We’ve had a whirlwind of a summer so far in a lot of ways, the Prusa SL1S Printer upgrade was announced and ordered, Elegoo announced the Mars 3, also something we’ve ordered. We’re back logged with brand new resins we are chomping at the bit to review.. but it seems like shipping times are continually slipping and we’re still waiting for these new printer upgrades.
One resin we have been able to nail down lately is IC163 from Sartomer, manufactured by CPS (Colorado Photopolymer Solutions). We’ve been working with CPS for a number of months testing this, and another as yet unreviewed resin finding the optimal settings and casting procedure.
IC163 is one of the first resins we’ve tried that’s designed with Filigree in mind and seems to only be able to handle these kind of models. The exposure times were much more sensitive than I’m used to, with minute but measure-able variations between exposure times, this helped us dial it in perfectly.
A bit of a side bar.. in the 2 years since we got into printing I’ve noticed many resin manufactures tend to create a Castable resin that doesn’t really have a specific purpose, I suppose the assumption is that it should be able to do everything. Which after testing so many resins I think is definitely not the best way to go. As convenient and awesome that 1 resin can print and cast everything perfectly, it’s almost wishful thinking.
Resins that are designed with certain purposes definitely takes some of the guesswork out of the equation. Filigree casting is pretty tough and definitely not a place that I’d recommend anyone just starting in casting begin. In the video I do explain some of the issues I ran into with the test casting, and I show that I definitely need to work on my approach for these kinds of models. This resin has good casting results with thin filigree work despite the deficiency in my technique. I’m much more used to casting heavy, thick items and have success with working at lower temperatures, where thinner models may require higher temps in combination with expert spru placement and vacuum pressure.
There are a lot of blank spaces in this chart while we wait for our printer upgrade and another new printer to arrive, but when they do all the resins will be reviewed.
