Just under a year go I contributed to an Indiegogo campaign for a SLA printer called Bean and it finally showed up at my doorstep last week.
This printer has been basically been running non-stop since it showed up. I’m having a lot of fun with it. So far I’ve mostly been printing little figurines from one of my favorite 3d artists, who recreates a lot of characters I like. I know his models are good and this has let me figure out all the ins-and-outs of printing with resin.
The first model was of Calvin and Hobbes riding in a classic wagon. I printed this solid, which takes a lot of resin, but I wanted to compare the pros and cons when I printed other models hollow.
The second model was Steven Universe, which I did print hollow. It took very little resin to print but you can see the internal structure that was created to make it print properly. I always paint my models, so this isn’t a big deal to me. If I wasn’t going to paint it, I would either print it as a solid object or pick a non-transparent color.
So far, the only thing I dislike about having a resin printer is that resin really, really stinks. Seriously, it’s like a punch to the snoot. It’s no wonder these printers are designed with a lid. It’s also messy, but not nearly as messy as everyone makes it out to be. The trade off though is that it’s really high resolution and it prints fast. These models took 4-5 hours to print. Most models on my FDM printer will take over a day if I print at a high resolution and while my filament printer is a super awesome one, it’s resolution is not nearly as good as the resin resolution.
Once we get a nice dry weekend in Seattle, I’ll have to get these prints outside and spray some primer on them for painting.