I ordered an MSLA printer and will be receiving it in a few weeks. I decided to opt for one that I haven’t seen much about and there currently aren’t many reviews out on it. The price was right at about $640, so let’s see how it works out. I plan on doing just an initial impression on it and then eventually doing a full review of it. What I really want to do is open it up and look at the internals because it’s amazing how much cheaper MSLA printing is now in 2020. My thoughts are that it’ll go in the way of FDM printers, as parts become more abundant things will become even cheaper. As much as I’d like a Prusa SL1, it’s build volume is just too small and the cost is way too high, I like the way it functions but I can’t justify paying that much for a printer at the moment.

When I first started looking into MSLA printing, the Elegoo Mars Pro was the printer I had originally considered purchasing. I figured that it was a good starting MSLA printer and it would be able to handle most prints even though it had a small build volume. The more I read up on resin printers the more I started to see how similar they all are in terms of functionalities. The idea was pretty simple: You have a build plate that is moved via a NEMA stepper motor connected to a lead screw, and guided by either a linear rod or rails. The resin is cured via UV lights in either an array or reflected by a mirror and the LCD simply functions as a mask that allows light through at certain layers.

After getting a better idea of how things worked I actually considered building my own, but decided against that with the limited amount of time I have at the moment. As I mentioned above, the thing I look forward to the most is opening up the printer and looking at it’s internals, I can almost guarantee that it’ll probably be super janky and simple. More than likely it’ll consist of an ARM board running the motor, LCD, and UV array. These printers aren’t super complex and are nothing like FDM printers. They literally have one motor that moves up and down.

Anyway, I’m excited to do a first impression once I get a chance to play with it. Again, it should be here closer to the end of this month, I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures of the unboxing and give my honest opinion on it.

Other Updates

I published my Nylock mod and DIY UV Curing Chamber guides this week. I’ve seen a slight increase in web traffic which is always exciting since I am a complete amateur when it comes to this whole website thing and really started this as a way to just express my thoughts and possibly help people who may come across the same questions I had. It’s nice to see that people are finding my guides useful and enjoy reading the couple of review I’ve written. I plan on continuing to do this and see where it goes.

I am excited to say that the creator of the Prusa Leveling Guide Plugin (Scott Rini) reached out to me and asked me if I would allow him to link my website in the README.md in the plugin. Hopefully that’ll allow more people to be reached and helped.

I am also about to write a short bit about a project that I’ve been doing as well called a “Booknook”, which I found really fun. The project is taking a lot longer than I thought it would, but I’ll post some pictures up soon. I’ve made a “proof of concept” which is pretty rough but the finish product will be a lot cleaner. Here’s a picture of it:

I’m also looking for more ideas for content, so if you have any send them my way. I just realized that I didn’t have any sort of contact information on my site so I’ve updated my About page to have an email address so questions can be directed there. Thanks for you time and please share the guides with others if you found them helpful!