Techy bit ----

So this weekend I took delivery of my shiny new Anycubic Photon M5S Pro and a Wash-and-cure station. This was ordered direct from Anycubic and arrived 5 days sooner that the original delivery date. The printer has a 10" build plate so it considerably larger than my old Phrozen Sonic mini 4K. It also has the advantage of wifi connectivity so I can monitor progress in the garage from my warm workbench in the house. The printer also comes with a heater which means I don't have to build another home-brew unit like I made for the Phrozen. The deal also provided a couple of bottles of Anycubics new 'rapid' resin which almost has the consistency of water, it is much thinner than conventional resins so it runs back into the voids faster as a layer is pealed.

As usual for a new printer Anycubic provided a manual written in something which was almost English - why do manufactures never get a native speaker to even proof-read them? They also provided their own Anycubic Photon Workshop slicer, which I didn't really want to use because I am used to adding support and slicing in Chitubox. After printing one of the test models I tried to print 'the cones of knowledge' from Tableflip fountry. This is a little print which helps you calibrate the exact resin exposure time. I tried to create a Chitubox profile to match the M5S Pro because they didn't have one yet as the printer is so new. I was able to generate and print the cones and it took ~40minutes. Then I tried slicing the same model in Anycubic's slicer and got exactly the same part printed, with indistinguishable quality and it printed in ~19minutes. These were at the same layer height and exposure time so the saving was obviously in the other movements while printing. Long and short of it was I don't know what voodoo the printer is doing but boy does it print quickly! I think I'll still stick to slower times  and conventional resins most of the time as the rapid is a little more brittle than I'd like.

The modeling bit ----

I've rather fancied having a little tractor on Fen End Pit and even went as far as buying a Heller Kit for a TE-20 in 1:24 scale trying to convince myself that it wouldn't notice as underscale if it is was positioned at the back of the layout. Ten I found a rather nice model of one on the Thingiverse as a 3D print drawn up in 1:18. I'd downloaded this and rescaled to 1:19.05 for 16mm:1ft but then given up as on my previous printer it would have taken four print runs to get all the items printed and each run would have been 4-5 hours. I managed to get everything except the tyres in a single print and then the tyres on a second print. the first print took 1 hour 10 minutes and the second just over 50 minutes, so from ~16-20 hours down to 2 hours.

The results aren't bad. I think I'll probably model up a few more bits of detail to make the steering rods look a bit better and add things like pedals but I think it is a pretty good starting point.

The Wash-and-Cure station is quite something, the vat for the washing can hold 15ltrs of IPA (I've only put 5ltrs in for a start). It has a magnetic stirrer in the bottom which whirls around and get the liquid to woosh about a wash everything. Half way through the wash cycle the motor spins down and then reverses, sounding in the process just like a London underground train. Then you take the tank off and replace it with a dinky turntable (in background of photos) which then spins the part under some bright UV lights to finish curing the resin.

Lots of fun to play with and obviously some things I didn't think I could print are now possible.

Judging by what I've learnt so far I reckon I should be able to get two complete J17 kits on the bed at once, though it will be more sensible to print more of parts of the same height. All rather fun and exciting to play with.

David