My Prusa MK4 is now clearly better!

Which clear cover would you make yourself? FDM, resin or CNC? Oh, and check out our CNC Kitchen products at cnckitchen.store/ or at our resellers www.cnckitchen.com/reseller

On acrylic you can easily use flame, just don't overwork it. It's called flame polishing, gives pretty good results

For PETG and acrylic you can use a heat gun to slightly melt the surface to make is clearer.

For a tip on clear resin, I've seen that adding a couple drops of blue resin to your clear will really help counteract any yellowing. Common practice with detergent and white clothes. Also one of the earliest known "life hacks" that people have used for hundreds of years of white clothes, to add blue dye.

I felt a great disturbance in the 3D printing community, as if millions of Mk4 warranties suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.

FDM printed is clear enough to show the gears and layers give it vibe that fits well with 3D printer

That Nova3D Clear Resin really is as good as they say, I have done a lot of Prints with it and its just awesome, how clear it is and stays. No yellowing, even when baking for 20 minutes in UV light

While I too like the CNC aesthetic, I’d probably work out-of-the-box and try casting clear acrylic in a FDM mold.

HA! I did the same thing for my MK4 and XL about 2 weeks ago. It was one of the first things I did because I wanted to see the gears. I did the FDM method (using your older video) though it's not as transparent. But the good news is I can always reprint them. Glad to see someone else do this.

Good video! I'm sure a lot of people have considered this topic. In my experience there are clear resins that don't yellow. The Anycubic clear is a good example, as long as the vat is completely cleans of the tints from a previous resin it'll stay nice and clear, adding a little blue resin tint can also help keep some resins from noticeably yellowing. After the sanding of a clear resin part coating it with a clear gloss spray paint will make it transparent too.

Another option you should use when 3d printing clear filament is ironing and increase top layers to an imaginary number like 50,000 so every layer is treated as a top layer. I'd also recommend a clear lithium grease for the planetary gear. It looks dry which is good for the video but not good for the gear. I love the cnc machine. I'd like to learn more about it like price and how it could be modified for rigidity and to cut other materials at higher precision.

I think the FDM print suits the reprap stylings of the Prusa really well, but aesthetically I think the CNC part looks so clean and professional. Printing on clean glass with a nice even spray of hairspray also makes it so the bottom layer is extremely transparent.

Try using some 2k clear gloss spray paint on those parts. It really makes transparent resin prints stay clear and not yellow. Also cure the resin in a glass jar full of water to prevent yellowing.

I love the look of the FDM. Something about seeing those lines make it honest to the materials and making process. The fact that the lines obscure the view a little bit works in favor of seeing the black gasket that hides portion of the gears inside

Hi Stephan. This is the first time I feel I have something to advice to you. Your videos are fantastic and I’ve been following them for years. Recently I started my way on Resin 3D printing after years of using FDM. I used SirayaTech blue clear V2 that also yellowish. They recommend bathing for 20 minutes on a 60 degrees Celsius water bath and then expose to sunlight for 30 mins. I haven’t have the time to do so, but leaving the piece to sunlight for some days do clears it a lot. I’ll let you know the results once I follow the manufacturers advice. Thanks a lot for the effort in providing tech oriented videos to the community for such a long time. Very well appreciated !.

Another option could be to use some cut glass and FDM print a frame for it to screw or slide into

to get a really clear machined part, tooling, speeds and feeds are beyond critical. Best for that is a really sharp endmill, like the acrylic line from datron, or even their diamond line. I use a cvd two flute for that but depending on the features of the part, especially lead in and out are difficult to get clear. for facing i like their 2 flute polished cornerradii facemills, such a nice finish. Greetings from the zellerfeld r&d machining guru :D

Against the usual advice, I print flat functional parts using resin without angling them and adding supports. This actually works great for me 90% or more of the time. I wish people would just try it before resorting to angling the prints.

Resin FTW. I was surprised how much better it looked than the others. I’m also surprised you didn’t mention the easiest fix. A quick spray of clear coat paint. It fills in all the roughness and dries clean and tough.

Resin turned the best one in this vid! so many useful comments, love the community behind <3