Resin Review: Elegoo Tough (Grey)

In this post, I review Elegoo Tough (Grey) Resin, which I recently tested on my Invincible action figure. 

Elegoo Tough Resin

• Color: Black, Grey
• Price: USD 32.99 (at the time of review) 

Sculpting

• Blender
  
  

Slicing

I’ve been using Lychee Slicer for over 3 years and here’s why I love it:

• Intuitive UI and controls
• Community-shared settings for printers and resins: The community settings tab makes settings used by the community users accessible along with their reviews and ratings. 
• Excellent auto support functionality (less failure, faster setup)

If you are interested, please check out my affiliate link for Lychee slicer here.

Lychee setting:

• I had 6 base layers exposed for 35 seconds 
• Layer height is 0.04 mm exposed at 2.7 seconds, however, it was a bit overexposed and I would recommend 2.5 seconds 

Printer

• Uniformation GKTwo

• Print duration: approximately 4 hours and 40 minutes

• Estimated resin usage: 71ml (including figure and supports; does not account for any wasted resin during cleanup)

Resin Properties

• Thin viscous consistency
• Mild smell 
• No print failures even on my first try 
• Resin is tough but soft enough when heated for assembly purposes

Cleaning

• IPA or resin detergent works excellent with this resin for clean-up
• I washed the resin in 2 separate IPA baths for about 2 minutes in each bath
• I used Sydney Solvents IsoPropyl Alcohol- IPA Isopropanol 100% 
• This resin does not offer water washability

Curing

• I cured for 4 minutes 
• Elegoo recommends 2 minutes
• I used Elegoo Mercury Curing Chamber for curing

Assembly Experience

• Surface scratchiness visible
• Some grinding or dusting
• Tough but soft when heated with a hair dryer
• Joints feel firm

Articulation Breakdown

• Double ball pegged neck joint: functions as expected
• Shoulder ball joint: not good; felt resistance, worked better after using silicone shock oil
• Butterfly joint: not good; felt resistance, worked better after using silicone shock oil
• Biceps, elbow joint: functions as expected
• Wrist joint: not so good; hinge motion works but pivot was a bit stuck
• Chest dumbbell joint: felt resistance but still functions okay
• Abdo- pelvis joint: felt resistance; moved with caution
• Pelvis drop down joint: lots of resistance; almost stuck
• Hip joint: broke during testing
• Knee joint: functions as expected
• Ankle joint:not so good; hinge motion works but pivot was a bit stuck; had to use silicone shock oil

Final Thoughts

Pros

• Great for hinge joints such as knee and elbow joints
• Affordable pricing
• Might work for statues or miniatures

Cons

• Not ideal for ball and socket joints that require a torque motion; Silicone shock oil fixes this issue to some extent
• Some grinding and scratchiness

Should you buy it?

You should consider this resin if:

• You’re printing an articulating figure with predominantly hinge joints
  

You might want to skip it if:

• You plan to make an action figure with a variety of joints that require torque

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. If you’ve tried this resin, I’d love to hear your experiences too.

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Thanks for reading, and happy printing!