I just set up my Hub this week, and my Marvin sample print came out pretty nicely…take a look!
It was printed at 50 microns Z resolution and 125 XY with MakerJuice SubSF resin on my custom built DLP projector printer. Initially it was based on the mUVe1 opensource design, but at this point it’s been modified so extensively that the only original component is the outer paneling! A stronger frame, smoother linear rails, and a flexible FEP (teflon) vat are the biggest upgrades by far.
At first Marvin had some trouble sticking to the build plate, so on my second try I put him on a raft with supports, generated by the fantastic CreationWorkshop slicing/control software. Here’s how it came out of the printer (after a five minute dunk in a jar full of isopropyl alcohol):
Even after the wash, the surface was still a little tacky; you can see how quickly it started to collect dust! With the supports set to a diameter of .7 mm and a tip size of .2 mm, they snapped away clean and easy. It took about a day and a half of Marvin sitting in the windowsill for the surface to really finish curing and get a nice hard feel to it.
In total it took about an hour and a half to print, with each layer exposing for 2.9 seconds, and then taking another 7 seconds to peel before being ready for the next layer. I’ve found 50 microns Z to be the sweet spot for DLP printers…at that resolution it’s hard to see layer lines unless you reeeeally look for them, and prints still finish reasonably quickly. The XY resolution of 125 microns gives me a decently wide build area to work with, which was overkill for Marvin…he could have turned out even sharper if I’d refocused the projector to a smaller imaging area, but it didn’t seem worth the hassle. CreationWorkshop has the option to apply an anti-aliasing filter to the images it outputs, which does an incredibly job of smoothing out the jagged pixelation that can show up on prints with a coarse XY res, but even so you can still see a teeny, tiny bit of rippling on the first picture right above Marvin’s eyes.
In case you’re curious, I resliced the print to show what the difference is with antialiasing on vs off. Here’s a random image from about half way through the print.
No AA:
With AA:
Well, that’s just about everything. Sorry if this was TL;DR, but I hope some of you enjoyed my Marvin saga, happy printing!
PS - If you have a resin printer, it’s well worth the five bucks to pick up a box of nitrile gloves from your local pharmacy. Your hands will thank you for not getting covered in resin and alcohol when cleaning off your prints!
Summary:
- custom built DLP projector printer from a mUVe printer
- 50 microns Z resolution and 125 XY with MakerJuice SubSF resin
- supports generated by CreationWorkshop slicing/control software, set to a diameter of .7 mm and a tip size of .2 mm
- total printing time: 1.5 h=, with each layer exposing for 2.9 seconds, and then taking another 7 seconds to peel
