The New 3D Printing Thread

Ok, two new models from the resin printer, a re-print of the Eiffel Tower that this time came out fine.  The other is of a bust of Thanos of Avengers infamy, I did print this originally on the Ender 3 about 10-11" tall, this one is only about 3" tall but the detail is easily the same

One thing, the problem I had printing the Eiffel Tower the first time round may not have been all my fault with the orientation as a firmware update for the printer was released yesterday (and which I flashed) before printing this new one, albeit with my new oriention.

[Super]

Wow those are beautiful. Is the bust solid?

No Super it's hollow, the 'slicer' software that comes with the printer has the option to 'hollow' the model and then has options to 'dig' holes (typically you put these in the base) so any un-exposed resin drips out of the model before you 'cure' it.

This is one of the things that makes the resin printing so economic as you only have to use as much resin as is required to create the shell of the model

[Super]

Is the hollow bust brittle and breakable?

Is the hollow bust brittle and breakable?

Surprisingly they are quite robust, of course if you were to stand on it or exert a lot of pressure it would break like any other hollow plastic item, but otherwise they are pretty strong.  One of the best things is that unlike the FDM type printers there isn't the 'layer weakness' they are effectively as strong in every axis, whereas if an FDM print is likely to fail it will be acrosss a layer line.  Don't get me wrong these things are not made of metal and will break, but you can handle them

BTW, here's the two latest prints out of the printer, the first is a print of that one I printed on an FDM the Hindu God 'Ganesh', I'll put the FDM picture here as well for reference.  The SLA (resin) print is only about half the height (around the same as two AAA's end to end), but the detail is way better.  The other is a small model of a Dragon, stands about 1 & 1/3rd AAA's high

[Super]

Such details on the resin prints. Is the green one a PLA filament 3D print?

Indeed it is Super, I put that picture in there to illustrate the difference in detail/quality between FDM (Ender 3) and the Resin (Mars) printer.  In that example the FDM (Green) Ganesh is about twice the size of the Resin (Yellow) Ganesh, yet the quality and detail is better on the Resin version.  However even that fades into insignifigance when you look at this sample model (the Eleven Lighthouse which I previously printed on the Ender 3 and which I was over the moon about - except it took over a day to print).

The FDM/Ender 3 version of this when printed was about a foot tall, this version is as you can see barely taller than an AA battery;








The above images are of the 'un-cured' model (i.e. its still a bit soft as its not 'set') but I wanted to share some pictures with you as I felt it was so beautiful and illustrated the quality.  However this picture below of the model under a UV light source (i.e. in process of being cured) tends to show the detail even better.




However I should say even though I'm blown away with the quality I'm getting out of this little wonder it doesn't mean I've given up on FDM printing as sometimes for practicality you simply need a model to be physically larger and more able to be handled

So here's a couple of prints I've just run, it also illustrates something that isn't yet possible with resin printing, I used a metallic (copper) coloured filament.  There is a little bit of 'stringing' on these if you notice any 'hairy' bits, I've just not gotten round to fixing that yet - you just need a little judiicial use of a heat gun








One last footnote, although the resin prints are incredible and superbly detailed, there's something I've not yet told you.  They are printed at the slicers default printing resolution of a 0.05mm layer height.  Apparently the printer can print with a layer height down to 0.01mm high (in other words 5x more resolution).  Whether this would yield any more detail is questionable as at these sizes there is only so much resolution your eyes have without a magnifying glass or something and of course it would increase the print time by up to 5x if you went to 0.01mm.  But I guess if you had a model with enough resolution it would be an interesting experiment.  BTW - if you are wondering the print time for the resin Elven Lighthouse was just under 5 hours, as I was able to print the base and the lighthouse side by side on the build plate.  As I recall the FDM version took over a day just for the base (and the trees failed to print correctly as they were too delicate) and the lighthouse another 6-7 hours.  It's an interesting world isn't it

Just for comprison purposes, here's the original Elven Lighthouse printed on the Ender 3;

[Super]

Resin sure looks like the way to go for small parts. Wonder how large of machine they would dare to go to and what is the largest one made today whether for commercial or personal use. I also wonder which way is better for recreating parts for machines as for as strength and longevity are concerned like washers, spacers and moving parts?

The 3D Printing Nerd likes your Resin Printer too.

Hi Super,

There are machines out there that can make much larger pieces, but at a much larger price also. They are commercial machines and cost 10's of 1,000's. For a change these smaller machines are a spin off from the commercial offerings, one of the main differences and the reason for the cost difference is that the larger commercial machines are often driven using a laser with a set of moving mirrors which effectively draw the design into the layers.

With the cheaper designs they use a different technique to expose the light sensitive resin to light. In fact these very cheapest models actually use spin off tech from the mobile phone world. Fundamentally it uses a phone LCD screen driven by a phone graphics chip to display the pixels to be printed and the remainder to be blocked and a UV light source shines through this onto the bottom of the resin vat which is made from a special type of transparent film. This causes the resin in contact with the plastic to solidify which merges with the previous layer, etc...

So fundamentally it all sounds very easy, but in reality is not

This printer seems to be getting rave reviews everywhere, seems I picked a good one again, just like I did with the Ender 3 when i was dipping my toe in the FDM market