3D Resin Printer Advice

[brunnels]

Howdy all, recently I have been thinking a 3d Resin printer would be a fun hobby and tool that would benefit ship model building.  I have some experience in 3d printing about 10 years ago I had a Crealty 3d Printer, but it was a more traditional 3d printer with the spools of material.  I eventually gave it up do to time and that printer had several issues that I could never quite work out.  I know printers have come a long way since then, and the Resin printers have really impressed me.

I do have a few newbie questions regarding the Resin printers.  I will mainly be printing smallish stuff to compliment our models (blocks, cannons, decorations, small figures) stuff like that.
1. Can I get a decent hobby setup for under $500?
2. Do the resin printers give off any toxic fumes?  I have a 4 month old daughter, so this is a big concern of mine.

3. If I can't keep the printer indoors, I will put it on my workbench in the garage.  In Oklahoma temperatures can easily reach greater than 100F/38c in summers with plenty of humidity, and below freezing in the winters.  Would the printer have any issues being used in my garage in these temperatures?

 

[TJM]

Hi Brunnels,

 

I am by no means an expert at all, but here is my take:

 

1. Yes, but it is borderline with all the accessories needed, especially for washing, curing and installation. I think my printer was just around 200 USD, an Elegoo Mars 4 DLP.

 

2. Yes, it does. You will find opinions that it is totally harmless and those that say it is extremely toxic. The truth is probably somewhere in between. You need very good ventilation to the outside and a space that you can close off to the rest of the house when you have resin in the open. You should also avoid touching the resin - it is not super toxic, but it will cause allergic reactions. Either right away or over time. And I really dislike the smell which is quite strong when handling it in the open.

 

I have the printer and the laser cutter hooked up to a small manifold with a big 200 mm fan. The printer is placed in a small growth tent - perfect for the purpose as I can ventilate it and keep stray light out. I keep the resin in the vat between runs and have a bathroom ventilator turned on when I am not printing to ensure no vapors seep into the adjacent living area. 

 

This is my setup:

 

When I handle open or uncured resin I wear a half mask with organic vapor filters and I wear nitrile gloves - I use a lot of gloves and change them when I have touched uncured resin before I spread it around. I collect gloves and tissues in clear bags and uv cure them before disposal. I use water washable resin but still do a final rinse in IPA and collect water and IPA in clear plastic bottles that I can cure before I dispose of the content (or re-use the IPA). I am a chemist and this is what I have found to suitable for safe handling based on the safety data sheets and handling of similar chemicals in the lab.

 

I wash twice with water and twice with IPA and reuse the wash medias many times before changing them. I do the wash in IKEA tupperware with silicone seals, very easy to use and keep. And I can cure them from time to time.

 

It is a bit of hassle, but no step is difficult on its own and once you get the hang of it, it is not difficult and it does not take a lot of time. But I think you need a small dedicated space to make it hassle-free.

 

3. I am not sure what the machine can take, but the resin really needs to be at the right temperature, which is around 25C. Anything below 20C is supposed to work very poorly. I don't know about high temperatures but, I have printed with no issues up to around 30C. I guess this is very resin dependent!

I have a heater inside the printing cabinet and have an electric radiator for the small room for winter use. I do think operating around living room temperature is preferable!

 

 

This became a very long post, I hope it helps! I am happy to provide input and try to answer any questions you may have, but I also know there a much more experienced printers on this forum!

 

BR

TJM

Edited Tuesday at 02:16 PM by TJM

[thibaultron]

If you store your IPA and water(if used),in sealed clear or very translucent containers, you can set them in the sun between sessions and the sun light will cure the resin. After the resin cures it will fall to the bottom of the container, and can be filtered out. This allows the fluids to be reused many times, before they become to "dirty" to reuse.

[mikegr]

1. Yes you can

2. Yes they do. If you keep it in the garage won't be an issue

3. Yes they do. Below 18°c resin may need warm up. I use a hair dryer. Keep distance to avoid overspill. In hot weather may reduce curing times

[CCClarke]

Lots of good replies posted in response to your questions.

 

1. I bought a resin printer five years ago, (Phrozen Mighty 4K) along with a cure station, (-also from Phrozen, using a turntable with UV lights surrounding it, with a UV-proof plastic cover) for just under $500 during an Amazon Prime Sale.  I keep a log for each print to record how long they took, and any lessons along the way.  The elapsed time is important since decent LED arrays are rated to 2000 hours.  I'm on print #297 with zero issues with the printer.  Any problem prints were my fault and easy to diagnose.

