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
[–] 0xb0565e486 19 hours ago
[–] deckar01 1 day ago
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
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
What FDM printer are you using?
[–] 0xb0565e486 17 hours ago
The feel to the touch and the sound it makes (ex: sliding parts) is definitively another gripe I have.
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.