hey everyone dara here with tested and
today i'm going to be reviewing the
newest resin printer from the piapoli
the phenom l piapoli is well known for
their line of resin printers
and with this latest release of the
phenom l piapoli provides us with one of
the largest resin printers on the market
the phenom l has an impressive 345 by
194 by 400 millimeter build volume
making it an ideal printer for producing
large detailed resin prints
along with batch production of smaller
items in addition to the build volume
the phenom l uses msla technology
upon opening the box you cannot help but
notice the massive presence that the
phenom presents
this printer is very heavy so you will
need help with moving the printer to its
resting location
i could not help but notice how well and
neatly packed the printer was
upon removing the packing material from
the outside of the printer and removing
the protective film over the acrylic
window
i was met with a stack of styrofoam
which housed all the accessories
packed in the styrofoam was the power
cord and a power supply
a metal and plastic scraper a few allen
wrenches and screws
flash drive fep film resin filters
gloves and the massive 2.5 kg vat
also included was an extra 15.4 lcd
panel one thing to note about the lcd
panels as it relates to resin printers
is that the lcd panels carry a certain
life span after a certain amount of
hourly uses the lcd panel will need to
be replaced
the lcd panel that comes with the
phenomenal does have a lifespan of 400
hours
which is stated on the people website
once everything was out of the packaging
i was ready to set the printer up for
its print by following the detailed
step-by-step instructions which you can
find on people's website and also
included on the usb drive
once the build plate was leveled i
installed the vat
plugged in the usb drive
poured some resin in and i was ready to
start printing
pioply does recommend printing their
test files before beginning any other
prints
the test file was already preloaded on
the usb drive so it was just a matter of
navigating to the file on the very user
friendly touch screen and hitting print
i allowed the print to run and returned
once it was done and to my surprise
it was a batch print of these tiny
intricate cubes in which the phenom l
captured every single detail
of every cube with the test print out of
the way i was ready to begin printing
i wasted no time putting the printer to
the test and pulled out a helmet i
modeled into the recommended slicing
software ch2 box
for this print i used my go-to resin
sierra tech fast
which piapoli also has recommended
settings listed on their website for
each line in the sierra tech family i
loaded the file up and pushed print
and about 37 hours later i was met with
an impressive resin print
after cleaning up this print and
allowing it to cure seeing the results
gave me confidence to move forward to
printing some more detailed and bigger
models
here is what this impressive printer was
capable of producing
next i printed the black panther helmet
and this helmet was ideal for printing
on this printer
just because of the amount of detail
that it has
this print came out amazing and it
captured every detail
so i modeled some concept art around a
royal pilot trooper from star wars
and this was an another print that
was able to capture how big you're able
to print on this printer
the print came out amazing
all right so my overall impression with
the phenom l is this printer is
impressive and a game changer some
features that i really appreciated
especially coming from the phenom
is the angled build plate on the phenom
the top of the build plate is flat
allowing resin to rest on the build
plate after a print was done with the
angle build plate the resin flows off
the side and back into the vat with
minimal resin build up
i also really like the fact that piapoli
including handles
on the build plate it made handling in
my case an often heavy build plate
really easy with that being said one
downside of the phenom l is the batch
system
in the event of a failed print and that
needs to be emptied out in order to
clean out any cured resin
it becomes difficult to slide out the
vat while trying to not spill any resin
the vat almost seems to be magnetized
thus locking it into place
while not being a bad thing it does make
it difficult to remove
i would love to see people incorporate
handles onto the vat itself as they did
with the build plate
and incorporate a pull-up system using
the handles to remove the vat from the
machine
outside of this the printer is amazing
this printer will be a staple in my
workflow in addition to being an
absolute game changer for me
if you are in the market for a large
resin printer you can go check out
people's website for the line of resin
printers including the phenom elk i hope
you all enjoyed this video and this was
helpful
thank you so much for watching and i'll
see you in the next video
well hope you all enjoyed that review of
the phenom
l 3d printer and now i have daryl on the
line here
so we can go more in depth with that
testing process daryl how are you doing
i'm doing well how about you i'm doing
really well and
looking at what you have around you you
have some massive
massive prints i mean my takeaway
watching your review is that
this is one of the first times you can
do huge prints in
one go absolutely this the
phenom l is like i said in the video was
a game changer
i haven't been able to print uh resin
