I figured it might be of interest to some people to start a thread on this as well as those out there that have experience with 3D printing can comment and offer up tips and advice.
I pulled the trigger and bought an Anycubic Photon SLA DLP 3D resin printer. I have been wanting a 3D printer for a long time now but was on the fence about the FDM printers and using PLA. I have seen some incredible prints that people have done, but also have had some bad experiences with stuff from Shapeways and other people. The main issue I had was very visible layer lines. They just looked bad and didn't have a 'finished look', at least nothing that would look good for a build. I have watched videos where people use different solutions to basically melt the PLA and smooth the layers out, but then you lose fine detail. The other option is to fill and sand, which is a lot of work. Again I will say I have seen some incredible prints (online not in person) so I am not trashing FDM printers.
Like everything there is a trade off. The FDM printers have more moving parts and take a lot of tweaking and bed leveling and then even after all that I've seen people say it prints fine and then boom... the print quality goes south and then back to tweaking again. SLA printers require some work after the print is done, but nothing major, just a quick rinse in alcohol and a water rinse.
The trade offs:
FDM printers can print very large parts, but have less detail and (in my opinion from all the videos and research I've done) require a lot more mechanical tweaking and replacement parts. You have to deal with bed leveling with both, but the SLA printers literally take 30 seconds to level the build platform where as some people have spent days if not weeks getting their FDM bed level enough to print. Filament is cheaper than resin, but the cost of resin is slowly coming down.
SLA printers tend to be small, as in print builds that are around 5x7 in size but it makes up for it in the detail. Most SLA resin printers can print with detail and layers as fine as a human hair. In this area there are simply things that an FDM printer can't print, but... the SLA printer can't do massive prints like an FDM printer that are up to 20"x20"x20" depending on the model. As mentioned though the level of detail the SLA printers can do could for many out weigh the shear size of an FDM printer build. Also FDM printers users have had some nightmare stories about being 100 hours into a print and then everything goes wonky and the print is ruined. I haven't seen many complaints in that area with the SLA printers. The main print failure that I have seen happen is mainly due to people not having proper supports for their SLA build.
For the most part both types of printers can handle .stl files. Like everything, there are some companies that use proprietary software, but for most you can use the very large library of .stl files already out there.
Eventually I plan on building a large print format SLA printer, but that won't be for awhile. First I have to learn all the ins and outs on the smaller machine I bought and then I can start to think about a custom build.
I'm debating on whether to get a Creality FDM printer later on to make big parts and then use the SLA printer for detailed parts and panels, but I am not sure. I truly believe that SLA printers are eventually going to replace the FDM printers just like inkjet printers replaced dot matrix printers. I also think that's a good analogy between the two formats.
I should have my printer by Monday. I bought the Anycubic Photon SLA DLP UV printer. It was right around $500 and free shipping with Amazon Prime. I tallied up parts I wanted from Shapeways and other parts kits and just for the PG Falcon I had as much or more than the cost of the printer. So right there (to me at least) the printer will have paid for itself. I also see no reason why some PE items can't be replaced with SLA prints. The PE is of course metal and less prone to breaking, but it's also something that the price can add up real fast.
I'll start documenting my journey and what I learn as I go, and if anyone out there is an expert on 3D printing your input would be greatly appreciated. One topic I really need to learn is 3D scanning objects and formatting them as print ready files. Any help on that area would be awesome!
So let's have some fun and start printing custom stuff! I know one of the first things I will be printing will be a 1/72 scale Buck Rogers Starfighter!
I pulled the trigger and bought an Anycubic Photon SLA DLP 3D resin printer. I have been wanting a 3D printer for a long time now but was on the fence about the FDM printers and using PLA. I have seen some incredible prints that people have done, but also have had some bad experiences with stuff from Shapeways and other people. The main issue I had was very visible layer lines. They just looked bad and didn't have a 'finished look', at least nothing that would look good for a build. I have watched videos where people use different solutions to basically melt the PLA and smooth the layers out, but then you lose fine detail. The other option is to fill and sand, which is a lot of work. Again I will say I have seen some incredible prints (online not in person) so I am not trashing FDM printers.
Like everything there is a trade off. The FDM printers have more moving parts and take a lot of tweaking and bed leveling and then even after all that I've seen people say it prints fine and then boom... the print quality goes south and then back to tweaking again. SLA printers require some work after the print is done, but nothing major, just a quick rinse in alcohol and a water rinse.
The trade offs:
FDM printers can print very large parts, but have less detail and (in my opinion from all the videos and research I've done) require a lot more mechanical tweaking and replacement parts. You have to deal with bed leveling with both, but the SLA printers literally take 30 seconds to level the build platform where as some people have spent days if not weeks getting their FDM bed level enough to print. Filament is cheaper than resin, but the cost of resin is slowly coming down.
SLA printers tend to be small, as in print builds that are around 5x7 in size but it makes up for it in the detail. Most SLA resin printers can print with detail and layers as fine as a human hair. In this area there are simply things that an FDM printer can't print, but... the SLA printer can't do massive prints like an FDM printer that are up to 20"x20"x20" depending on the model. As mentioned though the level of detail the SLA printers can do could for many out weigh the shear size of an FDM printer build. Also FDM printers users have had some nightmare stories about being 100 hours into a print and then everything goes wonky and the print is ruined. I haven't seen many complaints in that area with the SLA printers. The main print failure that I have seen happen is mainly due to people not having proper supports for their SLA build.
For the most part both types of printers can handle .stl files. Like everything, there are some companies that use proprietary software, but for most you can use the very large library of .stl files already out there.
Eventually I plan on building a large print format SLA printer, but that won't be for awhile. First I have to learn all the ins and outs on the smaller machine I bought and then I can start to think about a custom build.
I'm debating on whether to get a Creality FDM printer later on to make big parts and then use the SLA printer for detailed parts and panels, but I am not sure. I truly believe that SLA printers are eventually going to replace the FDM printers just like inkjet printers replaced dot matrix printers. I also think that's a good analogy between the two formats.
I should have my printer by Monday. I bought the Anycubic Photon SLA DLP UV printer. It was right around $500 and free shipping with Amazon Prime. I tallied up parts I wanted from Shapeways and other parts kits and just for the PG Falcon I had as much or more than the cost of the printer. So right there (to me at least) the printer will have paid for itself. I also see no reason why some PE items can't be replaced with SLA prints. The PE is of course metal and less prone to breaking, but it's also something that the price can add up real fast.
I'll start documenting my journey and what I learn as I go, and if anyone out there is an expert on 3D printing your input would be greatly appreciated. One topic I really need to learn is 3D scanning objects and formatting them as print ready files. Any help on that area would be awesome!
So let's have some fun and start printing custom stuff! I know one of the first things I will be printing will be a 1/72 scale Buck Rogers Starfighter!
