Hi everyone,

recently, my brother asked me to print some tabletop miniatures for him on my Prusa MK4S. I know miniatures are most commonly printed with SLA printers, but I found some workable advice and so far my first attempts look decent enough.

However, I noticed most models I find are optimized for SLA printing or at least not optimal for printing with FDM due to difficult forms such as sloping and cavities that are hard to support. Also, I mainly print construction and replacement parts and would like to avoid swapping nozzles often. So I started researching SLA printers.

Owning a Prusa printer and liking it very much, I first looked at their SL1S and fell over backwards when I saw the price tag. Having owned an Ender 3 by Creality before, I checked their offers, which are a lot more budget friendly. However, on the other hand, having owned an Ender 3 I know that you get what you pay for: The bare minimum.

Therefore, my main question is: What is a good starter model for printing miniatures using SLA?

My follow-up question is regarding slicing software. I remember reading a couple of years back that SLA printers have no universal format like gcode and therefore slicing software compatibility is a bit of an issue. Is this still the case?

  • eyes@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Elegoo’s Saturn 3 is pretty budget friendly and decent quality in my experience. I’ve owned an original Mars and a Saturn 3 and I’ve been happy with both.