Shaun from Gray Scalp Miniatures might have received his Sonic Mighty 8K printer just a couple of months ago, but he's more than excited to upgrade his reliable, user-friendly 8K printer into a 12K printer with the 12K Upgrade Kit.
What is a 12K Upgrade Kit?
If you own the Sonic Mighty 8K or often hang in Phrozen's community, chances are, you might have heard about the 12K Upgrade Kit for Sonic Mighty 8K.
The 12K Upgrade Kit was made for users who own the Sonic Mighty 8K but would like to experience the printing capabilities of a 12K printer, at just a fraction of the cost of getting a whole new printer.
The kit comes with every part that you would need to perform the switch, including even a special label tag that would further solidify your change to a 12K printer.
If you want to watch the step-by-step video on how to swap your LCD screen, mainboard, and other intricate parts that will turn your reliable 8K printer into a 12K printer, you can start by watching the video below.
What Shaun Thinks About the Kit?
As someone who thinks of himself as uncoordinated and breaks things more than he fixes them, he was initially skeptical about the kit. It feels intimidating to open up your totally fine and working printer to remove the parts and replace them with something else.
Regardless, Shaun gathered his courage and expected to spend several hours doing the replacement. To his surprise, the whole process took him just around 30–45 minutes, including repeatedly changing his camera angle and taking a couple of pics for his thumbnail. All in all, he found it to be super quick and not as intimidating as he initially thought.
Shaun was initially surprised to find no instruction manual or a guide inside the box, but he soon realized there was a QR code that led him to the most comprehensive video tutorial that walks you through the whole process.
Get a 'New Printer' With 12K Upgrade Kit
While keeping things more environmentally friendly with an upgrade kit — less printer ending up in the landfill because you can continue using your old one instead of getting a new printer, your 12K upgraded printer will still feel like a brand new printer.
After completely taking apart your printer, unscrewing some stuff, and putting it back together, you'll need to perform all the tasks you'll be doing when you receive a brand new printer: Recalibrating the z-axis, doing the LCD test to make sure your brand new LCD is working well, and of course do a print test to find the perfect exposure between your new 12K LCD screen and your environment.
Now you've got everything prepared, you are ready to print your models! Just remember to also change your settings in the slicer software and make sure that you are now printing with a 12K printer.
Is It Worth Upgrading to 12K?
As always, the answer is.. it depends.
Shaun didn't expect to see any differences from the results printed on the 8K and 12K screens. Since all of his 8K prints have looked great, he didn't expect the 12K to be any better. Yet, the results surprised him.
While it's really hard to show on camera, and you might not find any difference on screen, Shaun said that to his naked eye, you can easily see the difference when you know what to look for.
If you're printing to sell, Shaun thinks having a 12K printer will definitely give you the edge of advantage. People will be intrigued by the results of a 12K printer, and as a business owner, you'd want to offer the best results possible for your customers. So in this case, Shaun thinks it's a no-brainer to upgrade compared to getting a brand-new printer.
Or if you're a miniature printer who would love to print really, really small, the extra resolutions from the 12K Upgrade Kit will help you enhance the appearance of the nice, clean, sharp lines.
Lastly, Shaun was super excited about the possibility of periodically upgrading your resin printer without buying the new one. While customization and upgrade parts are a common and prevalent feature in FDM 3D printing, it's still very rare to find resin 3D printer upgrade parts. Resin 3D printers tend to come pre-assembled compared to FDM printers, which often require some sort of assembly upon arrival. So, the 12K Upgrade Kit feels like a significant move in the right direction.
What do you think? Would you upgrade your Sonic Mighty 8K printers to 12K, or would you rather wait and get the new 12K printers? Let us know in the comments!
