ResinCat 3D Printer

ResinCat was a community project around building an open-source resin stereolithography 3D printer. It came from a very maker-style place: a group of people trying to understand, build, document, and improve a machine that was still quite exotic compared with the usual filament printers of that time.

My involvement was multidisciplinary, which is usually where I feel most comfortable. There were electronics, firmware, mechanical design, CAD, documentation, testing, and all the small practical problems that appear when a machine is moving from idea to real hardware.

What I remember as valuable from this project is the combination of open hardware and real fabrication constraints. A resin printer is not just a Z axis and a UV source. You have to think about rigidity, calibration, resin handling, exposure, mechanical repeatability, electronics, and the fact that documentation needs to be good enough for someone else to reproduce the work.

ResinCat is archived now, but it still belongs in my timeline. It represents that early period where open-source hardware, local maker communities, and digital fabrication were all mixing together in a very hands-on way.