YOU MUST SEE THIS PRINTER! - UltraCraft Reflex Review

Inability to tweak settings or use 3rd party resins is a deal killer. Not to mention the fact that those resins cost $70-120 per bottle. This is even more locked than Bambu, at least bambu lets you change print settings.

I run a small 3d print shop for resin minis, I sell about 200-300 minis a month. I was very interested in this printer at first. Anything that streamlined my process and eliminated print failures (which aren't super common but really set back the production queue when you have them) would be great. My attitude started to sour when you said "proprietary resin" and this printer was 100% completely ruled out when you revealed the cost of the resin. Unless customers make a specific request and pay a custom order upcharge, I'm printing all orders in Sunlu standard, which I get for $15 USD per 1000g, Heygears is 4-6x as expensive. I'd have to raise my prices, and I don't know that the market would bear it. No deal.

I’m an old school FDM guy. I learned to print by flogging an Ender 3 within an inch of its life, and by the time it finally died, I was printing carbon fiber polycarbonate. That was a years long process and I learned a lot, but as soon as the P1P hit the market, I snapped it up. I got into printing because I wanted to make cool stuff. Everything else was ancillary to that goal. I got out of the tinkering game (mostly, I’ve done a few mods to my P1P) as soon as I could, and I haven’t looked back. Resin printing has always been a pain in the rear, which is why I never took the plunge. I just want it to work. If that was the case here, I wouldn’t mind the price tag. But so long as the ecosystem is so closed that I don’t even have the option to screw around, I’ll keep looking. It just works in 90% of the potential use cases is great, but I need to be able to fine tune to hit the other 10%. If I can’t, why bother?

The ability to choose of WHAT you can print is the future of resin printers... we are getting flexible resin in the market that will open up what people will want in a resin printing and wanting to get a resin printer for. Rigth now this printer feels like a Cricut Maker where you can not do custom profiles for the Knife Blade (most important tool for the Maker line and the reason for getting a Maker) and you have to cheat the Knife Blade pre setting and babysit the cuts to make sure it cutting non tested materials. Bambu got it right in that it more like Silhouette's Camo 4. ALL the tools you can create customer profiles for your bespoke materials. But the thought put into te machine it's self is SUCH a game changer that it will change what other brands will aim towards their printer functions.

Dead on arrival: - have to use their resins - have to use their slicer - formlabs clone - 385nm vs 390 is a negligible difference. I don’t think that’s what’s giving the better quality it’s probably the combo of their proprietary resin and settings. - surely layout/orientation should be done before support? - making slicing a “background task” is not a excuse for slow slicing. - yes it’s cheap but when you add up the wash station, cure station and PRM it’s not anymore. - worrying that exposure test cracked, shattering parts of build plate, first print failed.

You can use just about any aftermarket resin with the Reflex. The Reflex prints based on the setting you choose in the slicer, not what's on the bottle. The RFID on the bottle is only there to tell you whether or not you put in the right bottle or not. There is always an option to ignore that message and just print it anyway. You can take off the RFID from the bottle and the Refilex will still print. There are many print settings for different resins that you can choose from in the slicer. Try PAU10 setting or PAP10 setting, I found them to work on ABS-Like, High-Temp, and Flexible resins. I've been using the Reflex since July 2023 day in and day with no problem to date. Also, I'm not telling anyone to use aftermarket resins. 😁

Epsom: "Here's a printer that has lots of features, sorry it's a bit expensive" Brother: "Here's a cheap printer but you're stuck with using our expensive inks" Hey Gears: "Yes our printer is expensive, but you're stuck with using our resin" They seem to want their cake and eat it too.

The amazing BS of voiding your warranty from "damage caused from using 3rd party resins" is a complete load of crap and an absolute no sale for me. I don't care how well it works. EDIT: Oops. I forgot to like the video at least. Here ya go ;) I AM excited to see companies copy/expand on some of these ideas. The slicer seems pretty damn cool and the air assist does sound like a game-changer. Great review.

This would have been an instant buy from me if they didn't take the proprietary resin approach. I want the full premium product that this is, cost included because I need my prototypes to work first time, but let's say I wanted to sell the physical versions of the prints. No access to print settings and the sheer cost of the resin hurts that return way too much if I used this for a kickstarter.

