Is SLA / Resin printing the future?

[nicanor76]

I think they both have their part in the 3d printing world. Pretty much like how to cut wood, you have a jigaw (quick and inexpensive); and you have a table saw (precise but costly). Depends on what you want to achieve, both tools are useful.

That said, I prefer SLA. FDM quality isn't as high-res for my personal taste on what I want to do. As "sketches", it works great. As an "end consumer product", I wouldn't put my name on it to sell. Nothing will be cheaper to product than FDM, so an other types of printer material will be more; we all just have to accept that. That said, SLA prints are still inexpensive when compared to powder-based prints.

SLA printers aren't common only because the technology's patent only rare out recently. We're seeing the first family of home-based SLA just within the past year. There are some that are the same price as mid-range FDM printers. They are faster than PDF printers which in itself is a selling feature over FDM for some people. It required s small clean station area, which may deter some users.

There will be a split between users, I don't see FDM as going away but I see them as a low-mid entry choice, while SLA will be mid-upper entry choice for the hobbyist.

[Resin]

Thanks for that.

Give it 1-2 years and you don't SLA will be in the sub 1k range?

I know you said materials are much more expensive. Thus, it's inhibitive to wanting to use an SLA printer.

Here's some simple math. At $100/gal, a gal of UV resins will be 9-10lb/gal. 10lbs is roughly 4.5kg. $100/4.5 is $22.5/kg. that's cheaper than what I've seen for 1kg of ABS or PLA.

With that said do you think more people would jump on the SLA wagon?

There's nothing magical about the resins. Given the specifications I will have to formulate and test for maybe a month or two till I get something that's similar to what is being sold already.

[Feign]

Give it 1-2 years and you don't SLA will be in the sub 1k range?

1-2 years? I'd say less than a year. The LumiFold is less than $600, combine that with a $300 projector and you're still under that price point. There is also the iBox Nano at $300 (with a tiny build volume) and the Peachy Printer at $99 (if you're up for an assembly and calibration challenge) which both might be out later this year. (the Peachy will probably be out before the iBox.)

Here's some simple math. At $100/gal, a gal of UV resins will be 9-10lb/gal. 10lbs is roughly 4.5kg. $100/4.5 is $22.5/kg. that's cheaper than what I've seen for 1kg of ABS or PLA.

A better way to do the conversion is that 1 liter of fresh water is 1 kg...
The cheapest I've ever found is $55 per liter, so roughly $50 per kilogram (resin is a little bit denser than fresh water).
More expensive than cheap filament, but certainly not as bad as the brand-name stuff.