prints this big
in any you know any of the resin
printers that i own so this by far
is one of i think it's one of the
biggest
uh resin printers on the market right
now and i'm able to print helmets in one
go
as you can see i printed the infinity
gauntlet i had to split it but
i mean the fact that i was even able to
print this in the resin
is you know mind-blowing and resin
printers
are they used to be this really scary
type of printer at least for me you know
i was very comfortable with fdm
but like pouring in the resin and
question marks about resolution
and the versions between like
laser-based ones
uh versus the dlp ones and now lcd ones
uh you're pretty happy with the quality
from all the
the kind of modern sla printers you've
been using
absolutely so i i i'll say this i have
converted mostly to printing in resin um
and just because of the quality that you
get
i would model certain things and
wouldn't be comfortable printing it on
the fdm printer because i know i would
lose detail especially in post
processing
but with the resin printer i'm
comfortable with adding a lot of details
to
the models and then being confident
enough to print it that i know
when it comes off the printer i won't
lose those details and then when it's
time to clean up it's just much more
faster
you spend a lot of time sanding pla or
petg
filling sanding and then rinse repeat
and then primer filler with this
you may hit it two times with some
sandpaper
and then some primer filler and you
might be good to go depending on you
know your orientation
of the print and um now don't get me
wrong there are
you know you do get print lines in some
of the resin prints
and that's really dependent on the angle
that you have it so like for instance
the black panther helmet has some print
lines but it's not
really visible unless you're close up on
it versus the helmet
here which i printed at a 45 degree
angle and it has less print lines
um so it's orientation things to figure
out
resolution and then playing with the um
settings in the slicer program as well
i love that you did both the the black
panther one and also the spider-man one
both those feel like good stress
tests because the detail in the black
panther all those small
little raised textures if there's
misalignment
like that would be really noticeable in
the print between layers
yes and then you know with trying to
clean this up
from a fdm printer it would it's just a
nightmare
um because you're gonna probably end up
standing away most of these details
and with this print a lot of those you
don't have to worry about those
um prominent print lines on some of
those raised details on the black
panther helmet
and the same thing with the spiderman
helmet i have some texture
throughout the helmet again it captured
all that texture um amazingly and
you know again minimal cleanup this was
a failed print and i know we
probably want to talk about that a
little later but this was a failed print
um but the quality of it still turned
out
great now are you thinking about a way
because you have to if you're going to
put in one go there's a lot of time
investment right the risk is a little
bit higher
the payoff is there because you don't
have to piece things together
but using the same model which you've
separated before
um can you talk about differences
between having to split a helmet up into
pieces how you think about
how you break up that helmet versus now
going in in one go
so it's a little bit easier to be honest
with you because with the fdm you have
to worry about supports and how you're
going to angle it
on the printer on the print bed um and
then you know how much support you're
going to use
versus the resin prints i can print
a whole helmet like i printed the black
panther helmet and literally
i had it sitting up i think it was like
this on the print bed
um so you have the print bed up here and
then the supports the supports hanging
holding it to the print bed i didn't
have to worry about
as many supports hitting certain areas
and then the cleanup
literally you can pull the supports
right off and it's minimal cleanup
especially with the settings that i have
in the slicing program
it's just to me it's just an easier
process now
the cleanup is a little bit more um
complex
versus um an fdm printer in terms of
uh you know right when it comes off the
bed you have to make sure that you know
you get all the resin off you have to
soak it in alcohol
um you know cure it in a curing chamber
um so it's a little it's a little bit
more
post-processing but again it to me
i just like this process much more
better than fdm yeah yeah
and with the l specifically right game
changer because of that volume
that's both the bed size and
the height is that correct yes right so
the bedside
so so the height is the same as the
phenom so that's the
the um model before this one
but the actual like width and um
you know the z depth you get a lot of
get more room
and like i said you're able to print
these full helmets um versus where the
phenom
you didn't have as much room um in there
but the height is the same they're both
400 millimeters
got it so it's not like if you were
cutting the helmet off you weren't
cutting like the top and bottom
you'd be you'd have to slice off however
you angle it like the sides and join
together
like that way correct so for instance
like this helmet i had
because this had a little bit more um
width
on it i had to split it in half in order
to get it on the phenom l same thing
