Wish I Could...

Hi Super,

The resin prints have a couple of advantages, firstly the resolution is massively higher so if you are printing small models you can get more detail in them.  Secondly they are generally speaking stronger as you don't have heat bonded layers which can 'de-laminate' and cause weak points on a model, this is one reason with an FDM printer you need to be careful how you orientate the model when printing it.  Thirdly they print quicker than an FDM printer as you print an entire layer with each operation (taking a few seconds) whereas on an FDM printer it has to draw the layer line by line which can take quite some time if the model is large and has large printed areas on a particular layer.

The downside to resin prints I've found is that although they are stronger if printed to the same thickness as an FDM printer model they can also be fairly brittle and will break easier if bent too far.  There are special resins available which claim to offer either greater strength or greater flexibility, but they often cost considerably more and I've not yet really investigated those.

The biggest advantages to FDM printers is that they have much larger build areas so can make physically bigger models in one piece whereas on a resin printer you would have to print a similar sized model in multiple pieces and join them together somehow.  Secondly the cost of filament is generally cheaper for the same size model, so say a 1" cube in resin may well cost several times more than a 1" FDM cube.  But of course using hollowing techniques and infill (think of a hex structure as in a bee hive) you can make an apparent solid model with less materials.

Basically horses for courses, decide what you want to make then decide the best type of printer and material to use

[Super]

So taking your experience in printing both...which format would be better for shells with the clips that need to always be flexible, including the shells sides, with the constant squeezing and clipping?

Now that is the $60 question, to make it flexible but strong what you would ideally do is print it so the layers would be upright, in other words print that shell on end.  That could of course be done, but would make it difficult to make the ends look good.  Probably the best solution would be to print the sides/roof standing on end and then print the ends separately and glue them into place after printing.

If printed in the orientation shown (which that one was) the layers are horizontal on the tab and it is likely to break on one of the layers - which as I recall did happen on at least one model till I increased the thickness of the tab.  This was of course printed on the Ender 3 Pro which is an FDM printer.  If printed on a resin printer at the same thickness it would be pretty strong, in fact the sample I printed on my resin printer has never to date broken.

[Super]

So the Resin is best especially for smaller items. Do you know how big resin printers are getting? Are there very large ones in manufacturing or if they need something that big they would just go with injection molds? Thanks Mr Nigel

The largest 'affordable' resin printer (aka under £500) is the Elegoo Saturn which has a build size of 192mm x 120mm x 200mm which is quite an improvement on the older 'Mars' which I've got and is not that far short of a basic Ender 3 or similar FDM printer.  Albeit it is 3 times the cost of an Ender 3 and the resin is way more expensive than filament.  But if you want that size and resin it does give you something that a couple of years ago would have been unthinkable.