0:04 whoa I had actually planned on making
0:06 this video but I've recently just made
0:08 some discoveries about printing
0:10 geometric shapes with sharp clean edges
0:12 that I really felt was worth documenting
0:14 and it just gives you a chance to see a
0:16 little bit of a behind the scenes view
0:18 of what goes on here when I test resin
0:20 I've been working on this shape here
0:22 which is a doveet tail and I'll just
0:24 spin that around so you can see that the
0:26 dovetail shape is actually a woodworking
0:28 joint and it's a classic uh torture test
0:31 I guess for seeing if you can get
0:34 straight edges like this first edge here
0:36 that joins onto the supports and then
0:40 these very sharp angular lines now most
0:42 attempts to print this have worked quite
0:44 well with getting these top sections
0:46 right but it's this bottom section here
0:48 where you can see that there are often
0:50 problems in getting a nice straight
0:53 print now that's to do with uh the model
0:55 orientation of course but I've
0:57 discovered that the resin actually has a
0:59 lot to do with it now I know that might
1:02 just sound completely obvious so if you
1:04 just want to nerd out for a few minutes
1:05 then follow along and have a look at
1:08 this this uh dovet tile joint was
1:11 printed with uh any cubic DLP Craftsman
1:14 resin which claims to be a high accuracy
1:15 resin particularly for DLP printers but
1:18 also for LCD printers and uh the result
1:20 that I got was a little disappointing
1:22 because you can see quite clearly how
1:25 it's got a bent uh lower Edge there uh
1:28 the whole base of the print is is bent
1:31 now this front section here doesn't look
1:32 too bad some of the supports have come
1:33 away because I've been handling it and
1:35 by the way all these models are
1:37 postcured so that they're safe to touch
1:39 but I was really disappointed with that
1:42 curved Edge so what I did was I tried
1:46 another test straight away and used an
1:49 offset or Tilted in two axes so tilted
1:52 this way and then tilted that way U
1:54 orientation to see it would improve but
1:55 as you can see here on this front corner
1:58 it's actually become a lot worse and uh
2:02 the bend here hasn't improved either and
2:04 if I get my straight edge like this and
2:07 place that up against there you can see
2:09 just how bad that bend is I mean it's
2:13 really nasty so I thought well maybe
2:16 that gives me a good opportunity to try
2:20 this new amerilabs xvn 50 resin for
2:22 versatile engineering now I don't want
2:24 this to come across as me just selling
2:25 this product I have been asked to do a
2:26 review and I will do a more complete
2:28 review of this later but I thought this
2:30 is a good chance to see whether this
2:31 particular resin would make a difference
2:33 because one of its selling points is to
2:35 print straight edges so I thought you
2:37 know what completely unscheduled I'm
2:38 just going to pull it out and give it a
2:42 shot so what I did is I printed exactly
2:45 the same model with exactly the same
2:47 supports and I actually used the same
2:50 settings so I used the recommended
2:52 exposure settings here for the DLP resin
2:54 and then I just used exactly the same
2:56 settings for the xvn 50 and have a look
3:00 at the difference this front corner here
3:03 is really Square by comparison so you
3:05 can see there that the resin has made a
3:08 significant difference again I've said
3:11 this is totally obvious right you choose
3:12 different resins for different
3:14 applications but it's really hard to
3:16 know exactly which resin to choose
3:17 because there are so many out there and
3:18 if you don't get this sort of
3:21 opportunity to test them then well how
3:22 would you know which is why I just
3:24 wanted to share with you that things
3:26 aren't necessarily always that easy when
3:28 you're being given residence to test
3:31 there's a lot of work that goes into it
3:34 but have a look at this here's the bent
3:37 Edge and then if I take that away and
3:39 then you compare it to that one there
3:41 you can see that that edge is much
3:44 straighter so it's been supported the
3:47 same way it's the same print but the
3:49 result is just that much better so then
3:51 I thought can I actually improve those
3:53 results even more so if I take this one
3:56 away and come up with my second test
3:58 these look very similar but what I did
4:00 with this was I played around with the
4:02 supports even further to see if I could
4:04 get an even squarer Edge now these are
