New Resin Printer

[regme]

Hi

 

Just wondering when your printer arrived how much resin did you go through in excitement before reason kicked in. 

 

I'm look at the 250ml bottle that came with the printer and was going to order another litre, but then I thought of all the things I want print and the litre-age is going up, don't want to really buy on the excitement level.

 

Cheers

[Locksley]

I'm presuming you've bought the Photon? You'll burn through the 250ml in about a week or so of decent usage (2 or 3 prints a day) I'd say. I only used about half of my bottle before I opted for a different brand of resin, the two Anycubic ones I've tried (the clear green and clear yellow) are ok but very brittle, my recommendation is Elegoo Grey as it's far superior in detail and toughness, however it doesn't appear to be listed on Amazon any more, so you may have to go for either the black or white which I believe are just as good.

 

 

[justin1985]

It depends what kind of size / scale items you're printing! I model in 2mm scale, so most of my items are pretty small - and most are hollow. I go through phases of printing quite a lot, then not using it for several weeks, so it's hard to say how quickly I get through resin. But it's definitely in the months per 500 ml bottle!

 

I'd definitely agree with Locksley that you'll find you prefer/need different resins, so it's best not to invest in too much of any one type up front.

 

The different colours are pretty much irrelevant for most modellers, I would have thought, because we paint most things! However the colour can have an impact in terms of how opaque it is, in allowing or minimising light bleed. Strength/brittleness is probably much more important.

 

J

[KBscale]

 

Elegoo Grey is now back in stock on Amazon.

[regme]

I have a ore wagon I want to do in HO, still figuring out whether to do it in one piece or break it up.

 

I was looking at monocure resin to start off with, maybe a couple of litres but by the sounds of things best just to get a litre and see how it goes.  I'll sus out that Elegoo Grey too.

 

Cheers

[JCL]

You'll probably use up a fair bit of your first bottle getting to know your printer and doing calibrations (if your printer needs this). I think I got through a litre very quickly in the first few weeks doing this and printing anything of interest that I could get a hold of! 

[monkeysarefun]

I keep an eye on prices and am always ready to pounce because they can fluctuate greatly.  The anycubic ebay store especially varies wildly from week to week. I bought 2 by 1 litres of green from them in July for AU$102.30 delivered to my door. Now when I click on the same link that is in my receipt they are charging $83 for 500ml....

 

FEP sheets too were around 8 bucks a sheet, I jumped on them a couple of weeks ago when they were 5 for$25.

 

Monocure had a 30% off sale here last month that has just ended.

[regme]

Well finally printed my first print - a 20' sea container.

 

Apart from the great information I found here, what did I learn

• Sometimes when creating the STL file not all the parts get exported need to make sure it's one solid model.
• Think about the orienation of the print model in relation to supports to reduce sanding faces of the model that might not have to be sanded.  I had the model on a  30deg slope to reduces the flat area and maybe I didn't have to do that.
• Take it easy cutting the supports.
• Maybe using bracing to keep the sides square, I got a bit of bow.

It's not perfect, and sure I'll know, but when placed with the others that will follow, good luck finding it.  Overall pretty happy in the way it turned out.

[JCL]

If the container is fully enclosed, have you thought about adding supports inside the model to stop the bowing? I know when I’ve printed a boiler in the past it’s included internal supports that I’ve knocked out with a chopstick.

 

i hear you on the support cutting.

[Charlie586]

I switched to using chitubox as the slicer a few weeks ago, and found the supports are now easier to remove. The auto support button seems more intelligent as well.

[flubrush]

I have found that the biggest factor in getting good prints is support placement.  I use Chitubox and use its automatic function and adjust its output by adding or removing supports to avoid problems.   I find that trying to imagine what happens when the partial print might act when being unstuck from the building plate helps.

 

Jim.

Edited September 9, 2019 by flubrush

[Locksley]

Something else to try: I now use Prusaslicer exclusively to add supports to my models, finding it far easier to use than Chitubox. It also has a built in Netfabb model fixer which has been a godsend to fix models converted from other formats, as well as an auto orientation feature which so far seems pretty good at minimising warping and suction. Once supported I export the entire thing as an STL and stick it in Chitubox for slicing as normal.

[monkeysarefun]

11 hours ago, Locksley said:

Something else to try: I now use Prusaslicer exclusively to add supports to my models, finding it far easier to use than Chitubox. It also has a built in Netfabb model fixer which has been a godsend to fix models converted from other formats, as well as an auto orientation feature which so far seems pretty good at minimising warping and suction. Once supported I export the entire thing as an STL and stick it in Chitubox for slicing as normal.

 

Is the Netfabb fixer you are using  the online service?

[Locksley]

9 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

Is the Netfabb fixer you are using  the online service?

 

I presume it's the same thing but built into the Prusaslicer software. You literally just right click the object you want to fix and select "Fix through the Netfabb" from the drop down menu.