XaiJu
HeroesInfinite
HeroesInfinite

patreon


3D Printers Advice

So we know that there are many people who are new to 3D printing here. But there are also many with some, perhaps even a lot of experience too. 

If you’ve been printing your miniatures for some time now, would you be kind enough to share your experience and your preferred choice of 3D printer + resin in the comments below to help the beginners get their feet wet? 

Also, if you know good YouTube (and other web) resources, don’t hesitate to share your favourite ones!

And finally, I’m thinking that since we have backers from all over the world, it might be helpful if you share your location, at least at the country level, since some models/supplies may be hard to source locally.

Thanks everyone! Let’s make this a fun and awesome community!!!

Comments

Anyone have a good go too setting for the Eligoo Mars? I'm just getting into this and want to make sure the settings are done right. Exposure time is set to 8 seconds, is that enough time?

Jason Tschetter

Got my Elegoo Mars 2 days ago and decided to try the tavern tables as a simple 1st go with the welcome pack. Tip: angle them when making your slicing file. I tried to print 3 side-by-side, flat to the print bed and the suction caused by the flat table surfaces caused the bed and print plate to get welded together. That wasn't fun. Re-tried with the tables printed at 45 degrees (could only fit 2 instead of 3 like this) - all went well. Using Nova3D clear blue resin. UK

Dan B

stampanti anycubic photon, anycubic chiron, anycubic i3 mega, anycubic wash/cure. resin elegoo and anycubic. sant'agata bolognese metropolitan city Bologna Italy

Simone Guerzoni

Printer : Elegoo Mars Resin : i try Elegoo water washable (quite good, but i've got some issues probably with my settings) I try photocentric resin water washable of two kind : flexible transparent and hard grey (not for tabletop but for some other project : puzzle, decoration, etc...) Finally i live in France, in Gers precisely...

Campaignolle

I'm running a Sparkmaker, a Sparkmaker FHD, and a Solidmaker all with Elegoo resin. I also run two Ender 3s, an Ender 2, two A8s, two Deltas, a Flashforge Creator Pro, and a self-built 3d printer (from scratch) running Marlin. My preferred filament is 3d Solutech.

Katherine Panowicz

FDM printing with the Ender 5. I'm curious about printing some of the larger models for May (some of those spiders look like their detail will hold up well with FDM printers).

Jon Hammersley

Anycubic Photon for resin printing with Elegoo Grey (5 60 second base layers, 8 seconds per layer after that at .05mm layer height).

Jon Hammersley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEnS1YuArcU&t=202s

Brian Roush

I could use some help with dialing in my mars with washable grey. Last full plate build from last night lost one model to 'the goo' and legs on another print were super thin

Jafo the Warrior Panda

I returned an Anycubic Photon S and traded it for an Epax X1. Best decision I've made in my short 3d printing stint. X1 is awesome. What are you exposure times for elegoo red transparent? I was going to pick some up to make some fire elementals.

furballx

Hi everyone! I thought you might like to know that Creality is having a two day anniversary sale which includes it’s LD-002R resin printer

Stephen Pfann

Only had mine for a couple of months so I don't quite meet your request, but I use an EPAX X1-DJ, I've been using all water washable resins just because it removes some of the hassles of resin. Have used eSun and Elegoo resins and just bought some Wanhao to try. I have had no problems to date printing mini's from MMF, thingiverse and several Patreons. I'm a fan of your Raging Heroes minis and am excited to see the prints from your files.

Cryda the Incredible

Thanks for the settings Avatario! Yeah it was 50% off because according to the note on Epax website the bottles were leaking slightly in the Amazon warehouse. I suppose they're determining the root cause, adjusting on the manufacturing side, and then we'll see more hit the virtual shelves...soon-ish. Thanks again. :)

Rob Leonard

I Have my own Creator Page and i print mostly my Minis. in Phrozen Sonic Mini. - own 3 other types of Printers namely Elegoo mars - Anycubic Photon Zero and Creality LD002R. among all of this Sonic Mini is my Favorite. i uses my Favorite resin is Elegoo Green and Red Clear. i mix it with Anycubic White. and the Result is Fantastic. . i also do Manual Support for all my Minis . where i learned how to make effective supports by Studying Presupported minis supplied by Greg from Artisans Guild. and Finally i live in the Philippines and all my supplies are sourced locally. if you have have further questions about Printing minis or doing Presupported minis do message me. now lets Print this Pirates! ahoy!