4:07 both very good but what I've done with
4:10 this second test here on the left well
4:12 the left as I said this one here I'll
4:15 point to it is I've changed the support
4:16 orientation if I move these a little bit
4:18 further apart I've changed the support
4:21 orientation so that these supports here
4:23 are actually sticking out from the
4:25 corner of the print rather than sticking
4:27 out from underneath it because something
4:29 else I've been very concerned about is
4:32 how do you print flat geometric sides
4:34 without getting that sagging or
4:36 pockmarked effect of when the supports
4:38 touch the underside is it actually
4:40 possible to support the model only from
4:42 the edges and then get a really clean
4:44 result well we'll see that in just a
4:46 moment now you can see here that I've
4:48 once again I've got I'll spin it around
4:51 like this you can see here that I've got
4:55 a really nice straight edge and this top
4:57 corner here is also nice and straight
4:59 but notice how the supports are coming
5:01 out from the the corner here but not
5:02 from the corner on that side so I'm just
5:05 experimenting with u how to orient the
5:08 model and how to support it uh to see
5:10 what sort of results I can get now this
5:12 worked out well
5:15 however it also took 3 hours and that's
5:17 because the ne cuic M7 printer that I'm
5:20 using uses an intelligent release
5:23 algorithm which uh automatically and
5:26 dynamically adjusts the lift speed uh to
5:28 account for the pull forces that it's
5:31 detecting on the um on the uh on the
5:33 release film so that's actually a really
5:35 handy technology and I'll show you why
5:37 right now 3 hours is a long time for
5:40 this print because this one here took a
5:43 lot less so if I take this one
5:47 away slide that one over there this is
5:48 the same orientation but this time what
5:51 I've done is I've just used the supports
5:53 just underneath the edge on both sides
5:55 so you can see there it's the same
5:58 orientation I'm still getting very good
6:00 quality I'm getting really nice
6:03 straightness along the bottom Edge so
6:05 that was a really welcome development
6:07 like I've said this front corner here is
6:10 really nice and square but the advantage
6:11 of placing the supports directly
6:14 underneath as opposed to on the corner
6:16 is that this print here printed in 1
6:19 hour and 12 minutes and this print took
6:22 3 hours so the intelligent release
6:24 algorithm was somehow detecting that the
6:26 pull forces based on where the supports
6:29 were uh were different and therefore it
6:31 was able to speed up the print with no
6:33 noticeable loss in quality on the
6:36 overall prints which is really quite
6:38 amazing now having made that discovery
6:39 that I can use a different resin and get
6:42 a really nice straight result uh it's a
6:44 little bit like taking two steps forward
6:45 and one step back because I've now
6:47 noticed that I'm getting a banding
6:49 effect in the print on the side and you
6:52 can see that here these horizontal lines
6:54 um which are appearing on the side of
6:58 the print now that's kind of okay
7:00 because in my
7:02 application I'm actually going to use a
7:04 finishing process to clean those sides
7:05 off but if you weren't going to do any
7:07 sort of post finishing then these bands
7:10 here would be a bit of a problem so if
7:12 you know a little bit more about that
7:13 than I do then please let me know in the
7:15 comments or if a meril laabs happens to
7:16 be watching and they've got some tips on
7:18 how to remove this banding effect in the
7:21 print on these flat surfaces then uh
7:23 well that would be much appreciated
7:25 thank you but I have a feeling that it's
7:28 got something to do with the flat sharp
7:31 geometric nature of of 3D resin prints
7:33 now if you think that that's wrong then
7:34 please as I said let me know in the
7:36 comments but I'll just show you this one
7:37 here as as a
7:40 comparison this shows excellent print
7:42 quality all the way around and there's
7:45 no banding effect here at all and I have
7:47 a feeling that that's because of the
7:50 constantly changing surface I don't know
7:53 um once again let me know in the
7:55 comments if you've got a theory as to
7:56 why that's happening but whenever I've
8:00 printed flat faces with sharp edges I've
8:02 always struggled with getting a little
8:05 bit of banding in the print however it's
8:08 still very good and the resin has
8:10 definitely made a difference so in this
