Madness Or Genius? FDM Printing With Resin

We aren’t sure what made him think of it, but [Proper Printing] Decided to have an FDM Printer lay down resin, instead of filament. Why? We still aren’t sure, but we admire the effort nonetheless. In principle, extruding resin shouldn’t be much different than other liquid things you print like icing or concrete. Then you’d need to UV-cure the viscous liquid quickly. The result was a paste-like material made with several chemicals and a mixture of fillers.

With the paste, the biggest obstacles seem to be gone. The printer now has two laser head that focus on the print area instead of cooling fans. Although printing in vase mode can avoid some problems, the first few attempts at this method were unsuccessful.

With a bit of perseverance, the setup did work — for a while. You can fine tune the setup to get acceptable results. But he changed the filler material, and he was able to print a Passable Benchy. Although not something to be proud, it was easily recognisable. Honestly, we were surprised that the laser’s didn’t cure the material still inside the nozzle and cause terrible clogs.

Why do you bother so much? We don’t have any idea. Do you want to try it? Most likely not. It is possible to print a paste, but that has its own merits. For example, delivering glue or solder paste. But you generally won’t need to make tall prints with that kind of material. Then again, we’ve never been opposed to doing something “just because.”

It’s not like a Game Boy can be used to make a musical instrument. Why not make a modm out of tin cans! It is possible to extrude resin.