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  • 1 month later...

Heads up for anyone in the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain or Japan:  

 

Anycubic will be running a sale for Amazon Prime day - 20% off the Photon.  So it will be about $430, which is a pretty great deal.  Better yet, it doesn't look like you actually need to have a Prime account - its just a coupon code - so there's a chance that anyone (in those countries) can take advantage of the offer.

 

More details (specific dates, times and codes) on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/anycubic3dprinter/videos/396300070776121/

 

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Thanks for the info... I just bought one through Amazon Germany. They have a 10% voucher in addition to the 20 % prime day offer, so that I saved 155 €s which is an even better deal. When I ordered the printer they had only 8 left, so be aware that they could be sold out.

 

Cheers Ralf

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  • 4 weeks later...

I am still contemplating which printer to buy and basically hesitate between the Wanhao duplicator 7 and the Anycubic Photon. The duplicator has a larger printing volume than the photon but the minimum layer thichness is 0.035 mm vs 0.025 mm for the Photon.

 

Apart for the price (duplicator is a bit more expensive), I am curious to know why you choose the photon and not the duplicator.

 

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Hey Vincent. Man, I'm a forgetful idiot and still failed to mail you those handle parts I printed for you to check against Shapeways. I'm really sorry. I will try to get to the post office and get those to you. 

 

But to answer your question about Wanhao vs Anycubic, I based my decision for the Anycubic on that the majority of reviews being positive and from looking at the build quality of the Photon. The machined anodized build plate and resin vat sides looked very sturdy in the pics (and they are rock solid)  and just the overall build quality looked better. Obviously I can't compare side by side except for using pics of the Wanhao but that's what used to compare. I haven't printed much lately as we're getting the kiddos ready to go back to school so things are crazy in the household right now.

 

Bill

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Just to make life more difficult, Creality (another popular brand) announced their first DLP printer last week, too.  Though I'd strongly suggest waiting a few months before looking at one - Creality tends to revise/improve during production (sort of like the D7, except without actual, official Versions).  In fact, I suspect we'll see a flood of clones in the next year or so, as everyone rips off the basic phablet-LCD-as-UV-mask design.

 

Also worth noting, Prusa are widely reported to be working on some form of resin printer.  If it's anywhere near production, there should be some announcements at NY maker faire in late September.

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I've chosen the Photon because of the positive reviews. After looking at the actual printer and the workflow there are some advantages in my opinion over the D7. First the build quality is very good for this price. Especially the build plate and the LCD mount. It is a very solid machine. What was actually the tipping point for me is that the Photon doesn't need a connection to a computer while printing. I can insert a USB stick and start the print and leave it alone.

The Photon slicer is much simpler and very easy to use. The first trials were very promising. Now I have to improve my 3d modeling knowledge to make the 3d models in the quality I want.

 

Just a opinion to the Prusa. I've got their MK2 and it's a good machine but it took a very long time to get one. I've ordered mine in early summer last year waited months then got it and just one week later they released their MK3. Wasn't too happy about that, they then offered a discount on the upgrade. This also took months to arrive. So even if they release a DLP printer in the future it could take a very long time to get one. 

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I haven't bought a UV light yet, I've just been setting the pieces in the sun for a little while to finish curing. So far that seems to be good enough. But since the lights are relatively cheap and you can use them 24 hours or in bad weather, I may have to pick one up. but to answer your last question, the parts DO need to be hardened either by sunlight or some UV source. They are pliable straight from the printer.

 

 

Bill

Edited by niart17
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6 hours ago, Lunokhod 2 said:

or the printed parts are hard enough and do not need further hardening.

 

No, you need to use some form of UV to fully cure the parts once they're out of the printer and cleaned.  The printer only partially cures the resin - enough to print a solid object, but not the full chemical reaction.  It needs another blast of UV light to finish the curing process.  Doesn't really matter *how* - you can do it with UV LEDs, or the sun, or a full-spectrum fluorescent tube - but it will need more UV light to fully cure the resin.

 

Those fingernail curing devices are a popular option, but it would also be easy to make your own with UV LEDs and some sort of box.

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The fingernail curing things are cheap but the UV wavelength is usually too short. Depending on the resin there must be 400nm, the fingernail curer are often much lower. LED strips from Amazon or Ebay are in the same price range and usually better. There are a numer of tutorials out there also on Youtube (search for UV baking oven).

Edited by ralf
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I did my first print today. It was half a success and half a failure. I wanted to print a part of the aft heat shield of the 1/32 service module I am currently designing (the part in cyan below). It's a small part about 5 cm diameter so I didn't want to spend too much time on printing (about 1h30). The layer thickness was 0.05 mm, the normal exposure time 8 s and the offtime 3 s.

