Longer Orange 10 3D resin printer $165.20 on Amazon

[cliffyk]

Just ordered this, Longer Orange 10 3-D printer from Amazon. Been looking at it for a while at $230.00, the maker has them at a "special discount" 'til Christmas I guess.

it has mixed reviews, many of which report broken components; in large part I ignore these as i am not "ham-handed", and generally treat my tools "as I would have them treat me" (my apologies to King James).



My research has indicated the the resin printed 3-D "prints" are higher resolution than filament printed models. and perhaps resist lateral forces better than fused deposition prints. It is an odd-ball "how can that work" system using only Z-axis motion, a vat of UV curing resin and UV LEDs projecting through an LCD shutter--at each layer of the "printing" the LCD shutter ( 854 x 480 in the unit I bought) allows UV through to cure the resin that will comprise the finished printout, the Z-axis driver then raises the platen by a smll bit, 0.05 mm (0.002") in order to "print the next layer..It's sort of a CAT scan in reverse. 

Aside from being neat toy, I have a couple of projects for whicj 3D printing would be a perfect solution.

The maximum "printout" size is 140 mm (Z) x 55 mm (Y) x 98 mm (X) not huge, but pretty good sized to do things like make a USB rechargeable 9V battery holding case extension for a DSO-150, etc.

Support (via http://www.longer3d.com/) seems strong, with several DIY solutions to the "problems" reported by many reviewers...

[ebclr]

Keep updating, your experience with this print

[dkggpeters]

It is amazing how inexpensive these printers are now and they appear to work very well if setup properly.

Please keep us updated on what you think of it.

[beanflying]

Subbing for interest. But I keep telling myself I don't want to deal with the mess and post processing for any of the resin based systems

I still might get a resin printer to play with however 

[cliffyk]

I received the printer Tuesday (12/24/2019) and had it unboxed and assembled in < 10 minutes. 1h and 45 m later I was cleaning my first "printout"; a Wonder Woman cookie cutter for SWMBO:



This was done at the most "coarse" layer thickness the printer is capable of, 50 μM (0.050 mm, it can do 0.01 mm; 10 μM). My first thought; "Hot damn thing thing is amazing", and I set out to do my DSO-150 battery holder (it was also printed at the 50 μM "coarse" layer thickness):



This case extension will--sometime later this week if family and friends leave me alone for a while-- house a USB rechargeable "9V" battery, and a relocated power switch.
 


The machine is VERY well constructed, the firmware does just what it is supposed too--it is a "good thing".

The dreaded post processing procedure is a piece of cake, I put a pint of rubbing alcohol in a 1 gallon bait bucket that was handy and swished it around for a couple minutes; the goop just disappeared, dissolved into the spirits. Next I washed the printouts in hot water and Dove dishwashing liquid--blow 'em off with air, give 'em 15 to 20 minutes in a DIY 40W UV curing box and they are ready to go.


After printing out the DSO-150 case I did a batch of 8 BNC dust caps (the model came from from Thingverse), cleaned them as above and threw the platen and resin tank into the bait bucket and left over over alcohol. Swished then around with a bit of old tooth brush scrubbing (I used my grandson's) then wiped them down with clean paper towel and alcohol--all done..

The DSO-150 battery case was first created in FreeCAD, then further manipulated and sliced using ChiTuBox (Google it; good software, horrid name). The entire bottom of the USB "9V" battery glows red or blue to indicate charging state; that's why the big hole.

I also used ChiTuBox to clone the single BNC cap to 8 units, so as to print 8 at a time:



By any determination of final product resolution and composite integrity this technology blows FFA out of the water--it will be interestin to see where it is 10 year from now...

[beanflying]

Looks good.

To be fair what keeping a little of the planets health in the world are you going to do with the 'waste' IPA/resin? Locally we have exactly ZERO options for this so it would be burn it or even worse down the sewer 

Very wise choice doing print #1 for SHMBO 

[cliffyk]

Very wise choice doing print #1 for SHMBO 

I am not as stupid as I look; that would not be possible...

[coppercone2]

how strong is this stuff? How does that battery holder you made do in a drop test?

[cliffyk]

how strong is this stuff? How does that battery holder you made do in a drop test?

I have not performed any destructive testing of the battery case; however yesterday some number of grand- and  great-grand children did their best with the WW cookie cutter,almost ritualistically  throwing it at one another in the garage and driveway. It survived the "grand-children" test quite nicely.

I find the finished product to be not at all brittle, more akin in density and feel to polypropylene--this using Longer's "Standard" rapid resin--250 ml of which was included with the machine (I've used about 100 ml with the few things i've printed. There are many resin types from which to choose.

There is no indication of the extreme fragility I have seen attributed to SLA printing by it's critics and others heavily invested in FFA technology.

As with all things though; time will tell...

[cliffyk]

BTW-- I loaded the open source DSO-150 firmware; highly recommended!

