Resin printing

Tacitus

Volatile Memory Construct - SN://0467839
Staff member
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15,120
I’m thinking of making the leap into resin printing.

Who else does it? Is it worth the time and effort?
 

fake

King of Spammers
15 Year Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2008
Posts
10,976
Real men don't print resin. They cast it.
 

Heinz

Parteizeit
15 Year Member
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Feb 13, 2005
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22,333
I've been casting resin in the park but people look at me funny.
 

NeoSneth

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
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Oct 22, 2000
Posts
11,084
Resin is higher quality and more detailed than FDM, but there are a lot of drawbacks right now. It really depends on what you want to print.

My FDM printer sits in my office and the footprint is tiny. I mainly use a smaller FDM printer fwiw. I can print and design without much effort at all. I mainly print stuff for around the house and boardgames. FDM spools are cheap and the options are endless now. Glow in the dark, PETG, ABS, Wood filled, magnetic. coffee. Yes, the wood spools are sandable and stainable. smell terrific as well. There are now multifilament printers for doing colors. You can also get massive print areas with FDM. Full size vases and helmets etc.

Resin. You will want a basement, workshop, or dedicated room for it. The fumes are toxic and unpleasant. You need a table you don't care about, because it will get fucked up by the resin and the cleanup. Everyone says they wont be messy, but ultimately you will get toxic goo to spill. The Print area is smaller and takes longer than FDM. You must cleanup the print with a wash station. Trimming the tree supports can take a while. There's maintenance with the build surface and resin, but I would say there is less mechanical maintenance than an FDM. Certainly less that you can work on. It's far more expensive for the resin as well. Getting detailed prints to work in resin can take several attempts. Tree supports are rather complex, and it's a bit of an art to learn where to place them with Resin printers. Not really difficult, but it's certainly not automated.

The upfront cost is about the same for both for a mid tier instrument. If you are looking to get into the hobby of 3dprinting, then I would still recommend FDM. Go with resin if you are looking to professionally prototype parts for review. Resin also if you have detailed recreations in mind. Miniature gaming figures dont work on FDM, they look amazing on resin. Just don't plan to use Resin for production scale printing. There are things you just can't print in FDM than you can with Resin.
 

Bratwurst

Rugal's Thug
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Posts
92
If I need something that the FDM printer can't handle I get a SLA print through Shapeways or some other commercial service. You have to be certain of the design/dimensions if you do this because it can be expensive to make a mistake or find yourself doing it over, but right now for me it's worth it for the few things I 'need' to have done vs investing in and dealing with resin printing for now.
 

XxHennersXx

Why So Many X's?,
15 Year Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2007
Posts
1,166
I bought this printed resin model kit. The tolerances are uh...not that great compared to normal kits but I guess that’s from printing. No big deal just gotta sand pegs. It should go together easily since it’s converted from the CAD file used to create the real life Megabots Mech. It is pretty fragile feeling though.

I’m curious if I could start printing myself. Following this thread intently

e566c2b1d393f04e7aa1145775a9b889.jpg


73f3e7fe5d0e1007b7fd25c8a2026dc5.jpg



https://megabots.com/products/iron-glory-toy
 
Last edited:

Tacitus

Volatile Memory Construct - SN://0467839
Staff member
Joined
Apr 26, 2002
Posts
15,120
Resin is higher quality and more detailed than FDM, but there are a lot of drawbacks right now. It really depends on what you want to print.

My FDM printer sits in my office and the footprint is tiny. I mainly use a smaller FDM printer fwiw. I can print and design without much effort at all. I mainly print stuff for around the house and boardgames. FDM spools are cheap and the options are endless now. Glow in the dark, PETG, ABS, Wood filled, magnetic. coffee. Yes, the wood spools are sandable and stainable. smell terrific as well. There are now multifilament printers for doing colors. You can also get massive print areas with FDM. Full size vases and helmets etc.