 

image110.jpg
 

As you can see on the following pictures half of the part was nicely done with very crispy details such as the rivets but the other part was completely messed up.

 

20180810.jpg


20180811.jpg

 

Two possible explanations, 1) there is a tendancy of succion for flat surfaces towards the liquid resin which can create a deformation, 2) as you can see below there is a hollow in the part where the liquid resin will stay and its only way to get out is if you have a bended side. I think the two things happened together since when the part was finished the remaining liquid resin dropped from the wrong side mainly. 

 

image210.jpg

 

So I will try again by inclining the part. I expect it will work this time. Wish me luck.

 

And I also would like to know whether the parameters (layer thickness 0.05 mm, normal exposure time 8 s, off time 3 s) seem correct to you.

Thanks for your help

Edited by Lunokhod 2
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Here's 1 of my prints from the weekend.
It's 1/60th free model from thingyverse
Not sure where the designer got his details it's a little lacking but still possibly more detail than the Dragon F1 engine.
If when complete it looks better I might replace all 5 with 1/72 versions.

the bell dia is 60mm. Little too big for the Dragon

20180827_075159.jpg

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8 hours ago, Lunokhod 2 said:

I did my first print today. It was half a success and half a failure. I wanted to print a part of the aft heat shield of the 1/32 service module I am currently designing (the part in cyan below). It's a small part about 5 cm diameter so I didn't want to spend too much time on printing (about 1h30). The layer thickness was 0.05 mm, the normal exposure time 8 s and the offtime 3 s.

 

image110.jpg
 

As you can see on the following pictures half of the part was nicely done with very crispy details such as the rivets but the other part was completely messed up.

 

20180810.jpg


20180811.jpg

 

Two possible explanations, 1) there is a tendancy of succion for flat surfaces towards the liquid resin which can create a deformation, 2) as you can see below there is a hollow in the part where the liquid resin will stay and its only way to get out is if you have a bended side. I think the two things happened together since when the part was finished the remaining liquid resin dropped from the wrong side mainly. 

 

image210.jpg

 

So I will try again by inclining the part. I expect it will work this time. Wish me luck.

 

And I also would like to know whether the parameters (layer thickness 0.05 mm, normal exposure time 8 s, off time 3 s) seem correct to you.

Thanks for your help

I had quite some trouble over the weekend.
I'm still not convinced tilting is required on DLP printers but the printer settings are more likely to impact.

Exposure time for me is 6.5
Off time I think is 12

The raft is 1mm and use medium supports with medium contact points.

I'll post settings I was given later.

Otherwise a great piece of detail.

Edited by Aussie-Pete
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If I'm understanding the physics right, I think the tilting is recommended so that the first layers of the part have a smaller cross-section than the layers above them to prevent a "suction" force keeping the part attached to the bottom of the resin vat for the first few part layers. At least that's what I've read. But I agree that doesn't seem to make sense, because even the test model that comes with the Anycubic has a larger solid round base that it prints first and then goes down to a point of the cube part. I'm still studying and figuring out what effect what. Right now I've put printing on hold since I have to print in my garage and we've had some 100 degree days lately. I'd imagine printing in such high heat and humidity won't yield good results. Should start having cooler weather soon I hope.

 

Bill

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18 hours ago, niart17 said:

If I'm understanding the physics right, I think the tilting is recommended so that the first layers of the part have a smaller cross-section than the layers above them to prevent a "suction" force keeping the part attached to the bottom of the resin vat for the first few part layers. At least that's what I've read. But I agree that doesn't seem to make sense, because even the test model that comes with the Anycubic has a larger solid round base that it prints first and then goes down to a point of the cube part. I'm still studying and figuring out what effect what. Right now I've put printing on hold since I have to print in my garage and we've had some 100 degree days lately. I'd imagine printing in such high heat and humidity won't yield good results. Should start having cooler weather soon I hope.

 

Bill

A large flat area should be tilted for that reason. Keep the raft larger than the surface contact area of the model. 

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Success after tilting the part, I choose a 0.03 mm resolution for the layer thickness, a normal exposure time of 8 s and an off time of 2 s. The only problem is that the Slicer program estimated a printing time of 4.5 hrs when it actually took 7.5 hrs. Do you have any explanation about this discrepancy or should I double the time for a good estimate before printing. I am very impressed by the final result.

 

image310.jpg

 

image410.jpg

 

image510.jpg

 

image611.jpg
 

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