Within the club is always the usual banter and the classic line “But is it really modelling?”
But, more and more is being done with printers and much after market stuff is up for sale. More interest has been shown in the club with a few people now owning one or more printers.
This page is not going to be about specific use for any type of make etc, but hopefully, a guide to those looking into starting or just general interest.
I was lucky enough to get a Elegoo Mars 5 Resin printer for Christmas, with my first thoughts being “What next?”
I suddenly realised with the printer that I needed to about how the printer works, how to get the file for printing to the printer and then how to make/get the design you are after. There’s also a multitude of materials for printing with numerous resins and tons of different plastic reels for those who choose a filament type of printer.
As usual, club members were very helpful with advice but I decided to find an object that was already prepared for printing and downloadable as a “.goo” file. This done, I copied the file onto a USB stick and shoved it in the machine. Having filled up the resin reservoir and checked everything I pressed the Start button.
First thing, its not exactly a spectator spectacle, with a print time of 3 hours for this file. It was good to watch the machine start up and see the build plate descend into the pool of resin.
Much later, the object was complete and the next stage required. This is to wash the item with either an Isopropyl liquid or water, depending on resin type purchased. Once washed, the supports can be carefully removed and then put in a curing machine. This is a UV light source which sets the resin hard reasonably quickly. You can let sunlight do the job though this can take a lot longer.
Lessons I’ve learnt so far
If you forget to add the supports you just get a flat pancake of an image in the reservoir
If you don’t put the reservoir on properly you also get a pancake made.
There is shed loads of free, and paid for, files out there ready for print ot to splice first.
Youtube is festooned with all sorts of experts, that either know, or think they know what to do.
At first I started using Chitubox, which was one of the splicer programs supplied with printer. This, at first, worked well and was not too difficult to get to use. However, after a couple of updates of both the program and the Linux Mint system it decided that it was not going to co-operate with the PC. After much language, searching and a plea for a new computer I decided to try a different software package. I have now moved to Lychee which seems to be working well. I believe the issue to be video drivers/software for some older machines.
More to follow
