It’s Review time! Bluecast X10 Castable
resin? Is it any good?
Hey guys,
A few months back Bluecast sent me their CR3A
resin to review and some might say I wasn’t
very kind…
“Bluecast’s Chromacure colour changing
process is chromocrap in my opinion.”
Y-es.
Well despite this, Bluecast were very brave
and sent me a bottle of their X10 to test
and review, and as I wanted to be as fair
to them as possible, I’ve been using it
for several weeks now.
So let’s get started…
Bluecast retailers do provide a link to useful
printing data, but of course not all printers
are listed… For this test I decided to use
an obscure, unknown printer – one you’ve
probably never heard of – the Elegoo Mars.
Well, I guess Bluecast haven’t heard of
it as they weren’t able to provide me with
any printing tips, and I wrote to them – more
than once.
Fortunately, I had a whole bottle of resin
to sacrifice to copious lost prints, and…
well hang on here…
Let me have a general gripe. This is aimed
at ALL resin manufacturers, not specifically
Bluecast. You guys presumably invest thousands
in product development. Surely it’s not
too much to ask that you all provide good
print information instead of letting your
customers figure it out ourselves, wasting
our time and money. Yes, there’s new printers
coming out all the time, but can’t you at
least give information for the popular brands?
If I made a resin, I’d want as many people
of possible to use it, so I’d list the print
settings for every popular printer out there
on my website.
Okay, gripe over.
After a few disappointing blobs produced through
lack of information – ahem – I guessed
at some settings to produce what must be the
best Amerilabs test print I have ever produced.
I mean, wow, it was great and my terrible
photography does not do it justice. It was
a truly excellent print and that had me expecting
great things from X10.
Pity that…
Anyway, the moment I moved on to doing a project,
it all went a bit wrong.
Firstly, adhesion. Prints do NOT like to stick.
Even my prime coat approach failed to produce
results. Fortunately, Bluecast did provide
me with their Primer, which is sold separately,
and this is an absolute must. Don’t buy
one without the other or you’ll have no
joy at all.
The primer is applied with just a few dots.
Spread this around evenly and thinly. I found
a metal scraper works best.
Unlike the CR3A, the X10 doesn’t require
medium to thick supports and sure enough I
found thin supports printed well.
After copious printer setting experiments,
I found generally that the uppermost face
printed great, the sides were mediocre and
the underside was rubbish. And after using
a complete bottle of X10, I can say that I’ve
not yet managed to rectify this. These are
the settings I’ve used on my Mars and there’s
something VERY important you need to note.
It is critical that the lift speed is slow,
particularly the bottom layers. This is essential
for this resin, regardless of the printer
you use.
It’s not necessary to cure the resin print
to cast it, and in its uncured state the supports
are nice and soft, clipping away easily without
tearing.
When it comes to sanding, curing is more ideal
as this firms up the print. And this resin
does produce a very obvious colour change
from blue to white.
The sides and bottom faces in particular needed
cleaning up and thankfully the prints sand
and shape very well. Of course, this wouldn’t
really be necessary if they printed better
in the first place.
When I reviewed the CR3A resin, I test printed
and cast a ring by a French jeweller friend
of mine Alexandre. As you can imagine, as
a professional, he produces some incredible
things and I’d urge you to visit his websites
to see what I mean.
Typical to his good nature, Alexandre let
me have another ring file to experiment with
as I made a pig’s ear of the last one he
sent me. Amazing isn’t it. What great talent
he has. I’m sorry, I can’t share this
print file. It’s purely for demonstration
purposes as the full rights to this ring lie
with Alexandre.
This was my best print to date using the settings
I’ve already shown you, but the undersides
are still a bit of a let-down.
I’ve been using silver a lot lately and,
well, I’ve run out. But as I still have
a huge ingot of silicone bronze, that will
have to do.
Hmmm… should have stuck with silver. Looks
like I need to experiment some more with silicone
bronze. Mine’s not a patch on the silver
jewellery made by Alexandre.
But again, don’t blame Bluecast X10 for
my poor result here because here’s the thing.
I really, REALLY like the way it casts. All
castable resins seem to claim to be 100% ash
free, but this is the first that I feel actually
is.
Using Bluecast I have produced what to me
is my best castings to date, and I honestly
mean that.
So when it comes to reviewing this product,
I’m genuinely torn…
It has a hard time adhering to the plate and
the use of the Primer is a must.
It’s light-weight and is happy on thin supports,
but I just can’t get it to print well on
all faces. It’s great in part, but in other
parts, it’s terrible.
But for casting, it’s the best I’ve used
so far.
I’d really like to believe that the fault
here lies with me - that I haven’t nailed
down the print settings correctly. But as
I’ve used the last drop of my X10, I’ll
never know. And that’s why I’m so annoyed
with all resin manufacturers for not giving
us the details we need. It’s called research
and development people – do it and keep
your customers happy.
I want so much to love this resin because
the casting results were great, but if I can’t
print with it, then what’s the point. And
if I need specialised printing skills, equipment
or experience, then it’s not for an amateur
like me.
I live in the hope that someone out there
has had better printing results and that they’ll
share their insight with us all.
So for now… my review ends in an open verdict.
If I could print perfectly with this resin,
I’d happily shout out loudly that it’s
the best resin I’ve ever cast with… but
for now, well, buy at your own risk based
on my findings. Maybe you’ll have better
printing luck.
I hope you enjoyed this review guys. Take
care and thanks for watching.
