I find myself in-between at the moment. I have more experience with resin printers, but I started with a cheap resin printer and a cheap FDM printer. I had a stellar accident with my resin printer this week – I forgot to bolt down the tray, which got hoisted up and hooked over the build plate, spilling lots of resin everywhere. This particular printer (which will not be named), has a big hole, without a raised edge for the arm that supports the build plate. Of course some of the resin ended up inside the printer. I cleaned what I could see, and even opened the printer to clean inside, but it was insufficient – the build arm froze on the next print. Currently it’s broken into pieces and sitting under a fluorescent light attempting to harden everything. When it’s hard, I will disassemble further and attempt to chip all the resin out.

In the mean time, my only fall back is the cheap FDM printer, which has never worked well. I bought cheap printers to experiment with. While I’ve just effed up badly, I know a lot more about what I need in a printer. I’ve ordered a larger scale resin printer (Elegoo Jupiter) and have had my eye on Bamboo for FDM. Why both? Each has advantages and disadvantages. Resin handling is a PITA, and fiber has a lot of variety (and easier cleanup).

I haven’t upgraded the fiber printer yet. I intend to, but I’d like to recover from this disaster first. ;-)