[mattmatt]

There's a matte lacquer from Dreve available

Oh, Haven't seen them anywhere. Are they available from warnertech? I don't see them there too.

 

[piotrus-g]

Oh, Haven't seen them anywhere. Are they available from warnertech? I don't see them there too.

https://otoplastikshop.dreve.de/otoplastiken/fotoplastr-lacquer-m-4215.html

 

[Aldo40]

Thank you Piotr for the information, I will ask my French supplier.

 

[Inspector Gadget]

It is true that resin printers are for the moment higher resolution, but with a good printer (and these are getting cheaper now too) you can print with reasonable quality and now with heated chambers and higher extruder temps, with materials like PEKK, zero issues with allergy, safe for medical implants even. also, you can of course finish it, coat and take a cast, then make in resin, metal ... whatever you like.

Here is a PEEK filament

https://www.matterhackers.com/store/l/3dxtech-thermax-peek-05kg-175mm/sk/MQKH3YHL

not cheap, but it doesnt take a lot to make a set of IEMs. More options in PEKK, which is a new polymer in the same family https://www.matterhackers.com/s/store?q=pekk

Obviously for us, unless coating thickly, you'd want to avoid the ones with carbon fibre. fabtastic for engineering work, but probably not the most suitable for in your ear

 

[Inspector Gadget]

There may be more sanding, but the FDM printers and process itself is a whole lot less painful and messy than resin printing.

 

[mattmatt]

https://otoplastikshop.dreve.de/otoplastiken/fotoplastr-lacquer-m-4215.html

Thank you so much! This is highly appreciated.

 

[Aldo40]

There may be more sanding, but the FDM printers and process itself is a whole lot less painful and messy than resin printing.

Each printer technology has its quality and defects

 

[Inspector Gadget]

Absolutely. I mean, cheap hobbyist FDM printers with open frames and PLA? yeah probably not ... lol, but recently you can spend a few grand and get a good print volume and quality/variety of materials. Then, next gen printers coming out like the Vision Miner IDEX 22 (still costs 10K, but it is cheap at 10K IMO), are using down to 200 micron nozzles and just over 100micron layer height, so with the right model orientation and some finishing thats totally acceptable IMO. The res of SLA is definitely higher, I mean theyre up to 8K resolution on the LCD type resin printers now, but what a PITA and soooooooo slooooooooow ... lol.

 

[mattmatt]

Absolutely. I mean, cheap hobbyist FDM printers with open frames and PLA? yeah probably not ... lol, but recently you can spend a few grand and get a good print volume and quality/variety of materials. Then, next gen printers coming out like the Vision Miner IDEX 22 (still costs 10K, but it is cheap at 10K IMO), are using down to 200 micron nozzles and just over 100micron layer height, so with the right model orientation and some finishing thats totally acceptable IMO. The res of SLA is definitely higher, I mean theyre up to 8K resolution on the LCD type resin printers now, but what a PITA and soooooooo slooooooooow ... lol.

I think most SLA nowadays would beat most FDMs both in speed and resolution especially with monochrome screens and more powerful uv source.

Note that no matter how many you put in your build plate in an mSLA printer, print times won't change and would only depend on the highest point of your printed parts.

 

[Inspector Gadget]

I think most SLA nowadays would beat most FDMs both in speed and resolution especially with monochrome screens and more powerful uv source.

Note that no matter how many you put in your build plate in an mSLA printer, print times won't change and would only depend on the highest point of your printed parts.

Not true.

larger surface area takes more force and thus more time each layer to release vs a smaller print (without failing obviously)

 

[Inspector Gadget]

This explains better than I can, but its just a logical extension. It wont be as perceptible with a very small printer, but it will be nonetheless still true and each layer taking longer = the print taking longer.

Phrozen Sonic Mega 8K​

 

[Inspector Gadget]

also, if you arent familiar with Makers Muse (I suspect you are, but who knows and for others) dont misjudge him, he's been professionally involved with 3d printing since his mid teens.

 

[mattmatt]

Not true.

larger surface area takes more force and thus more time each layer to release vs a smaller print (without failing obviously)

And that speed would change with lift speeds I think but would risk the chance of a failed print. also based on my experience with both msla and fdms, if you print a ton with xy and not much z, msla would beat fdms both in speed and resolution.

 

[Aldo40]

It takes me about three hours to print IEM.
I throw the impressions the evening before going to bed, I get this the next day
Just get organized, no need to stand in front of the printer for 3h
And if we ever print during the day, we have 3 hours to do anything else
So time is not a problem, it’s just that we take the type of printer according to our needs.
For my part, the parts I print do not allow me to do it with a wired printer.
Some 3D tube is 1mm diameter and they’re close to each other by a few tenths of a millimeter.
Exemple on my Mars3

 

[Inspector Gadget]

And that speed would change with lift speeds I think, but would risk the chance of a failed print.

It does indeed, it gets slower, to account for both the extra torque required of the steppers and to avoid failing/separating. Some people have also done some interesting stuff with custom g-code to tilt/angle the bed on pull/separation to help with the surface tension, but its still required to be a longer process with larger cross-sectional area. I would expect that to be 100% correlated and unavoidable physical limit. It's just physics that all of them are starting to bump up against. I mean FDM ... its a tiny 200 micron plastic sausage, that we are trying to be precise with *** ... ha!! far from ideal, but my point is its a far cry fro what it used to be, since the stratasys patents all started to expire ...

also based on my experience with both msla and fdms, if you print a ton with xy and not much z, msla would beat fdms both in speed and resolution.

That makes sense. FDM printing at the moment is limited to about 60mm/s, or less. you can go faster of course, but most useful materials limit you to that or less

Hey i'm not a fanboi of any of them, whatever it takes to get the job done. I absolutely agree, that currently at least if acrylic is suited to your application, SLA without a doubt produces a higher resolution print. MSLA is just not workable in my space and most resins too weak for my usual purposes (not IEMs) and as mentioned I find the process tedious, wasteful and so messy, but we'll see, i'll probably end up with a small one of my own soon enough. I have only used other people's, so I cant claim much experience there.

I will use my new FDM (qidi X-CF PRO) primarily more for enclosures, in combination with PCBs, printing moulds for vacuum moulding (chopped carbon) and CNC/laser cutting (I have neither at this point). I'm looking to get myself a small furnace for casting metals (from moulds printed directly on the FDM, when possible) and build an EDM cutter to round out the workshop (similar results to laser cutting, but able to cut thick material very cleanly including titanium, using your own fabricated cutting 'ends' for the electrode. CoVID has meant an explosion in Makers/ 'Micro-factories' and I just love making stuff .

As you can see, I have other things I need to print, rather than standing around ...

the tubes, sure. I expect there is a work-around with dissolvable supports/IDEX. leave me with it

Also, i'll just leave you with this ... MSLA cannot and will probably never achieve full colour printing.