I was sent some resin from those kind folk over at eSun to test and review on my Longer 3D Orange 10 resin 3D printer. I was sent an Orange, Light Green and a Red colour.
Esun Packaging
I was very impressed when I received the eSun resin. Firstly, shipped via Amazon in your usual cardboard box, the resin bottles were individually wrapped up in some hardcore bubble wrap! Covering the full length of the 1litre containers as well as the cap. A good start!
Secondly, upon taking the eSun resin bottles out, they are made from metal! Heavy duty with no chance of breaking these. The caps are sturdy and have reliable seals on them. After taking off the cap, there is an additional stopper to avoid any spillage of resin. Great! The label on the bottle shows the size and colour. In addition to this, it gives you warnings when it comes to using eSun resin.
Parameters of the resin
Resin consistency & smell…
The pour of the eSun resin is quite pleasant in a strange way. It’s not too thick or gloopy. However, it does look a bit watery up close. I thought this would have been a worry, but fear not! There is a faint odour to the resin, but most importantly, not strong enough to put you off.
What did I print?
Some of the prints I have completed, I wanted to include some detailed models as well as some basic to kind of gauge an idea on how well it performs.
The first print I did was the Freddy Mercury Cartoon created by Zsculptors. This came out exceptionally well! I stuck with the necessary settings on the Orange 10 and no changes to the resin recipe either. I generated the supports automatically and placed others where they were needed (Using Chitubox), but with resin printing, some nubs were still present. The resin is natural to sand to a smooth finish, so therefore, painting of the model will be required.
Layer lines on this model are not visible, but you know they are there if you look up close. However, the painting should cover this. I am pleased with how this came out.
Let’s go red…
Switching over to the red eSun resin, I wanted to do something with a bit more complicated. Here is the Hollow Draudi found on Thingiverse. Up close you can see the layer lines (printed at 50um), but the fact it was able to achieve this print astounds me!
As this print is quite thin, the colour is not as dark, so I printed the Zombie Hunter Head that came on the SD card for the Orange 10.
Again, visible layer lines, mostly on the flat surfaces, but is this due to the printer or the resin? However, detail is still fantastic!
Let’s try some rings! Found on Thingiverse, these printed quickly…I printed these at 25um to see if I can get finer detail, but again, visible layer lines. Not the best finish on these as I did use a kitchen towel to dry off the IPA, of which does leave bits on the print! The good thing with resin I have found so far is that it is easy to sand and smooth away these layer lines in preparation for painting.
Time for Esun Orange!
The final colour to try in Orange. I chose to print the Crown Ring by FP-Creator on Thingiverse due to its small intricate detail.
Again, great detail and this printed great! Up close, you can see the layer lines again but from afar, not so much.
My final print is of the T-Rex skull by Makerbot. I used Longerware to slice and set supports for this one, and I used the 25um setting, in the hope of getting much more exceptional detail like before. However, to me, it looks the same as the previous prints when it comes to the layer lines. A tad disappointing if I’m honest!
I imagine what I will need to do is test this resin on another printer to see if I get the same results. If and when I get round to this, I will update the article. I just need another resin printer (Any offers!?) Overall, I am pleased with this result.
Esun Price and what other colours are available?
The price of the eSun resin is on the high side I feel. 1 litre of resin is just shy of £50. Hopefully, the price will come down over time as more people take up resin printing. It comes available in a multitude of colours as per below. Just go to their Amazon store and choose.
Conclusion
To sum up, eSun resin is very easy to work with. The wide range of colours available means it is useful for many applications. The finish on the models is excellent. However, visible layer lines is a little disappointing to see. It could be down to my printer, but this is something for me to investigate further.
Aside from this, the detail is excellent. Many factors can affect the finish, such as post-cleaning, curing of the model and even your print settings. More playing will be needed with this resin to get optimal results, but I am confident this can be done with some fine-tuning. The bottle that the adhesive comes in is the winner here I feel, however, that is probably why this is of the higher price range.
Check out my review of the Longer3D Orange 10! Alternatively, if you’re after a resin 3D printer, check out this excellent deal by MyMiniFactory!
An easy to work wth resin that comes packaged very, very well! Metal bottles...who'd have thought it! A good variety of colours too. It's a shame about the visible layer lines, but like I have said, this could be down to the slicer settings so more tweaking is needed. Definately worth a try!
Morten
FYI, your printer has an X/Y resolution of 115*115 μm, so no matter what your Z resolution is, you’re printing at a slice resolution almost six times lower than that of the entry-level Photon and Mars printers (about 47×47 μm). No wonder you’re able to see the voxels (3D pixels) without any magnification.