Is it the month for crazy 3D printing gadgets?
I’ve bumped into yet another weird accessory designed for 3D printers: the SwiftBuilder MKII Resin Vacuum by UFM Design.
A vacuum for resin? Yes, indeed! The purpose is to slurp up leftover resin left in the vat after printing completes. When the operator changes resins in a desktop resin 3D printer, the tank must be completely drained to avoid mixing with the next resin.
The resin vacuum does this by literally vacuuming up the resin, leaving a mostly clear resin tank. I have a suspicion it actually “slurps”.
The collected resin is supposed to stay in resin jugs that attach to the front of the vacuum. After vacuuming you detach the jug from the vacuum, and attach a “bottom” to the jug. It would be a good idea to label the resin for future use.
The jugs have a capacity of 200ml, or about 20% of a typical 1L bottle. This should be sufficient to clean out most resin tanks, as resin would usually be mostly printed before a change is required. They say the vacuum can collect this resin in about two minutes.
It’s not clear, but it appears in the product images that the bottles are open to the air? They seem to have the same top as used when vacuuming, which is open. This introduces a risk of spills if you tip one over. Even worse, you might tip over a whole row at once. Hold on, in the fine print they say that the bottles are “sealed”. However, it’s unclear how that is done since they look the same when stored or when vacuuming.
I’m a bit skeptical about this product, as most people won’t require it. It is a simple matter to tip the tank’s resin into its original bottle — using a coffee filter to clean out debris. The remaining resin can be pushed out with the spatula that comes with every resin 3D printer.
The risk of the manual procedure is that you can get drips on the workstation, printer or yourself, and that’s not good. However, you do not get drips if you are careful to follow a proper procedure.
I then looked at the pricing for the vacuum, and found that the base system, including two bottles, is US$138. A three-pack of extra bottles, which would very likely be necessary, costs US$45. A five-bottle bundle is US$183. In other words, you would be paying nearly US$200 for this vacuum system.
The cost benefit analysis is as follows: would you pay US$200 to avoid some drips that you should be able to avoid by using a careful procedure? Is that worth US$200?
For the sloppy people among us, perhaps.
Via UFM Design