@HeyGears Please make this more affordable for the masses instead of the elite. It doesn't mean you aren't a premium product, but being in every 3d resin printers home would be a statement in and of itself. I agree with Ross on this that , Thousands of units sold is way better then hundreds. Also, with huge sale numbers means the manufacturing itself becomes less and streamlined increasing bottom line profit. The resin for your printers is crazy expensive. This printer isn't for large companies to use for production, they would get industrial machines and write off the cost, so , you cant price the materials the same. I don't want to have to say well , do I really want to print this because it will take this much resin and I cant buy anymore right now because of other living expenses. Make it available to a large consumer base , not just those that have 6 plus figure incomes and large amounts of deposable income.

It appears that the Bambu Labs' success can be attributed to several factors, including the quality of their printers and software, as well as their competitive pricing. However, it is important to consider that a closed ecosystem may deter potential customers, particularly with regard to the availability and cost of materials.

The printer, cure station and vacuum pump thingy will push the total to around/over $2700. You could get 3xGK Two's for that and they are expensive! Pity.

Not being able to modify settings or freedom to use other resin is a deal breaker. Bambu's closed system has A LOT of drawbacks and problems. Apple-fication is not a good thing. Build volume is just way too small for my "needs" also. Still waiting for a 300 cubed build volume for large scale prints.

This printer sounds amazing. And the feature set is perfect for someone like me. I’ll wait until these features trickle down to the sub $600 printer. In the meantime I will continue playing with my bamboo labs A1.

As someone who does occasional commision works of resin prints (today arrives my new FDM printer for FDM as well) I am now seriously considering this. What I waste most of my time on, is checking pre-supports. Seeing they are bad. Re supporting all the required models, doing the test print, re printing after support corrections, etc etc etc. Usually I need about 0.5-1h for each print job to verify and ensure they are good. This ensures that a 10+h print job is not failing wasting way more time.... The approach they had and how good the auto supports look there, it would be a game changer for me - saving countless hours in the long run. For bigger businesses, this is a tremendous time saver. It does not matter that the resin is a bit more pricey. For me as well - it is never the material cost that drives up my prices. It is labour. One of my last jobs needed about 1l of resin (not exactly sure but before delivery the models were about 1050g so a bit more than 1l) and I love siraya tech ABS like. That is about 50 bucks of resin. Compared to labour - print preparation, procuring models. Supporting. Post processing. Sanding. The job was about 20h labour + waiting for 6 plates of printing. The material costs almost don't matter compared to labour time.

As someone looking at buying a resin printer, this appeals to me the same way Bamboo labs does, no nonsense printing/slicer, that works when I want to print something to fix a problem BUT unfortunately I have to, for the timing being pass on this because unlike Bamboo not allowing for that tweaking if you want, and are not limited to their own filament/resin is an instant deal breaker. I live in an area where I can't immediately get proprietary consumables, and for wear parts that's no a big deal because keeping a small stock on hand take up little room, I can't keep a bunch of reels and bottles, I mean I could but I don't do enough consistent printing to justify it right now. Being able to quickly have a roll or two of filament shipped to me in a day or two from a few different suppliers is a plus, the possibility of not being able to print something because I have to wait several weeks for a bottle to be delivered because the supply chain isn't there or their resin is out of stock is a no go, and not being able to tweak to adjust for climate or altitude is not ideal. Hopefully they can do something like Bamboo where they allow us to make a resin profile that the printer will recognize. I realize I'm probably not the target audience for this printer but it feels like I am just outside their target.

Absolutely this, I’m testing this printer at the moment and this out performed the Form Labs 3L in my last video.. amazing machine!

It sounds/looks amazing, but a closed ecosystem is an absolute dealer breaker for me. Hopefully like anything the improvements they have made roll down through other manufacturers. I'd love to see heated vats or enclosures become the normal rather than something found only on the high end models.

3:17 those orange lights actually serve a purpose. They help to counter UV light leaking into the print chamber. These same lights are used in custom printer boxes to reduce UV leakages.

Another great video, thanks. I would love to hear more about your support setting