Mark Tayag

I'm very interesting to have some returns or some help to choose a resin printer and print very nice mini. I'm pretty ok to invest a lot in a good and simple to use 3D printer !

Bruno Marcon

Just Bought an Elegoo Mars, Anycubic Resin, will post on the FB group as soon as i receive it (Thursday). Any tips for this lil one?

Hidai Gomez Portugal Paez

My settings are 0.04m BLC: 5 ET: 6s BLET: 90s LOD: 0 BLD&LD: 5mm BLS&LS: 65mm RS: 150mm Fast grey is sold out, they just had a flash sale for 50% off, I didn't get any, sold out when i saw it =(

Masterwork Miniatures

Hi Avatario, thanks for the great pointers. I have an Epax-X1 and was wondering what settings you use for your Siraya Tech - Fast Gray / Tenacious 90/10 mix on the Epax for typical 50 microns. Would 5-10-50-0-12-5-5-40-60-150 be good? Also, I find Tenacious on Amazon, but there's no listing for the Fast Gray. Do you get yours directly from Siraya or where?

Rob Leonard

Anycubic grey 500ml is usually around $29.99 canadian

Lee Johnson

How much does those resin cost?

Louis Kwan

I tried a cheap resin printer but calibration was a pain and it failed too often. Also the resin smelled terrible. Recently I got a Form3 and it's amazing. Never fails, super easy to use. It's a dream. Unfortunately the resin is expensive. Been using grey but I'm going to try model resin soon.

MBT Play Madolche

No need, Tenacious is more elastic than blu. Adding Blu would not see any real-world gain in strength. Also they're both very thick and require a higher printing temperature in the chamber, so I want to keep the mix as high quantity in fast gray as possible. I will try it for the heck of it though.

Masterwork Miniatures

FDM printing 3-4 years Resin printing since the original Photon was release ~2-3 years 1st Gen Photon Qidi Tech Shadow 5.5s - Love it and it looks like an Ironman printer Peopoly Phenom - love it. Chitubox slicer Supporting with a hybrid auto/manual approach Flint Reed leveling method Post-cure - Large Ultrasonic Cleaner with Mean Green Large DYI (19.5"H x 24"W x 18"D) curing chamber made from a 9U server cabinet Resin - Nova3d Rapid Resin (Grey) - My go to resin. Best resin I have found for sharp clean details and it is the closest thing I have found to how normal casting resin would turn out. Hard but not brittle but still very easy to work with. Layer lines are significantly reduced if not completely eliminated. ABS-like Resin - Siraya Tech fast (grey) - good for a softer resin.

Dave (sledgehamr)

Elegoo mars with grey ABS like resin. I have found it to be extremely consistent

Thomas Chapman

Florida phrozen sonic

Dominick

Austin Tx, Anycubic Photon S, Anycubic resin. 3dprintfarm on youtube has a great series of start-up videos specific to the Anycubic Photon series and he tries to make the videos humourous as well.

James Joseph Vowell

Have you tried a mixture of Blu, Tenacious, and fast gray?

Daiaunne King-Titch

NSW Australia, Anycubic Photon, dialed in for AC Clear, but will be using a local manufacturer from here on out, Monocure Rapid.

Benjamin Cole

Anycubic photon s Perth WA

Lirazel

When I grabbed my Epax x1 I bought a couple bottles of their brand of resin and been happy so far. I've heard similar results about the Elegoo and Esun waterwash resins but i can't verify it. The Epax sounds like it might be slightly more brittle than the Wanhao when fully cured. Epax machine might help to minimize airflow too now that i think of it.

Jason Fureby

i use an Anycubic photon and i use there grey resin, excellent detail and easy to dial in resin, been printing for just over 1 year with fdm and resin.

Lee Johnson

i have only been printing since christmas, but i love my anycubic photon and my fav resin is trans green. some people say its brittle but i find its easy to get great prints, and easy to see if there is something in the resin vat

The Miniature Underground

I use an Anycubic Photon, fairly new to it as well. Have been printing for around 2 weeks now and have been very succesful by follwing the advice found on the anycubic owners group on facebooks and youtube videos for 3Dprintfarm and 3dprintingpro. Very excited to see what more i can do with the printer!

Wesley McCarter

My name is Josh I am from Montana living in Utah. I use elegoo grey resin on my Epax X1 I watch 3dprintingpro on YouTube to learn hot to support models in chitubox. I also use chitubox to support and slice my models. I also have an. Ender 3 for FDM that I use for props bases and terrain. I use Cura for that and it’s great. I try to do everything on the cheap!

