Hello all,

3D printing is something that caught my attention recently. Mostly because being able to turn digital models into real world objects (cheaply and easily) was always something thought to be something found in sci-fi movies than something I could do with a device that would one day stands next to my (paper) printer.

Some people may be aware of filament 3D printers with a small wire and a heated nozzle melting layers after layers on top of each other. But the quality isn't breathtaking especially for small details.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqQAjkZOBeY

But with resin printing, the details are really amazing (< or equal to 50 microns). The way the printer achieves this works is by using a plate that dips into a vat containing a specially formulated liquid. This liquid turns solid when exposed to near-UV light. To "print" an image, a light go through a screen (similar to the one of a cellphone) and whatever pixel is "ON" under the resin, that part turn solid. Then the plate lift to print the next layer. The sum of all those layers results in the desired 3D object. In other words, the plate is literally pulling out a 3D object from the vat.

So if you have seen movies of object being pulled out of liquid metal (I'm pretty sure this was a scene in one of the many Terminator movies), this is more or less the same thing, except much slower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A48FIr5Onbo


So with that ingenious technology, I printed myself an articulated dragon.
Guarding an old CD to show its size:
http://www.dragnix.net/Msg_Board/2022/A ... ragon2.jpg
Being upset at me after I took back the said CD.
http://www.dragnix.net/Msg_Board/2022/A ... ragon1.jpg
http://www.dragnix.net/Msg_Board/2022/A ... ragon3.jpg

Note that the picture doesn't give it justice (I am a terrible photographer), because the eyes are better than they appear on these pictures and they have a lot of small details in the iris and have a finishing high gloss paint coat to make these eyes look really great.

...
...

Of course, some people have push back the boundaries to the limits:
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/com ... he_result/
(Horus and Anubis guards animated helmet)

Noice.

I have a 3D printer. It's... still unassembled eight years after I got it.

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Formerly DragonRider. Almost teenage me could have been more imaginative with names.