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Comment by wincy | Hacker News Reader

Minor point of clarification, SLA, or stereolithography, is resin printing. I use it to make super high detail D&D minis. It uses liquid UV sensitive resin and some way of masking the resin to print (like an LCD screen).

The printer type that uses filament, and that most people associate with a “regular” 3D printer is of type FDM, or fused deposition modeling. FDM printers can use the wood filament, although it’s kind of a pain from what I’ve heard because the wood can wear down the extrusion nozzle.

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Yeah sorry there was supposed to be an “or” between “SLA” and “filament based”, but I’ll leave it unedited so your comment still makes sense.

I have a few FDM printers and have used wood filament and quite like it, it has a nice effect. It supposedly does wear down the nozzle like you said but I haven’t noticed anything yet (though I’ve only used one roll sporadically so far).

What is your SLA setup like? I don't have a good workspace so I've been printing outside in a cardboard box (to avoid the deadly rays), and thinking about building a proper fume extractor to run in an extra bedroom.

I keep the SLA printer, my Phrozen Sonic Mini 4K, on a table in an unused room at the back of the house. I keep it out of direct sunlight from the window, as I ruined a print when the sun shone in, which wasn’t a problem until winter ended. Our house is pretty big but even still if I leave the door open my wife will complain about the smell.

I also run a space heater in that room at the 85F setting, which I’ve found helps keep the prints more consistent. The viscosity of the resin is reduced by the higher temperature.

I’ve been having a hard time finding good, affordable resin, i tried Matterhackers resin which was a disaster, I could never dial in the settings. Yousu resin worked really well and it’s $26 per liter with free shipping, but my second order I placed a month ago still hasn’t even shipped. Elegoo is consistently good but I end up paying $13 more per liter with tax which is frustrating.

Both 3D printers are running pretty much 24/7 to crank out Dungeons and Dragons miniatures and terrain for the game I’m running. I quit video games last year and found a new, more tangible obsession. I’m really excited about Apple coming out with really amazing AR glasses in the next few years that will revolutionize tabletop gaming.

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