AnyCubic Mono M5s - 12k

[Out2gtcha]

Even as a newbie I feel I'm progressing leaps and bounds with my new M5s.....

 

Awhile back I purchased 3 65mm tall Bandai AT-M6 walkers from TLJ. That equals out to be roughly 1/550th scale. Even at that miniscule scale the walkers are still fairly sized little models.

I wanted to do a diorama of the Battle of Crait, but there was no ski speeder models at all, let alone a 1/550th scale one.

 

I know the general rule about downscaling VS upscaling, but just for Ss & Gs, I downscaled a a SKP file, and saved it as an .stl and imported it onto the AndCubic software.

 

At that scale it came out a about 0.7232" or around 20mm. And it printed surprisingly well for that size!

 

It's SO small, it's really hard to photograph:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm going to change resins to some "UV tough" resin Inhabe and see if I can mase the ULTRA delicate skid a bit stronger.

[BiggTim]

I learned an interesting lesson about 3D printing yesterday. As some of you know, the way SLA (liquid resin) printers work is by curing the liquid in successive layers by shining a pattern of UV light up onto a clear membrane on the bottom of a tray of resin. Each layer "sticks" to that clear membrane a little bit, so there is a slight "pop" when the build plate lifts to do the next layer. The greater the surface area of the layer, the more it sticks to the membrane. 

 

I tried to print something yesterday that had much more surface area than I've ever tried before. When the printer reached the first full layer, I heard a loud wind-up noise and then a VERY loud sort of "twank" sound as the printer struggled (and then succeeded) to pull the print off the membrane. It was so loud it startled me! I stopped the print immediately and will find another way to approach that. 

 

So, for future reference, when they say to orient your model to keep the surface area of each layer as low as possible, they aren't kidding.

 

T

[Out2gtcha]

Not unlike Tim, I'm learning new things on the Mono M5s.

 

Being a newbie at this stuff, Tim has been a great help in the learning curve.

 

I have so found that as K1 mentioned awhile back, the key with the Mono M5s and it's "high speed resin" has been to clip as many supports from the model prior to curing as humanly possible. 

 

Also, I've been experimenting with hollowing and punching, to reduce the amount of resin used.

I used that technique on a Patrick Star model (From SpongeBob SquarePants) and found it is a balance, as the model is more delicate when hollow, and needs punch holes to reduce pressure while printing as well as letting some of the liquid uncured resin out of the model that collects in the hollow area.

I'm now using Lychee slicer, but the hollow feature is only available if you upgrade to the Pro version, so I've used the AnyCubic slicer for Patrick.

I broke Pat once by his hip trying to twist out the stick I painted him on, but otherwise turned out good.

This printer really does turn turn out some super smooth prints.

 

Patrick was printed at .05 layer height, and really only required a couple swipes with some 800 grit and a single layer of primer.

No visible lines to be seen:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I blew up my previously printed bearded dragon to 120% and then changed the supports to NO parent supports or cross supports, and also shrunk the attachment points that contact the model.

This time around I also cut all the mass of straight up and down supports from the model before curing, and this made all the difference. 

The little beardy turned out super nice and detailed with nearly 0 marks left from the supports.

The detail sans ANY work to it straight off the curing table is actually astonishing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This little guy should look amazing all painted up and put on a sunning rock.

 

[Uncarina]

That’s awesome Brian! I’m pretty partial to those creatures.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Out2gtcha]

1 hour ago, Uncarina said:

That’s awesome Brian! I’m pretty partial to those creatures.

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

 

Thanks Tom!

He came out looking great, and I have a plan to put him in an actual reptile tank with some 3D printed driftwood and a resin water pool/food bowl for a gift for my daughter.

It's learning curve for sure, but quite addictive.