Resin Printers - Wash & Cure - Is it Right for Me?

Hi, I know there is quite some knowledge here regarding these printers so I have a couple of questions.

1) I have so far been put off by the potentially messy/hazardous side of the process when it comes to the wash and cure stages but I was just viewing a YouTube video titled "Anycubic - Photon Mono + Wash & Cure 2.0 - Unbox and Setup" which makes me wonder otherwise.



Do you use the "wash & cure" unit, and if so is it any good?

2) Also is the Anycubic Photon Mono 4K suitable for printing small parts, e.g. for gears and such like for 4mm scale models.

Jim

 

Thanks Phil, at times we would get insufficient bright light during the UK summer.
I seem to have a jargon/terms issue here, please explain what vat, fep, and etho are

Jim

 

Thanks Mossy, you confirm it is certainly not for the feint hearted or the sensitive noses and from what I hear and see a well ventilated shed/garage is a must to avoid the smell and damage due to any spillages.

I keep swinging on this, I have somewhere I could do this once I clear some space which is filling up with never going to be useful one day stuff

There doesn't seem much difference in price for the two printer sizes, they are still something like a tenth of the price of higher resolution filament printers, when looking at something established with more like industry standard nozzles, the da Vinci although works well uses their own design extruder/nozzle assembly which is 0.4mm only.

Alternatives which are an enclosed unit with filtration like the Ultimator 2+ Connect would be a £ ouch option, it is supplied with what appears to be (light) industry standard nozzles down to 0.25mm and up to 0.8mm for bulkier less detailed prints, a 0.15mm is available for those daring tinker/tweakers from nozzle manufacturers, but I digress.

Back to resin, couple more questions, which are a bit like "how long is a piece of string" and really depends on how often you use them.

1) do you leave the resin in the tray on the printer between jobs or is that asking for trouble if it goes off.
2) similarly do you leave the IPA in the wash & cure while it is still good enough to use.

Jim

 

Thanks Mossy, teetering on the edge, I'd prefer fine resolution with filament printing and specific plastics, rather than resin based, but the equipment cost difference is also very wide, more than 10x more expensive to go the filament route at least when compared to resin based systems, not sure how much my flexible friend will bend!

Jim

 

Well it's always easier when you can specify what you want to do and then shop for a specific tool, but at the moment, the what I want to do is quite varied.

Currently I am spending quite a bit of time viewing reviews on YouTube of various machines, then looking up suppliers.

Long term, I want to design and make a variety of items related to my railway, functional and scenic.

I have not got the patience to outsource the manufacture elsewhere.

I certainly look towards smaller components and scenic items for 4mm scale for a second printer, the da Vinci I have is quite good for a range of 1:1 and 1:76 items I am looking to print but I feel restricted to only a 0.4mm nozzle which is a tad limited for finer work.

Trouble is smaller printers do not necessarily map to being capable of finer details, but then I may just looking at the wrong category of machines

I'll get there, I usually do in the end

 

Thanks, that could be crucial, almost defeats the usefulness of getting the item printed for you

 

Well none of our models especially down to 1:76 can be really that fine, we wouldn't even be able to pick them up without crushing them, even if the prototype material was 1/2 inch thick steel, we'd still crush it like handling aluminum foil.

 

A good few pounds worth of detail there Paul.

Thank you for the time you spent to write all that, I am sure that info will also be very useful to other members as well as towards my decision process, filament vs resin.

Do I take it you do this professionally?

Certainly from what I see and here that the detail and finish possible with quite modestly priced equipment especially when compared with filament printers of somewhat lower print resolution is absolutely stunning. Forty+ years ago when I did not need glasses let alone an eye glass to see objects 50mm away I would still fit details I could only see close up, as the next decade passed, well at least I know the detail is there even if I cannot easily see it, fast forward to now, oh dear.

I work in 1:76 scale, 00 gauge, and very lucky that I still have quite steady hands, well for an hour or so maybe before they get muscle cramps, with sufficient magnification aids I can still build and paint quite small details, however my ability to be clumsy has become noticeably tedious at times, not all the time but I have my moments.

Whether wearing glasses or not objects move, jump sideways or spill over in a blink of an eye, even at breakfast this morning after my initial read of your detailed reply above, coffee jumps out of my mug across the table, luckily not all of it but enough to warrant scampering out to the kitchen for a cloth before it ran off onto the carpet.

When I start to downsize my railway I will first trade in all my contemporary stock, and then just run my vintage fleet of almost indestructible Dublo and Trix until I fall into the compost heap and recycle myself

Increasingly I notice detail when something cracks under my fingers

So, aspects which now have significant influence on my decision process of resin vs filament are mostly age related ...

1) If I can't see it with basic glasses, It is not worth fitting, this now includes lettering and numbers on rolling stock, my remaining 1977 wagons under construction will only be painted, and lets face it my r-t-r vintage stock has very limited numeric detail as made. My cement works is quite fragile due to all the pipework, handrails and overhead conveyors and requires much care to clean the track, attend to a hesitant loco or troublesome wagon coupling. There was much more detail I could have applied but it would not last long so I restrained myself.

2) I no longer trust myself with chemicals that when spilled are hazardous to handle unless absolutely necessary around the house or garden, it's bad enough dealing with spillages of modelling paint or super glue

3) I am getting into 3D printing at last while I still have enough active brain cells, however I do enjoy the challenge of repairing items especially if they were not meant to be repaired and creating things whether they be of software, hardware or a combination.

In which case as I do not intend to set up a business to sell my prints, although I would happily upload to Thingiverse or similar if there is any interest from this community in my future projects, otherwise they are just for me, so no point in detailing beyond what I can 'notice'. I believe I can live with the lower detail possible with filament printing and certainly live without all the chemical handing.

4) Although filament printing technology (I can afford) cannot match the detail and strength of injection moulded plastic components I can at least use more specific materials for different tasks.

When I bought the da Vinci printer years ago it was one of the first to offer many useful features for a 3 figure sum, and despite it's long hibernation it actually works quite well and is solidly built, it's downside is the proprietory hot end which includes a 0.4mm bore nozzle for which XYZ Printing do not supply an alternative. Materials are limited to ABS and PLA, which was very good then but also limiting now.

If I can use a much smaller nozzle even 0.2mm (0.15mm is available) for printers using a industry standard nozzles and combine that with more advanced slicing software that can reduce the diameter of the extruded material further then I should be able to print at sufficient resolution for my eyes to be content

The downside is nozzles that small can clog much easier, so it's not all plusses, but I still need some challenges


After spending much time on YouTube and posing questions on here and getting many useful replies I am going the filament route, my flexible friend is about to get a nasty shock as I go for an education / light industrial Raise3D printer to use alongside my da Vinci.

SKIVERs rule, Ok! (thanks for that acronym Paul)

Thanks for all the useful assistance guys, much appreciated, as I progress my 3D thread you will find out whether it was my biggest folly to date or not.

 

As a tooth, I may aspire to be a cog one day