3d printing is still like the solder-it-yourself days of R/C. You are buying a project not a product. 3D printing is cool, but still mostly a PITA. (i'm on my 3rd printer, and will be getting more!). As long as you recognize there is building/tuning/adjusting and lots of care and feeding its fine, but if you expect plug and play like a microwave it will likely end up a disappointment regardless of brand.

I can appreciate the quest for knowledge and technology to make thing better but I am very familiar with the hit to the wallet when things go awry.

I hope it ends well in your favor and thanks for sharing your experience. I have an FDM from FlashForge and it worked well for a while, then I had trouble. It was email customer support with a 24 hour delay for over a week then I realized my problem was humidity. We had a very humid Summer here in New Hampshire and my filament was a water sponge. I bought a dryer and problem solved, back in business.

I was thinking about upgrading to a resin 3D printer also and monitored your thread with great interest. I will sit back and wait, please keep us in touch, don't give up maybe take a break. I often have turned away in frustration, then calmed down and returned to the challenge.

Hopefully Creality will make it right for you, a friend of mine bought an FDM recently on my recommendation and it's working great so far. I'm not affiliated with them in any way but thought they were popular enough to be dependable. If Creality doesn't step up I hope PayPal does the right thing.

I have read thru the entire 3D thread and it looks like there are some very knowledgable guys posting on here! I am totally new to the 3D printing scene and am having my first parts printed by Shape Ways for my tank project.
I have had all my parts printed in their versatile plastic as a kinda test run to make sure everything will fit and work right. I am not completely happy with the final finish that the parts have and so my question is what plastic, if any, will give me the best final finish for a part?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated,
Larry

1gaz/Larry,
Shapeways Ultra Detail and Detail plastics will have better finish than Versatile plastic. The Detail plastics are Acylic based, the Versatile is Nylon based. There is a trade off <as always> - the detail plastics have better finish but are not as strong and are brittle. The versatile plastic being Nylon is much stronger, but the finish is grainy. I use the Nylon for most structural RC tank parts and the Detail stuff for periscopes etc. So far its working well.

I usually seal the Nylon with a clear polyurethane varnish and then paint. This will hide a lot of the graininess. It also protects the Nylon from water absorption - a downside of Nylon. The Detail/Acrylic parts can usually be painted as is. Both types of material can be sanded - but you run the risk of sanding off your detail doing that.

The Acrylic starts out as a liguid and is cured by UV light. These types of machines (Like FORM 2) offer greater detail and finer resolution. The Nylon material is powder based, and is sintered (baked) together - which generally results in a stronger material. The material being powder is why the parts are grainy. The Acrylic/Detail plastic printing process also allows thinner wall sections and thin features - which is why they are best for high detail parts.

There are benefits and limitations of both materials. Hope that helps.
Best regards,
Bob

Thank you so much Bob,
Right now I am just having fun designing the parts with the CAD program, it's something I have always wanted to try. I have no desire to ever try dealing with a 3D printer so thats why I am leaving the printing process up to someone else.
Being totally new to this I'll stick to learning one thing at a time!

Thanks again,
Larry

Any intenstions on sharing any STLs, for personal use? (not resale)
I am new to 3D printing and have been dialing my printer in and finally getting it working better.
I have not started design yet, I would like to know where to start.... what program to start with, ect??..

Enjoy,
Shad

Hi Shad,
You are more than welcome to any of my files, all of my parts are model specific so I don't know if you would have any use for them. I have the tread links and road wheels all done for the model.

As to a good program, I have really had great luck with Tinker CAD. It is a free on-line program that I have found to be really user friendly, and very intuitive when it comes to figuring out how to design a part. The problem with Tinker CAD is that is kinda limited for a really complex design but for a tank model so far I have had nothing but fun with it.

I tried to up-load some of my files but the RCU forum would not accept the format, oh well. If your interested I could E-mail the files to you.
Larry

It's been a while since I posted here, but I've recently made some real progress. First, the chitubox software is much, much better now and much easier to use. Also, I learned a few things along the way that helped, like the fact that I had a bad resin tank and it would leak a small amount of resin in between the bottom of the tank and the screen, and that caused all kinds of trouble. That's fixed now so life is easier, and another thing that's made a HUGE difference is water-washable resin. I can't tell you how much this stuff improves the experience for me. Now, instead of using all that simple green and rubbing alcohol I just take the whole print bed to a pan in the kitchen sink and spray it with the sprayer attachment thingie and it's a piece of pie. I use the pan to catch waste water, which I dispose of properly instead of letting it wash down the drain. The print quality is light years ahead of my creality cr10, though that's still a great piece of kit and it's running as I write this. Printing an M3 scout car that should make Rich Johnson drool. :p

It's especially good with small detail stuff like dash panels, windshield wipers and jerry cans.

Attachment 2268241

Attachment 2268242

hare's the dash panel (M3 Scout Car), and something else that came out really well, windshield wipers. One of those small details that can really add something to a good truck model. I've sent a pair of sample wipers to Shaun so we'll see how he likes them. And if anyone wants or needs any of the stuff I'm printing you should PM me, as I don't want anyone to think I'm advertising. I'll help my buddies get cool stuff, but I ain't trying to make a fortune or anything.

Attachment 2268243

and the printer itself. This is a whole different ball 'o wax, this resin stuff, but with water-washable resin it's so much easier. You still have to wear gloves and it still doesn't smell like roses, but all the hazards of rubbing alcohol have vanished.

