My printer comes as an industrial package with full support and development and whilst it doesn’t preclude the use of 3rd party resins I haven’t felt the need to use them. One of the things they have done for me is to print samples of items in other resins to explore the properties without having to make the investment in setting the machine up for the different resins.? I would add that setting it up for a new resin isn’t hard but it comes with a cost of the new resin and a new tray and as the trays last 4 or 5 resin cartridges you need to know the resin is one you want to use.
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One way you may see this soon is in a chassis idea that is being developed with their help. At the moment I am printing everything in their bog standard grey but this chassis may see the main block printed in an engineering resin trading detail for strength, rigidity and a small drop in detail but then with, say, the cylinder block, firebox/ashpan printed in the more brittle but high detail grey resin. There is even a printable version of Delrin so there may yet be printed bearings.
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Also, my machine connects to them (and me) via the internet and so gets any updates in the profiles for each resin to optimise the quality of the print. An interesting new feature in the latest software is a variable layer thickness. ?When I got the machine, you selected the layer resolution at the start. You might think finer the better but finer = slower and it’s just not necessary for many parts but the latest (trial only at the moment) version has adaptive layer thickness so the machine/software dynamically alters the layer thickness, fiddly bits done on fine, fine blocks done less so with a considerable time saving.
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The machine comes with its own program, slicer as you’d call it, which does a lot of the clever stuff setting optimised print angles, layouts and layers. The software is very capable, and I have sussed out how to do most things with it but am still learning the secrets it has at the edges.
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In short, I am happy with my machine, the support, the material and the software. It has proved more than once so far that the limitation is me.
This has rather got away from track but on that subject the goal I set myself was ready to use track with the convenience of Peco. If it becomes a commercial prospect remains to be seen but I no have something i can use on my layout.? I will keep exploring but its going to pause for a few days now as we have a show on Saturday in Reading, I wagon bashing at Beamish on Sunday and then one money earning tasks next week
Cheers for now
Paul
Paul Martin