[james_s]

That looks quite impressive! For the most part I've been underwhelmed by hobby 3D printers. The filament type produce results that under ideal circumstances I would consider acceptable for prototyping but sub-par as finished projects. For me I think the holy grail would be something that can print sufficiently precise and durable parts to create replacement plastic gears, knobs and other hardware.

[cliffyk]

That looks quite impressive! For the most part I've been underwhelmed by hobby 3D printers. The filament type produce results that under ideal circumstances I would consider acceptable for prototyping but sub-par as finished projects. For me I think the holy grail would be something that can print sufficiently precise and durable parts to create replacement plastic gears, knobs and other hardware.

THat has been my position re: 3D printers for some time--I came close to buying one 3-4 years ago, but the more i looked at the fused filament machine "prints", the less I was interested (same observations/opinion as yourself); I am glad I waited, this technology will blow FFA out of the water, it will be interesting to see what its like in 5 years!

I am so pleased with this printer that i plan on buying its big brother--the Longer Orange 30--as soon as I can convince SWMBO it's a good investment.

I could not be happier or more impressed with what it can do...

[ebclr]

How hard is handle the resin, clean up the machine, and store back the remaining resin? Do you lose a lot or a little on this process?

[cliffyk]

How hard is handle the resin, clean up the machine, and store back the remaining resin? Do you lose a lot or a little on this process?

It is not at all difficult, the goop handles a lot like motor oil. I described the post-processing and clean up in my post up above (the one with all the pictures). The uncured resin washes off easily with rubbing alcohol. Resin loss during clean-up is negligible.

[beanflying]

That looks quite impressive! For the most part I've been underwhelmed by hobby 3D printers. The filament type produce results that under ideal circumstances I would consider acceptable for prototyping but sub-par as finished projects. For me I think the holy grail would be something that can print sufficiently precise and durable parts to create replacement plastic gears, knobs and other hardware.

You miss some of the point of FDM or any sort of additive manufacturing. It now provides a low cost entry into formed or engineered plastics without the need, expense  or skills for full blown CNC machining. Yes FDM has layer lines and you will never get rid of them so embrace the look. I use mine to make enclosures, tooling and jigs and when used commercially for one offs a few minutes talking to a client about the process and you 'made them a custom X' gets over any hurdles or questions they may have. Even from my own uses the printers have easily saved their initial cost in machining time from outsourcing jobs.

The main issue still remains with Resin printing waste, cleanup and disposal. The mechanical properties available and range of resins is getting better all the time so sometime this year I am likely to add one to the fleet.

Additive manufacturing by all processes is by it's nature not strictly commercial due to time taken to produce items but from rockets (metal sintered) to widgets it is a win for Engineering.

[james_s]

I get the point, the quality is just not up to my standards. I don't want to embrace the look, IMHO it looks like shit and that isn't what I want my projects to look like. I know that some people have gotten much use out of filament 3D printers, a friend of mine got one years ago and uses it heavily but I've yet to find anything compelling to do with one. He's tried to print a few different parts for me and so far none have turned out good enough to be usable. The cheapest 99c knockoff injection molded project box from China has a superior surface finish.

The output of this resin printer looks really good though, I can see it potentially producing usable custom housings and knobs, possibly trim and visor clips and other various plastic parts for my cars, stuff that eventually breaks and is no longer available. It's the first hobby 3D printer I've seen produce parts that I wouldn't reject and toss in the bin.

[amyk]

You can machine 3D printed parts for a better surface finish.
It's not like cast metal right out of the mold has a great surface finish either...

[beanflying]

Your standards for prototyping and one of jobs then are clearly beyond common sense then There is no argument from me on surface finish not being perfect but I object to you calling them 'shit' and 'unusable' this is emotive and overstated CRAP !

A year ago this was the standard of finish I got on a small box at the time I think it was between print #10-20 I had done. It is 0.2mm layer heights so the sides could have been made better but the 'finish' on the surfaces is a long way from your ambit claims. The world has moved on in the last few years with the results of FDM. Printed on my then stock CR-10S with generic PLA.

Resin printers are not a panacea either and have their issues and as stated their surface quality is not one of them. If I was to make mechanical tooling then at this stage Resin is not where I would be going. Your fine detail, gears (small) and knobs are appropriate but larger gears for example FDM and Nylon/derivatives will be a much tougher job.

[TERRA Operative]

If you don't already know, you can 'regenerate' your cleaning IPA by exposing it to UV for a while to cure all the dissolved resin in it, then filter it through a coffee filter to leave behind just the clean IPA to then continue using.

[james_s]

Your standards for prototyping and one of jobs then are clearly beyond common sense then There is no argument from me on surface finish not being perfect but I object to you calling them 'shit' and 'unusable' this is emotive and overstated CRAP !

A year ago this was the standard of finish I got on a small box at the time I think it was between print #10-20 I had done. It is 0.2mm layer heights so the sides could have been made better but the 'finish' on the surfaces is a long way from your ambit claims. The world has moved on in the last few years with the results of FDM. Printed on my then stock CR-10S with generic PLA.

