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Yes there are but you will pay for it. The Pursa I3 mk3 works right out of the box but you will pay a thousand bucks for the privilege. The kits are about 800 bucks if you are willing to put in the work to assemble it.Tony
Also, I noticed that you are using a" Flashforge Creator Pro" in your "Ford Flathead V8" build thread. How does that fit into the "food chain"?Jim
I got myself an Elegoo Mars. It's a UV resin printer, not filament extrusion type, but it's much better at doing small features.It's pretty much plug and play (just a 2 minute initial calibration required). The printer itself is fairly affordable, but the resin is about an order of magnitude more expensive than filament. Also the print volume is very small compared to filament printers, even the ones the smaller end. For me, however, the print resolution was the main reason for picking that type. This is what is achiavable without much fuss.The model is sitting on a metric ruler (the lines are 1 mm apart).Yes, it does require a bit of testing to figure out exposure times and support placement and size, but there is no tweaking when it comes to machine itself, since it's a single axis, self leveling system.
I can't testify as to how stable the prints are long term, since I've only had it for a few months, but during that time there has been no measurable change in size or color. The cured resin doesn't melt, but at about 150°C it starts to delaminate. On the chemical side, it seems to withstand acetone, alcohol and medicinal petrol, short term, at least.The standard resin (Elegoo Gray, in this case) is fairly brittle, and not suitable for dynamic load. There are various other resins as well, including elastic ones, the ones designed for higher mechanical load, transparent ones, even ones that can be used for casting (they melt/evaporate/burn away). The resins I tried (Elegoo Gray and White) machine very nicely, but thin features tend to break if the feed is excessive.I could print some test pieces and do some destructive testing if you guys want it, but we'd need to design the tests (I don't have access to suitable equipment, so it would need to be something fairly simple). Or I could print them and send them if somebody has access to such equipment.
If the resins weren't so pricey, and they didn't smell so bad, I'd be tempted to get one.
Interesting. We used 'prints' from an earlier industrial version for prototyping parts for new inkjet printers, to test things before commiting to the huge expense of moulds. I dont know what kinds of plastics they were, just the highly technical chemical formula of 'yellow'! Amazing how this field is developing new technology so fast.