The large build area and super quick build times make the Nova Bene4 Mono a fantastic printer at a budget price. Unfortunately, the Novamaker software falls behind other options.
- Brand : Nova3D
- XY Resolution: 2560 x 1620
- Build area: 5.1 x 2.8 x 5.9 inches
- Layer Thickness: 25 to 100 microns
- Printer Size: 15 x 11.8 x 19.3 inches
- Capable of incredibly detailed models
- Faster than many other printers in its class
- Some nice quality of life features
- Proprietary slicing filetype and lackluster software
Nova3D Bene4 Mono
other
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The Nova3D Bene4 Mono is a budget resin printer offering fast print times and incredible quality thanks to its 2K monochrome LCD screen. There are some nice quality of life touches included in the design, and the printer is as easy to use as resin-based printers can be.
Bene4 Mono: A Familiar Design?
At first glance, the Bene4 Mono looks like every other desktop-sized resin printer. The solid metal base contains a touch screen for operation. Above, you find the LCD screen, metal resin vat, and z-axis with build plate; the constituent parts for all MSLA printers of this type.
Look a little closer, however, and you’ll notice several nice features. The UV hood, designed to stop unwanted light from getting to the resin, is fitted on a strong hinge. This means that you don’t have to lift the whole top off to interact with the printer.
The build plate has four adjustment screws attached to it. You’ll need these when leveling the plate, and the four screw design is a lot less hassle than the usual two screws/ball joint combination you’ll find on similar printers.
Finally, the resin tray has four small feet attached to the bottom. These help you guide the resin tray into the correct position for printing, but they have an even more useful function.
When you need to clean out old resin, especially after a failed print, you don’t have to worry about damaging the clear PEP filter on the underside of the resin tray. The feet elevate it enough to keep it free of any dust or grime on your work surface.
It’s clear that this printer has had a fair bit of thought put into it, but how well does it print?
Beautiful Prints at Fast Speeds
The full-color guide that comes with the Nova3d Bene4 Mono takes you through everything you need to perform your first prints with the machine. The model I reviewed came with the build plate already level, so all that was left was to pour in some resin and start a test print.
The printer comes with a USB drive containing two pre-sliced test prints. Both show off just how impressive the print quality is on the Bene4 Mono. The octopus prints as one piece, though each linked tentacle comes loose after printing. The Nova3D logo has a lot of intricate geometry to support while printing, along with some wafer this intricacy within the globes.
The “Mono” in the name relates to the monochrome LCD screen that provides the UV light mask. Monochrome screens allow for faster printing by allowing through more of the UV light compared to older color LCD screens and have a longer lifetime. While this is a big improvement over the previous generation of printers, it’s becoming increasingly commonplace.
The quality is clearly there, and while there are 4k printers at this price range, there’s nothing low quality about these prints.
Connecting to the Bene4 Mono
The Bene4 Mono comes with a 4.3 inch “smart” touchscreen, which is easy to navigate and worked without any hitches. Alongside manual movement options, you can use the menus to trigger prints stored on a USB drive, or in the printer’s local 8GB memory.
You’ll also use this menu to connect the printer to your network. Once connected to Wi-Fi, I didn’t find myself using the screen all that often, though the screen showing the leftover time for a print and a graphical representation of the layer currently being printed was a handy reference during prints.
Everything You Need to Get Started?
Resin printing requires careful preparation. Appropriate safety gear is essential, and there are a few tools you’ll need for post-processing. Nova3d provides some basic tools and accessories, including a few pairs of high-quality nitrile gloves, but you’ll want to get a few more things ready before starting your first print.
Alongside resin for printing, you need isopropyl alcohol for washing finished prints. The pump-action spray bottle they provide is cute but not all that useful. Realistically you need a box large enough to fit any finished model into and enough isopropyl alcohol to submerge it fully for cleaning.
The plastic scraper they provide is perfect for cleaning the FEP filter without damaging it, but you may want to get a thin metal blade for getting stuck prints off the build plate. You’ll need a lot more gloves than they give you and a pair of safety goggles to protect your eyes when you inevitably splash yourself with a mixture of resin and almost pure alcohol.
Finally, you’ll need a way to cure your prints. Resin doesn’t fully harden until it’s been cured under UV lights for several hours. If you live in a sunny place, then you can leave them in direct sunlight. If you don’t, you’ll need to either buy a UV curing station or make your own. Even homemade and far from perfect setups can work, but your mileage may vary.
Nova3D does provide a spare FEP film, which is a nice touch as the FEP film at the bottom of the tank requires cleaning between each resin change. Failed prints will also end up stuck to it, and when it gets damaged, you must replace it. Thankfully, this is an easy task using the provided Allen key.
Regardless of which model you choose, resin printing is not for the faint-hearted. If you are a complete beginner to 3d printing or share your space with children, a more traditional FDM printer might be a better place to start.
Are There Any Downsides to the Bene4 Mono?
In terms of the hands-on experience, the Bene4 Mono is as easy to use as resin printers get. The only design flaw is the USB drive position, which is round the back next to the barrel jack and ethernet port. If you use it a lot, I can imagine this getting annoying, but after the test prints, I sent every print to it over the local network and never used it again, so it wasn’t an issue.
Everything about the printer itself seems well thought out, and I was excited to spin up some slicing software and print some more tests. Unfortunately, this is where the issues start.
Novamaker: The Only Software for the Bene4 Mono
Almost all resin printers use Chitubox as the software for supporting and slicing models before printing. It’s been updated many times over the years, and there is a strong community behind it, providing tutorials and tips on YouTube and in the forums.
Nova3d provide their own software called Novamaker. While it does the job, it’s nowhere near as powerful as Chitubox and is missing some key features. You cannot hollow models using Novamaker, and there are fewer options for adding print support structures.
Novamaker has received some significant updates in recent months, and while there is an unofficial plugin for Chitubox, which adds support for the .cws slicer files the printer takes, it’s prone to breaking and wasn’t functional to test during this review.
The options for printing were to use pre-hollowed and supported models, print solid models (a massive waste of resin), or do all preparation work in another piece of software and import the .stl file into Novamaker for printing.
This is a small workaround, but it’s not one any other printer in this class makes you do.
If you have a well-supported model, you’ll get incredible quality prints with little fuss. This charming doggo from MyMiniFactory user Spare Oom Studios, among several others, came out looking stunning:
Unfortunately, if you import a raw model and expect the Novamaker software to prepare it for printing, there’s little way of telling if the print will succeed.
The in-software features for controlling the printer and sending prints over the network all worked flawlessly. It’s just a shame that they didn’t leave it at that and use the same software as everyone else.
Should You Buy the Nova3d Bene4 Mono
This is undoubtedly a fantastic printer, and from a hands-on user perspective, I can’t fault it. It creates beautiful prints quickly and has a number of quality of life features that put it above other printers at this price range.
For $299, you’re not going to find a printer that blends as many nice features as this one, and in the future, I’d recommend this printer to anyone interested in resin printing. For now, I’d wait until the Novamaker software improves or they add stable support for Chitubox before buying.
You can buy the Nova3d Bene4 Mono direct from Nova3d for $299.