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

Thanks Paul, I had found the first link but not the second on Thingiverse via this YouTube video :-



But then I came across the usefulness of having a dual feed extruder where one of two different spools of filament could be routed into one nozzle.

It was not that I wanted to print a two colour object but the advantage lay in using a PVA as a support material for a similar characteristic plastic for the body of the item. The reason why that is good for filament based printing is that a PVA support can be dissolved away with water leaving the material for the printed item unmarked (assuming good alignment) and furthermore the PVA is biodegradable into the bargain. The con is that the PVA is an expensive filament so best used only when necessary, otherwise use the one material for supports and part where the join to the actual part is not visible. In addition it would also be faster as otherwise you need to time to purge out the first filament and prime the next, this could happen multiple times per layer with filament printing techniques. You lucky resin printer guys!

This I first saw in the Ultimaker S3, however the open nature of the filament spools on the rear of the machine and lack of enclosure (air manager) like the S2 was a significant negative point IMO.

Higher models of the Ultimaker like the S5 are beyond my limited sanity to buy, and when they have swappable print cores, not just the nozzles that makes it even more prohibitive for a hobby machine. They are designed for minimal down time in a production environment where time is money. So not right for me anyway as I am trying to get away from swapping out entire extruder & nozzle assemblies of proprietary design.

Other makes and models were examined, some blazingly fast with very high tech spec for speed, but included much more electronics to stop vibration degrading print quality and proprietary hot ends, a game changing machine (Bambu Lab X1) but rather revolutionary/new I prefer not to be at the bleeding edge.

I eventually came across the Raise3D E2 which has two independent heads in a closed environment, including the spools, nozzles that range from 0.2mm upwards which are user replaceable/swappable and they are much cheaper than buying an easy swap out cartridge/hot end/extruder assembly.

So this becomes a more practical machine for a hobbyist who likes a modest challenge where I want to be modelling more than DIY machine upgrading.

As you note (Paul), resin printing multiple items at once does not increase the print time (I really like that), however with a filament printer it can enormously increase print time (tedious). When supports are required the slicer needs to perform efficient support construction as the supports can take a significant amount of time to create, which can be far more than for the item they support. I found that when I looked at printing the internal spool hook.

The Raise3D E2



Longer print times are something to live with but another plus is the wide range of materials supported by machines such as the E2 especially as you can easily fit hard wearing steel nozzles for abrasive materials which wear out brass nozzles quickly. The separate extruders can also be set up independently, e.g. different colours, or base material and water dissolvable support material. Mind you, frequent switching between nozzles working on the same piece can greatly increase print times.

When both are not required on the same job options include just parking one, or printing two copies of an object, which can be identical, or in mirror mode for left and right hand parts.

The pros and cons are varied and time consuming to consider, so I needed to put a stake in the ground and go with what I believe is the best balance I can achieve, that I have done and will have to live with the consequences

So to cut this long tale short, after many days of sifting through machine specs, receiving very useful information from all you guys on here, YouTube demonstrations and 3rd party reviews I have decided to go for the Raise3D E2, to which I will fit 0.2mm nozzles, and possibly 0.15mm nozzles later if I really go overboard with this, because even a 0.2 requires some detailed parameter setting to achieve good results, but at least the machine and it's firmware seem to make this feasible.

Jim

 

Well I'm going to order it today, writing about it like my series of articles made sure that my brain is sufficiently engaged to attempt an appropriate decision for my 'needs' , dithering is something you can do earlier in life, and the more you dither over tech the quicker it moves on, I learnt that in the days when I used to build my desktop PCs by selecting the motherboard, processor, memory, drives, case etc and just hoped everything worked together. I then avoided looking at any adverts for a year to see how quickly I could have got more for less.

The usable bed area of this printer is slightly smaller when both heads are used but it is still ample for my so called needs.

Unexpected bonuses, it uses the same diameter filament as the da Vinci (0.75mm) whereas many of the others used 2.85mm, also it's not tied to a cloud service. It can connect to thiers, but appears to be capable of being driven via a local network, e.g. my house LAN without needing to be online to print from the laptop running the modelling tool. Probably if I left it too long to buy then those bonuses could slide out of the spec in it's successor.

I have also tweaked the title of this thread inline to where it has drifted and linked to it my adventure thread so the information you have all contributed is more accessible to other members.
I hope I haven't actually bought a microwave

Jim

 

I know, it frightens me too, but I don't drink, drive or smoke, boring ain't I!

I'd rather have this printer than a car

 

Thanks, but what I have posted on my '3D adventures' thread so far is all I have done to date, I think you have done rather more, and for 'better' read 'more expensive', I now know that resin and filament 3D printers are very different tools for very different materials and applications, my apprenticeship has just begun.

May the force be with you

Jim

 

Boy has this thread got complicated, that's a relief, I was sure the Millenium Falcon ran on more than caster oil, I'll just slither back under my 3D printed stone

That's called an iterative process, sounds better.

Jim