This content explores the significant impact of resin choice and print orientation on achieving sharp, clean geometric edges in 3D resin printing, particularly for flat surfaces.
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whoa I had actually planned on making
this video but I've recently just made
some discoveries about printing
geometric shapes with sharp clean edges
that I really felt was worth documenting
and it just gives you a chance to see a
little bit of a behind the scenes view
of what goes on here when I test resin
I've been working on this shape here
which is a doveet tail and I'll just
spin that around so you can see that the
dovetail shape is actually a woodworking
joint and it's a classic uh torture test
I guess for seeing if you can get
straight edges like this first edge here
that joins onto the supports and then
these very sharp angular lines now most
attempts to print this have worked quite
well with getting these top sections
right but it's this bottom section here
where you can see that there are often
problems in getting a nice straight
print now that's to do with uh the model
orientation of course but I've
discovered that the resin actually has a
lot to do with it now I know that might
just sound completely obvious so if you
just want to nerd out for a few minutes
then follow along and have a look at
this this uh dovet tile joint was
printed with uh any cubic DLP Craftsman
resin which claims to be a high accuracy
resin particularly for DLP printers but
also for LCD printers and uh the result
that I got was a little disappointing
because you can see quite clearly how
it's got a bent uh lower Edge there uh
the whole base of the print is is bent
now this front section here doesn't look
too bad some of the supports have come
away because I've been handling it and
by the way all these models are
postcured so that they're safe to touch
but I was really disappointed with that
curved Edge so what I did was I tried
another test straight away and used an
offset or Tilted in two axes so tilted
this way and then tilted that way U
orientation to see it would improve but
as you can see here on this front corner
it's actually become a lot worse and uh
the bend here hasn't improved either and
if I get my straight edge like this and
place that up against there you can see
just how bad that bend is I mean it's
really nasty so I thought well maybe
that gives me a good opportunity to try
this new amerilabs xvn 50 resin for
versatile engineering now I don't want
this to come across as me just selling
this product I have been asked to do a
review and I will do a more complete
review of this later but I thought this
is a good chance to see whether this
particular resin would make a difference
because one of its selling points is to
print straight edges so I thought you
know what completely unscheduled I'm
just going to pull it out and give it a
shot so what I did is I printed exactly
the same model with exactly the same
supports and I actually used the same
settings so I used the recommended
exposure settings here for the DLP resin
and then I just used exactly the same
settings for the xvn 50 and have a look
at the difference this front corner here
is really Square by comparison so you
can see there that the resin has made a
significant difference again I've said
this is totally obvious right you choose
different resins for different
applications but it's really hard to
know exactly which resin to choose
because there are so many out there and
if you don't get this sort of
opportunity to test them then well how
would you know which is why I just
wanted to share with you that things
aren't necessarily always that easy when
you're being given residence to test
there's a lot of work that goes into it
but have a look at this here's the bent
Edge and then if I take that away and
then you compare it to that one there
you can see that that edge is much
straighter so it's been supported the
same way it's the same print but the
result is just that much better so then
I thought can I actually improve those
results even more so if I take this one
away and come up with my second test
these look very similar but what I did
with this was I played around with the
supports even further to see if I could
get an even squarer Edge now these are
both very good but what I've done with
this second test here on the left well
the left as I said this one here I'll
point to it is I've changed the support
orientation if I move these a little bit
further apart I've changed the support
orientation so that these supports here
are actually sticking out from the
corner of the print rather than sticking
out from underneath it because something
else I've been very concerned about is
how do you print flat geometric sides
without getting that sagging or
pockmarked effect of when the supports
touch the underside is it actually
possible to support the model only from
the edges and then get a really clean
result well we'll see that in just a
moment now you can see here that I've
once again I've got I'll spin it around
like this you can see here that I've got
a really nice straight edge and this top
corner here is also nice and straight
but notice how the supports are coming
out from the the corner here but not
from the corner on that side so I'm just
experimenting with u how to orient the
model and how to support it uh to see
what sort of results I can get now this
worked out well
