@scday94 and I were walking in the space yesterday and we think it’s time to throw in the towel on our current Anycubic Mono X resin printer. It had a hard start to its life when the vat was pierced, allowing resin to leak onto the screen and electronics below.
It’s never fully recovered. Despite a replacement screen, FEP sheets and screen protectors, the ratio of failures on the printer is higher than it should be (no evidence, just from speaking to people/messages on discourse). We want to be giving people the best possible chances of success when trying resin printing, but its currently not happening.
For this reason, I would like to propose a pledge drive for a new resin printer. While I would love the space to have the rather well-reviewed UniFormation GKtwo, I think more realistically I’m proposing two options depending on the amount raised:
A newer version of the printer we currently have, the Anycubic Photon Mono X2, currently £199.
The chamber heater (keeps resin at an optimal temperature, useful as the space gets colder in the winter)
Higher print speeds (and resolution)
Self levelling platform (more user-friendly).
Annoyingly both these printers have ever so slightly bigger build plates than our wash station can handle (by only a few mm), but I think this problem is easily gotten around by taking the prints off the build plate and placing them in the wash basket instead.
Sorry, but this comments of machines being slower really started to bother me, we used the ultimaker for about a decade and it was reliable and everyone knew how to use it, recently we sunk a lot of money in the area but I can’t seem to be able to see a linear improvement, we have parked machines because they are “not fast enough” and we gave away perfectly working ones because they were “old” and now we want a new ones, what happened to the Makerspace who was overcome the problems and adapting? We seem to have to start to throw money at the problem, the problem is, we have money now, but that doesn’t mean we might have them tomorrow, we are still under the threat of the landlord and some years ago we thought about buying a place for the space, I do appreciate the changes to the 3D printing area, I’m just worried that this would become a “new shiny toy” situation.
Andrea, I am not finding this a constructive comment, the fact that everyone knew how to use the Ultimaker was because it was the only working printer for 5 years, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t upgrade eventually. I never used it because it took 12 hours to print a paper clip.
The 3dtechs are doing a ton of good work and upgrading our capabilities tremendously, the Bambu gets a lot of use, just because you don’t know how to use it is not an excuse to go back to inferior tech.
Also, I know how to use the Bambulab, I built and designed my own 3D printer.
I’m not advocating to go back to the Ultimaker, I’m trying to open a discussion about how we are approaching spending and new tools, we switched from having mostly only donated tools to only buy thr best ones, them nust be a way in between.
Ok, the techs are putting a ton of work into the area, and most of this is all funded by member pledge drives so there is clearly interest in newer tech and it is not just about shiny new toys.
They are also rebuilding and fixing more things than I have ever seen in that area in 7 years, so the comment that they are not behaving in the ‘Makerspace’ way is a bit unfounded. There is only so much space, so I agree with the strategy of putting the best printers we can out for members.
Anyways not trying to argue, but for the amount of effort and positive change they have done in the area is incredible.
We’ve got enough for the X2, but I was really hoping for one of the higher end models. Taking out some of the variables like the resin temperature and bed levelling would be great for less experienced users / overall use in the space.
I saw the video for the M7 Pro recently and saw that it has a feature for pulling the resin from the bottle, returning it at the end of the print… its also super fast. Early bird for £469, but there aren’t any independent reviews of it yet and that pricing is only for the next 24hrs.
I’d like to let the pledge run for a bit longer and then the people who backed it can make the decision.
If there is ONE feature I always wanted in a resin printer, it’s auto (un)load of resin. Just wonder how much would be left in the tubing and if it would cause trouble when changing colour and stuff.
I can put in extra £80 for the M7, but we would still be short.