 

Depending on the size requirements for your needs, you may be able to get by with a small printer.  Check the print volume before pulling the trigger.  I'm at the point now where I need a larger one and will upgrade soon.  I'll keep the smaller one for small parts.  I printed a set of anchors yesterday that took six hours to design, and an hour to print.  Each is smaller than my small fingernail.  The quality is always amazing!

 

As for cleaning, I use one plastic tub to spray the build plate/printed parts with 91% IPA using an old Windex bottle, let them soak for three minutes, dry them with my airbrush set to 60 psi, then repeat the process once more.  This saves a small fortune in submerging everything in IPA -as many other do.  I dump the leftover IPA from the cleaning tub (usually about 1/8 of a cup) into the plastic-lined trash can next to my bench with some paper towels to absorb it.  The trash can goes outside where the IPA can evaporate.  I went from buying gallons of IPA, (and dealing with the aftermath) per year to a few quarts using this method.   A foam brush also helps when cleaning large parts.  If I find any residue, I use an IPA-soaked cotton swab to clean it, and blast it with air to evaporate any remaining IPA.

 

After that, I place the build plate in an identical plastic container with enough hot water to submerge the build plate to cover the surface the parts are adhered to.  The hot water loosens the parts and expands a miniscule amount allowing the parts to be removed with a slim metal spatula.  I let the removed parts soak for a couple of minutes making part support removal easy.  For some smaller parts, (like the aforementioned anchors) I leave the supports on, since fishing them out of the water is a PITA.  Once all the parts are out, I blow-dry them once more. 

 

Some people like the vortex cleaning stations, but again, you're dealing with a larger mess when trying to cure/re-filter IPA in bulk.  Time is one thing I never seem to get enough of.

 

2. Resin is a skin irritant and any resin dust from sanding is not something you ever want to breathe.  Nitrile gloves are needed when handling uncured parts. A respirator and is recommended when sanding large parts.  Eye protection should be worn anytime liquid resin is present. Some resins put out stronger fumes than others.  Unless you have a dedicated indoor space with a good way to ventilate it (via air extractor venting outside) the garage is the place to print.  Spill resin on indoor carpet and you're in real trouble. Carpet should never be near a workbench anyway.  

 

3. Temps.  Resin changes viscosity (thinner when hot, thicker when cold) which can greatly affect how the parts print.  Ideal temp is between 70-75 for most resins, but check the mfr's recommendations before ordering any.  In New England, I was limited to printing during warmer weather.  You can use a heated enclosure made for 3D printing but if the duty cycle is too great, print quality will suffer.  I compromised when I moved to Arizona three years ago on a two-car garage (I wanted the extra work space afforded by a three-car garage) but changed my mind because this one came with a dedicated heat pump - I can print year-round now in comfort with consistent results.  I had to replace the large, cylindrical hot water heater to a small, wall-mounted on-demand unit that is more economical, freeing up additional space.

 

If you're on social media, there are plenty of manufacturer sites where members can bitch and moan, with lots of failed print pictures.  Besides keeping a personal print log, this is another great way to learn from other's mistakes, or learn how to troubleshoot (very rare) hardware failures.  Like I mentioned, my printer has been trouble-free.  The majority of my prints take 15-18 hours, and it works as well as when I first started.

 

A handy tool in my arsenal is a Phrozen Cure Beam.  This works well to cure small parts in < 10 seconds or the inside of the hulls I build.  A set of silicon mats, (resin doesn't stick to them are under my printer, (in case of a printer spill) and my work area where I clean parts.

 

Any printer that comes with a hook to hang your build plate to drip dry is a bonus.  It recovers a little bit of the excess resin and decreases the amount you need to clean off the top of the plate by hand.  I used an FDM printer to make a hanger for mine that I found for free on Thingverse.

 

When I switched from FDM to resin printing, (far less sanding and resolution you'll never get from a .2" nozzle extruding hot plastic) I didn't like the cleaning phase, but once you get used to it, (and see the quality of your printed parts) it isn't a big deal and takes 15 to 30 minutes - 45 min or so if you print fifty parts at a time like I sometimes do.

 

If you have any more questions, fire away.  Someone here will be able to answer them.

 

CC