My First Resin Print

[jamjarst 4011xp 3]

I was so impressed with the prints on the weekender that @warzan and @dignity were getting from the Anycubic Photon and the Elegoo Mars that I just had to get one myself. I did a bit of research and went for the Elegoo and did my first print today. It’s the barbarian that was given away a few weeks ago and it’s awesome.

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

Welcome to the club! Great print btw.

[lawnor 25939xp 0]

Out of interest, going from not owning anything to having that guy printed and in your hands, roughly how much do you think you have spent in total on everything?  I know Warren says its £200-300 for a printer but I hear there’s other stuff you’ll end up buying and I know there’s materials.  As with any hobby there’s hidden/extra costs outside of the main big thing.  I shouldn’t buy a printer but I get more and more tempted every day.

[jamjarst 4011xp 1]

I can give you an exact figure, the printer was £230, resin was £35, I bought some very cheap Tupperware for £2 and Cilit Bang to clean with as there was no alcohol anywhere for £8  and finally I bought a UV nail lamp for £9 so it has cost £284.

So ongoing I will need Alcohol and a better Tupperware container and I will also be buyin filters and a funnel to pour resin back into the bottle. So that will be say another £30, then after that any more cost will just be consumables like resin and alcohol.

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

I got an AnyCubic Photon and 500ml of resin for £200 off ebay. The kit came with some filter papers (for decanting unused resin back into the bottle, but catching any floating bits in it if you have a failed print) and gloves and facemask and all the tools for setting up the machine; sure, it’s not enough to keep you going for ever, but enough to get you started!

The only other thing I bought before my first print was some IPA (to soak the mini in after printing, to get rid of the excess resin) and kitchen roll. Lots of kitchen roll. Buy as much as you think you’ll need. Then buy some more.

You can post-cure your minis in the sunlight (after rinsing in IPA, the models are still a bit “gummy” and further exposure to UV light makes them go hard – and sometimes quite brittle). If you really want (I did) you can buy a UV nail lamp for about £15 (make sure it’s not a super-cheap one that automatically turns off after two minutes; those things are a pain to use!)

 

[lawnor 25939xp 0]

Interesting.  My living situation is up for big changes this year so I’ll likely resist the temptation until after I know where I stand, but at these prices its getting more and more tempting.  Where do we stand on the health and safety aspects?  I’m assuming there are vapours to be concerned about so putting it in a bedroom or where children hang out would be a bad idea?  How noisy is it?  How much space does it want (Equivalent to a pc tower?  A microwave?  I assume you’ll want access from all sides so can’t wedge it between a cupboard and a wall?)  I’m assuming the longer I put off buying, the more the cost will drop and the possible quality will go up.

Cilit Bang should really have chosen another name.  I can’t help but misread that when I see it written.  Too many similar looking letters next to each other (and I have a dirty mind).  By Alcohol I assume you mean isopropanol or methylated spirits?  Stuff we can buy at a hardware store?  Will you be using it by the pint, or just dabbing it on?  I’m curious about hidden ongoing costs.  We only ever discuss the resin and give a token nod to the electricity bill.

[lawnor 25939xp 0]

Do you think brittle-ness may be a possible ongoing concern after printing and painting?  Will models we print fail over time spent on the game table in indirect sunlight?

 

Would you trust buying a second hand printer from eBay again?  Its a large cost to risk a dodgy purchase or a dodgy delivery man.

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

My printer was brand new, from AnyCubic direct off ebay. I’m not sure I’d risk buying second hand – unless it was for really silly cheap. I went with ebay and PayPal to mitigate the possibilities of a maverick delivery guy drop kicking it into my front garden, instead of walking up and knocking on the door (ebay protection works really well for buyers).

The Elegoo Mars and Phrozen Sonic Mini have a lift off lid (I really like the Phrozen Mini and I think that’ll be my next purchase – not that I’ve anything against my Photon at all, I absolutely love it, I just fancied comparing print speed/quality) .

The Anycubic Photon has a lift-up opening front door – so any of them would fit in a relatively small space (I only ever access my printer from the front – the usb slot and on/off switch is on the right hand side, but I use a male-to-female usb extension cable to put that on the front, and have the machine on a mechanical timer switch which I use to power on/off). All are about the size of half-a-PC-tower case.

I don’t know the full power spec of the Photon, but it’s basically a UV LED array, a phone screen and a stepper motor and a couple of fans – it’s not going to draw more than a few tens of watts of power, I guess.

Noise comes from a large fan in the base; it’s not silent, but hardly a jet engine. There’s also a small fan inside the chamber which looks like a cheap pc/motherboard fan and they invariably start to groan after a few weeks (the bearings in them are terrible) – but only for a few minutes at start up, then they go quiet.