with the infinity gauntlet
this filled up the bed and it filled up
height wise but i had to split it in
half
but again these these resin princes are
so accurate when you're putting these
pieces together
i don't know i i i really i really enjoy
this process so
i'm loving the phenomenal i can tell i
can tell i mean also
having just a bigger bed means even if
you're not putting things that are tall
you could print more small things right
if people are doing manufacturing
you know making small trinkets keycaps
or whatever
like you save time because you can print
basically
it's the same amount of time uh per
layer
because the display flashes all at once
yep so uh one of the first prints the
test printer is actually a batch print
um and they print these small little
intricate
cubes and the detail so i
i think one thing that people may be
worried about is the size of this
printer and then losing detail
um but once i printed these and seen
that it captured all the detail in these
little cubes
i was confident enough that it would you
know it would really do a good job
so you don't lose any detail with with
the size you know that's something that
may
be compromised um with you know having a
larger
print bed um you lose quality but the
resolution is there
right because literally you're talking
about display like a screen resolution
right they're stretching a panel it's
almost like you're thinking about a you
know like a phone pixel density
right larger phone same resolution but
you get
less detail per square inch kind of
thing
yep and um so i'm sorry go ahead
oh no as i say and then this they're
using a very high resolution panel
across this bed size yes they're using a
4k lcd screen i think it's 15.4 inches
um and then this is msla technology so
it's
uh it it uses a combination of a lcd
screen
and led lights um that that helps cure
this resin so
um i mean the quality and resolution is
there
now when you said you know you have
about 400 hours for a lifespan of the
lcd have you gone to the point with all
your prints yet that you're noticing any
degradation in the
the quality or that you're gonna have to
swap them out anytime soon
um so the phenom i i'm believe i'm well
over 400 hours on that
um i haven't lost any quality
the last few prints i've seen i've seen
some
more print lines and that's probably on
me and the way i had the
model angled on the bed so i have to go
back and do some testing
but i haven't had any significant
changes from when i first got the
printer
um but yes these these lcd screens do
have a lifespan
um and it varies through each
manufacturer
but uh people recommends that well they
say 400 hours
but again mine's i think is well over
400 hours now and i haven't had to
i haven't had any problems and they have
good documentation and supply if you
need to
buy the lcd you won't be you know out of
commission for too long
so you so they have the lcd replacements
on their website
and uh they do have detailed
instructions on how to
change it out it's just a matter of
going into the machine
removing the vat um removing the top lid
it's it's taped down so you just remove
the tape and again there's
um detailed instructions where you know
you're plugging out wires removing some
screws and plugging it in
so um they really do provide you with
the documentation there
in the event that you do need to change
out the lcd screen well let's talk about
the gauntlet because that is
a massive massive print i mean even
though you do it in a few pieces
like the fact that you could even think
and say okay let's
take go for it and print out a full
infinity gauntlet
uh tell me about the the design of that
for this printer
and then whether it makes you feel like
you can print full armor unless
um so i actually modeled this uh
i want to say maybe last year um and i
attempted to print this on an fdm
printer
and had multiple failures so i would get
to like
this point and i'm talking about we're
in like 90 hours
and the the print will just fail um so i
just left it alone i gave up
i said i'm not gonna bother with it just
left it alone
um so you know i had the chance to
review the phenom and i revisit this so
i did a lot of remodeling on it
some of the thickness the wall thickness
i went back and changed
and just thinking about printing in
resin
if the walls were too thick it would eat
up too much resin like i would
i would be going through bottles of
resin so i so i bought down the wall
thickness on these to i think maybe
about four millimeters
um and just made sure that this was
something that i can print without
having to hollow it out because
most of the time people uh hollow out
their prints so this way they're not
using as much resin
i tend to model the helmets that i'm um
gonna print on resin print in resin at
like four millimeters so this way i
don't have to hollow it out and at the
same time i'm not using as much resin
um i mean the gauntlet
i so i was hesitant about printing it at
first because i didn't know
first of all it was gonna fit on the bed
the whole thing and then when i put it
into the slicing program i saw that it
wasn't going to fit at all
but luckily enough the design on the
gauntlet
the front piece here there's a space in
between there so i said that would be a
good place to split it in half this way
when i do go to clean up
i'm not doing as much intricate sanding
in between
detailed pieces to try and get you know
get it all cleaned up
i printed it it maybe took about i don't
know
