A snapshot in time. A glimpse of the Plettenberger Kleinbahn in 1/22.5 scale.

[Hauk]

How did you clean up and finish all those little cups and plates.

It's printed with an ANYCUBIC Photon straight on the base plate. There's no cleanup and finishing necessary, just cleaning in isopropyl alcohol.

And the printer costs $ 500. (Yep, that is five hundred, not thousand!)

https://www.digitaltrends.com/3d-printer-reviews/anycubic-photon-review/

I am VERY tempted...

[finescalerr]

As I think I posted around April 1, a friend bought and is using a Formlabs 3 printer. I was very impressed with its output. Apparently the Anycubic printer has about the same resolution for a fraction of the price. If anybody has used the Photon to print anything else, or if Volker uses it again for a more complex part than a tea cup, please post photos. The review and its photos suggest a terrific little unit. -- Russ

[nalmeida]

I've been using the Anycubic Photon for the last few months. Unfortunately I don't have any close up pictures available but I can take them in a few days.

Below it's the only one I have at the moment, it's my current production, a portuguese H0 railcar, and all the details were printed with the photon. The green part was printed at Shapeways, everything else was printed with the Photon. There wasn't any post production apart from painting. (Sorry for hijacking the thread)

[Hydrostat]

I'll post some pictures of other items the next days; it depends a lot on geometry which result one can expect.

[Hydrostat]

Here we go:

This is going to be the toilet tank. All sides are inclined at some 1 or 2 degrees. The item is printed straight to the base plate in upright position, starting with it's feet. There are no support structures to be removed, but we have clearly visible printing lines.







This toilet has been printed the same way: upright and straight to the base plate.




Same file with a reasonable printing orientation: Nearly invisible printing lines, but supporrt structures, that need to be removed.




Left hand the item 'straight from the base' and right hand the other example. Note the carves and especially the strange seam at the left toilet's inner edge and foot and the bore holes missing. The other print shows all details.




What I'm trying to say is that those tools can't perform miracles. It doesn't make sense to have a surface with a lot of detail, but the surface itself doesn't look right at all: Cleaning it up means to loose detail. For the dishes it was necessary to have them printed straight to the base because they are thus brittle and it would be impossible to remove support structures. This way their bigger surfaces get very smooth. For the much bigger toilet this doesn't work at all. Even at bigger dishes like coffee pots the lines are visible, too. It will take another long time until there's a 3D printer to print objects 'as they are', i.e. without support structures and visible printing lines. Compare that with the development at customer printers years ago: We just have left 'wire printer quality' and start with 'ink jet quality' and consider what even a 50,- $ printer can do nowadays! Howsoever this is a huge step forward for the end customer market.

Cheers,
Volker

[finescalerr]

Volker, you have experience with at least two or three printers. How do parts from the Photon printer compare to those from other printers? Do the Photon's instructions tell you how to position parts to get the best results? Do you have any other words of wisdom? -- Russ

[Hydrostat]

Volker, you have experience with at least two or three printers. How do parts from the Photon printer compare to those from other printers? Do the Photon's instructions tell you how to position parts to get the best results? Do you have any other words of wisdom? -- Russ

I don't have own experience, it's all second hand, but I'll ask my friend Uwe, who owns the printer.

And now to something completely different. In our living community during studying we had an old wooden kitchen table with a somewhat corky surface. I wanted something like that for the model but unfortunately serendipity led me to a table with implemented sink. Well, that's it:






Tabletop with additional wooden edge:




I wanted to do the enamel bowls without 3D, just out of paper. A firecracker residue serves as jig.




Small flakes of single handkerchief paper layers are glued to it with thinned Elmer's glue ...




... and pushed to the surface with a brush.






When dry the paper bowl can easily be removed from the plastic hemisphere.




Cut out segments glued to the drawer:






The additional seams are made from paper, too, glueing a sheet with a tiny protrusion to the drawer and then cutting/sanding away the excess.




