3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
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So yes, most guides will tell you you need to wear a respirator while working with the resin, but personally I find it really depends on the type of resin I’m using. Generally if I’m just filling the vat then starting a print I won’t bother, same if I’m just removing my print from the plate and getting it ready to post process. But if I’m cleaning up and emptying the vat or I have a bunch of prints I’m working to clean and cure I’ll wear my respirator. Gloves are an always though.
A few additional items you’ll want:
I found it takes some practice to get the prints setup and sliced for good printing, way more than when I later got into FDM printing, expect failed prints. Supports are much more necessary than on FDM prints, but the fact that it’s upside down doesn’t really make a difference since it’s still printing bottom to top, you just need to be careful of islands as you print since it’s all printed a full layer at a time. This also means the only thing that increases print time is height, something that is the full area of the build plate but only 1cm tall will print faster than a 10cm long needle printed straight up and down despite being way more volume. So fill up that build plate with multiple models to save time.
It does require a lot more post processing than FDM, like at least as much work as prepping, slicing, and actually printing. I can take something off my FDM printer and it’s ready to use, I need to account for at least 30-60 mins of work once my resin prints are finished to clean them, cure them in my UV box, remove supports, and then clean up the vat and printer. I tend to batch print for this reason, getting 3-5 sets of items ready to go and then running them back to back over the weekend. This means I only need to clean the printer up once.
You’ll want to print (likely on your FDM printer) an adapter to allow your build plate to be hung at an angle to allow resin to drain into the vat once a print is done. This will waste less resin when you clean.
This is all just off the top of my head and written on mobile, so apologies for and autocorrect mistakes. Feel free to ask for clarification on anything.
Dang that's a lot of useful info, thanks!
So am I understanding correctly that you can leave all the cleaning/curing process for another day? I can print a set of figures and store them somewhere fresh off the plate on monday, and do all the post-processing stuff on friday? Because if that's possible that is pretty great, I had kinda assumed that the curing and cleaning was required immediately.
As long as they stay shielded from UV you probably can, but I wouldn’t leave them for days. I’ll often leave prints running overnight, they finish sometime while I’m sleeping and I’ll hang them on the drip adapter for a few hours once I wake up and then clean and cure them later in the day without issues. I also typically print in the basement where’s there’s no windows or light so no real way for UV to leak in and partially cure the resin. If you’re printing in a room with windows you have more of a chance of sunlight impacting the prints before you wash them so keep that in mind (the orange/yellow covers block the vast majority of UV but aren’t 100% perfect).