Josh Blomquist

Epax X1 printer, having tried the Anycubic Photon + Elegoo Mars and returned both... paired with Hero Resin for high resolution, durable prints (comparable to Reaper Bones / WizKids minis). I run Elegoo Red Transparent if I want to knock something out fast with lower exposure times and don't mind the more brittle end result.

Jason Lund

Hi, My name Is Eric, I'm around Philly PA in the states. I have been hobbying around for a few years now. Had a kit built FDM and friend had a Prusa 3, that I helped get up and running. Recently got a Photon. I'll go back and collect and share some of the links i used to self teach but really was just making a short introduction. Hi from quarantine🙋‍♂️ 😷

Eric Chambers

Same

CURTIS CRADDOCK

I’ll pitch in my two cents! I’m using an elegoo Mars today and jumping to some larger plate models soon. I have used numerous resins but what’s working best for me today, for miniatures, is siraya tech abs like rapid grey, with about a 20 % mix of siraya tech tenacious to add durability while maintaining sharp quality!

Chuck Beckmann

Elegoo mars with elegoo mars standard resin. From the US

Dhruv Patel

Longer products can have build quality issues and ZWobble - personal experiance with mine

Masterwork Miniatures

Agreed - 3DPrintingPro all the way

Masterwork Miniatures

I have personally owned and used the following: Anycubic Photon = Prints are OK, build of the machine/construction was amazing(sold) Anycubic Photon-S = Prints were Great, had multiple non-consumable parts break, build quality was BAD(sold) Longer Orange 10 - Build plate too small, screen res was bad, layer lines were bad(sent back) Epax-X1DJ - AMAZING in all ways (recommended) Creality CR-10s = Great printer, needs constant maintenance though (recommended) Phrozen Transform = Build plate is 13.3" but has 4k screen so you can do small and detailed or huge(highly recommended) Phrozen Sonic = Super fast prints, great quality, instructions for setup are terrible[not an issue for me but a newbie might have massive trouble getting started] I took/take a lot of advice from Greg K (3DPrintingPro on youtube) he has Epax-X1 for resin and Ender 3's. I would watch his videos to get going, they are the best around imho. 3D Printer TLDR = Phrozen Transform for SLA if you want large prints, EPAX-X1DJ for 5.5" prints SLA and any Creality / Prusha for FDM For resin I have and use: Siraya Tech - Blu = SUPER tough resin, can handle 90Lbs sheer force, can be mixed 50% with grey for stronger prints Siraya Tech - Tenacious = VERY tough and elastic, can be mixed with only 10-15% for drop test worthy prints Siraya Tech - clear Red = fairly strong, not brittle, can haze with over exposure/curing Siraya Tech - Fast Gray = lower print times, and mixed 90/10 with tenacious makes Fast and indestructible prints. Siraya Tech - Blu Clear = Same as Blu, but CLEAR, so colored resins do not tint blue Elegoo - Gray = Not brittle ABS like, I used it before finding the Siraya Tech Fast Gray, Elegoo - Plant based resin (i used the blue one) = Good and not as toxic Elegoo - Water washable (gray) = Fairly similar results, but cannot be mixed with the BLU and Tenacious, so NO go for me Resin TDLR: Siraya Tech Fast Gray 85% & Siraya Tech Tenacious 15% mixc = best results for fast prints that can be handled by Ogre-handed d&d players without breaking.

Masterwork Miniatures

And an STL reposing tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5NXnkxaZGc&t=5s

Valentin Lungu

Common manipulation in meshmixer tutorial I made https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI3t2vvuUng&t=9s

Valentin Lungu

Hello everybody! Unfortunately, my channel is Russian-language and many people will not understand it, but there are interesting videos on working with dioramas and soon will start videos on printing. Use anycubic photon and get a great result. Support do in Prusa, and cut the file in the Chitubox. https://www.youtube.com/c/МиниатюрыДиорамы

Buratilla

I'd suggest opening a Discord, not much easy interaction on Patreon, most of the mini patreons have one, and much better for sharing info and trouble shooting issues with printers and resins.

Marti3P

Got a starting set of exposure numbers you would use? Did you mix with Blu, or straight sculpt?

