I have a Bluecast X10 conclusion for you guys and I’m genuinely pleased.
Hey guys, This is a follow-up video to my Bluecast X10
castable resin review video and my almost immediate response to that, my Challenge to
Bluecast video. If what I say from here on in makes little sense, you might want to check
those out before I watching further.
So… I’m delighted to say there’s some good news. Bluecast have stepped up their
game considerably. I’ve been chatting with Stuart the Bluecast
UK reseller and he’s been showing me the amendments to his website. Look at this for
brilliant service… Firstly, a useful document with casting tips
and proper resin use. Secondly, the legal safety data stuff.
Thirdly, the standard Bluecast document containing printer settings, and I’m pleased to say,
it’s been UPDATED and now includes the Mars – hooray!
And lastly, look at this… I love this… It’s a downloadable Profile for ChiTuBox.
So you simply download the Zip file and Import the settings directly into ChiTuBox. Whether
this excellent idea will be extended to all popular printers, or indeed whether all other
Bluecast resellers will be adopting the same approach, I don’t know as yet. I certainly
hope they do. Because the Resin company that does this first will set the standard for
all other companies to follow – and will likely get a big leap on the competition – so
go for it Bluecast! Unfortunately as I said, this website belongs
to Stuart, the UK seller of Bluecast so his example might not be found on other Bluecast
merchant sites. But being a genuinely helpful guy, Stuart has said he’s happy to try and
answer all Bluecast related questions, regardless of where you are in the world. I think you’ll
agree, that’s top quality service right there.
You may recall I grumbled about Facebook and Bluecast’s overzealous approach to get me
to use it to find printer information. Well, I don’t use Facebook, I don’t want to
and frankly I abhor any company that insists that I do. But there’s encouraging news
from Bluecast there too. In addition to updating their printing settings
document, they’ve updated their main website. Last week I had an email from Stefano at Bluecast
in Italy saying: “In a short time we will have a new website
section. We have accepted your challenge :-). Stay tuned.”
I was delighted by this positive attitude and, sure enough, check this out.
Bluecast have added a new section called Download to their website. Simply select the Resin
you’re using and there’s the Printer Settings. It’s beautifully easy to find, and a real
improvement. There’s also a helpful selection Chart to
help you pick the ideal Bluecast resin for your purposes.
So, my main gripe about lack of print setting information has been well and truly satisfied.
Bluecast listened and responded very quickly and I think we should applaud them for this.
This is exactly the sort of company I like to deal with.
However, there’s still the major issue of print quality to consider.
You’ll recall that I liked the way X10 cast, but I hated how it printed. By guessing at
printer settings for my Elegoo Mars, my prints were fine on one side, but terrible on the
others. So, with my newly available Printer Settings
confirmed, are my printing results any better? Unfortunately, no…
Sure my previous settings were hopeless and should be ignored completely, but even with
Bluecast’s recommended settings, with model realignment, with support adjustment and with
lots of help from those incredibly patient folks at Bluecast, the results were still
pretty poor. Ready to hate Bluecast now? Ready to call
them rude names and question their parentage? Well don’t. I’ve been awkward throughout
this whole review. You see, I like to buy a bottle of resin straight
off the shelf and use it as it is. That’s the way it’s been for me with every other
resin company. But Bluecast are a little different. They
have customisers. These are sharpenisers, hardenisers and softenisers. And I have to
be honest, when they sent me the X10 to try and review, they also sent me a Sharpeniser.
But I didn’t want to use it. I wanted to keep things original, as off-the-shelf as
possible. However, as all my printing efforts were failing,
I eventually yielded to Bluecast’s advice and I poured one small bottle of their Sharpeniser
into a new bottle of X10 and mixed. The difference was amazing… not only were
the blue prints now coloured green, the results are crisp and sharp. There’s no curdling
on these prints and everything is as good as I could have hoped for.
And it seems this is the answer. Indeed, this is exactly what a lot of professionals are
doing… they’re buying the Bluecast resins and adding customisers in their own preferred
proportions to match their specific printing and casting needs – so they’re making
their own recipes if you like. This, of course, gives them excellent control over the resin,
but to achieve that level of expertise takes a great deal of experience.
As a hobbyist amateur, I don’t have that level of knowledge, and I’ve said as much
to Bluecast. I do want to fiddle about with something I
don’t fully understand. Right now, I don’t know how to properly
advise my viewers. All I can say is if you print the same sort of things as me, fairly
small with crisp detail, then you’ll need Bluecast X10 mixed with a bottle of their
Shapeniser, plus a bottle of Primer because plate adhesion is a bit tricky.
And understand this – I really like this combination and you’ll be seeing me use
it a lot. But if your needs are different, then I hust
can’t advise you. The lack of information about these customisers currently available
leaves me confused. Other companies get around this by producing
different varieties of resin - a different bottle for each requirement. And I have put
this to Bluecast, but I am, of course, just one person. This is just my personal view.
I’m willing to bet all those currently buying and mixing happily would completely disagree
with me. So why don’t you tell Bluecast your thoughts…
I’ve created a poll on my Channel Community page. This is just me asking these questions,
but I have a feeling Bluecast will be watching. If folks disagree with me, fine, but if folks
like the idea of pre-mixed, off-the-shelf bottles, then maybe Bluecast will bring some
out. So let me sum up my feelings on Bluecast X10
castable resin. I’m thrilled with it.
I’ve now got a resin that casts great and prints great. It’s just what I want.
For my kind of projects I need X10, the Sharpeniser and the plate primer. Yes, I’d prefer a
pre-mixed bottle of something, but I can live with things how they are.
I’m also incredibly impressed with Bluecast as a company. Mine is hardly the biggest YouTube
Channel around, but they’ve listened to my gripes, evaluated my perspective and fortunately
agreed I may have a point or two. They’ve updated their printer settings and
made these easier to find – yeah! They’ve made sure even non-Facebook users
like me can access this data – great! They’ve provided a Profile download link
which makes acquiring Printer Settings a breeze – amazing!
And they’ve responded incredibly quickly… surely that says something about the sort
of company they are. So would I recommend Bluecast and their X10
castable resin? You bet I would. And thankfully I think we can finally call
this a finished and thoroughly concluded review. Do head over to my Community page and offer
your views of my Bluecast Poll. As always, feel free to drop your views and
comments below guys. Take care and thanks for watching.