however it also took 3 hours and that's
because the ne cuic M7 printer that I'm
using uses an intelligent release
algorithm which uh automatically and
dynamically adjusts the lift speed uh to
account for the pull forces that it's
detecting on the um on the uh on the
release film so that's actually a really
handy technology and I'll show you why
right now 3 hours is a long time for
this print because this one here took a
lot less so if I take this one
away slide that one over there this is
the same orientation but this time what
I've done is I've just used the supports
just underneath the edge on both sides
so you can see there it's the same
orientation I'm still getting very good
quality I'm getting really nice
straightness along the bottom Edge so
that was a really welcome development
like I've said this front corner here is
really nice and square but the advantage
of placing the supports directly
underneath as opposed to on the corner
is that this print here printed in 1
hour and 12 minutes and this print took
3 hours so the intelligent release
algorithm was somehow detecting that the
pull forces based on where the supports
were uh were different and therefore it
was able to speed up the print with no
noticeable loss in quality on the
overall prints which is really quite
amazing now having made that discovery
that I can use a different resin and get
a really nice straight result uh it's a
little bit like taking two steps forward
and one step back because I've now
noticed that I'm getting a banding
effect in the print on the side and you
can see that here these horizontal lines
um which are appearing on the side of
the print now that's kind of okay
because in my
application I'm actually going to use a
finishing process to clean those sides
off but if you weren't going to do any
sort of post finishing then these bands
here would be a bit of a problem so if
you know a little bit more about that
than I do then please let me know in the
comments or if a meril laabs happens to
be watching and they've got some tips on
how to remove this banding effect in the
print on these flat surfaces then uh
well that would be much appreciated
thank you but I have a feeling that it's
got something to do with the flat sharp
geometric nature of of 3D resin prints
now if you think that that's wrong then
please as I said let me know in the
comments but I'll just show you this one
here as as a
comparison this shows excellent print
quality all the way around and there's
no banding effect here at all and I have
a feeling that that's because of the
constantly changing surface I don't know
um once again let me know in the
comments if you've got a theory as to
why that's happening but whenever I've
printed flat faces with sharp edges I've
always struggled with getting a little
bit of banding in the print however it's
still very good and the resin has
definitely made a difference so in this
resin here xvn 50 advertises that it can
print sharp straight edges uh more
easily uh yeah I'm inclined to believe
that so the results so far have been
very good you might be wondering then
well what about another resin can you
get the same result with another resin
so what I've done here is I've tested
any cubic uh tough resin
2.0 there it is written on the side
there and you can see I am also getting
a very nice sharp clean Edge along this
line here which is terrific that's what
you want to see now I have started to
take the supports off here because I
wanted to have a look on the underside
because that's what we're going to look
at very shortly and I just wanted to
have a sneak peek but the orientation of
these two models is exactly the same in
fact they are the same model um and and
the resin settings that I've used here
are the ones which are recommended for
that particular resin on the nqb website
so these two prints are done with me
being very very careful about where I
place those supports but what if I was
to take this tough 2.0 resin and auto
support it the result is okay but I've
got this strange warped Corner artifact
happening here again and the banding in
the print here is significantly worse so
it's a combination of two things
supporting the model correctly yeah okay
that makes sense but resin Choice also
is very important and yeah du that makes
sense too but it's interesting when you
discover it for the first time and you
think well um okay yeah it really is a
thing so now let's have a look at the
underside of the models on that flat
side of the print I've been trying to
get away from using uh supports on those
flat sides because they generally leave
pock marks or sag marks which um are
quite unsightly and they generally tend
to create an even surface so I'm going
to break these off right now see what
happens so this is my best result here
first Okay so we've got pock marks here
along the
edges but they'll be sanded very lightly
that should be able to get rid of those
but when you look at the detail around
the holes these holes here have been
completely unsupported so these edges
are totally unsupported and that's
actually worked out to be very smooth
and flat I'm very impressed with that so
that's a really big step forward no
supports on that Underside and that's
looking really well rendered those
Corners there on those holes are looking
very solid now let's go to the DLP resin
where I first saw this curved problem
happening let's have a look at the underside
there okay that's really interesting