Joshua Meyer

I HIGHLY recommend everyone watch reviews on youtube before making any purchase. There are a ton of printers available with huge variation in quality. For great all around knowledge I recommend "Maker's Muse" on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxQbYGpbdrh-b2ND-AfIybg

Grumpy Guy

I'm using a Prusa Mk3S with MMU2 for my FDM needs and an EPAX X1 with the Para LED Matrix upgrade for my resin. Mostly all minis are done with resin and have nothing negative to say about the X1. It's built like a tank. But, in these hard times, it's difficult to find. I have gone to mostly using Siraya Tech resin (love the Fast and Simple) and Elegoo ABS-like Grey. 3DPrintingPro (Greg is the one supporting Artisan Guild's minis) is the best resource I know on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbv2mDrRqXovPdahRyoCFhA Much success to Raging Heroes on this Patreon!

Greg Krywusha

Which are you using? Wanhao's water washable resin was the most noxious stuff I ever used, though it did have great detail and a nice slightly-rubbery feel. Resins do seem to vary a lot more by brand than FDM filaments.

Maeyanie

I use an Elegoo Mars with the Elegoo water washable resin here in the UK. I find the water washable slightly smellier than the ABS-like but once the lid is on its not noticeable and not having to deal with IPA is a big plus, one less flammable smelly chemical to store and work with! I print at .02um layer height with a 4 second exposure since I don't mind longer print times and have found that 4 seconds gives no over-exposure so retains the most detail. This is about the best quality print I can get, but if I want it faster I just stick with the default .05 um profile for the Mars in Chitubox.

Harry Marinou

Ender 3 Printer for FDM . with a pair of changes like the BED with a glass and changing the BED SPRINGS works Great. To see the results @north_brush_guardian Im printing the buildings of this patreon and amazing how they get: https://www.patreon.com/gamescape3d For miniatures I use a Photon S and I cannot be happier. I am using the Anycubic resin that came with the machine and incredible. I´ve printed DELANI by Artisan Guild with amazing finishing also posted this days in my instagram and I recomend it. About this patreon... AMAZING WORK from the guys of Raging Heroes! As help this Youtube channel helped me a lot to improve with CHITUBOX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTZpvhfaNWY&list=PLC4QzbTxrEF-fA1OC_-zE_4f6n1K-w2SS

Nebu_73

Mine is a Wanhao Duplicator 7, mostly because it's simpler electronics (there's no built-in controller, it has to be plugged into a separate system) made it easier to modify. Right now it's connected to a Pi 3 running NanoDLP. For resin, right now I'm using Monocure. It's very low-odour and cures rigid but easily filed and sanded. Usually I prefer the grey for making it easy to see support marks needing to be removed, but their clear is also much less yellow than most resins, for those prints where clear resin allows for interesting effects. For software, I generally use PrusaSlicer to generate supports and plates (and sometimes hollow, the UI for that isn't as nice as MeshMixer but it seems to do a better job), then export the plate as an STL, and have NanoDLP slice it. Sometimes it makes files NanoDLP can't handle, in which case I use PrusaSlicer's slices instead; the .sl1 file it makes is actually a .zip full of .png layers, which NanoDLP can handle with just changing the file extension.

Maeyanie

Prusa I3 mk2 and Mini here for FDM. Excellent printers for terrain, but I bought a Photon S for minis. I haven't fired it up because I am pretty paranoid about health concerns, so until I have it set up directly venting out doors (likely this weekend) I am not firing it up. But thanks to Artisans Guild and a variety of other patreon's I am in, I have no shortage of models to print.

Game Master Flash

First, spend an afternoon watching 3dprintingpro on YouTube for an excellent crash course on supporting minis. I use a Photon. The resin I use is a bit advanced (not a whole lot, but I little more advanced than just out of the bottle). I mix 2 parts Siraya Tech Blu with one part Elgoo Grey. This allows me to print at 20 microns (Siraya Tech is too viscous to print reliably at 20 microns by itself), while giving me the great mechanical properties of blu. If you are interested in trying Magic Blu (my stupid name for it) email me at blatantlyrigged@gmail.com for the settings. It is important to keep in mind that I also added a heater in my print room to keep the resin in a more liquid state.

Brady

Resin printing on Longer Orange 30 and FDM printing on anycubic i3. I use pretty much any filament for FDM (haven't found crappy ones yet) and Longer fast cure resin or Elegoo ABS-like for resin printing. I can also recommend watching 3D Printing Pleb videos on YouTube for other tricks on supporting minis.