That's it. Condition before painting:






Cheers,
Volker

[finescalerr]

It would take me a dozen attempts to come up with two "bowls" and I probably would ruin one when I tried to trim the edge. Or maybe I'd fail to produce even one. To say I am impressed would be an understatement. -- Russ

[Chris J]

I've got a Photon and if my prints came out as coarse as that toilet cistern I'd be checking the  Z axis because that stepping should not occur.  The 'Z-axis issue' is a known thing with the earlier photons and can be fixed.
Maybe it would be more appropriate to begin a new thread for the Photon to avoid hijacking this one, and I am more than happy to give my impressions and experiences of owning one if anyone wants to know but in the meantime here are a couple of pics to show what it can do.
These are all straight off the plotter without any post cleanup apart from washing  with IPA and hardening  by plonking out in the sun for a half hour or so  - although the grey ones have had a quick coat of Tamiya grey sprayed on them to pick up the details.
Any slight jagginess on the prints should be compared with the background of the image because the photos themselves are quite pixel-y as can be seen by the yellow lines on the cutting mat.
The STL files themselves were obtained from the Scan the World project but I have begun creating my own ones using photogrammetry, again am happy to post examples etc if any one is interested.

[finescalerr]

Chris, please do start a new thread. Let's make it about 3-D printers in general so anyone with experience using the Photon, FormLabs, or other high resolution printers can offer comparisons, comments, and tips.

By the way, guys, Chris has been a lurker for several years and signed up specifically to offer insights into the Photon for our benefit.

Russ

[Ray Dunakin]

Volker, great work on that table!

[Hydrostat]

It would take me a dozen attempts to come up with two "bowls" and I probably would ruin one when I tried to trim the edge. Or maybe I'd fail to produce even one. To say I am impressed would be an understatement. -- Russ

It's not that difficult: I drenched the bowls with CA from the back side after removing from the hemisphere. When dry, insert the bowls to the cut out holes and draw a pencil line at the back around the protruding parts. Then cut some 1 or 2 mm a bit above with a nail scissor, glue to place with PVA and then sand down the protruding edge to the desired height. The result isn't as clean as a metal part (at least if I do it), but it works fairly well.

[Hydrostat]

I've got a Photon and if my prints came out as coarse as that toilet cistern I'd be checking the  Z axis because that stepping should not occur.  The 'Z-axis issue' is a known thing with the earlier photons and can be fixed.
Maybe it would be more appropriate to begin a new thread for the Photon to avoid hijacking this one, and I am more than happy to give my impressions and experiences of owning one if anyone wants to know but in the meantime here are a couple of pics to show what it can do.
These are all straight off the plotter without any post cleanup apart from washing  with IPA and hardening  by plonking out in the sun for a half hour or so  - although the grey ones have had a quick coat of Tamiya grey sprayed on them to pick up the details.
Any slight jagginess on the prints should be compared with the background of the image because the photos themselves are quite pixel-y as can be seen by the yellow lines on the cutting mat.
The STL files themselves were obtained from the Scan the World project but I have begun creating my own ones using photogrammetry, again am happy to post examples etc if any one is interested.

Chris,

would you mind to post a closeup of the structure's surface to have a direct comparison with the toilet surface?

Cheers,
Volker

[Hydrostat]

Volker, great work on that table!

Thanks, Ray, the tabletop is HDF 1.5mm and a strip of veneer glued around it, then drenched with CA and sanded. I didn't have the same veneer as the wood for the legs so I painted all wooden parts afterwards for an unifying look. Tabletop was finally treated with some brown shoe polish.

[Bill Gill]

Volker and Chris, Thanks for this thread. Although a 3D printer is not remotely in my future, I'm a member of the NEB&W (which has found a new location! It sounds like moving into it will be delayed awhile). The club is interested in getting a 3D printer and the Photon has looked most interesting so far. Learning more about its pluses and minuses is helpful.

Volker, Your method for making the sinks was simple and effective. Did their interior surface get any addition coatings or sanding to smooth them after removing them from the jig?