this recent glut of cheap resin printers, people do need to keep in mind all the additional things that come with resin. You have this toxic material that gets everywhere, your parts need to be cleaned thoroughly and cured before handling, you have to dispose of your waste properly, and you need to seek out the right resin for the job (does it need to be tough? heat resistant? etc, there’s a resin for that).
This isn’t a full review of this printer. When it comes to something like this, that cuts so many corners in the interest of keeping costs down, the real judge of quality will end up being how long it lasts. Yes, it prints right now, and the few tests I did printed just fine with good results. Will the parts last over time? When I have issues how will the support be? Only time will tell on those fronts.
It really is hard to deny, however, that $250 is an incredibly cheap price to pay to get parts that look this great.
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