A few weeks ago Anycubic sent us some of their 14K Texture HD Gray resin for a review. We’ve been playing around with it for a while and are now ready to share our experience with you.

Why?

Before we get to the point, let me address the questions that might be circulating in your head, “Why did Bulka switch their resin? Did they sell out to Anycubic? Are they getting paid for it? Is this one of those sponsorship reviews where they lick the sponsor’s boots for free crap?”.

TL;DR If you don’t care for our excuses and justifications, feel free to skip this section and go straight to the next one. If you just want a short answer, then no, we have not sold out to Anycubic and we don’t profit from this review, unless you count a few bottles of resin we have received from them. But allow me to address it more thoroughly.

As I have stated in the past, we are not in the business of selling printers and resin to you. We are not influencers, so we honestly don’t care if you pick Anycubic, Elegoo, Conjure, SunLu, or whatever else you fancy; it’s not our job to steer you towards a particular vendor. Of course, every now and then someone offers to review something and we never really decline, but we make it clear from the start that we don’t accept money in return and it’s going to be an honest review. If there are bad things to say, you can bet we won’t keep quiet. Some choose to back down at this point, while others are more confident in their product and agree to the terms.

Consider this: the goal of our test prints is to make sure our models are printable and also to present our designs in the most flattering way. So, ultimately, the things that matter for us the most are reliability and visual appeal. As such, why would we suddenly change to a crappy resin that warps like wet clay, blurs all details, and makes our prints look like a large blob on any picture? Just so we could please some sponsor by hurting our primary business? I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t make much sense to me. So, when somebody says “Of course you’d want to please them to keep receiving free crap”, I have to wonder “If it’s crap, why do I want it in the first place - free or otherwise? We don’t sell prints, so what exactly do we gain from piles of crappy resin?”.

On the other hand, if someone offers us free stuff which is really good and is everything we can wish for, then by all means, you can expect me say great things about it in exchange for more. Why not? Who in their right mind would say no to high-quality freebies? If that makes us biased, then sure, feel free not to believe a single word in the following sections. But I don’t think these reviews can boil down to either “they weren’t paid, so they said it’s crap” or “they were sponsored, so of course they praised it”.

My point is, Elegoo has been ignoring my any attempts to contact them for the last 1.5 years despite the fact that we’ve been practically promoting their printers for the last 4 years on a weekly basis without ever getting anything in return. Chitu sent us a free bottle of Conjure resin back in 2022 and we’ve been promoting them in our test prints ever since, even though we get the same bulk price as anyone else who asks for one. And yet, you didn’t hear us saying bad things about them or actively seeking to change vendors. But if another vendor does come along and offers a decent free printer followed by free good resin, we really don’t have any obligations to decline their offer. Granted, of course, we really do enjoy their quality and aren’t hurting our main business just to save a few hundred bucks. But it’s hardly marriage, so if someone else comes along with another offer, we won’t decline and will consider it. But, like everyone else, they have to be prepared with us telling our honest opinion about their product, whether good or bad. Because at the end of the day, we are in the business of making models, not being someone’s mouthpiece. And if that makes us difficult to work with – so be it.

Anycubic 14K Texture Resin HD Gray

Following the Photon P1 printer, Anycubic offered to pick some of their resin that would best suit our purposes. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the one we picked in stock, so in the meantime they sent us a couple different ones, 5 bottles each.

One of them, Anycubic 14K Texture Resin HD Gray, is what we are going to discuss first. HD Gray is darker than most usual gray resins, which is what we liked about it; it looks nice and also gives a slight silky sheen. Despite that, it is quite matte otherwise, which doesn't prevent finding support marks or layers lines that need to be sanded down. And if you’ve ever primed a model only to reveal atrocious support damage that you didn’t notice before, you should appreciate that.

https://preview.redd.it/xusblvhg8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=df4e86d7a0512ed1c23d2f6bf000d81f6d84f624

The resin itself is quite thin in terms of liquidity, fairly fast and adheres well to the plate, with very little odor during printing. We always fine-tune the resin through tests for our an uncommon 0.04mm layer height, but overall, the exposure settings were loosely based on the recommendations provided by Anycubic.

