3D Printing Your experience with 3D printers?

I've been looking recently into 3d printing and one thing to be aware of is the existence of resin bath printers. Typically when you see 3d printers they use the FDM method which uses filament. Resin printers instead use a bath of resin that gets cured by uv light. These use lasers or LCDs to get super high resolution prints that would be impossible with filament printers. To give you an idea of the detail they can achieve, people use them to make, jewelry and miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons. The only downside is that the size of objects you can make is much more limited. You can get printers with larger print volume but they're very expensive (starting well over $1000).

As for filament, I've seen people print a doll, sand it down and then use that as the prototype for casting.

Sadly I don't have any actual experience with this, just some research at this point!

 

Hello! I've been interested in 3D Printing for EONS, and just recently bought my first printer this year!

I don't know much about the Filament / FDM machines since I've never owned one, personally. I went ahead and invested in the UV Resin LCD printer because I do not have the patience to prime, fill, sand, repeat.
Although that is still necessary with the resin printers, its a heck of a lot less effort to remove the print lines since they are very fine. And honestly, I cant really be bothered to sand most of my projects I use it for. the only exception being my WIP BJD that I hope to have really pristine casts of.
But for plush art dolls and other small figurines or props, I haven't been bothered to sand them since they come out pretty fine.

My Anycubic Photon cost about (EDIT: $250-$300), so its quite a bit out of your price range. Although you might keep an eye out for a sale (via amazon)
Each bottle of resin to print with costs $30-$60 depending on the brand.

Here's a video I made of the print-removal & cleaning process for my LCD resin printer: The Anycubic Photon


And here are some examples of prints I've gotten out of it in my Project Thread:
/threads/3d-modeled-printed-tiny-mature-male-bjd.815099/

Flickr album:
Mono BJD


This is my first ever 3D Printer and so far Ive been managing! There's a helpful community group on Facebook that has a lot of info and resources too.
If you or anyone else ever wanna hear more about my personal experiences with the (original, first model) Anycubic Photon, I am more than happy to share! ^^

 

As an update, I greatly mis-remembered the price of my printer!
You can get the same Anycubic Photon on Amazon for $239.99
So if that still fits within your budget, Id totally recommend looking into if Resin SLA printers are right for you. But I often find myself wishing it had a bigger buildplate. Maybe some day in the future! ; w ;

 

Congratulations on picking up the Ender 3! It's a great printer - most of my prototypes come off mine. In the end, if you can swing it, I recommend owning both a resin and an FDM printer, but they're expensive and I understand that's not possible for everyone.

Let me know if you need any tips on calibration or getting things working!

 

The fumes are quite bad. I run mine in the laundry room and wear a respirator if I’m going near. Much worse than other resins - I don’t know why.

With the resin vat, you can pause and refill at any time, but if it actually runs out that’ll wreck your print. Gotta be proactive.

Supports are easy to remove, but they’ll leave blemishes. Sometimes they’ll make little pits, so you’ll need to fill those for a smooth surface. You need a lot less support than an FDM printer like the Ender, though, and you can generally have one side with no supports at all (usually your face, etc).

Oh, quick tip for smoothing out Ender prints - try some Rustoleum filler-primer. You’ll still need to sand, but it’s a hell of a lot easier.

 

Yes, I also use the Photon! I'm in an old house, and the laundry room is really big doesn't have a door, but it's in a different part of the house to where I usually am. I've hooked mine up to a filtration system (I use Rear Vent to 4" Adapter for Anycubic Photon by DocTanner to attach a 4" hose, then run it through a 4" inline fan to blow it through a big carbon filter), which doesn't completely eliminate the smell but reduces it enough that if it's on the far end of the room I can't smell it from the hall. A door would definitely stop it. The setup cost a bit of money, but it's 100% worth the trouble.

If I use low-odor resin (Anycubic Plant-Based Resin is probably the best option) I can't smell it unless I actually open the cover on the printer. However, it's more expensive and you can't get some of the stronger specialty options, so it's not perfect. I think it's better than Anycubic's other offerings, but it won't compare to high-end stuff. However, it's still usually what I use, since I'm quite sensitive about chemical exposure.

 

I’m hoping to get a resin printer soon (Christmas...? Mum...?) but in the meantime I have an Ender 3 as well. To be honest, for prototyping I love it. I got it in kit form and wasn’t too hard to set up once you ignore their build plate & stick a bit of glass on the bed instead.

Now really wanna look into resin as I’m finally getting somewhere with blender! I’m getting a shed/outbuilding with power soon so hopefully it can run in there well away from the house, people & pets. I have heard about the stink and it’s worrying. Even ABS is horrid so I usually only print pla.

 

I have any anycubic mono photon SE that I had in the garage, but due to the cold I moved it into a bathroom. While running I keep the fan on and door closed, and I run it at night while everyone is sleeping so folks are less likely to go in. But honestly it doesn't smell bad?? I'm just being cautious because it's bad to breathe the fumes I've heard.

 

2 years late, but I love my cheap 3d printer! I like being able to create my own doll props. (and eventually a doll???)

 

I am also a couple years late and I gotta say I love making dolls on my printer. I got a Mars 3 for Christmas and so far I have printed two msd sized dolls and I am working on an overly elaborate SD. There are some amazing dolls on Thingiverse. I printed one doll from there with minimal changes (the ixodes's male bjd, I shrunk him to MSD size) and now I am frankensteining models together to make the weird and wonderful dolls of my dreams ^_^

 

Hello, resin 3D printing works well. There are some newer more reliable resin printers for not a lot of money like anycubic photon mono x. The printer is not the only cost you will have at the start. You should be aware that youre going to buy a whole lot more then just the printer. When it comes to cost you have to factor in the cost or resin, cleaning supply, and Fep. The cost lowers as you get better at printing and managing supplies. If anyone has further questions let me know and ill try to help with more detailed information.

 

@Himinglaeva, I'd really like to learn more about 3D resin printing. Please consider creating topic in the forum to relay your expertise and photos.

 

@Zoid5, thanks for the mention of Thingiverse. I'm going to check it out!

 

Yes, resin printing can be very satisfying, but you have to be careful when the material will be stressed, for example as holder for the elastic at hands and feet. You should strenghten these parts with a thicker wire, cast it bigger, or else it could possibly break. I recommend using a more resilient resin like "ABS-like Resin". It is more reslient than normal resin. There are more types of resin, I know 3 of them. The normal, the ABS-like or the "UV-tough resin". The last one is a bit rubber like and you can bend it. Everything can be bought on Amazon with a much more detailed information about these differences.

I am also relatively new to this topic, so please be gentle if I said something wrong, I just wanted to share my knowledge because I am very fascinated by this and wanted to take part on this conversation. I hope I was able to say something useful!