maybe a week a week and a half to print
um
each side and then the palm and the um
the fingers which is probably out of
view a camera but
i was able to get all of it printed um i
did not one thing i didn't i did not
keep track of how much resin i used
um but it was quite a bit um
but it came up it came out great man it
and i'm more comfortable with cleaning
this up versus
on the fdm yeah yeah totally yeah
and it's another one of those things
when you think about like the scope of
prints you know not only is it a bigger
print and you can
think about different types of things
like big gauntlets full helmets
but the time spent kind of monitoring
and managing the print if it's a week to
print you're gonna
like it sounds like you're going
checking in and pouring resin in and
refilling the reservoir on a regular
basis
it's almost like growing a plant exactly
um so
i would wake up in the morning come down
here check the vat
pouring enough to make sure that i was
good for the day head off to work come
back
um and the one thing about this the vat
stays pretty full
um for the most part i i think i was
pouring in more resin than i needed
um making me think that i may have used
more than i
intended to but this vat is huge um
and it holds a lot of resin um and i
you know and and in the review i stated
that trying to change out
that that that when it's full is is very
difficult because there's so much resin
in there
um the first time i changed it out i got
resin and you know you got to be careful
with this resin
um i got it all over the place trying to
pour it out that vet um
but again you know monitoring it
like you said it's like growing a plant
but you know it pays off
at the end totally and that's why it
feels like this also is appropriate for
shops that have a lot of people there
all the time and people can be managing
multiple printers doing big
you know medium scale manufacturing and
and they can like
it fits into that type of workflow what
type of tips you have for people want to
take on a printer this size and print
things of the scope
uh just um probably safety first
make sure that you have the machine in a
well-vented area um
just do a little bit of research on
resin printing and what it takes because
again it's a it's a it's a little bit of
a messy process
um in terms of clean up once you get it
off the
the bed but once you have like a curing
station and you have a dedicated place
i have like one area in my garage that's
just for resin printing
and that's where it's isolated too and i
keep all my cleaning supplies there
everything stays in that so i'm not
cross-contaminating that with anything
else
because of the um you know toxic
toxicity of the
of the resin so i tend to keep it all in
one area
well ventilated um
and yeah i mean the only thing that i
wish
people would have done with this printer
is to add handles to the
to the vat it's like i said it was
pretty difficult to empty that that out
um like a pull-up system would be
awesome and one thing they did that i
really do appreciate is that they added
handles to the to the bed
um and pulling off something like the
infinity gauntlet
or or this it's heavy you know
with all the with all the um with all
the supports because there's a lot of
supports that i had running through this
um and it tends to get heavy so having
those handles on the bed and being able
to
um handle it in that manner was was a
real real
plus and a bonus so yeah
i mean i would highly recommend this
printer
i would probably start off with
something smaller first
and then kind of graduate to one of
these bigger printers so that you can
get the hang of it of you know of resin
printing and
and get your kind of get your feet wet
and then you know move on to something
bigger like this
totally and there are so many sla
printers out there that essentially use
the same principles
uh but a smaller form factor smaller
screen
you know less build volume and
everything scales up you're using
more alcohol for washing it you get any
better curing
area right and so it's not a lot of
people are going to have that even in
the home garage
that space to start exactly so i had to
for this particular printer i had to
build a curing box for it to
to accommodate the size of these prints
um and then i found myself going from
when alcohol was available um the little
eight ounce or you know 16 ounce bottles
of alcohol
90 99 isopropyl alcohol
to buying the gallons which i was able
to find at a local store here
i would have to buy it by the gallon and
um you know i had to change up my whole
washing station i went from a little tub
where i could just shake the prints in
and clean up to actual
buckets of um trying to clean this stuff
up so
um there there's some thought to put
into it before you actually purchase one
to make sure that you're prepared for
the cleanup process because that's
something that you you know you want to
take serious and um
you know make sure that you're you know
keep up on it
well awesome well thank you so much for
all those insights great review
super informative for me thinking about
you know
prints and how how to think about 3d
printing at this
size and can't wait to see more helmets
i know you modeled non-stop so
congratulations on
getting this printer in uh it's good to
see you daryl good to see you too thank
you norm
thank you all for watching we'll be back
next time with another project from
daryl
leave your comments in the comment
section below and we'll see you next
time
