Resin Printers – Review in hand

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 16/03/2023 18:05:12:

…

I like it, even though the 20 pence coin is an obvious fake!

But what's the aircraft? Surely not an EADS Barracuda?

Dave

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Peter Greene 🇨🇦 on 16/03/2023 18:17:45:

A comment on the efficaciousness of the resin material in terms of both smell and health issues would be a most welcome part of the review.

I looked at these materials some time ago but was turned off by adverse comments about the above.

[So if you wouldn't mind Neil, taking a few deep breaths from a few inches away while you're printing ……. just kidding – please don't ]

Yes I'll be covering that in some detail.

N.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 16/03/2023 18:33:49:

I like it, even though the 20 pence coin is an obvious fake!

But what's the aircraft? Surely not an EADS Barracuda?

ME P1110/II – only ever a paper design.

N.

[Cyril BonnettParticipant @cyrilbonnett24790]

Found this

How to melt PLA? dissolve PLA (Polylactic Acid)

Cyril

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Cyril Bonnett on 16/03/2023 21:36:22:

Found this

How to melt PLA? dissolve PLA (Polylactic Acid)

Cyril

Acetone useless (from experience). Acetone will make PLA swell up a bit after a few days. It dissolves ABS really well.

Ethyl acetate is supposed to work but is VERY flammable and has unpleasant health implications.

Other options are very nasty.

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 16/03/2023 23:55:45

[Adrian JohnstoneParticipant @adrianjohnstone89946]

On lost wax: there are specialist meltable resins aimed at the jewelry market which work brilliantly well as investment casting waxes.

Marcus Neeser (a well known G1 designer in Switzerland) used a basic resin printer to make exceptionally good waxes of very small items. The resin is very expensive though at around £200 per litre: **LINK**

Edited By Adrian Johnstone on 17/03/2023 02:20:12

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

I have one of the new King Charles III postage stamps. What I know about 3D printing is written on the back of it…. But, James Clough of YouTube "Clough42" fame produced a video of him using a water soluble filament as a support material In this video. It strikes me that, if you used it as the main construction filament instead to produce your buck for a mould, it would be merely a matter of washing it out of the mould afterwards. Or would that be too simple? Sorry, it doesn't help with the resin side of this thread.

John

[george baker 1Participant @georgebaker1]

Hi

if you need to UV cure printed models you can use a tape of "UV" leds. Wind them inside an old paint tin. I'm told nail bars use a "UV Oven" to cure nails

George

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by John Hinkley on 17/03/2023 19:24:10:

I have one of the new King Charles III postage stamps. What I know about 3D printing is written on the back of it…. But, James Clough of YouTube "Clough42" fame produced a video of him using a water soluble filament as a support material In this video. It strikes me that, if you used it as the main construction filament instead to produce your buck for a mould, it would be merely a matter of washing it out of the mould afterwards. Or would that be too simple? Sorry, it doesn't help with the resin side of this thread.

John

That sounds embarrassingly straightforward, although I don't know how crisply the soluble resin prints.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by george baker 1 on 17/03/2023 19:32:11:

Hi

if you need to UV cure printed models you can use a tape of "UV" leds. Wind them inside an old paint tin. I'm told nail bars use a "UV Oven" to cure nails

George

My partner uses a 'nail hardening arch' to set resins for some of her craft projects.

N.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Adrian Johnstone on 17/03/2023 02:19:41:

On lost wax: there are specialist meltable resins aimed at the jewelry market which work brilliantly well as investment casting waxes.

Marcus Neeser (a well known G1 designer in Switzerland) used a basic resin printer to make exceptionally good waxes of very small items. The resin is very expensive though at around £200 per litre: **LINK**

Edited By Adrian Johnstone on 17/03/2023 02:20:12

I was looking at a 'ceramic resin' that costs £75 for 500ml.

The explanation was poor but the crisp prints of a set of rings looked excellent.These are meant to be pressed (at great pressure) between two sheets of synthetic rubber which are cured and then used to cast metal rings. Would obviously be limited to (lead-free) pewter type metals. I've done some basic 'jewellery' using two-part silicone mould material and PLA.

[lee websterParticipant @leewebster72680]

At £75 for 500ml perhaps my idea isn't as stupid as I thought! Print the part in ordinary resin, I use only water washable, so very little smell. Take a silicone rubber cast of the part, see Robert Tolone on youtube. Remove 3D print from rubber and fill void with a non 3D printer casting resin. The downsides are the time taken and that casting resin might not be suitable for burning out. Pewter or a low melt metal could be used instead of resin. The metal could then be covered with investment and melted out at the right time. I have never tried this, but I would like to try.

[lee websterParticipant @leewebster72680]

I forgot to add casting wax to the list. Probably an easier medium to work with, but again, I have no experience with any of the process.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

DOH!

It's never occurred to me, I can make a silicone mould, use it to cast a wax pattern, then do a proper investment casting. That's how the pros do it!

I can get 20g of sterling silver casting grains from cookson gold for £16!

This won't be for the review, but might happen in the future.

Neil

[CHAS LIPSCOMBEParticipant @chaslipscombe64795]

Neil,

Well……Yes and No. Silicone moulds are loved by the jewellery industry, largely because they permit complicated and undercut designs. They are also significantly cheaper than Aluminium/Epoxy moulds. In an engineering situation they do not last as long as Aluminium/Epoxy. Also because they are prone to flexing during the wax injection stage they usually can't give the same degree of accuracy.

So we can't get away from what we have said before, it's all a matter of horses for courses i.e. how many of an item you need, what degree of precision and cost. For most hobby applications silicone moulds would be perfectly satisfactory, but some foundries will not accept them because they inject the wax under high pressure in automated systems. This causes the moulds to flex at the injection point.

I would expect that a foundry that specialised in jewellery would be smallish and use manual (?) charging of the wax. The cynic in me suggests they don't mind long cycle times because the jewellery trade can accomodate some fairly exotic prices

I have recently come across someone who does lost wax casting of jewellery in a system that uses crushed sea-shells but I don't know any details. Anyone here that can enlighten us?

Chas

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

The crushed sea shell method uses 'cuttlefish' which are the white spears heads you found on the beach as a child which are the skeleton of an octopus or squid. they are so soft you can press an object into them to form a cavity that you fill with solder or pewter. Probably a method dating back to the bronze age.

The rubber moulding method was Tiranti who used to attend the ME shows.

Edited By Bazyle on 21/03/2023 21:57:03

[CHAS LIPSCOMBEParticipant @chaslipscombe64795]

Thanks Bazyle!

Fascinating and no day is wasted when I learn something! The quality of this mans work is significantly better than I would have expected from such a crude-sounding method. He casts mainly in nickle silver.

Chas

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