Hey Guys, Time’s been in short supply for me
during the Holiday season, but I fancied doing a little metal casting using the very exciting
Phrozen Sonic Mini 8K. This printer boasts an incredible 22 micron resolution with 1152 ppi
and I’ve already shown you some amazing prints. But can I get the same results when casting?
Well obviously I needed something with sufficient detail to print
and for this I turned to a friend of mine, Juan. You can find him on Instagram or YouTube
and he’s an incredibly gifted artist. Now this is what I really wanted to show you.
Obviously it’s a ring, so you can guess the size, and it’s packed with detail,
a lot of which is very fine. In fact some of it is so fine, I think even the Mini 8K will struggle.
These textured sections will be so small I can’t imagine them standing proud if I’m honest.
But flowers, feathers, leaves, skulls, mushrooms - they should be okay.
To make things easier for me, I added some sprues using Lychee but these do
destroy a lot of Juan’s beautiful work, but time was short for me this week and, more importantly,
I’m lazy and like to make life easier for myself.
I decided to use the last few drops of my ResinWorks 3D EasyCast 200 resin
and frankly had a nightmare of a time. I mentioned in my Review of the Mini 8K
that whilst I absolutely love the printer, some resins stick like crazy to the build plate.
I found this with Phrozen’s own Aqua 8K resin, but it was even worse with the EasyCast 200.
Now I stupidly didn’t film my plight but trust me when I tell you that the resin
bonded like concrete. So much so that I ended up damaging the metal build plate,
something I’ve never done before. Light scratches, yes, but these are deep gouges.
Whilst it is annoying, it still prints fine, but I urge caution to anyone buying the Mini 8K.
This is one occasion where a Flex plate would be a major advantage. Fortunately
I’ve already spoken to our friends at WhamBam and they’ve already starting the ball rolling,
so check out their store for availability soon. I’m sure other systems will be
coming along any day if you prefer to shop around, but that’s obviously down to you.
I can only talk about the products that I haven’t any personal experience with.
Anyway, I’m not blaming EasyCast for sticking like stink to the build plate,
but soaking in IPA for hours, sharpened scrapers, heavy duty plastic spatulas or whatever you like
will not help you here. Just lots of hard chipping away. So please, treat yourself to a Flex plate
and save yourself the headache. Fortunately the prints seemed fine. I can’t
be 100% sure if my settings were good as my resin supply was very limited, but these worked for me,
and you can see I chose to print with layer height of 0.02 with no antialiasing.
Now EasyCast can have pale blotches, especially after thorough cleaning,
but this makes it hard to really see how well the prints came out. I struggled taking photos
if I’m honest, but I think you’ll agree this close-up on the teeth is very impressive.
If you can see those layer lines with the naked eye, then Louis Lane is probably your girlfriend.
Other than a spin in the magnetic polisher, I’ve made no attempt at a high shine finish.
But I think you’ll agree, the vast majority of the detail
Juan packed into this ring has come through. It’s tricky to see as it’s so small, but it is
there and a lot of this is not easily seen by the naked eye.
So for those who asked whether casting was possible with the Mini 8K, I can assure you it is.
You may wish to spend more time dialling in the resin than I did,
but the printer really will work for you.
So my thanks again to Juan for sharing this design with me, take care guys and thanks for watching.