Entry level Resin Printer Advice

[CNCModeller]

Hi All,
Been super busy with work recently so haven't been doing much printing. Things are calming down now so I'm starting to think about other things again.

I need to make some very small parts with decent surface finish so I'm thinking about a small resin printer.

My front runner is the CREALITY 3D HALOT-ONE CL-60, which I can get for £135 or with a wash station for £270 ish.

Just wondering if anyone has one or another recommendation?

Any constructive thoughts would be much appreciated!!

All the best
Barry M

[droftarts]

@cncmodeller https://www.youtube.com/c/TeachingTech and https://www.youtube.com/user/ThomasSanladerer have done some reviews of resin printers. I think the current best ones have mono 4K LCDs, and there are 8K versions too for a bit more. I think it's generally worth getting the wash station, and even the UV turntable/hardener station. I was thinking of getting one, but really don't have a lot of uses, and as currently sharing the office with the wife and having young kids, it's probably not the best idea! Must get on and build a proper man-cave...

Ian

[o_lampe]

I've read in another forum, that the common resin is quite brittle and considered as look-don't touch items.
If you're planning to build useable stuff, there's ABS-like resin, which is pretty expensive.

[o_lampe]

@cncmodeller said in Entry level Resin Printer Advice:

I need to make some very small parts with decent surface finish

There's also a chance to use a common ABS printer and use acetone to smooth the surface.

[CNCModeller]

@droftarts
Thanks for the thoughts. I was thinking about the mess and smell. I think it'll end up in my workshop, I assume to they aren't overly temperature sensitive?
I only have a very specific use in mind at the moment that centers around parts for a model aircraft air data system. Some parts are very small / thin indeed and my fdm machines just aren't accurate enough.
The very low £135 price tag and good online review drew me to the CREALITY HALOT-ONE. I'll keep digging

[CNCModeller]

@o_lampe said in Entry level Resin Printer Advice:

I've read in another forum, that the common resin is quite brittle and considered as look-don't touch items.
If you're planning to build useable stuff, there's ABS-like resin, which is pretty expensive.

@o_lampe

Thanks for the heads up... One of the parts I need is a tiny weather vane like device, far to small to fdm print and that'd need to be fairly robust, albeit the entire assembly will be relatively fragile anyway. I'll take a look at the more engineering based resin!

[jumpedwithbothfeet]

@cncmodeller I have the CL-60 it is very easy to use, literally press play I also have the wash and cure station which also works well. some notes to consider however -

Pro`s -
easy to print
easy to setup
lovely detailed prints and I mean really nice compared to FDM

Cons -
IPA is super expensive (around £20 in the UK for 5 litres and you will go through it!)
Resin again expensive and you need choose the right resin for the job in hand, the basic Elegoo stuff I've used it very brittle.
Tissue paper and Gloves lots of them!
build volume is poor but my other printer is a 370mm Voron so that might taint it a bit
Clean up can be a pain even with a wash and cure station if you don't have a lot of space to work in.

By far the worst part I've found so far is slicing the file, placing the supports choosing the right ones etc is very time consuming and laborious, automatic supports pick the wrong places, add to many or not enough = failed print or a pain to clean up, I'm using Lychee slicer BTW the free version, I cant comment on the paid version.

Going forward I will be using water washable resin to mitigate the IPA price, I have a slight regret in going resin as I didn't fully appreciate the amount of work and cost in using it, but if you have the space, time and money and a specific use for it then the printer is fantastic and well constructed.

I realise what I've written is probably quite negative regarding Resin printing but these are things I wish I had paid more attention to before buying!

[CNCModeller]

@jumpedwithbothfeet

Thanks that was exactly the kind of experience I was hoping to find out about.

Interesting to hear about the end to end process too.

Funnily enough by accident I bought some water soluble resin for another task so that was lucky!

The wash station is pretty cheap but as I'm only going to be making very small parts and not many of them I think I will hold off on one until I have experienced the process first hand. I'm sure I'll find applications for larger resin prints in the future but for now I'll take it one step at a time.

Great stuff!

Many thanks
Barry M

[jumpedwithbothfeet]

@cncmodeller I'm glad it was of some use It really is fantastic for the details and easily trumps FDM at that, I printed an aircraft propeller some weeks ago and it came out beautifully, nice and smooth all dimensions spot on, but when it came to remove the supports the very thin trailing edge of the the blades snapped off leaving a horrible serrated edge! I`m hoping the ABS tough resin will help that in the future.

I also attempted to FDM print the prop in ABS with a 0.25mm nozzle which came out ok but the quality was chalk and cheese, the airflow even with the broken edge was far better on the resin part, and vapour smoothing the part would of destroyed the dimensions, anyway just an example of what you will be up against! lots of testing lol

[CNCModeller]

@jumpedwithbothfeet

Sounds interesting, yes plenty of testing. I've just pulled the trigger on a CL-60 so should be able to tinker next weekend.

Been reading up on resin, apparently the water soluble type is supposed to be more robust than the standard type but not as good as the abs like ones.

Be interesting to do some comparisons.

Thanks again, sharing your experience has been really helpful.

All the best
Barry M

[breed]

@cncmodeller most resin printers are the same. Almost all use chitu brand controls. Def get a mono screen or one of the newer dlp printers, mono prints much much faster. Suggest getting two tanks for which ever wash station you decide. Dirty tank and a cleanish tank. Remember once the ipa gets cloudy you can pour it into a glass jar and set it out in the sun. The resin will coagulate and can be filtered out through a coffee filter to be reused. I usually add some fresh in also. Cheers.

[CNCModeller]

@breed thanks for the pointer on the solvent, good to know. I'll need to use it for the ABS style resin.

[o_lampe]

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[Threephourths]

I have a Elegoo Mars 2 Pro and have been using mostly Elegoo and Anycubic resins. I recently tried Siraya Tech's Fast and their flexible Tenacious. I highly recommend giving Siraya Tech a shot. I ended up mixing the Fast and the Tenacious and the prints came out very durable! Adding the flex decreased the brittleness and I have yet to break any functional part so far. Siraya Tech also has their Blue resin which I believe is pretty tough as well

[CNCModeller]

@threephourths said in Entry level Resin Printer Advice:

I ended up mixing the Fast and the Tenacious and the prints came out very durable!

I never even knew blending resin was a thing! Very interesting. Will give them a look.

[Threephourths]

@cncmodeller Mixing is totally fine for the most part. Its mostly recommended to only mix the same types of resins together and some recommend even the same manufacturer. I saw a post on reddit about the Fast/Tenacious mix and tried it out. I ran a few calibration prints after mixing and altered the print settings accordingly to get the calibration print dialed in.

The Tenacious only comes in Clear Yellow and Obsidian Black. I ordered the Fast in Smoky Black and the Tenacious in Obsidian so all the mixed resin parts are just black. But other colors will obviously produce other final colors and may need print settings adjusted as needed