Resin. You will want a basement, workshop, or dedicated room for it. The fumes are toxic and unpleasant. You need a table you don't care about, because it will get fucked up by the resin and the cleanup. Everyone says they wont be messy, but ultimately you will get toxic goo to spill. The Print area is smaller and takes longer than FDM. You must cleanup the print with a wash station. Trimming the tree supports can take a while. There's maintenance with the build surface and resin, but I would say there is less mechanical maintenance than an FDM. Certainly less that you can work on. It's far more expensive for the resin as well. Getting detailed prints to work in resin can take several attempts. Tree supports are rather complex, and it's a bit of an art to learn where to place them with Resin printers. Not really difficult, but it's certainly not automated.

The upfront cost is about the same for both for a mid tier instrument. If you are looking to get into the hobby of 3dprinting, then I would still recommend FDM. Go with resin if you are looking to professionally prototype parts for review. Resin also if you have detailed recreations in mind. Miniature gaming figures dont work on FDM, they look amazing on resin. Just don't plan to use Resin for production scale printing. There are things you just can't print in FDM than you can with Resin.

I've got FDM printers. I don't like a number of drawbacks with them, mainly the finishing process and failure rate.

I was looking at the Saturn or a nice larger one where I don't need to piecemeal builds together.

The support process with resin is unclear and I'm not hot on the wash station stuff. Any insight is helpful.
 

NeoSneth

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2000
Posts
11,084
I've got FDM printers. I don't like a number of drawbacks with them, mainly the finishing process and failure rate.

I was looking at the Saturn or a nice larger one where I don't need to piecemeal builds together.

The support process with resin is unclear and I'm not hot on the wash station stuff. Any insight is helpful.

Are your FDM failures due to the model and slicing, or are they just really intricate designs? FDM printers often need to be tuned as this is still an enthusiast hobby. Finishing is pretty mild for me. Few layers of high-fill primer with light sanding. That's only if I'm trying to make something high quality. Most of the time people never know.


Supports for Resin are mostly trees. Similar to Meshmixer trees for FDM. I use them on occasion for FDM for overhangs from multiple levels. You'll need to practice to learn where to put them as slicers aren't great at Resin trees yet. Anything designed for FDM in mind will not have issue with resin slicers, but random detailed 3d models will take some effort. They also take a few minutes to trim away with some cutters. A lot less of an issue if you are not doing detailed models.

The Resin is not safe to get on your skin, though they are getting better formulations as of this year. Not something to have around kids. It's sticky stuff. After the print you need to wash the print, bed, and tools in an IPA bath. I have a giant stash of Isopropyl Alcohol, but that might be difficult to obtain given Covid.
Most companies sell the bath and tools with the Printer. There is practically no finishing needed other than tree removal.

As Henners discovered, there is still warping/shrinking with resin. I use resin if I'm printing gears or pinions to replace in old electronics. Can take some scaling to get it perfect.


Supports mid.png
 

Tacitus

Volatile Memory Construct - SN://0467839
Staff member
Joined
Apr 26, 2002
Posts
15,120
Are your FDM failures due to the model and slicing, or are they just really intricate designs? FDM printers often need to be tuned as this is still an enthusiast hobby. Finishing is pretty mild for me. Few layers of high-fill primer with light sanding.

I had a ton of problems with Cura and my i3. I basically gave up on using it for anything. I know people gush over that model / series, I think it's shit. I was primarily using PLA and it was always a problem.

I picked up a much nicer dual extruder that is basically a flashforge clone. I replaced the bed with borosilicate and tuned the hell out of it. I still get some issues but it's much more stable and reliable.

I also switched to S3D. That was probably the biggest difference.

I'm looking to do detailed and exacting work without the hassle of small print sizes and the labor required to get stuff correct.

I picked up a few pounds of PETG to work with.
 

NeoSneth

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2000
Posts
11,084
PLA is still the easiest stuff to work with, so it may take a few calibration prints to get PETG perfect. Benchy is prevalent for a reason. Calibration will tell you if the printer is working correctly.

Big prints are uncommon with resin, but not impossible. I am not aware of where to even start with a large print area. That's also a lot more expensive. Keep in mind that the "screen" has to be replaced based on hours of exposure, so make sure to account for that in the budget. If you want strength, you will also need to buy a UV curing station. You can buy UV lamps as well. Resin is $30-60 / liter.

You will definitely need to delve into communities to get good prints from any device. FDM or Resin. Print calibration models then ask for feedback.
 
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