Resin 3D printing beginners step by step guide

do you want to get into resin 3d printing for the outstanding detail and quality but perhaps you're unsure about workflow mess and safety keep watching as i present my beginner's guide to resin 3d printing [Music] there's a lot to cover in this video so i'm going to keep it concise and have a very short intro resin printing is capable of outstanding detail but it does come with some drawbacks therefore i've collaborated with my patrons to make the step-by-step guide to resin printing so you can work out if it's for you let's have a closer look at how a resin printer works the first thing to understand is that like fdm printing with filament resin printing is additive manufacturing which means it starts with nothing and adds material until the final object is formed resin 3d printers which most commonly these days are mass stereo lithography machines do have some similarities but also some key differences firstly instead of using solid filament we use a liquid resin and if i pour the resin into this little plastic container you can see that it's quite runny and sloshes around easily this resin unlike paint won't dry out in open air and instead needs light to cure it but not the type of lights that you have inside your house which means the resin won't set if you're in an indoor environment when we take the resin outside however we can see that after just a second or so the resin no longer is a liquid as it is set by a specific wavelength of uv light which is found in the sun and inside our resin printers we have leds that produce the same wavelength of uv light giving them the ability to cure our liquid resin into a solid another key difference is that unlike fdm a resin 3d printer only has one moving part which is a z-axis platform so let's have a look at how the uv light masking lcd screen and moving z platform work together to create 3d objects we have our resin 3d printer with the vat at the bottom and we know that we filled this up with liquid resin and rather than the lcd allowing all of the uv light through its job is to only allow light to shine through that represents the shape we need for each layer so that's exactly what the lcd does displaying the image of the current layer and masking out everything else hence the name mast sla what people sometimes don't realize is that every time a layer is cured it cures not only to the existing model but also the fep sheet that's above the lcd fap is the name of the thin clear plastic sheet that sits on the bottom of the vat and protects the top of the lcd after each layer of the print is cured you'll notice that the z-axis lifts up and this is to break the bond between the newly cured resin and the fep sheet because of this after each layer we have a tug of war the resin model is gripping to the platform as well as gripping to the fep and sometimes you can even hear the model peeling off the fep as it lifts after each layer if this is successful for every layer we get to the end and we have an attached print however if the phep wins that tug of war for just one layer it's gonna result in a failed print some printers such as prusa's sls1 use a tilting vat to help separate the model from the feb after each layer that's some background information but what about overall workflow and very importantly your work area this is our workflow overview but we are going to explore each of these steps in more detail shortly apart from step one which is done on my computer all of the rest i do in the dedicated resin printing area so let's take a closer look at that my entire resin printing setup resides inside a built-in wardrobe this room doesn't have high usage and has blinds to block out the sun in this room we had an electrician install an exhaust fan which resides in the roof of the cavity this does a great job extracting fumes particularly when the doors are shut there's shelving inside the wardrobe and on the main level sets the three pieces of equipment i use the most resin printer washing and curing stations underneath all of these are wham bam slap mats which are ideal because even if they get really messy simply put them in the sun the resin will cure and peel off quite easily as they are designed to work like this above this shelf are two battery powered lights with 3d printed holders and attached to the shelf frame are printed holders for spare beds as well as spare vats on the doors i've printed holders for the equipment that i need the most firstly a holder for boxes of nitrile gloves and next to that i have a paper towel dispenser from thingiverse the important thing here being that you can collect paper towel one-handed i also have holders for things like ipa alcohol within reach if needed quickly there's also holders for metal scrapers as well as tongs which we'll cover in detail later the important thing is that all of this is detachable so if the tongs are wet i can take the carrier with it so it doesn't spill everywhere on the top of the door are some printed holders to hold the lid of the resin printer out of the way on the right hand door i have holders for allen keys for when i need to bed level and plastic scrapers too these other three sets of hooks are designed to hold cheap oven trays which i got from the local supermarket and they provide space to put models tools whatever i need best of all they're designed to just clear the other door and everything inside so i can leave models on them to air dry if necessary up top we have instructions for the curing station as well as another hook for the lid down the bottom i have some custom printed hooks to hold one of these cheap storage bins which i use for waste like everything else it's designed for convenience so the door can be opened and closed without removing it that means it's always present and accessible the bottom level as you've seen has a larger resin printer and then a plastic container where i store all of my resins and solvents so that if anything ever leaks it's contained and doesn't go through the room and hidden on the left hand side of the cavity is a very small oil heater which we'll talk about later finally on top of the shelf there's room for spare trays spare gloves safety glasses microfiber cloths and other extras i've built this up over the years and i'm quite happy with it when you stand in the middle everything you're working on is right in front of you and all of the tools that you need are easily accessible i know that everyone has different spaces available and plenty of people resin print in spare rooms garages sheds etc next up the very important topic of safety the best place to start with safety is with the msds for your chosen resin and if your resin manufacturer doesn't provide these well i'd suggest you switch resin manufacturers here we have the material safety data sheet for frozen abs like resin and this document is going to outline the hazards as well as how to treat them straight away we can see that we need to make sure that we don't swallow the resin and that it can be an irritant to our eyes respiratory system and skin furthermore over time we can have sensitization by skin contact in essence that means that over time our response can change and