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SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → SLA Printers → Thinking about a resin printer...
The current filament printer I have has about taxed my limits - so - I am thinking about venturing into the SLA arena - from the frying pan into the fire. Lots of questions...
Are any of the ~250.00 - 300.00 printers worth trying for an entry level? If so, recommendations?
Do I really need a Washing and Curing machine?
Resin recommendations.
Pros???
Cons???
What to watch for?
Thanx for any advice
First iof all not an expert resin printing is a whole different ball of wax.
the anycubit photon and the eligoo Mars come to mind.
Imho you need some kind of dedicated device to cure and wash prints.
there is water wash resin . the problem with that is you can not just dump the water down the drain .
realistically you need a solar still to distill the water or alcohol. and the solar energy neutralizes the resin. the other problem with ws resin is it continues to absorb moisture.
again IMHO you need a dedicated space away from food prep kids and pets. well ventilated. to set up a work area. Like 3d printing not for everyone but quit doable for someone who is willing to take the time learn the techniques and do a proper setup.
An acquaintance just purchased an elegoo mars and ws resin and is happily printing Disney characters with water soluble resin. I expect a quick spray of polyurethane clear would help with the water absorption issue.
Most resin cures to be very brittle. You will not be able to make structural parts like you could on the filament systems. You can cure using sunlight if you live in a region with plenty of it. other wise you some sort of box or container you can flood with UV light. Washing depends on the resin. Some is water wash and the rest needs alcohol. In either case you cannot simply dump saturated water or alcohol. the resin needs to be filtered out. I use sunlight, and then a coffee filter. But depending on how concentrated you let the resin get the entire thing could just congeal. The Anycubic Photon, Elegoo Mars, and the Voxelab Proxima which I use are all very good. They ke point is it needs to have a mono screen and be 2K minimum.
Ski : IMHO take the time to read this sub forum. And research the subject. also watch you tube reviews of the machine/ machines you re looking to buy.
Tom Salhander , angus from makers muse , The 3d printing nerd, and teaching tech are all good imho reliable sources . I have actually had the pleasure of meeting a couple of these guys. . all good people.
All good questions you ask.
It seems forum traffic has been down lately . Folk getting ready for winter I guess.
So you may need to do a little research on your own .
I to have considered this technology but a bit limited on space, and time.
Just to add my 2 cents on the subject. I used to own a couple of FormLabs printers, now I own 2 mSLA printers, mSLA is the technology that uses an LCD screen to display a mask of the area to be exposed.
Anyway, as Carl has already said, the latest (and greatest) in mSLA are the monochrome LCD printers. They are much faster that the previous models that used color LCDs, and the LCD itself which is a consumable now lasts 8-10 times longer (4000~5000 hours).
Most small printers in the $200 to $400 range will have a 5.5" diagonal display with a 2.5K resolution (2560x1620). The larger models that are in the $650 to $1K, have 9" or larger LCDs, and the better ones have resolutions of 4K or even 8K.
I have personally tried the water cleanable resins and they are not that great, there's always a "sticky feeling" to the cured parts. On the other hand, normal resins that clean with IPA, are good. You don't need a special cure or wash machine. I have a Lock-n-Lock tub of IPA, and I dunk my parts in it as soon as they come off the printer. That takes the bulk uncured resin off, then I use a spray bottle to clean the rest.
As for curing, you really don't need sunlight, you just need daylight. The UV index might not be that high without the sun, but bright daylight has plenty of UV curing power. You can also make yourself a curing station with a can and a strip of UV LEDs. Total cost <$15.00.
I currently have an Anycubic Mono (5.5"), as well as a Anycubic Mono X (9.2"). Both serve me well and I haven't had any issues. I would recommend those, but Elegoo, and Phrozen are just as good.
Hi! A bit late to reply, but this may help other readers:
First, answer what are you going to print? Based on that you'll be able to select the right printer.
In general, if you'll mostly print smaller parts, miniatures, go with smaller 5.5-6 inch 4K monochrome LCD printers. Phrozen Sonic Mini 4k, Anycubic mono 4k are the good choices.
If you'll mostly print bigger models, than check Phrozen sonic mighty, Anycubic mono x, elegoo saturn. Those these bigger ones are a bit more expensive.
Wash and cure mashine is not mandatory, but would make your life a lot easier. Alternatively, you can DIY the curing station out of UV LED strips and a bucket of some sort and use pickle jars to manually wash your prints in.
As of resin. There are a lot of different types, for different applications. There are:
Cheaper resins from Elegoo, Anycubic. Usually called "standard resins". These usually stink and are brittle. Sometimes, they are more difficult to print, looses their properties quickly over time. All in all, you get what you pay for
Average resins from Monocure, 3Dresinsolutions, harzlabs, phrozen, resione, ministry of resin. These are way better than those cheap resins. Usually these are labeled as tough or ABS-like resins. And they have a bit of flexibility to them. Which makes them non-brittle. I'd skip the cheap ones and go with one of those instead.
Premium resins. Someting like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZXNFDL7/ . Basically a resin with properties designed for a specific application. Here the same rule applies - you get what you pay for. I would not start with such resins, but definitely worth a look once you seriously get into resin 3D printing
Exotic resins. Don't buy anything above 100$/L unless it's a very exotic application like conductive resin or ceramic resin
You may find this read interesting: https://ameralabs.com/blog/switching-fr … -printing/
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