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I work with this resin exclusively, and since I have so much experience with it, I figure that I’ll do updates for those of you who are just trying it or are having difficulties.
This update is just to tell you guys about a successful experiment I tried. I was running low on blue, so I tried mixing blue and purple together and it honestly printed better than either one by themselves. I did about a 50/50 mixture, let it get fairly hot from sitting in super hot water from the sink for about 10 minutes. I don’t know if this is necessary, but I shook the F&$K out of it just to be sure. The resulting prints are shockingly good, I think that the addition of the purple give the pieces more rigidity, while the blue ensures cleaner models and supports. I haven’t done a cast with it yet, but I’ll let you know how it burns out. If that goes well, I will definitely be doing this from now on
UPDATE 10/17/22:
If you are about to hit that “buy now” button on the purple, STOP, get the blue… you’ll thank me later. Literally everything about the blue is light-years better than the purple. I went through an entire kg of purple without ever getting anything I was truly happy with (see below for old review). I was never able to achieve prints that didn’t have big build ups of unwanted resin, the post processing was ridiculous, and even after cleaning the models THOROUGHLY, I still wouldn’t get consistently clean burn outs. The Blue has none of those issues. Haven’t had a single build up around supports, the supports break cleanly from the models, post processing is easy and much faster, and best of all, the burnout is clean. The only downside of the blue is that the models are VERY fragile before post curing, so you have to be super careful. I have heard you might be able to get away without post curing at all, but I would recommend it for the simple fact that it strengthens the models significantly.
If Blue is in stock, spend the extra money. I am maybe 1/3 of the way through a 500g bottle and I have achieved more usable prints than with an entire kg of the purple.
OLD REVIEW OF PURPLE:
I go back and forth with this resin, there are things that I like and things that I really don’t like.
For the price, this stuff is good. Not great, good. If you do everything right (I’ll come back to this) you’ll get pretty good resolution, it’ll be easy to sand/finish, and you’ll have a clean burnout. But, in order for all of that to be achieved, you really have to follow these rules. First, and probably the most frustrating, is finding the proper settings. I found it really difficult to get my settings correct and I wasted a lot of time and resin doing so. I use a Mars 3 and my settings are as follows (I hope this helps someone):
Layer size: 0.05micron
Bottom layer count: 5
Exposure time: 5.5
Bottom exposure time: 100.00
Choose “light off delay” under the “waiting mode during printing” drop box and do:
Light off delay: 2.000
Bottom light off delay: 5.000
Bottom lift speed: 50
Lifting speed: 50
Bottom retract speed: 100
Retract speed: 100
These settings have worked, but I still get a lot of resin build up around my supports which is a nightmare to clean up, if it doesn’t completely ruin the piece. These are also not the only settings I have ever tried, I have experimented with just about every reasonable combination and I haven’t been able to achieve clean prints without any globs of resin around the supports. So here’s a tip: try to position your piece and supports somewhere that will be easy to clean and won’t be the end of the world if not perfect.
BE SURE TO PRINT AT 25-30°C or else you will have many failed prints!
Next, you have to clean the pieces in a very specific way. No more than 30sec submersed in IPA, they recommend only using a paint brush to remove excess, and then immediately run under hot water for 30sec and then cold water for 30sec. This process has to be repeated until clean, and I find myself doing at least 6-7 cycles of this. It’s honestly pretty annoying.
Next, post curing must be done in some sort of liquid with a similar refractive index as water, but NOT water, the resin is porous and the absorbed water can ruin your cast . They recommend using vegetable glycerin, but I had mineral oil on hand and it seems to work fine (more work to clean up so I’d recommend VG if you are going to buy something). You have to do this because the resin won’t cure in air, believe me, I have tried. You have to cure for at least 30 minutes, but I find myself having to cure for 1-1.5 hours, which is ridiculously long. Once it’s done curing, clean it off and be sure to dry it right away as to not let it absorb too much water. Be sure to have your burnout temp reach 1350°F and hold for 2-4 hours.
Annnnd it’s just that simple! But seriously, this stuff is finicky and hard to get right, I’m almost done with a full kg and I’m still not completely happy with the results, but it works well enough if you are careful and methodical.