Here are our settings for reference.

https://preview.redd.it/whtsakyg8w9h1.jpg?width=974&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b27a58676849a32f125bbe7e83ee4522de0b1a7f

Prints wash well in IPA. In fact, even easier than what we are used to with Conjure, undoubtedly on account of HD Gray being thinner. Supports come off easily and without leaving excess cavities. Once cured, the surface is smooth and pleasant to the touch, without that feeling of cheapness as some other resins.

https://preview.redd.it/sbw04exh8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=64ffa06de45ec0f025d4a3fe93e13212d157d6cc

https://preview.redd.it/8izp0gxh8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4da8180d4ea2cedca56188ab2a3240a0e74ba03b

https://preview.redd.it/x1zapdxh8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6bcd436ce00284b9b49c5e7252ed8fa34cfa6bf

https://preview.redd.it/gu9cbexh8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cf68656155c9b26bddc11465cef19093e3fa424b

The print quality is very good, perfectly conveying all the fine details and texture. Post processing isn’t difficult, but cutting with a knife is not recommended – it starts to chip due to hardness. The shrinkage is negligible and supports hardly stretch the surface. These traits cannot be overestimated, as they lead to less work during post-processing to minimize gaps between pieces of a model. The prints turn out to be quite rigid – it takes some effort to bend or break them – but with some room for flexibility – slightly less than what we are used to with Conjure, but still enough not to snap just by looking at it the wrong way. The photos below show how much a piece could bend before it snapped. However, please note that it’s not a rubber-like resin; thin pieces can still break with enough effort.

https://preview.redd.it/y1ddqfzk8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f662f582e709b58fd1aea93d450d9659bee1aa4

https://preview.redd.it/pbw5vkzk8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2454bc0a2dc282ed6892b212d0ef63b1a06d0843

In conclusion, even though it’s not the resin we originally asked for, we would definitely recommend Anycubic 14K Texture Resin HD Gray; it’s certainly worth giving it a try. This resin pleasantly surprised us and performed very well, and we might even switch to it completely in the future. Honestly, we wish we could say the same for the other resin we received… but let’s discuss it separately.

Anycubic 16K Standard Light Beige

The other resin Anycubic has sent us is Anycubic 16K Standard Light Beige. It's a nice color for those who enjoy painting skin tones with various shadings, but this resin is not suitable for showing off details on photos at all.

https://preview.redd.it/xhuxvj5m8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8e705f9cbcf3aa1f5e33033dde5f3d856b217420

Just like Texture Resin, it has a weak smell, flows well, and cleans easily. After printing, the surface is pleasantly matte, and the shrinkage is good, with parts fitting together without issues. However, we couldn't achieve good print consistency with it, and not for the lack of trying. Pieces would occasionally warp, regardless of their size and weight. We tried significantly reducing the speed, but that didn't help either. Despite the 16K label, the level of detail isn’t much to marvel at, likely because the resin is very light with more prominent subsurface scattering, which leads to more distinct parasitic UV exposure.

https://preview.redd.it/1sqytt8n8w9h1.jpg?width=974&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=219a3be4e8bed1c86f47e547c039467528b3bbb1

Additionally, much like all standard resins, this one is quite brittle, so you have to be very careful when handling your prints to avoid accidental snapping or shattering on an accidental drop. And hey, if you never drop your prints, good for you for not being born with two left hands. We, on the other hand, are as clumsy as can get, so we can’t afford reprinting a piece just because we sneezed at it.

https://preview.redd.it/7vlqytso8w9h1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6023697e7c9db9be086f08ec589cd03ce08c09ce

https://preview.redd.it/0r702dzp8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3865a0cfd92d05df2904f09af5c0900233103f49

https://preview.redd.it/08z9cdzp8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=63a2e6dd9f96218bdc7b467c2f05a67893856503

https://preview.redd.it/yvdc6czp8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d4f657e231e1d4461a02f1d60cd4a6a20bd7fae

https://preview.redd.it/6k6tbdzp8w9h1.jpg?width=2581&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=800afeb71d5599c9b23f100cef7ff6da64c3673e

https://preview.redd.it/67ije7xq8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4880c4668ae13be41d673ee0c4fbcfce6c26ee7f

https://preview.redd.it/peavc7xq8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3757559dfc0c2cc9457b532c4fce84d92533436

https://preview.redd.it/58b4l7xq8w9h1.jpg?width=2236&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dbd7c852d77dd6e976628637dd75cf2906553688

All in all, it’s a standard resin in a sea of similar standard resins. Yes, it may be a bit more pleasant to the touch and has good shrinkage, so if you are looking for cheap, by all means, give this one a try. As for our needs, it proved to be completely unsuitable and you won’t see any of our new releases printed in it, because we wouldn’t be able to make the photos look good without priming the print.

Conclusion

If you skipped all of the above and just want us to draw the final verdict, here goes:

Anycubic 14K Texture Resin HD Gray is a nice rigid resin with a beautiful surface look, very low shrinkage and a decent room for flexibility. We might even consider it for all our future test prints.

Anycubic 16K Standard Light Beige is everything you would expect from a standard resin. Low priced, brittle, not great for showing off your unpainted prints. We’ve had some difficulty getting reliable prints with it, but we can chalk it up to personal inaptitude. Definitely a miss with us, but I’m sure it may find its customer.

We hope this review was enlightening to you. As we are not professional reviewers, I’m sure there are things we forgot to mention. If you need to know more, don’t hesitate to ask us further questions in the comments, and we will try our best to reply.

 

Cheers!