8:12 resin here xvn 50 advertises that it can
8:15 print sharp straight edges uh more
8:17 easily uh yeah I'm inclined to believe
8:20 that so the results so far have been
8:22 very good you might be wondering then
8:24 well what about another resin can you
8:27 get the same result with another resin
8:29 so what I've done here is I've tested
8:33 any cubic uh tough resin
8:35 2.0 there it is written on the side
8:38 there and you can see I am also getting
8:41 a very nice sharp clean Edge along this
8:43 line here which is terrific that's what
8:46 you want to see now I have started to
8:47 take the supports off here because I
8:49 wanted to have a look on the underside
8:50 because that's what we're going to look
8:52 at very shortly and I just wanted to
8:54 have a sneak peek but the orientation of
8:56 these two models is exactly the same in
8:59 fact they are the same model um and and
9:01 the resin settings that I've used here
9:03 are the ones which are recommended for
9:05 that particular resin on the nqb website
9:07 so these two prints are done with me
9:09 being very very careful about where I
9:11 place those supports but what if I was
9:14 to take this tough 2.0 resin and auto
9:18 support it the result is okay but I've
9:21 got this strange warped Corner artifact
9:23 happening here again and the banding in
9:26 the print here is significantly worse so
9:28 it's a combination of two things
9:31 supporting the model correctly yeah okay
9:34 that makes sense but resin Choice also
9:37 is very important and yeah du that makes
9:39 sense too but it's interesting when you
9:40 discover it for the first time and you
9:43 think well um okay yeah it really is a
9:45 thing so now let's have a look at the
9:47 underside of the models on that flat
9:49 side of the print I've been trying to
9:51 get away from using uh supports on those
9:53 flat sides because they generally leave
9:56 pock marks or sag marks which um are
9:58 quite unsightly and they generally tend
10:00 to create an even surface so I'm going
10:02 to break these off right now see what
10:04 happens so this is my best result here
10:14 first Okay so we've got pock marks here
10:17 along the
10:21 edges but they'll be sanded very lightly
10:23 that should be able to get rid of those
10:25 but when you look at the detail around
10:27 the holes these holes here have been
10:29 completely unsupported so these edges
10:31 are totally unsupported and that's
10:33 actually worked out to be very smooth
10:36 and flat I'm very impressed with that so
10:38 that's a really big step forward no
10:40 supports on that Underside and that's
10:42 looking really well rendered those
10:45 Corners there on those holes are looking
10:48 very solid now let's go to the DLP resin
10:50 where I first saw this curved problem
10:52 happening let's have a look at the underside
10:57 there okay that's really interesting
11:00 have a look at that you can see here
11:03 that there's almost like a like a a wave
11:06 or some kind of a some kind of a rounded
11:08 deformation there in the bottom you can
11:10 see that in the reflection of the light
11:13 the comparison with the xvn is that the
11:15 xvn is much
11:18 flatter so this first um this first run
11:22 with the DLP resin has proven to be uh
11:23 quite unsuccessful you can see there are
11:25 little crater marks it's almost like
11:27 these holes seem to be sinking into the
11:30 model so that not a particularly
11:33 convincing print that one so now let's
11:36 compare the any cuic tough 2.0 resin
11:39 which is meant to be a more versatile
11:41 engineering type resin if I can put it
11:42 that way if I can borrow a little bit of
11:44 the ameral laabs language there it was
11:46 also supported exactly the same way as
11:48 this one here so it's the same model the
11:50 same support structure let's have a look
11:52 at what the surface is like underneath
11:54 actually I think I know how to describe
11:55 it now it looks a little bit like pin
11:58 cushioning around these holes in the
12:00 base of the the model you can clearly
12:02 see how there's a like a bit of a rise
12:05 between each of these holes see if I can
12:07 get the light to catch that reflection
12:09 but it's definitely not as flat
12:11 underneath so it doesn't look too bad
12:13 when you hold it like that but then when
12:15 you look at the underside you can see
12:18 that it is definitely not as flat and if
12:21 I hold them side by side you can see
12:26 here that the a merbs the black one is a
12:29 far superior result to the any cubic
