I did a fun thing as a joke for a friend…I made a rubber chicken pendant that I cast, then blew it up to the max size on the printer and hollowed it out to make a larger rubber chicken in order to make a mold for an actual rubber chicken. Haven’t gotten around to making the mold yet, but the larger model earned a good laugh at the Christmas party. It was actually the first non-jewelry print I’d made, and I was really impressed with the surface detail.
If you’re making small models, SLA is definitely the way to go. Here are some of the things I considered when I stumbled across the Form 2:
- Maximum print size…many SLA printers—particularly the DLP versions—had REALLY small build platforms. One I saw was only about 1.5" by 2.5"!
- Variety of resins available and could I use third-party resins (FL allows in Open Mode).
- Did it require a dedicated computer while printing? Was it wifi enabled? (for me, was it Mac-compatible?)
- Did it require a separate DLP projector? One brand I considered required you to purchase a separate DLP printer, which also required a dedicated computer to run it.
- Did the printer company also make the slicing software?
Everybody plays funny games with regards to resolution, so I found that really hard to compare. I found this article recently when I was talking to a friend about resolution: https://formlabs.com/blog/3d-printer-resolution-meaning/
Also, if you’re printing small models and you haven’t seen this guy’s work, this is one of my favorites. The tracks on his tank were printed as an interlocked model…impressive stuff.
http://forum.formlabs.com/t/t-rex-skull-war-tank/15705