The New 3D Printing Thread

Indeed it is Super, I put that picture in there to illustrate the difference in detail/quality between FDM (Ender 3) and the Resin (Mars) printer.  In that example the FDM (Green) Ganesh is about twice the size of the Resin (Yellow) Ganesh, yet the quality and detail is better on the Resin version.  However even that fades into insignifigance when you look at this sample model (the Eleven Lighthouse which I previously printed on the Ender 3 and which I was over the moon about - except it took over a day to print).

The FDM/Ender 3 version of this when printed was about a foot tall, this version is as you can see barely taller than an AA battery;








The above images are of the 'un-cured' model (i.e. its still a bit soft as its not 'set') but I wanted to share some pictures with you as I felt it was so beautiful and illustrated the quality.  However this picture below of the model under a UV light source (i.e. in process of being cured) tends to show the detail even better.




However I should say even though I'm blown away with the quality I'm getting out of this little wonder it doesn't mean I've given up on FDM printing as sometimes for practicality you simply need a model to be physically larger and more able to be handled

So here's a couple of prints I've just run, it also illustrates something that isn't yet possible with resin printing, I used a metallic (copper) coloured filament.  There is a little bit of 'stringing' on these if you notice any 'hairy' bits, I've just not gotten round to fixing that yet - you just need a little judiicial use of a heat gun








One last footnote, although the resin prints are incredible and superbly detailed, there's something I've not yet told you.  They are printed at the slicers default printing resolution of a 0.05mm layer height.  Apparently the printer can print with a layer height down to 0.01mm high (in other words 5x more resolution).  Whether this would yield any more detail is questionable as at these sizes there is only so much resolution your eyes have without a magnifying glass or something and of course it would increase the print time by up to 5x if you went to 0.01mm.  But I guess if you had a model with enough resolution it would be an interesting experiment.  BTW - if you are wondering the print time for the resin Elven Lighthouse was just under 5 hours, as I was able to print the base and the lighthouse side by side on the build plate.  As I recall the FDM version took over a day just for the base (and the trees failed to print correctly as they were too delicate) and the lighthouse another 6-7 hours.  It's an interesting world isn't it