Highest quality 3D print FDM printer - Beginner help me pick Prusa or alternative

[curious aardvark]

right lol

I do not fiddle about before or after a print.
once the machine is setup and working - it's set up and working.

The people who always fiddle, will always fiddle.
Look at the number of mods and upgrades available for prusa machines.
If you're a fiddler (lol) you'll fiddle no matter what the machine.
If you just want to print, than that's what you'll do.

Okay now I've done 2 whole prints I reckon I'm a resin expert (lol).
Well obviously not, but I am a very fast learner.

Detail level - holy smoke batman - I actually need a microscope to see some of the engraving on a 10mm bird skull I printed.
speed - yeah, impressive, the more you print at once, the faster it works per part - the exact opposite of fdm.

Materials.
Thi is where it gets interesting. I'm currently using a clear water washable resin. No discernible smell, and no inflammable liquids needed.
When printed and cured it looks and feels like slightly cloudy acrylic. This is cheap resin, so i suspect that you can get much clearer resins if necessary.

There is nowhere the range of materials availabel for resin than there is for fdm.
And won't be for a few years yet.

Post processing.

Resin
let it drip for a bit.
remove buildplate, pop into cleaned icecream tub (all the mod cons) take to sink.
rinse it all under the tap.

remove any supports, rims etc.
Pop into the cardbox box lined with aluminium foil, pop the uv spotlight on top - switch on for 10 to 20 minutes or so.

FDM post processing.
remove from printbed, remove any supports, sand if necessary.

The two systems are definitely 'horses for courses'.

For size, sheer variety of materials, practical prints and cost effectiveness - fdm uis king.

For small items that are intricate or highly detailed - but with limited materials, resin is vastly superior.

So for example - the dog prosthetics - fdm will do pretty much everything.

If you wanted to make some tricky parts form a small setup then resin might be useful.

Desinging for resin and designing for fdm - both have their specific requirements.
And it's fairly easy to work out.

I haven't designed anything specifically for the resin printer yet, still nailing down the settings and trying different slicers(the initial 'fiddle' stage).

Once I've got it where I want it - it really is plug and play.

Given how cheap a small resin machine like mine (voxelab proxima 6) is.
For the cost of a prusa. You can get both the tenlog and the proxima. With money left over for some filament, resin and a uv lamp.

One thing I will say the proxima is an impressive bit of engineering. Really heavy duty.
A resin printer has one moving part. The buld plate that simply goes up and down.
So the more solidly it is built (20mm deep linear rail and ballscrew) the more precise the platform can move.
The resolution of the proxima is 0.05mm layer height and as it;s a 2k screen - it's also equivalent to a 0.05mm nozzle diameter.
I've seen machines that claim smaller layer sizes - Um, why ?
I have to magnify prints by 60x magnification, simply to see fine detail.

That's also the cool thing about resin - you only print at the highest resolution.
Thereoretically you can print with thicker layers, but why bother ?

So if you are interested in making decorative items and small things - then resin is probably best.

For everything else go fdm.

Oh yeah - the toughest part of resin printing if you have dogs - keeping the hairs out of the vat !
worse if you have cats as they will climb on surfaces. So lots more hairs.

And don't gorget build volume. The prusa mk3+: 250 x 210 x 210 mm
Slightly larger than my sapphire.

The tenlog is 300x300x350
For fdm - Bigger is generally better.

When I was starting out, there was a lot less choice.
You bought a replicator clone. And just had to decide to get the dirt cheap ctc one with really awful reviews or the more expensive flashforge one with much better reviews.

I think i spent somewhere between £3-400 for my flashforge creator.
£200 for my he3d k200 delta
paid £80 import tax for the Klic-n-print - which i won in a competition
And £100 for the sapphire - second hand.
My i3 was £89 - and while sort of functional. At that price point you really do get what you pay for lol. But it is full prusa spec: linear guides on the printbed, direct drive extrduer and dual z-axis screws and motors.
That is the only one of my machines that will be upgraded at some point - Actually that's a lie.

My monoprice mini delta is currently awaiting a new motherboard with silent stepper drivers. And an extruder move mod.
The mini delta was a christmas present.

The proxima comes in between the delta and saffy. But that is with everything needed to make stuff.

So: small and intricate - but not necessarily super strong - resin wins, better resins are coming on the market all the time.

Big, small medium - strong, practical and decorative - fdm.

Corexy versus I3

Okay there are 4 basic ways of engineering head movement in an fdm printer (I own all 4).

1) your basic cartesian. The printbed goes up and down, the printhead moves in the x&y directions. The weight of the stepper motors are moved with the head - not fast, but reliable

2) I3 - the printhead moves left and right and up and down - the printbed moves forwards and backwards. has the potential to print very fast - but few people ever seem to do so with i3's - no clue why. Tall thin objects can be tricky. The stepper the x axis stepper motor moves with the x axis carriage.

3) delta - possible the most industrial looking. Printbed remains statitonary, printhead is moved by three stepper motors, which remian stationary. has a lightweight print carriage and is amazing for tall thin objects. But not so great for very large items.
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4) corexy - kind of across between a cartesian and a delta. The printhead is moved in the x&y and the build plate goes up and down. However through some magical configuratuion of the belts and stepper motors. The motors stay stationary and the head is pulled simultaneously by both motors. This results in increased speed & precision. it's no coincidence that corexy printers are the fastest currently available.

Then you've got bowden versus direct drive.
Which is a whole nother lecture lol