It may just be Google listening in on all my conversations, but lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about 3D printers. It could also just be me subconsciously manifesting the idea that, ever since I started playing tabletop games and I NEED really cool and awesome miniature figures, I should probably pick up a 3D printer myself.
Here in lies the trouble, 3D printers are no longer these mythical machines that only live in factories and belong to really big companies. No. For a few years now, 3D printing companies have been shifting gears towards the hobbyist market and they have allowed us super-nerds to start 3D printing whatever our hearts desire, from our very own garage.
Yes, the costs are still high, and there is a lot to learn, mistakes are to be made, and waiting is going to happen. Now bundle that into the fact that we don’t have access to all the nifty doohickies and wang-bandits that are out there because we live on the Southern tip of Africa. Ultimately, it’s very easy to feel like you’re reading a 46-page menu at a fancy restaurant that speaks only French and you’re not 100% sure what to order because there’s just so much.
Well, fret not, young padawan, for I am here to lead you down the rabbit hole that is 3D printing.
The first stop on our adventure together is the Printer Shop; I mean, if we’re going to print things, we quite obviously need a printer, right? Like a kid in a candy store, everything on the shelves looks incredible but can quickly become overwhelming. Different brands, different types, different resolutions, different sizes, different costs, different features and, of course, price tags that could tip a cow. I spent hours trawling the inter-net (get it), and after many, many, many hours on forums and websites, I finally decided on a printer that I thought would best suit my needs.
My main use for the printer would be for tabletop gaming, so I’m looking for a decent amount of detail and as short a time as money will allow. For this reason, I’m going with Resin over Filament. To briefly explain the difference, Filament printers have a spool of filament that they spew out layer upon layer until, finally, your thing is printed. This it probably the typical way you’d imagine a 3D printer to work. An arm moving all over the table, slowly drawing this awesome thing one layer at a time.
Resin printers work a little differently. They have a vat of resin at the bottom and a plate (called the build plate) that slowly dips itself into this vat. Then a UV light, from an LCD screen, beneath the vat shines light in a specific pattern to build up the 3D model. Again, this is done layer by layer, but it is done upside down, and you can fill the whole build plate with things to print. It won’t increase the build time as the printer simply allows more light in different areas rather than returning to that spot later, like a filament printer would. Resin printers also provide finer detail than filament printers, so although the cost might be slightly higher, a resin printer offers a number of advantages over filament printers that are better suited to my needs.
There are also a few things we need to consider here, the main one being we live in SA, where we don’t have as much access to all the equipment out there that a lot of the 3D printing community has. So, I decided to pick a printer that seemed to have some sort of local support should anything go wrong. I also picked up a curing and cleaning station because I can barely do the dishes; I mean, you really want me to wash figurines?! Nah fam.
So which printer did I settle on? Well, I opted for the Anycubic Photon M3, and here are my reasons:
1. Budget – As much as this is a luxury hobby, there are still limits to how much money I am willing to throw into this thing. It’s not cheap, even on the beginner end of things, and I wanted to get something that looked good on paper but didn’t turn my wallet into a moth’s home.
2. LCD Screen Pixels Per Inch – As said above, the resin printer uses an LCD screen to allow layers of UV light through to cure the resin and set it in to position. Don’t confuse this LCD screen with the one on the front that allows you to press print, no no, this LCD Screen is essentially the heart of the printer. A higher resolution usually means a higher pixel density, which in turn means more detailed prints. Common resolutions for 3D printers on the market are 2K (2560 x 1620 pixels), 4K (3840 x 2400 pixels), and 8K (7680 x 4320 pixels). For most applications, a 2K screen is more than suitable, but, since I want to print detailed miniature figurines, I opted for a 4K+ screen (4,096 x 2,560 pixels). This means that in the 8 inches of LCD, there are 4,096 x 2,560 pixels, allowing for a finer print than a 2K screen. To simplify it, you could think of a 2K screen as a standard definition TV, 4K as high definition, and 8K as ultra-high definition. You may not notice the difference from afar, but up close, you can start to see the details come through.
3. The Internet – Trawling through all the forums and looking at what sort of hardware we had available locally, the Anycubic brand seemed to be highly rated compared to what else I could get within the same price range. Will it be any good, though? Only time will tell, but I’m confident in my trust in the internet strangers out there.
Ok, so now we’ve ordered a printer, what’s next? Well, the “ink” sounds like an important thing, so let’s get to hunting for some of that! Just so you’re in with the lingo, we call ink “resin” when it comes to resin printers, don’t call it ink like some sort of dummy.
Again, there are a vast amount of Resins out there that do different things.
Standard resin, which is, well, pretty standard. ABS-like resin is supposed to make your prints more durable, as the standard stuff can be a bit brittle. This makes Standard resin prints susceptible to breaking if dropped.
Water Washable resin, because resin needs to be cleaned, and if you don’t use this water washable one, then it’s got to be with alcohol, and that adds up on the expenses, and then a whole lot of eco-friendly resins which promise a better smell and, of course, a lighter footprint on mother earth.
Then there is also a whole range of colours, some of which show better detail, while others are clear and allow light through for better curing.
Sadly, we have a short supply of resins in South Africa, so my choices are vastly limited to what the internet has to offer. Because I would pick up resin quite often, I decided to stick to local shops for my purchases. Having to wait two weeks for delivery sounded like more of a hassle than anything else but for those of you who have the patience, there is a much larger variety if you’re planning to import your resin.
For the resin, I didn’t want to go cheap; this is the stuff that basically makes or breaks your model. If it’s terrible, it just won’t give you the detail or durability you want out of it. So, I trusted my internet friends and landed on a happy medium with Elegoo Standard Grey 2.0. For one thing, most people seemed to suggest that the ABS-like resin has less detail. Secondly, it was locally available, and lastly, my current models bought from the shop come in grey, so grey seems familiar. Also, it has “2.0” in the name, and I feel like that means they’ve improved on it since “1.0”.
With everything ordered and my bank balance sitting at noodles for the month, I sat back and kicked up my fee……lol, no! I went digging through the great world of STL files to see what would be a good first print! Man, the things out there would tickle everyone’s fancy. But, without my printer by my side, all I can really do is window shop, slowly filling up my 4TB hard drive with more and more files to print, waiting for that magical day when my package arrives.
So far, I’ve got my finger all warmed up so I can smash the refresh button on the courier’s website 34 times a second…
HOLD UP! THAT’S MY DOORBELL RINGING! BRB!
