Sunlu ABS-Like Resin Review

 7.9/10

Sunlu’s ABS-like resin offers a great balance of print quality, durability, and affordability. In fact, it is one of the most balanced resins we have reviewed, making it a great all-rounder resin. We think that tabletop gamers looking for a great general-purpose resin that offers great detail reproduction, coupled with a good level of durability that can take the rigors of spirited gaming, would be the ideal audience for it. Again, we do want to highlight that the black color of our review resin did contaminate our IPA wash more than most other colors, so we highly recommend users pick the gray color if they are conscious of increasing the longevity of their IPA wash.

 7.9/10

Manufacturer: Sunlu

The Pros

The Cons

Paul Chow

Co-Founder & CTO

Published on September 9, 2023

Amazon.com Disclosure: As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE: PLEASE READ BEFORE PROCEEDING
This review features the 3D printer, which has been kindly provided to us by the manufacturer for the purpose of this review. While the manufacturer has supported us by supplying the printer, they have not influenced the content of this review in any way. Our assessments and observations are entirely our own, and we have conducted our usual thorough testing to ensure we provide an accurate evaluation of the product. At 3DGearZone, we are committed to transparency and honesty, ensuring that our audience can trust the content we produce.

There are several manufacturers of 3D printer resin, and Sunlu is among the family of overseas FDM and resin ones. Like many in the industry, Sunlu offers a large variety of resins that are tailored for both consumers and professionals. Sunlu’s ABS-like resin is one of the durability-focused resins in their consumer line. The company markets this resin as “durable like ABS plastic” but retains its ability to deliver excellent print quality, ease of use, and affordability, just like their other consumer-grade resins.

Still, there are several other resin manufacturers who offer very similar products. So, can Sunlu separate itself from the rest? In this 3D printer resin review, we will analyze its durability, printability, ease of use, detailed reproduction, and more to let you know if this is the right 3D printer resin for your needs.

79

Overall Score

Learn more about our resin review methodology.

Price and Availability

Sunlu’s ABS-like resin comes with a price tag of $33.99/L when purchased directly from their website. This price slightly exceeds the typical $30/L rate commonly found among competitors and retailers. Sunlu’s resin is conveniently also stocked by domestic retailers like Amazon. Still, if you’re patient enough to wait for international shipping, Sunlu offers bulk purchase options that can significantly reduce the overall cost, making it considerably more affordable than the asking price.

Packaging

Packaging resins is usually an afterthought for both manufacturers and consumers. The majority of manufacturers make use of smooth cylindrical bottles, which are economical to produce and ship. However, Sunlu opted to use rectangular bottles with grippy ridges on the side. This greatly improved the product’s overall handling and ease of storage, which we greatly appreciated.

Additionally, Sunlu makes use of colorful cardboard packaging and generous amounts of bubble wrap. We also loved the fact that Sunlu packages each bottle of resin with a pair of disposable gloves, which we can never seem to have enough of.

Ease of Use

Sunlu provides a helpful datasheet that contains specifications and recommended printing conditions for their ABS-like resin. Following their guidance, we preheated the resin for 10 minutes on a spare FDM heated bed since our office was cooler than the recommended 25c. This warming process made the resin more viscous, indicating it was in an ideal state for printing.

Overall, we found that while Sunlu’s ABS-like resin isn’t “dump and print” like their standard resin, it took just a little bit of effort to make sure it was printing-ready.

Smell

Sunlu’s ABS-like resin does exhibit a relatively putrid odor, which is common for most ABS-like resin found on the market. Our test printer does have an activated charcoal filter that eliminates the smell while the printer is not running. Still, our review team did notice a slight smell when the printer was active. Users thinking of using Sunlu’s ABS-like resin should ensure that they are in a well-ventilated area.

Cleanup & Post Processing

Sunlu’s ABS-like resin requires an average amount of post-processing before resin prints are fully cured and safe to handle.

All UV resins on the market require post-processing after the printing process has been completed. Sunlu’s ABS-like resin requires the use of a solvent like an isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as the first clean up step. Thus, when reviewing this resin, we used a fresh batch of IPA with an ultrasonic cleaner to ensure that our test prints were fully cleaned.

We found that Sunlu’s ABS-like resin requires a single five-minute cleaning cycle in our ultrasonic cleaner to remove any uncured resin. We do want to point out that the black color of the review resin contaminated our IPA far more than the gray color of our other review resins. We suspect this would affect the longevity of our IPA and increase the overall cost of using this resin.

The second step in resin post-processing is to use another UV light source to fully cure the resin print. In our review, we used a 60-watt UV lamp to ensure our test prints are fully cured and safe to handle. The Sunlu ABS-like resin only required four minutes of UV exposure to remove any tackiness felt and fully harden our test prints.

Detail Reproduction

While Sunlu emphasizes the durability of their ABS-like resin, it’s important to note that many users primarily rely on resin printers for their exceptional ability to capture intricate details. Resin printers are commonly used for crafting miniatures, tabletop gaming pieces, jewelry, and even dental work, where precision in minute details is paramount. Our test prints aim to reflect the minute details that these users demand from resin printers.

We used a large variety of test prints, such as a 28mm tabletop miniature, an extremely detailed dragon bust, and a large house model. In all of these test cases, Sunlu’s ABS-like resin effortlessly reproduced all the details in these models. We were very impressed with the overall detailed reproduction ability of the ABS-like resin and found it on par with all other standard resins that we reviewed, with the added benefit of feeling more durable thanks to its ABS-like quality.

It should be noted that our black-colored review resin did make it harder to see the details without the aid of a lamp. This would not be an issue if users are planning to paint the models, but if users are planning to show off unpainted prints using Sunlu’s ABS-like resin, we recommend using their gray color, which highlights details better.

Durability

To test how durable Sunlu’s black ABS-like resin was, we printed nine of the 28mm miniatures, divided them into three groups, and dropped them at three different heights: 60cm, 100cm, and 150cm. These represent different heights, such as a coffee table, a tabletop gaming table or a 3D printing workbench, and a wall shelf in which resin-printed models typically find themselves. These models are the very “worst-case scenario” for any ABS-like resin, with fragile details such as blades, ankles, and beaks.

At 60cm, no model suffered any damage from the drop. At 90cm, one model’s knife snapped while another’s knife started to bend. At 150cm, another model suffered a snapped ankle. While it sounds like a bad case, Sunlu’s ABS-like still has better durability than many other standard resins found across multiple manufacturers.

Flexibility

We used a thin wizard staff model to test the flexibility of Sunlu’s ABS-like resin. In many cases, having some flexibility is desirable, as it enhances their durability and simplifies the assembly of multi-part resin prints. When we tested Sunlu’s ABS-like resin, we found that the resin had some flex, allowing the staff to bend somewhat. This gave us confidence in its durability.

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Paul Chow

Paul’s been prop making since 2012 and has garnered an extensive experience in woodworking, CNC machining, 3D modelling and printing experience. Getting his first 3D printer in 2016, he dove deep into the world of 3D printer building, repair, upgrading and tinkering. He has built, tested and upgraded dozens of printers ranging from large & small, resin or FDM and ready to print fully custom builds.

Sunlu ABS-Like Resin Review

The Pros

The Cons

79

Price and Availability

Packaging

Ease of Use

Smell

Cleanup & Post Processing

Detail Reproduction

Durability

Flexibility

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