Had a brief look at this printer today as been thinking of getting one - when i slid it out i noticed it had a lot of resin that had leaked out over the plywood bench - so cleaned it up and have now put it in a bag so that any further leaks won’t cover the desk/other 3d printer.
Nobel sla 3d printer
First thanks for tidying up when you’ve noticed it has leaked resin. This exactly demonstrate why this printer should not live on this shelf in my honest opinion.
Second I hope you did use gloves as the resin is not to be touch with bare hand, if you did don’t worry you shouldn’t loose your fingers.
Using the SLA printer in the space would have been useless as you’ll need new resin and the machine to go through a proper servicing.
My advice is don’t buy that printer it is over 2 years old and reviews where never that great, my advice is look at the Anycubic photon from the link below
Warning: read and watch review before deciding to buy a resin printer. You’ll need to understand that you can’t just put it in you living room and start printing (well you can but you’ll regret it) plan a proper working station, a lot of non powdered nitrile gloves, an apron, a washing station and curing chamber and on top of the resin there is a considerable running cost but you’ll discover that in the research I guess
Ps: would be nice to see you during the prusa build sometimes
Note: sorry to do this but no one is supposed to use tools without explicit approval from the tech if you do, it is at your own risks and assume responsibility of covering any damages or cost incurred
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Thanks Laurent - my intentions were very much just to pull it out to look at a resin printer/id what model it was, not to bypass inductions - then I noticed all the leaked resin that had obviously been there for a while and inspired by the tidiness of the space after spring clean thought I’d clean it up.
Agree on the photon - I had resigned myself to probably having to get/rent/steal a formlabs - I’d no idea that resin printers had come down in price until I discovered this shortly after posting this thread - so bought one friday night, came sunday and have been playing with it since - initial prints have been extremely good and the setup was easy - agree with your caveats about messy/smell etc though it’s manageable with a fan next to window.
Have you got one? Would be interested to hear your thoughts on them if so/ID teething problems.
Yes will definitely be down for the build soon - my apologies - have been super tied up with work but will get down soon. If there is anything I can do to help on non-tuesday evenings please let me know too.
Thanks
Sound great what did you get? I’m currently assessing 2 formlabs form1+ for the space. Unfortunately have not been able to get a successful print from them yet as the resin I have had expired hopefully new resin will be in shortly.
Hi @Calum_Nicoll, I’ll be curious to hear your feedback on the Anycubic photon printer you bought if you had time to use it. Have a great day
Hey Laurent - of course - happy to answer any questions.
Setup was fairly straightforward - the levelling is a little more awkward than an FDP printer as you can’t really get easy back access and the uv screen sits in a slight dip (but the process is similar with sheet of paper).
Resin is messy etc but manageable, cleanup is OK. Smell is more intense than say an ABS printer but it’s managable near a window. All I’ve used is the anycubic green and black resins, both work great and are good value. For post cure I just put in PCB exposure box for 6 minutes/side. Parts after cure are decently strong and slightly transparent. Tolerances are good, you can definitely make mechanical parts with this to ± 0.2mm or so. I’ve only run it at 50 micron layer heights which is enough for me but suspect 25 micron height will be even better.
Resolution is very good, the hype is real. Overhangs up to about 80 degrees come out flawless with no support. Aliasing is visible but you can minimise with the right positioning of parts. Very fine detail you just couldn’t do with FDP are easily possible. Though you have to think about where uncured resin will get stuck
as the print moves up.
I’ve seen injection moulded parts that look worse - it wouldn’t compete with high quality injection moulding but it’s certainly good enough you wouldn’t look twice if integrated into a commercial product as long as you don’t have the angle set such that it maximises the step - i.e put the faces that need to look best at either 90 degrees, 0 degrees or close to 45 degrees.
Build quality of printer is ok to decent, metal construction feels solid, touchscreen is decent and responsive. The slicer is a bit basic but works OK. Bed size is small but still can fit a lot in. A very useful feature is that each layer takes same time regardless of how many parts on it - so printing one part or twenty parts takes the same time as long as you can fit them all on the bed.
When I have a camera I will post some pics - but all in all I think it’s an absolute bargain for £380.
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