Hey guys, I’ve been looking forward to reviewing Bluecast
Resin since I first got a resin printer and thanks to Alexandre, a new friend of mine,
Bluecast have sent me a bottle of their CR3A to look at. I didn’t know it at the time
but Alexandre has a small Jewellery store in France making some fantastic stuff, and,
as I’ve said, he was the one that organised this, so I’m very grateful to him – and
of course Bluecast themselves. I’ve had dozens of requests to review Bluecast
and I have heard great things about them. But I’ve also heard terrible things. However,
Bluecast has more than one product and this is their CR3A, one which they feel “is one
of the easiest castable resins to print and ensure excellent casting.”
So is it…? I’m lucky enough to have three printers
to play with but I’ve had a lot of request to put the Qidi through its paces, so we’ll
go with that. Bluecast retailers do provide a link to useful
printing data, but of course not all printers are listed. As the Qidi resembles the Photon
S, I opted to use those setting initially and after a little tweaking I came up with
these. A standard Amerilabs Town test print came
out pretty good. As always, a little more tweaking might improve things further so don’t
be afraid to experiment. When deciding what to print and cast, a simple
starting point was my VOG coins. With Valentine’s day coming up, I thought
a little jewellery might put some of us in the good books and I came across these excellent
earrings on Thingiverse. To make casting easier I filled in the bottom using Blender.
Finally, I was cheeky enough to ask Alexandre another favour… I asked if he’d got anything
I could print, and he sent me this file. This fantastic design isn’t something I can share
or sell on as it’s part of a new range Alexandre’s bringing out, so I’d strongly encourage
folks to check out his website to see casting done properly. I’ll be honest, the moment
I saw this ring I felt it was a little beyond my current skill level… all those dimples
and angles… very demanding. But it’s nice to have something to aim for.
With a plate full of prints, I set it running… but it failed. There wasn’t enough adhesion
to the build plate so everything was stuck to the FEP.
After cleaning, I used my prime-print coat method and sure enough it worked.
Well, I thought it had, but it hadn’t. Some of the prints have worked but most haven’t.
You can actually see where some appear to have sheared off. And that IS an issue with
this resin. It’s heavy. If we check the literature we can see that
Medium supports are recommended. As some of mine were medium, I swapped almost everything
for heavy support and increased the print density.
I printed again and this time it was a success. The prints looked very nice but there is an
issue here… see how they look wet in places? That’s uncured resin. Now I tend to be pretty
flippant when washing my prints. A quick splash in alcohol, maybe a light churn and then a
blast of air is typical. That wouldn’t touch these. What you’re seeing here is actually
after ten minutes in an ultrasonic clearer – so it was a pretty good wash cycle, but
still not good enough for this resin. In part because of this, and in part because
of the next step, I decided to cut away the supports at this stage. This would make cleaning
easier, which I did with a jar of alcohol using a soft paint brush – the only way
I found that worked. Even in the cleaned areas, cutting the supports
at this stage is a sticky and unpleasant task. Gloves are a must… not like the clown on
the screen right now. But personally, I think cutting the supports away at this stage is
essential… because once the parts have been properly cleared of surplus resin, it’s
time for the next stage. Didn’t I mention that? Oh yes, the CR3A
requires a dedicated Curing Solution, and this is bought separately, so remember to
factor that in when you’re doing price comparisons. The prints need to be placed in a clear container
and fully submerged in the solution. Now you can see why removing the supports is so useful.
The supports take up so much room. The good news is Bluecast tell me you can
re-use the Curing Solution, so don’t throw it away.
When everything is submerged, the container is placed under a UV lamp for 30 to 40 minutes
until the colour changes. Well… maybe it does. After cleaning in water
and drying with air, I can’t see much difference. One piece here is cured and the other isn’t…
and if you think it’s my UV lamp, this piece had a further hour outside – soaking up
proper daylight UV rays. In fairness there is a colour difference,
but it’s so subtle my camera’s not picking it up… it’s definitely not like the literature
suggests. Fortunately, the cleaned and cured parts do
sand well, which gives you the opportunity to try and rid your prints of the extra supports
you’ve been forced to use. Well that’s promising.
Sure enough the prints cast well. The Bluecast CR3A clearly does its job well and vanishes
without excesses expansion, ash deposits or any other nasties. And that is, after all,
what we really want. And this is my attempt at Alexandre’s ring…
okay, not really. Now my attempt is NOT a reflection of the
product. Bluecast can’t be blamed for my casting inexperience. Alexandre is a professional
and it shows in his work and in my failures. But he’s been kind enough to give me a standard
to work towards here… so me and this ring will be seeing each other again.
So how do I find the Bluecast CR3A castable resin…?
Well, there’s adhesion issues due to weight, but a print-prime coat fixes that.
But the supports need to be Medium to Heavy with a generous density, which can smother
the print. The print quality is excellent, just what
you’d expect from a professional resin. I’m not overly experienced, but this is
the most difficult resin I’ve come across so far to wash. It seems reluctant to rinse
away resin with ordinary alcohol, despite claims that it does. It DOES clean away, but
it’s takes a while… or maybe a more specialised cleaner than alcohol.
A curing solution is required which adds another cost and another step to the casting process.
Actually, for me it adds at least two steps, as I think the supports need cutting away
prior to curing – and that’s a sticky business.
Bluecast’s Chromacure colour changing process is Chroma-Crap in my opinion as there’s
precious little colour change that I could see. Certainly not what the literature suggests
at least. There’s no odour, which is always a popular
question, and there was no shrinkage that I noticed, though I did no accurate measuring.
The eventually cleaned and cured prints sand well, so clean-up prior to casting is possible.
And when casting, it’s as good and capable as any other quality castable resin out there
on the market. There were no excessive cracks or ashy deposits that I could detect. So it
does do its job… it does print well and cast well…
But do I like it? No… sorry, but I don’t. It’s not for
me… some do love it, I know, but for me there’s better alternatives.
Bluecast advertising makes the statement that CR3A “is one of the easiest castable resins
to print and ensure excellent casting.” If that is genuinely the case, then there
must be a LOT of very awkward, time consuming and messy Castable Resins out there.
If, for example, I compare this right now to the Powercast Wax, then yes, Bluecast is
cheaper, though it’s still NOT cheap. But the Powercast doesn’t need ANY post print
Curing, never mind a dedicated solution. It washes easily, sands beautifully and prints
on light supports. That makes clean-up easier. But this isn’t a comparison video, it’s
a review – and reviewed it I have. I don’t think my findings will be popular, but they’re
my own and they’re honest. It will work for you. It is a competent product.
But for me there’s unwanted additional steps and if I factor these in a comparison with
other resins, I find my preferences pulled elsewhere.
BUT… if we amend Bluecast’s statement just slightly, I completely agree with it.
So I hope you enjoyed my somewhat controversial review guys. Take care and thanks for watching.