Resin printers are not a panacea either and have their issues and as stated their surface quality is not one of them. If I was to make mechanical tooling then at this stage Resin is not where I would be going. Your fine detail, gears (small) and knobs are appropriate but larger gears for example FDM and Nylon/derivatives will be a much tougher job.

That orange box is pretty good, I still don't like the lines in the finish but it's better than 99% of the filament 3D printed stuff I see. I'm also not saying that resin printers are the end-all solution, all I'm saying is that these few samples presented here are impressive, it's the first time I've ever seen a home 3D printed part and thought "Wow, that looks really good!" I'm not rushing out to buy a resin printer but I am intrigued, if it can make replacement knobs and other plastic bits for test equipment and vintage electronics or classic cars for example it would be worth having just for that.

I'm a perfectionist, always have been, always will be. I have high standards for anything I build, I don't always achieve them but I certainly try. These were one-off personal projects, the counter was a bare PCB kit that I built the housing for, hence the logo of the kit supplier, the others were scratch builds. I hadn't yet made the decal for the DAC so it's just a plain box in that picture. Filament 3D printing can't match the quality of an injection molded housing, even a cheap one and at least in my experience it takes a lot of tweaking and fiddling to get it to print something fairly regularly without significant imperfections and do-overs. That's great that the quality of a 3D printed part is good enough for some but it's not good enough for me, I want a smooth surface that looks like a commercial product and I don't want to spend time machining the printed part. I have high hopes for the future of 3D printing but so far I have just not been impressed with the output of filament machines, sorry, it's not a personal stab at anyone, I just think the lines through the finish look crappy, it gives me the same impression as a project that has an Arduino and a solderless breadboard mounted inside a project box. I look at a project or part and can immediately see that somebody 3D printed that in their basement. My friend printed a set of knobs for a vintage sampler synth he repaired while it looked better than having most of the knobs missing or broken it was still obvious at a glance that they were not original.

[jh15]

Guess it won't like my linux machines. Run on WINE? Do you have to join facecloth for support? Just jumped in her, will research.

[Gyro]

...

I'm a perfectionist, always have been, always will be. I have high standards for anything I build, I don't always achieve them but I certainly try. These were one-off personal projects, the counter was a bare PCB kit that I built the housing for, hence the logo of the kit supplier, the others were scratch builds. I hadn't yet made the decal for the DAC so it's just a plain box in that picture.
...

You're a perfectionist and you put the bare exposed Philips screwed lid on the top of your Volume box?  A perfectionist would have used the box the other way up and preferably covered the screws with feet. A diecast box has a much better (and pleasantly tapered finish) on the bottom. 

[reboots]

You're a perfectionist and you put the bare exposed Philips screwed lid on the top of your Volume box?  A perfectionist would have used the box the other way up and preferably covered the screws with feet. A diecast box has a much better (and pleasantly tapered finish) on the bottom. 

Counterpoint: fasteners are beautiful, and deserve visibility. Concealing them complicates maintenance. And unless the box is gasketed (as in the mail notifier example), positioning the lid on the bottom could allow spilled liquids to enter the enclosure.

Perfection is a worthy but unattainable ideal; one must cultivate an appreciation for the elegant compromise.

[james_s]

...

I'm a perfectionist, always have been, always will be. I have high standards for anything I build, I don't always achieve them but I certainly try. These were one-off personal projects, the counter was a bare PCB kit that I built the housing for, hence the logo of the kit supplier, the others were scratch builds. I hadn't yet made the decal for the DAC so it's just a plain box in that picture.
...

You're a perfectionist and you put the bare exposed Philips screwed lid on the top of your Volume box?  A perfectionist would have used the box the other way up and preferably covered the screws with feet. A diecast box has a much better (and pleasantly tapered finish) on the bottom. 

I like the exposed screws, they're easily accessible in case I ever want to open it up. I could have easily done it the other way but this was a conscious design decision. Also it was based on a project that was published somewhere and I think the original designer did it the same way, but it was a complete scratch build, I etched the PCB and powder coated the diecast box myself. Concealed fasteners are one of my pet peeves, I really hate having to damage a printed decal or something to take something apart or break it trying to free a clip only to realize there's a stupid hidden screw.


The mail notifier box is gasketed simply because I already had some of those boxes on hand and the clear lid worked well for something that lights up internally. They are low quality Chinese clones that have a poor finish which I would not have bought had I seen them ahead of time however I think the end result came out quite well. I built one for my mom too, she loves it as she receives payments for her business in the mail and doesn't like to leave them in the box unattended even though it has a lock.

[ebastler]

I am so pleased with this printer that i plan on buying its big brother--the Longer Orange 30--as soon as I can convince SWMBO it's a good investment.

Maybe keep the small one going for a while, to see how it holds up. The fundamental design issue with these low-cost resin printers seems to be that the LCD gets damaged by the UV irradiation; they use plain old display LCDs which were never meant to see intense UV. But reports on how long that takes before it affects functionality vary a lot.

(The better resin printers use reflective DMD arrays and relay imaging optics instead, which do survive UV long-term. But that gets you into a different price range.)