CycyX

What got me on board with resin printing was water wash resins. Lower smell and avoiding wasting a bunch of alcohol sounded great. With the recent priorities moving around for alcohol I'm glad i did. Biggest recommendation for resin prints is make sure you are mixing the resin up somehow before adding it to the machine.

Jason Fureby

He also has a couple of resin reviews

Michael Finigan

I'm fairly new to 3D printing myself but I'm running an Elegoo Mars Pro and am extremely happy with it. For resin I just go with the Elegoo ABS like resin and follow the exposure recommendations on the bottle, I think chitubox does a fair job at auto supporting and with a bit of tinkering on the settings you can make support removal be super quick and easy. The contact diameter for my medium supports is at 0.40 mm that way when I let the models soak in warm water before curing I can just snap them off no problem

TheMorrigan

For the Sculpt one thing to remember is Always mix it before you start. If it isn't freshly mixed I always had issues but when I mixed it I was able to get minis done at 0.025 layer height and it looks spectacular.

The Weezel

Whole heartly agree with the fat dragon games profiles for the ender 3 and the cr 10. I have been running them on the cr 10 for over a year now on terrain and some minis before I got a photon and for bigger items it works great. Once you get below 35 to 40 mm I would use resin.

Danwich Games

I have two Elegoo Mars for minis and two fdm (CR-10 and Monoprice Ultimate/Wanhao D6) for larger terrain and other prints. I use Elegoo standard resin in the Mars, grey mostly but I have a couple of other colors that I am using up at the moment. For the fdm printers, I use whatever PLA is cheap. For supporting resin I use Prusasclicer then slice the files in Chitubox. For the fdm I use Simplify 3D. I have been printing for several years. I am happy to answer any questions that I can.

Terry McClary

I’ll add on more if I would buy another one I probably would get the Phrozen Sonic Mini.

Steve Hanff

Resin: photon or Mars are the entry point, epax is a bit less hassle to use but a little pricier. Fdm: the ender family basically. In terms of medium, elegoo abs like grey is the current darling, but sirya blue is well though of as well.

Oliver Matthews

I agree I try to avoid transparent resin, I find it makes cleanup before curing harder too. I confirm the Elegoo grey is one of the less smelly ones.

Steve Hanff

I have been FDM printing for about 1 1/2 years and Resin printing for about a year. I use an Ender 3 for my FDM printing with eSun Pro PLA+ filament and an Elegoo Mars for my resin printing with Siraya Tech fast resin. There are a ton of FaceBook group for each of these printers as they are fairly cheap. For my Ender 3 I use the profiles put out by Fat Dragon Games and have great results with both minis and terrain, check out their FB Group "dragonlock & dragonbite 3d printer gaming terrain" that's where you will find the print profiles, they also have videos on how to assemble, upgrade and maintain your Ender 3 on YouTube at "Tomb of 3D Printed Horrors". As for my resin printer, that's a whole other animal and I highly recommend that you watch any and all YouTube videos on it prior to purchasing here are a couple to start with on YouTube "3DPrintingPro" and "Thomas Sanladerer" , "Maker's Muse", "Uncle Jessy" and "3D Printing Nerd". Have fun, be safe and enjoy your new addiction.

Ron Purvis

I would not recommend FDM for anything like 28 mm scale. Yes it can be done some people do but owning FDM and Resin and considering there is not much difference between an Elegoo Mars and something like an Ender3, I would go Resin.

Steve Hanff

Sooo. My go to resin is Elegoo Gray. Cheap, almost no smell and it just works. Also you can see the details of the printed mini before priming/painting which is not the case with many other colors or transparent resins. That being daid, Esun, Nova or Anycubic work also quite well.

Markus Jorissen

Yes 3d, Printing pro will teach all you need to know on supporting models

Joshua Meyer

For low budget Elegoo Mars is great. For higher Budget the Prusa SL1 and CW1 are nice. as far as resins from the ones I tried I would recommend Elegoo Grey, Anycubic Plant Based. Personally I will probably switch to Elegoo Water washable.

Steve Hanff

I am running two photon's, one newer version, one older verison, not the 'S' and I am using pretty much only Sirayatech Fast Grey & Black at this point, but am going to experiment with a blend of their Sculpt & Blu resins for bigger better pieces. I also run an Anycubic Predator, but I don't have it dialed in, no FDM experience and the support community for delta printers is small. So unless someone here is a guru with deltas, it will be a while before that one will count :)

Joshua Meyer

Running a photon with Anycubic resin...good access here in the US. 3DPribtingPro is great YouTube resource...

Michael Finigan


More Creators