even end up with an allergic reaction before we continue some key points firstly resin affects different people in different ways just because someone you know handles it without gloves and is fine doesn't mean that you will be secondly the effects of resin exposure can become more severe over time if you got resin on your skin once and you were fine doesn't mean that that will always be the case treat resins and solvents with care and respect it's when you're complacent that the inevitable spills that you'll have could have a serious and long-term consequence let's work through our main hazards one by one starting with harm from swallowing i don't think any adults will attempt to drink the resin but consider pets and children if my kids were younger i could easily add a slide bolt to keep this locked next irritation to eyes very easy to fix by wearing safety glasses next is irritation to our respiratory system from the fumes the easiest solution is to use your resin printer in a well ventilated area away from where other people are using the house but if that's not an option you can look into exhaust or filtration systems too generally while printing and with the lid on i find the fumes aren't very obvious at all in fact the biggest problem i've ever had with fumes was when i used to use ipa as my cleaning solution and that regularly gave me headaches but fortunately i found a better substitute which we'll talk about later finally our main hazard direct contact with the skin the foolproof solution is wearing nitrile rubber disposable gloves i don't like to waste these but it's just too important not to wear them anytime there's a chance that resin might come in contact with my skin remember too that whatever you're using as your cleaning agent will pick up resin over time so you should treat it the same as the raw resin a lot of the time your hand only needs protection for a couple of seconds so it would be a waste to use a glove that's why i use the tongs which have turned out to be a really handy solution sometimes you'll see me touching certain components without using gloves and that's because i'm confident after years of practice that i can handle them without ever getting resin on them unless you're absolutely sure that these surfaces are clean and that you can keep them that way just use gloves when you're starting out especially it's easy to be clumsy and inadvertently spread small amounts of resin from your printer to the surrounding equipment in summary take precautions and treat resin with respect a good cautionary tale comes from andrew of the sla channel who suffered a severe chemical burn from spilled resin nothing like what he had experienced before the video is linked and i'd highly recommend it as it demonstrates that you can't take anything for granted now for some step-by-step workflow starting with slicing if you're using a prusa sl1 your slicer will be prusa slicer for other resin printers if you're adventurous you might be trying out the very promising lychee slicer but for almost everyone else you're probably using ch2 box t2 box supports an enormous amount of resin printers and unlike fdm printers the preset resin profiles are probably spot on which means you don't need to worry about them if you'd like a deep dive on t2 box particularly support generation i'd recommend this linked playlist from 3d printing pro in this video i'm going to try and provide concise basics and the first thing to understand is that unlike fdm we don't usually put objects flat on the build platform like this and that's because if the print sticks well to the bed which we want it to this big flat surface can be extremely hard to remove and that can easily result in damage to the underside of the model one workaround is to use a flexible build plate like those from wham bam that assist you greatly in removing flat models from the surface another workaround comes from icarus 998 in the form of settings for t2 box to produce a kind of sacrificial raft that allows even print in place objects to go flat on the build plate we're going to tilt our model and this comes back to that tug of war where the model is stuck to the fep and the build platform and we want it to peel off the fep safely after each layer let's say we lift the model off the bed and add some automatic supports and then slice the model to see the layers we can see at the bottom there's a large surface area at the base of the model we also have a large surface area but the support material in between is feeble by comparison and creates a weak link and weak links can cause failures from that tug of war so instead let's angle the model back and inspect the layers once more we can see that we don't have a stark transition from small to large surface area and the surface area actually stays more uniform through the print from this approach there are still some areas however that we can improve on our next step is to hollow out our model this will save a lot of resin and also keep our surface area consistent to do this we come up to the tool up the top and set our wall thickness this will depend on the size of your model but once you've picked it click start we'll then get a nice little animated preview showing the hollow model and if we slice this before and check the preview we'll see that our largest and grippier surface area is touching the bed and then after that it remains fairly uniform with no sudden changes between small and large therefore we get to save resin and hopefully have a more reliable print which makes this a win-win there is a second part to hollowing however because as it stands this shape represents a plunger and is going to have a lot of suction force on the fip because of this we want some drainage holes that will also relieve this pressure sometimes it's easiest to place the holes from the inside placing them at the base will relieve our suction force and this location is hidden on the final model finally let's talk more about this support material and once you're experienced you'll probably want to place your support manually maybe even in a different piece of software but starting out automatic support is fine if you know what to check for you'll see that there's light medium and heavy presets and these relate to the thickness of each of the structures another important number is density which works as the name implies if your support is too heavy it will leave obvious marks in the underside of the model too thin and the model can detach causing a failed print but get it just right and it will snap off with little effort and leave very little evidence behind let's switch to a trickier model and tilt the model so the support will be on less obvious surfaces we switch to our support tab and we start by adding support to the platform inspection of this auto support shows that it's actually up to the task for this model what we're potentially looking for is low areas like this tooth that didn't have support and in that case we'd press the plus button and add the support in manually ourself finally we're going to check the slice model for errors and here i've purposely removed the support from each of the fangs as you cycle through the layers you're going to see white