Resin Printer Not From China?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.ch⁩ to ⁨3dprinting@lemmy.world⁩

Hi everyone. I’m looking into my first 3D printer and would like a resin one for the great detail it can produce. I’m looking for companies that make respected machines that aren’t out of China. I know of Prusa but their resin printer is incredibly expensive for me and a beginner.

As a second note, I would love to support a USA company as a first choice if available and like the software and firmware to be open source. I’m happy to have found PrusaSlicer with UVtools so there’s one less Chinese/semi proprietary/subscription based software.

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Comments

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FuglyDuck@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It’s important to note, here, that even if you buy a printer from an EU or US company… … it’s much more likely they bought their parts from china.

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- nyan@lemmy.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Inevitable, I think, if you go down through all the levels—aren’t some basic electronic components made only in China these days?
  
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  - moody@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    That depends on your opinion of the Taiwan situation. Taiwan is a big producer of chips and electronic components, and lots of electronics in general are made there.
    
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- sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I realize that that’s likely but hopefully there are still decent alternatives
  
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Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The exact reason I prefer to avoid things made in China is the same as the reason their stuff is so affordable. Principled stances are rarely convenient.

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- sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I would have been willing to spend about one thousand on a printer like the Prusa Mk4 is but then I saw their resin printer is more expensive unfortunately.
  
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baked_tea@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
This popped up in my feed and I’m not in the 3d printer field but generally you either get super expensive anything made in EU; super duper expensive made in US or cheap/ reasonable price from China.

Most of the stuff you will ever buy comes from China its not like they only make unreliable stuff. They can make them good as well, it depends on the final company to decide if they get cheap stuff from China or OK stuff from China

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- rikudou@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Prusa has some cheap printers made in EU as well, though not the resin ones OP is asking for.
  
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  - rambos@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    They do have resin printer, but its obviously too expensive to OP
    
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rambos@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I dont have any model to recommend, but keep in mind that you might also need curing and cleaning station, proper ventilation, mask, gloves etc.

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- sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Thank you. I’ll definitely be getting those things too. Another reason why a multi-thousand dollar printer is too expensive
  
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  - kale@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Even with moderate usage, no joke, I’d recommend getting a flammables cabinet to store IPA. At the end of every weekend, I drain our washing station back into two three liter jugs and put them in the flammables cabinet. They’re stored correctly, the cabinet prevents light from reaching the jugs, and it settles over the weekend. On Monday I carefully pour the top portion into the auto washer and top it off with new IPA. The settled layer gets poured into the waste container.
    
    We have two printers at work, one wash station and one cure station. And we have 8x jugs of IPA in our flammables cabinet.
    
    Before we started settling in the cabinet and decanting our wash solution, we went through an incredible amount of IPA that we had to deal with as waste. And this is from two SLA printers, which we use in addition to our Prusa MK3 and SLS nylon printers, so we don’t always use the resin printers.
    
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Mok98@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
For your first printer I’d actually advise for buying a used one: it’s cheaper and you wouldn’t support a chinese manufacturer even if you bought one of their printers

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- snota@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  This is my course of action with anything I buy.
  
  Is there an ethical source
  
  Is there a second hand source
  
  Is there a EU company that may source the manufacture in China
  
  Rarely, buy the Chinese one
  
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- Jode@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Came here to say this. Also you have a better chance of buying a known working/“dialed in” product.
  
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HootinNHollerin@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
For FDM, anyone got a decent alternative to bambu lab x1c without the china cloud?

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- Lordran_Hollow@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Is this your first printer you’ve ever had?
  
  If so I’d suggest getting one that has auto bed leveling, not having to worry about that is a very nice feature.
  
  Prusa is kind of the reigning king of “it just works,” but they tend to be expensive. I myself have a Prusa MK4, but I wouldn’t really recommend that for a beginner due to the price, only reason I got it for my first personal printer is we use two MK3’s at the lab I worked at and I wanted something similar as that’s what I’m used to.
  
  If you do decide to go with Prusa I’d look at the Mini (I’ve heard though that the Mini will benefit if you print a custom brace for it). The MK3 also got a pretty decent price drop with the release of the MK4, so that’s something to consider as well.
  
  But otherwise I think Creality released a couple of new printers that aren’t too bad on price.
  
  Given that you specifically mentioned the X1C, are you trying to do multi-colored prints or just want something fast?
  
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  - thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Prusa is King for real. My Mk3 is fantastic. I wouldn’t second guess another purchase from them and it would be the first place I look for my next device.
    
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  - HootinNHollerin@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    No I’m a mechanical engineer and this is for work. Employer doesn’t allow the potential security risk.
    
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oktux@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
FormLabs, but they start at $2500.

formlabs.com/3d-printers/catalog/

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terawatt@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Have you considered EPax? They sometimes offer refurbs at price points that may fit your budget.

Not sure if all their components are US sourced, but they are US based and offer real customer support.

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- sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I just did a brief look at Epax and it looks like something I might be very interested in. The full price E10 8k is potentially a doable price point but they also sell a refurbished E10 8k for a great price. They are also supported on UVtools. I just have to do a little more research but they look promising.
  
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- sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I have not heard of this company but I’ll be looking into them now. Thank you very much
  
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felykiosa@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Athéna make printer in US and EU but these are not cheap

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- sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Thanks for the lead. I’ll check them out
  
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Cringe2793@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Genuinely, why do y’all hate China printers? I mean, I’m not a big fan of China and their policies as well, but this “I don’t want China products” seems mildly racist to me.

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- sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  From my understanding anyone in China has to comply with their tyrannical government. Based on that and knowing how China has already been spying on other countries (think TikTok for one example), I really don’t want something technological in my house which is made in China. It’s not based in racism. I’m looking at facts of how a particular government chooses to conduct itself. I’m choosing not to allow myself to be potentially surveillaled when I have the ability to easily prevent it.
  
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  - Cringe2793@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Fair enough. But their products can be flashed with open spurce firmware, like klipper and marlin. That should remove any spying that would happen.
    
    Of course, if you’re worried about spying, don’t get the closed source stuff like bambu or whatever, but there are those where you can just flash a new firmware on it.
    
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jagoan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

I know of Prusa but their resin printer is incredibly expensive for me and a beginner.

“Not China” and cheap are very unlikely to go together. You’ll never get anything once you’ve compared price to the Chinese alternative. Wishing for a Prusa but at Chinese pricepoint, that’s never gonna happen.

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- sic_semper_tyrannis@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Epax is a non Chinese brand (USA) that still isn’t as expensive as Prusa and from what I have learned is that it’s a good company with a good product. I’m not necessarily looking for something cheap, just not extremely expensive to me. I don’t want a Chinese based company’s product with lots of technology having access to my network in my house.
  
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