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points by 0xb0565e486 1 day ago | 0 comments
I have a big interest in this; I have been making a lot of electronics as of late due to LLMs being so capable!

For instance, I wanted to buy a smart device to control my mini-split and it was 160$ on amazon for 1. Well I built 5 for 80$ in a weekend (excluding the 7 days shipping from China).

I'm very much looking for someone convince me not to buy this? Seems like people don't enjoy resin because it's a tad messy and it has a ~10-30 curing process.

Yet all parts from my FDM printer feels cheap and looks like nothing I'd be happy to buy unless I spend HOURS sanding and painting.

[–] regularfry 21 hours ago
"A tad messy" really undersells it. You need a solid process to manage the (sticky, carcinogenic, smelly) liquid resin both as an input and waste product, along with having to dispose of (carcinogenic, smelly, flammable) cleaning solvent.

The problem isn't so much the process of a successful print as how you deal with a failed one. At that point you've got a vat full of resin with some solid parts stuck to the bottom, so you need to filter and clean the damn thing which means taking it out of whatever containment you've got. And that step you can't use the usual solvent for because it damages the sheet. But you'll have ample time to figure all this out because you'll get loads of failed prints as you figure out how slicing and supporting for resin works: it's different to FDM, some knowledge carries over but not that much.

Focusing on the 10-30 minute curing process ignores the part prep step: SLA is much more reliant on supports than FDM in general, so there will be either rough surfaces hopefully out of sight, or (if it's not a model that orients well) scraping/sanding/filling. And you want to do support separation and get that as clean as possible before curing, while the resin is still a bit soft, but that means it's only partially cured and you need to be PPE'd up.

When I'm doing anything with my resin printer I don't even go into the room without a breathing filter, don't touch anything without gloves. It really is a very different experience to FDM.

[–] 0xb0565e486 19 hours ago
Thanks! Some details in there I didn’t hear before like dealing with failed prints.
[–] deckar01 1 day ago
The finish of SLA regularly failed to meet my expectations. You either have warping and elephant foot at the build plate or you have a hundred support contacts to clip and sand.

Desktop CNCs are getting very capable and cheap. It’s hard to beat the tolerances and finish quality of a machined part.

[–] KaiserPro 23 hours ago
Resin is much more precise, but its still plastic.

The stepup to CNC will allow aluminium and brass parts, but depth will be a challenge. Making anything deeper than a few cm on a desktop CNC is possible but has limitations.

[–] lp92 18 hours ago
Use a Matte filament, proper print settings, and low layer heights and you really won't be able to see the layer lines easily.

What FDM printer are you using?

[–] 0xb0565e486 17 hours ago
Ender v3 plus on matte PLA filament and 0.12 layer heights seems to be what have yielded the best result for me, but layer lines are definitely still visible.

The feel to the touch and the sound it makes (ex: sliding parts) is definitively another gripe I have.

[–] lp92 13 hours ago
Yeah you will still feel the layer lines. You could try Nylon if you're looking for a smoother feel. But the layer lines will still feel rough. Resin would be a bit better in that regard depending on the resin you use. Just keep in mind many of the resins are very brittle. So depending on your application, resin may not be suitable.
[–] 0xb0565e486 10 hours ago
Thanks, appreciate the ideas here! Didn't know resin would/could be brittle. Will look into that :)