Alternative Resin review?

I’m using some now. Modeling Plus. Overall impression is positive. The resin prints as well as Tough, better than Durable. Prints seem more flexible than Tough but stiffer than Durable which should be the characteristic I’m looking for. I still have some mechanical testing to do before I’m done with my comparison.

It does have a more pronounced odor than either Tough or Durable. I keep my printers under a slip cover and I don’t smell the resin then. It doesn’t linger. But when I’m doing a print and I open the printer cover to remove the build platform, it does sort of leap out at you (the resin’s smell, not the build platform).

1 Like

This is also on my list to buy soon along with the flexible resin applylabs has

I need fairly rigid pieces. My production is scale miniature items. On some pieces I print over 100 at a time in the Form2.

Walt I am with you, I am creating some O Scale figures and detail parts, I am using gray, however when I make frames or other parts, I need something that is stronger and more rigid than the gray. Many of my detail parts are at the edge of thickness and size.

I’ve had pretty good luck with the V2 Grey but the cost when doing production would be nice if lower. Not sure this other resin is the answer but seeing I have a tray to use I might as well give it a try.
I only use the Grey as our parts get painted afterwards anyway.
Fine detail is important but I’ve been doing some custom work for a fellow who has printed at Shapeways and he says mine is better. [grin] There was warping and such with the Shapeways prints but not the Form2. All the detail was there as well. Only real issue is support points. I’m down to .050" supports. If I go any lower they snap during the printing.

I’ve been using the beige ALW resin with great results. As mentioned above, it does have a very slight smell (like a detergent or something). I’m about to buy some of the olive resin, but the beige is great for miniature printing, and is a lot more resilient than the grey from FL. I’ve dropped a couple of pieces already onto hard surfaces, and they didn’t break. The same fall would hav shattered some of the finer parts on an FL grey miniature.

What’s interesting, it has a sort of a Nylon feel to it once it’s dry. Long story short, if you’re printing miniatures, I highly recommend the beige. You’ll need to prime it with something after doing the rough support removal, so you can see what needs some final touch up of course, since it’s not easy to see on white.

Here is my thread on the AppliedLabWorks resin, with a few photos of some prints

Only issue now is… Olive Grey or Bieg??? I’ve been using the FL Grey right along and as I include my parts in kits I’d kind of like to stay with that color or close to it. I also do cast resin and add colorant to give it a brown look. That way it’s easy to tell if a part is 3D printed or cast. I’m slowly moving away from the casting. Fact is I sold off my white metal spin casting unit six months ago.

0.050" support points are pretty large. I generally use 0.4mm which is roughly 0.016" for Grey and I never have issues with them.

Correct, I’m too use to working in inches. I meant .050 MM

I ran a small part last night with Apply Lab Work modeling plus resin. The material comes off the machine with a translucent green color. Parts are hard but can flex a bit without breaking. Haven’t impact tested the part yet.

Side note, I dumped the resin into an empty clear V2 cartridge and printed on that profile without any issues. Build tray filled properly (maybe a touch over the line) and the material dispensed from the cartridge properly.

there is a bit of a glue smell to this material. If you’re the “I don’t like smells” kind you’ll want to have the machine in a ventilated area.

1 Like

Great to know Fred thanks I have the flexible resin on the way and the modeling plus olive green. Ill be putting it in my 1L of clear once it runs out

FredB, Is that the same as the Olive-Grey? That’s what I just purchased.

I’d like the color a bit darker so I was wondering about adding some Smooth-On Oh So Strong colorant. I thought maybe a couple of drops to a tray would be enough to darken it some. Also, use Grey V3 right now with good results but I’m guessing that those empty cartridge won’t work with the Model Plus Olive-Grey.

Yes olive grey is modeling plus.

If you’re going to add colorant of any kind the Grey V3 cartridge may be the way to go. Adding pigment requires more power so grey might be fine. I like to try small parts without modification first and go from there.

One thing I noticed is that the modeling plus does not have the same photo inhibitor as we normally see. Most resins glow under uv light but this stuff doesn’t. Not a big deal, just different from other resins that I’ve seen.

Very thin sections do come out a bit brittle. Anything at or above 3mm is pretty tough though.

Well, I initially got some great prints off my F1+ with the ALW Modeling Plus olive grey resin. But I was actually surprised the F1+ worked at all. It’s been sitting idle for probably better than a year, and it seemed to need the mirrors cleaned about every 6 months when I was using it regularly. But I fired it up and the prints came out great. Until about my 5th print. I figured it was mirror hazing finally getting past the critical level (based on past experience, the printer usually printed just fine on the print just before the one where it didn’t print well at all. No slow degradation in print quality, just all or nothing). Tried the easy fix of cleaning the primary mirror since I can reach it without taking the printer apart. That improved things a bit, but the printer didn’t recover to “normal”. That means I need to take it apart to get the galvo mirrors. So experimenting with ALW on the F1+ has ground to a halt pending the time/motivation to bust the case open. And much to my chagrin, I’m out of F2 resin tanks so I can’t try it there unless I want to use an already-used tank.

So my preliminary assessment is still positive but I have not been able to complete my testing.

I would note that the ALW resins are spec’d for resin profiles that are still supported by the F1+. So for example, if you’re looking for Tough for your F1+ and you can’t find any because all FL sells now is V4, I would recommend taking a look at ALW’s Modeling Plus resin because it wants V1.

Before my printer went “south”, the first 4 sets of prints I ran came out every bit as good as a Tough print would… meaning they came out great.

Can you print at the full range of layers .25–2 with the beige as you can with the clear 02?
Is detail any less with the modeling+ compared to the beige?

On the F1+, the correct profile for the ALW beige is White V1, and I’ve printed with all 3 settings, 0.025,0.05 and 0.1mm and they all come out great. I couldn’t find any difference between the 0.025mm and 0.05mm, although there is a slight difference between that and the 0.1mm.

So for the really small stuff I’ve been printing lately, like the Warhammer miniatures, I’m printing them at 0.05mm, everything else is 0.1mm

I just ordered a couple more bottles the other day, so I now have another beige as well as the Modelling Plus, Olive Gray, but I haven’t tested the grey yet.

On a side note, I’m sure most of you have noticed the little sticker with the batch number. On both the original beige bottle and the new one the batch # is FD13, the olive gray is FD12.1.

Is that number representative of the batch date? How do we know the expiration date of this resin? I suppose we ca write down the date we got it, but that doesn’t tell us when it was actually made. Does this resin have the same shelf life like FormLabs resin?

I think these are questions that should be answered by Kevin @ ApplyLabWorks.

I only have Grey V3 empty cartridges so I guess I have to go it with Open Mode. Don’t think that will be a big issue. Things is I’ve only used the Grey the entire time I’ve had the Form 2. Going to be hard to switch.:grin:

1 Like

Those printed at 50 look good.
Has anyone printed the model+ at 25? Most of my prints are used as masters and they have tiny text details and need to be durable. I have been sticking with the clear 02 but find it difficult to see when clean them up. I found the gray to be too brittle for my purpose.

If you have a grey V3 cartridge give it a try. Might work just fine.

I tried mine with a small 45 minute print and watched it like a hawk with the clear 02 cartridge.

Fred do you think I should give the grey v3 cartridge a shot with the olive? I have some that on the way from ALW also have some of their flexible on the way. I think I’m the first on the forum to dive into that huh?