ResinWorks EasyCast 200 Castable resin – let’s give it a review.
Hey guys, A lot of you have been asking me to review
ResinWorks castable resins for a while and it’s been tricky to get hold off for me.
But luckily that’s changed as our old friend Stuart at pro3dshop.com is now an official
UK seller of the ResinWorks brand and he very kindly sent me a bottle of their EasyCast
200 to review – so my thanks go to Stuart for this opportunity.
EasyCast 200 is pitched as being a simple resin to work with, capable of handling fine
detail on smaller prints such as jewellery. So let’s test those claims.
I typically use my Phrozen Sonic 4K for these sorts of reviews and this was no exception.
A good number of settings are helpfully provided on the ResinWorks website and amazingly the
literature says that temperature isn’t an issue for this resin. So even though it was
a chilly 12 degrees Celsius in my workshop, I set about printing with confidence. The
problem was, however, that I couldn’t get anything to stick to the build plate.
I tried warming the resin to 25 degrees Celsius, just in case temperature was an issue after
all, and tried again… several times… adjusting the settings and swearing a lot along the
way, but all without success. I eventually reached out to ResinWorks and
described the whole situation. Interestingly they suggested that temperature wasn’t the
problem, but the flexible plate on my Sonic 4K probably was. They suggested a rougher
surface might be better, so I opted to change printers, switching to the Anycubic Photon
Ultra which has a checked build plate. Now ResinWorks is a Canadian brand of resin
and one thing Canadians know about is cold weather. So I took the plunge and printed
with unheated resin, even though the ambient temperature of my workshop was now 11 degrees
Celsius. And amazingly it printed. I confess this AmeraLabs Town test print has
been knocking around in my workshop for several days, so it’s got a bit bashed about, but
trust me, it originally printed nicely, certainly well enough for me to move on to something
more appropriate. Once again I looked at the fabulous work of
Printed Obsession on MyMiniFactory and found this amazing Raven ring. I love this piece.
It’s truly excellent work. Even at 11 degrees the Ultra had no problem
printing two of these rings, but hang on a minute… I’m getting ahead of myself.
One drawback of this resin is that it likes thick supports, and plenty of them. This is
something we’ve seen before with resins such as Bluecast X One, and for me at least
it’s not a deal breaker. Personally, when I support any print, I always include a number
of very heavy supports to anchor the print firmly to the plate and help prevent any possible
movement. And that’s what I did here… before adding a massive amount of fine supports.
I know, I know, that’s a lot of supports, but I rarely get failed prints.
And just to be doubly sure, I printed the same print in two different configurations.
But both came out very nicely. I expect good things from the Anycubic Ultra
as it’s a DLP printer, but these prints were looking very nice.
I clipped away the supports and gave the prints a generous 4 minute spin in a wash a cure
using IPA. They were then air dried before being UV cured for 30 minutes.
The resulting prints looked excellent. This resin is very comfortable on the eye, and
it’s easy to see any possible print flaws. However, prints are on the fragile side. It
seems during clipping I broke away one section of the wing, so gentle handling of this resin
is a must. The prints sand well and even with 240 grit
paper it’s no trouble to sand away the nubs left over from the supports.
Then came the nightmare… wax spruing. What would normally take me 10 minutes took me
two hours. The sprues just wouldn’t stick and even when then did, the slightest knock
and they’d ping right off. I even tried roughing up the area where the sprues would
go, but it was a nightmare, so much so that I had a whinge at ResinWorks.
Now the fault here is mine as I should have read the instructions more carefully, so let
me clarify these to make life easier for you. Print, clean and UV cure, yes… but doing
so can cause oils in the resin to seep to the surface. The solution is simple… an
additional 30 second dip in nice clean IPA and an air blast to dry them off.
As proof, here’s two others I printed to experiment on. I sanded away the nubs as before,
but just to be on the safe side, I wiped over the sanded areas with a little IPA. I was
then able to attach the sprues with ease. And look at this…
These
sprues are certainly stuck, so don’t forget that second wash after curing.
The investment process is of course the same as usual.
The burnout process is nothing unusual. If it works for wax, it should work with this
resin. And these don’t look too bad.
In truth, they both looked perfect, so I opted to clean up the one with two good wings.
I have to say I’m very pleased with this casting. It’s retained all the details added
by the artist Printed Obsession and it’s a nice clean finish.
So what do I think of ResinWork EasyCast 200? As long as your build plate isn’t silky
smooth, prints should stick well and print without the need for warming, which in my
cold workshop is a big bonus. Print supports need to be a little on the
thick side, but that fits nicely into my style of printing anyway.
There’s plenty of detail in the prints and the colour is easy to work with.
However, prints are a little weak, so gentle handling is required to prevent damage.
Attaching sprues can be a pain unless you clean briefly again after curing, which seems
to resolve the issue completely. The burnout schedule is fairly typical for
wax which is a bonus for those sending off prints to casting foundries.
And most importantly of course, this resin casts perfectly.
So this leaves just two issues… availability and price.
Well getting this in the US and Canada is very easy, and now, thanks to pro3dshop.com
getting it in the UK is also a doddle. I’m not entirely sure about Europe, but I do know
that pro3dshop.com is happy enough to ship worldwide.
As for price, it’s not the cheapest castable resin I’ve come across, but it’s not the
most expensive either. It sits comfortable in the middle and it provides a reliable alternative
to other brands. So in a nutshell, I like it. It’s every
bit as easy to work with as ResinWorks claim and it certainly gets my nod of approval.
So there you have it guys. I hope you enjoyed this review. As always if you have any questions,
just drop me a line. So take care guys and thanks for watching.