Bluecast X5 Castable resin… let’s give it a review.
Hey guys, When Bluecast sent me their X5 resin to look
at, I was very excited and I’ve been trying it out for the past few weeks.
If you visit Bluecast.it there’s a Download page that I’m very proud to say I had a
small hand in inspiring. It’s a great place to get current information on resins and printer
settings and that’s where I started. I opted to use my Phrozen Sonic 4K throughout
my X5 experiments, but there’s information here for most printers.
Now, there are a few points listed on this literature that I will come back to later.
As always, I started with the AmeraLabs Town test print and I was certainly pleased with
the results. I like X10 but for detail, I have to give the edge to X5 as it’s nice
and crisp. The other major advantage X5 has over X10 is there’s no need to add Customizers,
which can be a bit of a pain to the uninitiated – but see my X10 videos for details of those.
Plate adhesion is also an issue with X10 and I’m sorry to say it’s no different with
X5. So when the literature says “no primer needed,” don’t you believe it. With the
Bluecast Primer, adhesion is good, so it’s an absolute must when purchasing, and if you
use my print on primecoat method as well, you’ll never have a failed print through
plate sticking issues. In all my test cases I’ve been pleased with
how X5 prints. It’s happy with light supports and picks up detail well, though the colour
makes it difficult to see what’s going on. In its uncured state, X5 prints are firm and
manageable, with supports clipping away easily without being brittle.
The literature tells us that UV curing is not required, but it also states, “Can be
polished, engraved, drilled (postcure is needed)”. Now in terms of castable resins, my understanding
of “polishing” means sanding the print free of print lines and defects with ever
finer sandpaper until the print is silky smooth, as is sometimes done in wax casting. For this
resin in all my tests, one print was UV cured and one left uncured.
In either state, the prints sand well, though Cured prints are much firmer and therefore
sand that bit easier. I found the prints attached themselves easily
to Wax sprues, so setting up a basic casting tree was very easy.
Burnout temperature is stated as being 750 degrees Celsius, though I found increasing
this to 850 gave better results. Admittedly during this same trial period I’ve
been getting used to a different metal. This is Ancient Bronze which I purchased from Riogrande.com
and yes, I know, changing two variables in any experiment is always a poor practice,
but I really had no choice. However, when it came to the casting themselves,
I was very pleased. Each subsequent cast improved greatly as I got used to both metal and resin.
It’s hard to say if there was a difference between the Cured and Uncured prints when
it came to the casting stage, but I would say at least with the first two casts the
uncured prints cast that little bit better, but quite honestly the difference was negligible.
The detail certainly came through in the casts and I’m confident in saying this is certainly
my favourite Bluecast resin so far. However, I don’t completely agree with the
literature. I feel primer is definitely needed. Additionally those living in cooler climates
should disregard the point that state “No preheating required” as even here in the
UK, I found the resin thickened considerably at less that 20C, and further reading of the
literature is littered with recommendations to pre-heat to 40C. I wasn’t this scientific,
but I found if the bottle was kept at warm room temperature or above, it worked fine.
Finally, as mentioned, I don’t like the colour much. The translucent blue isn’t
easy to focus on so spotting print flaws is tricky. A matt colour would be much better
and for me a grey would be perfect, but these things might not be possible when dealing
with the chemical recipe for castable resin. And, at the end of the day, it is BLUE cast.
But honestly, these are petty gripes. I feel almost ashamed to make them, but I do strive
to be as balanced as I can be with my reviews. But with that said, I have to say I like Bluecast
X5. I really do. It prints great, sands well, holds detail and casts in the excellent way
we’ve come to expect from Bluecast. And though I’d urge you to remember that I am
very much an amateur and not a professional, I’m pleased to say that whilst using X5,
I produced what I feel are some of my best castings to date.
So there you go guys, Bluecast X5 castable resin… it does the job nicely.
I hope you enjoyed this video guys. As always, feel free to drop me any questions or comments.
So take care and thanks for watching.