Well, it's time to buy some new resin, and this is something I often struggle with. So far I've mostly been using Phrozen water washable Rapid Black, it's given me the least amount of warping so far, really good at details. But it's a little soft (thinner walls will bend a little too easily), which helps with not being too brittle. The very best at details I've ever used was by far the standard Anycubic transparent green, but oooh so brittle (and I haven't used it in a very long time, not sure if the formula is still the same). So what resin are you using for your model railroad needs?
I'm pretty boring. I've been using Anycubic "Basic" Gray as my general purpose medium for just about everything. If I'm doing something thin and detailed (handrails, grabs) then I use a custom mix of five scoops Siraya Tech Fast Grey, two scoops Tenacious. This lets me print in detail with the Tenacious adding some flex quality to it. I'm sure there's a resin out there doing this already pre-mixed but I wouldn't know what it is. It gets kind of expen$ive experimenting.. I avoid Anycubic White like the plague. That was my first bottle that I used heavily for resin printing and it warped so badly I was beginning to dislike printing as NOTHING would stay straight. Thankfully other resins showed me that wasn't how it is for all resins.
I've had really bad luck with greys. Elegoo grey bloomed like crazy, and I think I'm the only one that doesn't like Siraya tech fast grey. It's strong, but I can't get the fine gaps that I do with rapid black or anycubic green. I haven't actually printed all that much considering how long I've owned this machine, but yeah, cost of resins make experimenting an annoyance. Why mix tenacious in the fast instead of the anycubic? Doesn't work well with anycubic grey?
No reason other than I had a bottle of fast leftover after I tried it and thought...."meh" I had heard a bunch of folks lauding it but it didn't pass my handrail test - which is what I got it for. I'm sure tenacious will mix perfectly fine with the Anycubic. In fact I think I accidentally did a batch once that way and it passed my handrail test.
I've had the Elegoo 8k space grey in my Amazon cart for two days now, but haven't decided to try it lol. That and the Elegoo ABS-like. I hear good things about the ABS-likes, but I suspect the flexible nature of it will cause issues, likely the very same issues I get with the Rapid Black water washable, where thin walls are a little too soft and flexible and end up warping. I briefly added the Anycubic standard Grey to the cart until I saw that I aparently had already purchased it March 1, 2019! Yup, I remember not liking it compared to the Anycubic transparent Green. heh, I dug out some old photos from waaaay back, this was when I had the original Anycubic Photon printer... These are from April of 2019, so I assume the grey prints are the Anycubic Grey. That's what I didn't like, it bloomed so much compared to the standard green, the undersides were always so much more gross instead of sharp, and I could never make a print with the grey where I could get that gap between the cab and the rear hood. I think that green was the bottle that came with the printer. The biggest problem with the standard green was that it was sooo very brittle.
Bloom... almost sounds like overexposure. I'm still on the combo I started with, Elegoo plant-based black with my Elegoo Mars3, Elegoo-supplied settings. I consciously did that to eliminate as many variables as possible going into something I did not really understand. Worked pretty well; the failures I've had were readily identifiable as mine... Nice definition, but rather bendy. I did a few prints with Elegoo ABS, looking for a sturdier solution. A bit sturdier, but gave up a lot of definition, and I really needed sturdy for the locomotive frame. So, back to brass for that, 'cept I'm going to do a static all-resin model first, then mung the parts to make a running model.
Bloom is often caused by over exposure, but some resins just for some reason are more affected by it. I often test resins using the amerilabs "town" model, which has a whole bunch of gaps of various sizes. From underexposed to over exposed, in each case the gaps between "buildings" were filled with bloomed resin. I considering trying the elegoo space gray, seems to have good reviews. Tenacious is just too expensive to bother with, but I think I'll try Anycubic Tough for railings. Youtube videos of that one seems to make it to flexible as to not break at all.
Is this the resin? https://siraya.tech/products/build-resin-high-resolution-engineering-resin I never seen this one before, and you certainly have amazing results with it considering what you posted! Haha, couldn't you have posted yesterday before I ordered?? It's available on Amazon.ca and on special!
One thing to keep in mind is any resin needs calibration. Most resin manufacturers will have parameters to start with, and there are several calibration prints that will assist with the process. Many issues are due to print parameters rather than resin - warping, blooming, not adhering to the bedplate, etc.