Attachment 2268244

and these are absolutely essential tools for any newbie to sla printing

Attachment 2268245

I'd really like to hear from anyone that's playing around with this stuff, or fdm printing, or thinking about giving it a whirl. I've already made most of the bonehead mistakes so maybe I can help you to avoid some of the pitfalls. :cool:

Gary
I've recently tried to the Elegoo water washable resin. Overall I really like the cleanup as well. One downside it seems to be much more sensitive to bed adhesion than the "ABS like" resin I was using. It seems to somewhat less strong as well. But detail is crisp and nice just like other resins. For detail parts its hard to beat being able to make your own models and print them yourself. Some images of my recently printed hatches, periscopes, and hitch prototype for my 1/6 Armortek Sherman.

Hitch prototype:
Attachment 2268246

Periscopes:
Attachment 2268247

Attachment 2268248

Attachment 2268249

Drivers hatches for Sherman
Attachment 2268250

Attachment 2268251

1/6 Sterling SMG for someone else:
Attachment 2268255

Attachment 2268252

US and German gas cans (1/6)
Attachment 2268253

Attachment 2268254

Anyway glad you're getting going with the Resin printer. Its the way to go for detail parts. For 1/16 scale stuff it would be perfect as well.
best regards,
Bob

Those look great, Bob. Maybe one day you and I can swap a few files. That Sterling looks very interesting. I'm also using the elegoo and I'm quite happy with it. I haven't had any problem with stick, if anything it sticks to the bed a little too well and I actually broke one piece removing it from the bed. I still haven't started exploring what kinds of resin are best for strength but that's on the list of things to do. I'm just really impressed by the difference in print quality between fdm and SLA. I printed some dash panels for the M3 Scout car and I swear they look like they came out of a kit from monogram or Hasegawa. I think from now on most of the kits I print will be a combination of fdm and SLA printed parts. For example, I printed axle housings in resin but I don't think they're going to be strong enough so I might reprint them with filament.

Made a bit more progress, but still lots to learn. For accessories the sla printer is just great, and the M3 is going to be a kind of multi-media deal, with parts from both printers. Still figuring out which resins are stronger and what not, so far the standard stuff seems kind of brittle. The water washable resin is great, no more gagging on rubbing alcohol, and it seems just as crisp as the regular resin. I just got two more kilos of resin so this weekend I'm going to try some weapons, and also the multi-jerry-can row like in the video.

Bob, what kind of printer are you using? I just discovered that chitubox has an option for water washable resin so I'm going to try that. I haven't had too many adhesion problems but there have been a couple of incidents.

Gary
I'm using the original Elegoo Mars. I've been using the same layer and exposure settings for the water wash as the ABS like stuff. Maybe that's the problem. The rafts on the water wash parts comes out paper thin, and sometimes (50% of time) don't adhere to build plate. Increasing the raft size helps some. The parts seem to be ok and have about the same material properties (strength, brittleness etc) as the ABS like.

Have not tried the latest version of Chitubox (1.7) -will check that out.
Thanks, B

When I first got the Wanhao D8 I was in touch with a customer service guy and he recommended a couple things that surprised me, like 90 to 100 second first layer time, and 25 seconds exposure per layer. That's contrary to everything I've read on resin bottles (the water washable recommends 60 and 8 second times) but it's worked well and I rarely have adhesion problems. But, I've had enough other problems to make up for it. Right now I'm wondering if the long exposure times are clouding my resin tray or something. This weekend I'm replacing the print screen and rebuilding a resin tank so we'll see how that goes, but the print quality I've been getting still has me hopeful.

Hi Gary, interesting information. But I think longer exposure times may cloud your FEP sheet, and lead to burned out LCD screen much faster. But the water wash resin may require increased exposure times for best results. Probably a balance of increasing the exposure time but not so much we burn out (over tax) the LCD.
Thanks for the information.
B

I was thinking about trying something a lot closer to the manufacturer recommendations on the resin, so I was going to cut down to 80 Seconds for the first four layers and then use 10 seconds per layer after that with the slicing software set for water washable resin. Still higher than what they recommend, but not quite so drastic as what I'm using now. I'll let you know how it comes out.

Oh yeah, do you have any good tips or tricks for re-lining the resin tank? I really don't know what I'm doing, as usual, so for me it's mostly trial and error, so any good in for you can pass along would be much appreciated.

Gary
Not sure about the Wanhao, but changing the FEP on the Elegoo tank is pretty straight forward. Its a nice design on the stock metal resin tank. I got some replacement FEP sheets on Amazon. I got a lot of life out of the first FEP sheet, but it was getting scratched, dinged and cloudy - so I replaced it. I also tried a little trick that helps - put a thin coat of PTFE lube on the resin side of the FEP sheet, or RAINEX. A very small amount spread thin and wipe off excess. It seems to help keep parts from sticking to the FEP.

Need to download that new version of Chitubox!

Keep printing!
B

Some stuff I have been printing some still need some tweeking
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...65b225b804.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...785b8f9d3b.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...f950c0f870.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...ece199a8df.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...99805f78f4.jpg

Did a quick project on a cheap toy tank chassis off Ebay:
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...336be63bba.jpg

Needs a little help with keeping the tracks on, otherwise its not terrible:

That's really cool. Like a Bren on steroids!!!

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...4937b93242.jpg

Those look great, Greg. You can't even tell that they're not photo etched. Excellent.

M3 printed parts.
 

Gary the Wipers that along with the Ammo crate and the Jerry cans you so generously sent me are brilliant, More, Encore, Bravo,
But what caught my eye was your comments on printing an M3 because in common with many others modifying the WSN/Taigen M3 Half Track I found that splitting the Armoured Windshield from its frame was a pain in the a*s and if a hero such as you could print an Armoured Windshield it would make the removal and replacement so much easier.