LF alternative to shapeways with higher resolution printers

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lezdep
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LF alternative to shapeways with higher resolution printers

Post by lezdep »

I am working on car model that requires 3D printing of parts. However they are too small for Shapeways to print.
Need an alternative with much nigher resolution, so I don't have to compromise part shapes too much. Let me know
what other services you guys know and use.
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Re: LF alternative to shapeways with higher resolution print

Post by Icon_Modeler »

Sergey,

I'm surprised with your motivation a few years ago with CAD 3D software and your love of Facebook that you don't have one of these yet!!!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AnycubicPhoton/
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Re: LF alternative to shapeways with higher resolution print

Post by lezdep »

Icon_Modeler wrote:Sergey,

I'm surprised with your motivation a few years ago with CAD 3D software and your love of Facebook that you don't have one of these yet!!!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AnycubicPhoton/
There would be many different reasons, but one main one is resolution. Still not high enough for 1/20 scale models, imho.
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Re: LF alternative to shapeways with higher resolution print

Post by racingkars »

I am not working for him anymore.
But if you have Facebook.
You could try to connect to Sebastiaan Pot from Big Scale Cars.
He also does trains in scale 1/87 so, who knows.
Kars

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http://www.racingkars.com (sales)
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English is not my native language, so sorry for any incorrect words or style... I have no intention to offend you.
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Re: LF alternative to shapeways with higher resolution print

Post by Icon_Modeler »

lezdep wrote:
Icon_Modeler wrote:Sergey,

I'm surprised with your motivation a few years ago with CAD 3D software and your love of Facebook that you don't have one of these yet!!!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AnycubicPhoton/
There would be many different reasons, but one main one is resolution. Still not high enough for 1/20 scale models, imho.
Then I suggest that you take another look. The Anycubic Photon is plenty capable of capturing anything you want to do in 1/20th scale. I have a friend who has one and he has printed some very finely detail 1/35th scale parts as well as a couple nicely detailed figures with very good results.
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Re: LF alternative to shapeways with higher resolution print

Post by MoFo »

lezdep wrote: There would be many different reasons, but one main one is resolution. Still not high enough for 1/20 scale models, imho.
I can run some test prints for you, if you want to see what it can do.

(I could also print the parts for that matter, if you don't want to get your own printer)
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Re: LF alternative to shapeways with higher resolution print

Post by lezdep »

MoFo wrote:
lezdep wrote: There would be many different reasons, but one main one is resolution. Still not high enough for 1/20 scale models, imho.
I can run some test prints for you, if you want to see what it can do.

(I could also print the parts for that matter, if you don't want to get your own printer)
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Re: LF alternative to shapeways with higher resolution print

Post by indycals »

The problem with buying your own - the technology evolves fast.

That said - I've done some extremely small stuff on shapeways - I can't imagine that they are insufficient.
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Re: LF alternative to shapeways with higher resolution print

Post by BMW »

The Anycubic Photon was my first suggestion as well.
The quality, I have seen, is excellent.

Yes, it does still have the layering problem of SLA / DLP printers, but it is tolerable for me. It is miles better than many of the low volume white metal parts anyway.
It is also cheap enough to be considered replaceable when new models/technology arrives.

It is also so cheap, that I am thinking it might be an option to sell the 3D CAD files, letting people print the models themselves? (Also, then it would not matter if the models are in 1/12 or 1/20 - the builder can choose him/her self. :) )
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Re: LF alternative to shapeways with higher resolution print

Post by MoFo »

indycals wrote:The problem with buying your own - the technology evolves fast.
This is true, but the current crop of mSLA printers are cheap enough and good enough that you can get your money's worth in the mean time. They're actually really simple devices - just an LED, a cell phone screen to mask the light, and a stepper motor to move the platform up and down - so there isn't all that much in the device itself TO improve. Even the fancier machines on the horizon, like the Prusa SL1, don't have any significant performance advancements. It's mostly small quality of life type upgrades.

For technical limitations, they're at the mercy of other technologies from much bigger industries. The two single biggest upgrades they could make would be a larger build envelope and higher X/Y resolution. Both of those depend on the LCD though, and all the mSLA printers are using cell phone screens for their LCD. The Photon uses a 2K screen, meaning each pixel (and thus the minimum feature size) is 0.047mm - about half the thickness of a sheet of paper - which can be an issue with really fine detail and some geometry. With a 4K screen, it would equal the best commercial DLP printers on the market... but nobody really does 4K cell phone screens. They'll come eventually, but until the popular flagship phones start using 4K screens, you're not going to see them on a $500 printer. Same with the build envelope - it'd be great if you could get a printer with a tablet-sized screen, but the actual pixel size on most tablets is double that of most smartphones, meaning a bigger screen would produce lower resolution prints. Again, you'd need an advance in consumer tablet screens to happen before you see much change in cheap 3D printers.

So yeah, you'll probably see a lot of changes in mSLA printers a couple of years from now, but it will mostly in user friendliness and in software or resin performance that everyone can take advantage of; actual print quality probably won't change much for a while.
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