have a look at that you can see here
that there's almost like a like a a wave
or some kind of a some kind of a rounded
deformation there in the bottom you can
see that in the reflection of the light
the comparison with the xvn is that the
xvn is much
flatter so this first um this first run
with the DLP resin has proven to be uh
quite unsuccessful you can see there are
little crater marks it's almost like
these holes seem to be sinking into the
model so that not a particularly
convincing print that one so now let's
compare the any cuic tough 2.0 resin
which is meant to be a more versatile
engineering type resin if I can put it
that way if I can borrow a little bit of
the ameral laabs language there it was
also supported exactly the same way as
this one here so it's the same model the
same support structure let's have a look
at what the surface is like underneath
actually I think I know how to describe
it now it looks a little bit like pin
cushioning around these holes in the
base of the the model you can clearly
see how there's a like a bit of a rise
between each of these holes see if I can
get the light to catch that reflection
but it's definitely not as flat
underneath so it doesn't look too bad
when you hold it like that but then when
you look at the underside you can see
that it is definitely not as flat and if
I hold them side by side you can see
here that the a merbs the black one is a
far superior result to the any cubic
tough 2.0 on this side here so what do
we make of that is the ameral laabs xvn
50 better than the NQ tough
2.0 well for this particular application
you'd have to say yes so that leaves us
in a fairly tricky position there are so
many resins on the market do you say
that one resin is better than the other
or do you say that it's just really
difficult to find the right resin for
the right application and how much
testing do you need to do well I think
that's really just it there are so many
resins and you do actually need to do a
lot of testing so you can see all these
tests that I've done here require a lot
of effort to just get that exact result
that you're looking for so I'm hoping
that uh this little exploration of xvn
50 has uh has helped so far but before
you go there's one other thing that I'd
like to do so I know that the any cuic
tough 2.0 is not the right resin to get
the same sort of flatness results that I
can get from the amiral labs xvn 50 and
I'm just using the any cubic T 2.0 has
an as an example there are lots of other
resins that I could have compared this
to but we'd be here all day
but what about flexibility and toughness
because this is meant to be tough and
the Amer Labs is also meant to be tough
well um to test that I've got my trusty
Vice just over here so why don't we do
that test that's always fun so the way
I'll do this is I'll put these two
pieces into the vice and we'll see how
they perform and in fact I think I'm
going to need some eye protection for
that because they could
explode all right here we go let's place
the xvn 50 in
first and here we go I'm expecting this
to flex pretty
well and you can see that that is
maintaining its shape very well under pressure
there goodness I think I'm going to have
here
whoa okay so so the ameral labs will
snap eventually well yeah you would
expect that it's been crushed in a vice
okay here we go with the any cubic tough
2.0 with the same Vie
test just going to see how much this can
handle I have a feeling this is going to
break sooner so I'm just going to be over
here actually it's handling it pretty
well but here you can see this gives me
a good opportunity just to show
how rounded this bottom surface is as
opposed to the flatness of the xvn 50 so
well I'd say that's pretty convincing
too so it's definitely a tough resin
resin
whoa okay so I'm not really sure where
that went so you can see that both
resins are tough both resins can
withstand quite a bit of punishment so
where does that leave us well like I
said I wasn't planning on making this
video and this is a bit more of a behind
the scenes Style video as well with uh
without all the polished results and uh
and very convincing tests um but what I
found was really quite significant so I
just wanted to share that in case other
people have been thinking about how to
get a better result when you're trying
to print flat surfaces without putting
supports on them so that you can avoid
that uh effect of getting pock marks or
sag marks on the bottom of your flat
models now look there's a long way to go
here and as I said I've still got this
banding effect here in the side of the
print that I'd like to try and deal with
once again I'd be very pleased to hear
your comments uh on how to maybe solve
that thank you aabs feel free to chime
in uh but once again I'd like to say
that this resin here
xv50 well it deserves your attention if
you're looking for something where you
can print nice straight edges and you're
looking for something with good
toughness unfortunately it only comes in
Black it'd be nice if it came in some
other colors but they do have tgm7 and I
have made a review on that and that will
also come out in my xm50 review um so
keep that in mind but anyway I hope
that's been helpful for you it's just a
quick Insight um if you have found that
useful then you know what to do like
comment and subscribe uh thank you so
much for watching stay tuned for my full
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