The first post was just a warm up, here are a few more
details from my experience for your education and enjoyment.
Once your printer is ready you need to find some files to
print. I wont go into details on the
different file types, again there are much better sources than me on this
topic. There are a few great sites for
free files and there are a couple to purchase files. Here are a few free sites:
Cults 3d https://cults3d.com/
Thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/
Hmmm, what to print? I
always kicked myself for not buying any of the Citadel Dalek and Cybermen boxed
sets that were produced back in the day so I was very chuffed that I found
several free files online for the Daleks.
I grabbed a couple and set about getting them printed.
Some basics here.
Once you have a file, an STL in my case, you have to have software to
get it printed.
With my Halot 1 I also
received their in-house built printing software Halot Box.
It is very basic with minimal manipulation options.
Most of the time it is sufficient but the big
seller is it’s ease of use.
There is
also generic software called Chitubox with both a free version and an upgraded
purchase version.
It is also easy to use
and has a few more manipulation functions that the Creality product doesn’t
have like a mirror object option.
I
defaulted to the Halot Box just because I know it will work with the printer.
For those that want even more power there is Blender which
is a very powerful digital image tool.
To be honest it is a little too advanced for me given the amount of time
I want to invest in learning the software.
I’m sure that if I dedicated the time, I would be an amazing tool.
Once I got the file opened in Halot Box I was able to get it
ready to print.
First step is to get it supported.
Given the resin printing process, you
occasionally must put in additional objects to support the print and ensure
that it actually prints.
Again if you do a search, you can get some very in-depth
information on this whole process. There
was a bit of a learning curve, but it wasn’t horrible.
Once it is supported and you are ready to print, you then
have to “slice” the file. Essentially cutting
in into hundreds of layers that the printer then stacks on top of each other during
the printing process. Here is the model
at the middle of the sliced pieces.
Then you send the sliced file over to the printer, in my
case I slap it on a thumb drive and physically transfer it.
For what is considered a low-end, entry-level resin printer
I was blown away with the results. The
details were great, I’m looking forward to putting some paint on them. Some insights from my printing, the biggest drawback
for my printer is time. Depending on
size it can take hours to get things printed.
There are clearly faster printers out there so depending on
how much you want to spend you can impact this time sink. Mine was less than $200 so I wasn’t expecting
much.