Over the past two years many resin-based personal 3D printers emerged, but their costs have been prohibitively high for many people. The Sedgwick 3D DLP printer hopes to change that.
The Sedgwick is touted as a low-cost DLP personal 3D printer, offering high resolution output that should exceed what comes out of most plastic extrusion 3D printers. Most assembled resin-based 3D printers today do this, but they’re priced high: many are USD$2,000 or even USD$3,000 or more. For those on a budget, they’re not an option.
But the Sedgwick could be: it’s Kickstarter price is only USD$904 for a complete kit. You can even obtain a kit for as low as USD$524 if you can supply your own DLP projector. However, these are kits that you’ll have to assemble yourself. You can get a fully assembled Sedgwick for USD$1,379 if you’re not up for a printer build.
Does the Sedgwick match up with its higher-priced cousins? Kinda. Like most resin printers, the build volume is small compared to plastic-extrusion machines, only 77 x 77 x 50 mm for their small “vat”, 77 x 77 x 128 mm for the medium vat, and 102 x 77 x 127 mm for the large vat.
Resolution is not as good as the higher-priced resin machines. Sedgwick specs indicate a precision of 0.1mm per layer (100 microns). This resolution is very good, but can actually be achieved by many plastic extrusion machines. We’re thinking that Sedgwick may profit from an accuracy upgrade, which theoretically could be done with software only.
There is an advantage to this resolution when combined with the DLP light engine approach, however. The printing is pretty fast. Since the DLP engine can solidify an entire layer simultaneously, printing proceeds quickly regardless of the complexity and model size of each layer. Sedgwick claims printing of 30mm per hour – and that includes a model occupying the full print volume.
Software has been custom-made for the Sedgwick. You’ll be able to use their “Flashpoint” system to slice models for DLP printing and control the print operations.
If you’re in the market for an inexpensive resin-based personal 3D printer, you might want to check out the Sedgwick.
Via Kickstarter
