SLA 3D printing

[JohnCoker]

Anyone tried out stereolithography (SLA) 3D printers? There's now an enthusiast SLA printer from Formlabs.

The build volume is small, but the detail and surface finish are excellent so I could see this being useful for model rocket scale parts.

 

[caveduck]

We have a Formlabs SLA printer at work in one of our idea labs. One of our interns that was working on some electronics housings showed me identical parts printed on the SLA and on a regular filament fusing printer. The SLA part was insanely better. Surface smoothness was near to a filament part after acetone vapor treatment.

 

[JohnCoker]

Yeah, that's the impression I get too (although I haven't seen actual parts, only photos). Both SLA and FDM parts have poor mechanical properties, but it at least it seems like SLA parts have good detail and surface finish which make them more attractive for scale model rocket parts.