12:33 tough 2.0 on this side here so what do
12:36 we make of that is the ameral laabs xvn
12:39 50 better than the NQ tough
12:41 2.0 well for this particular application
12:43 you'd have to say yes so that leaves us
12:45 in a fairly tricky position there are so
12:47 many resins on the market do you say
12:49 that one resin is better than the other
12:50 or do you say that it's just really
12:52 difficult to find the right resin for
12:53 the right application and how much
12:55 testing do you need to do well I think
12:57 that's really just it there are so many
12:58 resins and you do actually need to do a
13:00 lot of testing so you can see all these
13:02 tests that I've done here require a lot
13:04 of effort to just get that exact result
13:06 that you're looking for so I'm hoping
13:09 that uh this little exploration of xvn
13:11 50 has uh has helped so far but before
13:13 you go there's one other thing that I'd
13:15 like to do so I know that the any cuic
13:17 tough 2.0 is not the right resin to get
13:19 the same sort of flatness results that I
13:22 can get from the amiral labs xvn 50 and
13:24 I'm just using the any cubic T 2.0 has
13:25 an as an example there are lots of other
13:27 resins that I could have compared this
13:29 to but we'd be here all day
13:32 but what about flexibility and toughness
13:33 because this is meant to be tough and
13:36 the Amer Labs is also meant to be tough
13:39 well um to test that I've got my trusty
13:41 Vice just over here so why don't we do
13:44 that test that's always fun so the way
13:45 I'll do this is I'll put these two
13:47 pieces into the vice and we'll see how
13:49 they perform and in fact I think I'm
13:50 going to need some eye protection for
13:52 that because they could
13:55 explode all right here we go let's place
13:57 the xvn 50 in
14:00 first and here we go I'm expecting this
14:02 to flex pretty
14:04 well and you can see that that is
14:06 maintaining its shape very well under pressure
14:12 there goodness I think I'm going to have
14:22 here
14:26 whoa okay so so the ameral labs will
14:28 snap eventually well yeah you would
14:31 expect that it's been crushed in a vice
14:32 okay here we go with the any cubic tough
14:34 2.0 with the same Vie
14:36 test just going to see how much this can
14:38 handle I have a feeling this is going to
14:40 break sooner so I'm just going to be over
14:44 here actually it's handling it pretty
14:47 well but here you can see this gives me
14:49 a good opportunity just to show
14:51 how rounded this bottom surface is as
14:54 opposed to the flatness of the xvn 50 so
15:01 well I'd say that's pretty convincing
15:04 too so it's definitely a tough resin
15:07 resin
15:09 whoa okay so I'm not really sure where
15:11 that went so you can see that both
15:14 resins are tough both resins can
15:16 withstand quite a bit of punishment so
15:18 where does that leave us well like I
15:19 said I wasn't planning on making this
15:22 video and this is a bit more of a behind
15:24 the scenes Style video as well with uh
15:27 without all the polished results and uh
15:29 and very convincing tests um but what I
15:32 found was really quite significant so I
15:33 just wanted to share that in case other
15:35 people have been thinking about how to
15:37 get a better result when you're trying
15:40 to print flat surfaces without putting
15:42 supports on them so that you can avoid
15:44 that uh effect of getting pock marks or
15:47 sag marks on the bottom of your flat
15:49 models now look there's a long way to go
15:51 here and as I said I've still got this
15:53 banding effect here in the side of the
15:55 print that I'd like to try and deal with
15:56 once again I'd be very pleased to hear
15:58 your comments uh on how to maybe solve
16:00 that thank you aabs feel free to chime
16:03 in uh but once again I'd like to say
16:05 that this resin here
16:08 xv50 well it deserves your attention if
16:09 you're looking for something where you
16:11 can print nice straight edges and you're
16:13 looking for something with good
16:16 toughness unfortunately it only comes in
16:18 Black it'd be nice if it came in some
16:21 other colors but they do have tgm7 and I
16:22 have made a review on that and that will
16:25 also come out in my xm50 review um so
16:27 keep that in mind but anyway I hope
16:29 that's been helpful for you it's just a
16:31 quick Insight um if you have found that
16:33 useful then you know what to do like
16:35 comment and subscribe uh thank you so
16:37 much for watching stay tuned for my full