As for smell – I don’t find the Elegoo Mars ABS-like resin too offensive. Anycubic standard has a noticeable “something” when it’s printing (in the same way you can sniff out a capful of white spirit being left out in a room when you enter, the resin has a certain “tang” when you first walk into a room, but after a few seconds, I’ve stopped noticing it; some people, however, complain that it stinks – I guess it comes down to sensitivity to VOCs?). For me, the stench of the IPA (isopropyl alcohol) far exceeds any smell coming from the resin.

 

AnyCubic standard grey *does* go brittle with after-curing (I give my prints about 20 minutes under a UV nail lamp). There’s no way you can cleanly cut them with a scalpel – little shards will break off, almost like glass. The ABS-like resin gives a much more “plastic” like finish (though I somehow believe – and it’s only a belief – that the details are a tiny bit more crisp with the regular resin; I’m not sure though – the fact I can’t remember or tell which mini I printed with which resin after they’ve been primed tells you everything).

A coat of paint protects the minis from further UV exposure – but even if they were left unpainted, I wouldn’t expect them to fail – the only time I’ve seen this is when you print a large mini and hollow the inside out. What happens is the outside shell gets more UV exposure than the inside (which remains relatively gummy for longer). The different rates of the two sides curing can sometimes cause a mini to crack (since resin does shrink slightly during curing). Usually this kind of fault reveals itself either as cracking or as “weeping” (where uncured resin comes to the outer surface) within three or four days at most.

Like I said, I love my Photon. It’s the best £200 I’ve spent in a long time.

I’m fascinated by the Phrozen Mini which apparently is quicker (and has a longer screen life due to it being monochrome). It’s not without it’s faults though (the top of the build plate being flat, causing resin to pool being a major one) so if I was buying again right now, I’d probably still stick with the Photon. If I could get a Phrozen for the much-vaulted (but rarely seen) $200 price-tag, and they fixed the build plate and plastic tank issues in a second revision, I’d be very temped.

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

All that said, if I was running my 3d printer off the kitchen table, rather than in my workshop at the end of the garden, my wife might have something to say about the mess, smell etc. (it’s not really *that* messy but I’m quite fastidious about cleaning up spills and drips and while I’ve got used to the smell, it’s not entirely odourless).

[lawnor 25939xp 0]

Thank you.  That’s a lot of useful information.  Sometimes the little things like the sound and smell can get missed and don’t become an concern until after money has been spent and it’s too late.  Assuming the coronapocalypse doesn’t drastically change things I can certainly see myself looking at buying once I know whats happening with my living arrangements, which is entirely dependant on someone else.

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

Take that someone else for a coffee. Buy them a muffin. A double-choc chip one. Keep them happy. Do whatever it takes to make your living arrangements conducive to getting a resin printer 😉

[lawnor 25939xp 1]

Its not that simple.  I bought a house with a friend 15 years ago.  They’ve just had their second kid and finally realised its time for a family home of their own, even though he mostly moved out years ago (He’s only home 0-2 nights a week).  I need for them to find a house so I can get a mortgage in place to buy his half.  I also need to see what affect Corona has on the economy once its been and gone to affect house prices and mortgages etc if it’s as bad as people fear.  Until then i should avoid any unnecessary large expenses.  Space is also at a premium until they move out, and then there’s the unknown issue of resin fumes around young children.  A coffee won’t fix this, even with a muffin.

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

The AnyCubic Photon (I’m not sure about other makes/models) has a removeable cover at the rear of the machine and lots of people have been printing exhaust fan adapters for their machines; a length of tumble-drier hose and you can vent through an open window. It’s a mod I originally thought of doing before I received my machine. Then I decided the smell didn’t actually bother me *that much* so I didn’t bother!

Another reason not to get a printer quashed.

Now you just need to find some random guy off the internet who likes 3d printing stuff who could churn one out and pop it in the post once you’ve got yourself a printer 😉

[lawnor 25939xp 1]

I don’t suppose we are at a stage where you could print me a printer?

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

😉

You know, about ten years ago, a few of us at the local “nerd club” looked at building a resin printer using a projector (and inverting the lens to focus “inwards” rather than out). Today’s DLP printers are basically just a screen and a stepper motor and a VAT of resin (and of course a controller board).

I did think about having a go at building a resin printer using a monochrome screen (before I heard about the Phrozen Mini) but I still reckon, once you add in electronics, tank, FEP, enclosure, UV LED matrix etc. you couldn’t buy all the different component parts for less than the price of a resin printer these days!

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