Another ring printed with Elegoo Mars Resin Printer

Since a few month, I own an Elegoo Mars Resin printer. It has UV LCD screen for “printing” each layer. In addition, I have an Elegoo Mercury Wash & Cure machine for a few weeks. These machines are incredibly affordable, they work and have a high resolution. The print space is rather small (120 (L) x 68 x 155 (H) mm). I will print a ring for the BI2 board and a vibration motor.

Resin printing is a mess. You need lots of alcohol to clean the printout and your workspace. It stinks. The resin is unhealthy. And you have similar problems as with a filament printer. Often the resin doesn’t stick to the plate. You have to experiment with parameters like exposure time and even bottom exposure time and much more. It is slow. After printing, you must clean, clean, clean. And then cure with a UV lamp.

The wash and cure machine helps a lot. If you want to print out more than tiny miniature figures you should invest in this machine. But it is still a mess.

At first I tried flexible resin (only available from china). The result was rather poor, but yes it was a bit flexible. I succeeded in printing out small forms by trying again and again. The resin I used is not available any more. But there are other resin producers who claim that there resin is flexible or silicone-like. But I am not convinced. Yes, there are silicon like printouts possible but I have never seen anything like that on amateur machines like the Elegoo Mars.

Now I am using standard resin and a simple straightforward design.

It is done in Tinkercad. https://www.tinkercad.com/things/2SfTPZe1FME

You can download and change the design within Tinkercad. In addition, you can download a STL file for your 3D printer.

The print quality of the Elegoo Mars is very good. Yes, you can see that there are layers or strives. And when you sweep over the surface with your finger it gives your fingertips a bit of sensation. But that’s all. The surface is very consistent and smooth.