Last SLA printer I touched was the original Anycubic Photon with Anycubic cure & wash with Anycubic tough resin. Looking at all the current options I am lost what I should buy. Resin heating, pressure detection, vat tilting and all of this wasn’t a thing back than.
With the past experience in mind what printer, curing staton & resin should I get?
for the printer:
First three points have to be fullfiled. The others aspects are more nice to have.
- relaible!!! I want to start a print and return once it is done. Not worrying about print failures
- Works with a good slicer. Back in the day I used PrusaSlicer with UV-tools to convert it to Anycubic fileformat.
- resin vat mixing (vat tilting is good enough) to prevent resins from seperating during long prints
- decently sealed print volume: reducing the vapours/“smell”
- “speed”: should be faster than the original Anycubic photon
- build volume: at least 127×80×150 mm. Larger is better (ideally upto 160x160 mm parts)
- network connectivity instead of USB-sticks or SD-card.
- budget approx. 500€.
cure and washing:
- easy to keep clean
- at least two washing containers (first stage dirty IPA, second stage “clean” IPA)
- good solution to let the resin and washing fluid drip off the print
- smooth rotation. Had to modify the Anycubic cure and wash because prints kept falling
- uniform curing. This includes curing the top and bottom of prints
- I noticed none of the printers have magnetic/spring metal build platforms. Are they outdated/no longer required?
- budget depends but for a good solution, I would spend approx. 300€.
cleaning liquid: Is isopropanol alcohol (IPA) still the goto?
resin:
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Will be used for structural parts meaning impact resistance paired with decent rigidity is important. In Detail impact resistance on paar with Anycubic though resin. Ideally slightly more rigid. Some wear resistance is a benefit (e.g. gears).
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Decorative clear resin that won’t yellow
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“low cost”. Would pref an under 30€/kg resin with a budget of upto 50€/kg (approx. 5kg order volume/lot size)
What am I considering at the moment?
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used Prusa SL1S with CW1 for approx. 800€: Last experience with Prusa firmware was outstandingly bad. The Prusa mini had constant crashes/required reboots and had even to be removed before turning the printer on as otherwise it wouldn’t show firmware errors/wouldn’t start. Hardware on the other hand was pretty reliable so I hope that the SL1S is reliable, has bugfree firmware, and native prusaslicer support. Replacement parts should also be available for years to come which is great.
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elegoo saturn 4 ultra 16K: This printer got me thinking. Cost a fraction of the Prusa, is larger, has modern features and appears to be reliable. I remember that a while ago chitobox added DRM so I am not sure if I want to buy this if I am stuck with chitubox slicer.
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Anycubic Photon Mono M7 pro Instead of tilting they use a pump for resin circulation. How big of a pain is it to clean this? Anycubic slicer last time was uselss and I have no clue if Anycubic also pushed DRM meaning I couldn’t just switch to a good slicer. I really like the pressure detection to detect print failures.
Cure and wash?
No idea. all the solutions I have looked at seem to be still similar to the old anycubic cure and wash. The Prusa CW1 on the other hand looks like a well-thought-out solution.
Resin?
No idea.
The issue in this area is actually that the screens are proprietary from those making them, but that leads to a criminal corporate culture down the line in most cases. The datasheets for most high resolution displays are locked behind nondisclosure agreements and not publicly available.
I support all levels of open source, but that is a personal opinion and not anything mod or community related here. I’m not monolithic in my hobby interests so I expect to put things down and return to them at will. That is not compatible with any subscription nonsense. The SLA space seems dominated by such subscription schemes IMO. Big messy projects or large spaces for stuff are not something I can do, so I am probably biased from that angle too.
Software subscription and DRM on resin/filament are huge red flags. Had a look at heygears offerings as people describe it as the BambuLab equivalent for SLA. Looking into it, the feels more like a FormLabs company with overpriced resins and DRM to make you buy their resin.
Spending once 1.5-2k€ for the Flex RS printer is fine (more than I would like) but paying 40-70€/kg for resin killed it. Just not possible to economically justify paying twice as much for the source materials (resin). This would mean HeyGear jacking up the production cost by approx. 50-80%, indefinitely. A better option is it spend a day dialing in a third-party resin on the Prusa or Elegoo.
subscription = selling the same software indefinitely
paid upgrades = forced to deliver value/improvements with each paid update
for materials it is similar:
DRM = jacking up prices
open = competing on quality: You could use our first-party product with perfect integration but you are free to source whatever you like
I think the only reason I might consider getting a SLA printer in the future is for making buttons, switches, and very small mechanisms. FDM is not very good for these in my experience so far, though I haven’t tried to print them with something like a 0.25 mm nozzle yet. The interface angles and texture have a very large impact on how a button slides into a small button on a circuit board and or is even more sensitive when the printed button is depressing a metal switch dome on a PCB.
Are there any really small SLA printers that have a rigged open tool chain for such an application? I care about stupid-tiny types of things like the buttons on the side of a phone.
On my bucket list is to etch my own 4+ layer circuit boards and make some really small stuff at home just to say I can.