where each layer is exposed and what we're looking for is a section of white appearing from nowhere because it means that piece of resin will be cured unattached to anything as we get up to our unsupported fangs we can see an example of this we'll zoom on the affected area and if i cycle back and forth we can see all of a sudden these islands appear and this greatly increases the chances of a print failure the more complicated the model the harder it is to inspect it visually like this however my patron brandon has alerted me to a great free and open source program called uv tools we can import our sliced and saved file and click one button to automatically check it for issues when this is done we'll have a list of islands on the side quite often they might be only one pixel wide and we can see this pixel is not attached to the others around it the software will also identify resin traps places where unkeyword resin will be trapped in small cavities never to see the light of day uv tools is very powerful and can automatically attempt to repair all of these errors all of the single pixel islands have been eliminated and all we're left with is those unsupported fangs we could have easily missed this checking manually we've caught a potential failure and now we know we can go back to the slicer and fix up the support structure slicing for resin printing is very nuanced so what i've presented are just basics and you can take it much further than that let's move on to the actual printing now assuming you've followed your printer's instructions to level the bed which fortunately on resin printers doesn't need to happen very often we're ready to print if our vats empty i'd recommend making sure there's no debris inside by using ipa and a microfiber cloth but before we pour in the resin i'd like to refer to this video from goober town hobbies where brent a phd chemist explains the structure of the resin my key take-home message from this video was to shake the resin vigorously before pouring it into the vat and if your resin is already filled in the vat you might like to find some sort of soft object and stir it vigorously as for how much to pour in keep in mind that the resin will be displaced upwards when the build platform comes down so er on the side of caution do you remember that hidden heater i have if you're printing in a particularly cold environment the resin can become viscous and lead to print failures as the resin cures it will actually generate a surprising amount of heat so you'll only need to warm up your environment to room temperature prior to hitting go until your print gets to a certain height there'll be no visual indication that everything's working as it should be so you'll just need to be patient hopefully your patience is rewarded with a successful print but you shouldn't touch it yet because it will be coated in liquid resin so you should either let it sit for a while to drip off or find a do-it-yourself drainage stand for your printer which will greatly increase the amount of excess resin that's able to drain away now for the actual print removal and your 3d printer probably came with two spatulas and the metal one is the one designed for this job if you're using a standard build platform or bed you can carefully slide the model into your cleaning solution if you've got a wham-bam flexible bed like i do then you have the option of leaving the build platform in place and simply removing the bed along with the print and popping it right in your cleaner to fully remove the excess liquid resin on the outside of our model cleaning is required and when it comes to this job we have a choice between which solvent we use as well as how we do the actual cleaning i used to use isopropyl alcohol for this job but the fumes often made me feel sick it's also worth noting that the vapors are flammable which adds an extra hazard these days i use an alternative product called resin away from monicure 3d resin away still does have an odor but personally i find it much milder and it definitely doesn't make me feel sick and unlike ipa it won't evaporate if you leave the lid off and this formula as they advertise is definitely not flammable in terms of your washing method this can be as simple as clear sealable containers that you swirl around with your models inside if you're happy to spend money on something fancier you can get purpose-built magnetic stirrers for this job they safely suspend your models inside a basket and swirl the solvent around them for me the most convenient option is an ultrasonic cleaner pop your parts in and hit go they come in different sizes and you should make sure yours is at least as big as your resin printer's build volume whatever your cleaning method i'd recommend using it for at least 10 minutes this will maximize the removal of excess resin and rotating the objects in your cleaner doesn't hurt either when your cleaning cycle is done you can remove your model from the solvent and ipa is the most convenient here as all you need to do is put it in a well ventilated area and the excess will evaporate when using resin away i found that the parts come out with a slimy detergent like residue and that washing them under hot water will remove this quite easily after this you can whack the model on some paper towel to let it air dry or if you're impatient like me you can use a hair dryer to speed up that process a quick note if you're using water washable resin what that means is you can use water in your cleaner not that you can wash excess resin down the sink which would be extremely toxic once a model has no shiny spots left it should be clean and therefore safe to touch if your model was using support now is a good time to get rid of it because the resin isn't fully cured and therefore a little bit flexible if you have any particularly delicate parts you might like to use some side cutters to remove the support from these and hopefully the rest will simply pull away from the model without much fuss if you have any blemishes again now is the time to remove them while the resin is still partially soft now it's time for post curing because during the actual printing process the uv exposure to the resin is just enough to hold it in place but not enough to cure it to its complete hardness if you want to do this step for free you can simply place your parts outside in the sun you could also use a simple uv lamp shining on your parts a uv torch will do the same job for not much money you can get uv nail polish cures although only small prints will fit and if you're happy to spend more money you can get dedicated uv curing stations that rotate the model and run on a timer for maximum convenience they also feature uv filtering cases so no safety glasses required and hopefully if you've got all of that working correctly you've got yourself a beautifully detailed resin ready printed model so that's when everything works but how do you deal with failures and what maintenance do you need to perform inevitably at some stage you will have a print failure whether it's lost its contact with the build platform or maybe the build platform is completely missing your model when the print is done all parts of your model are missing it's absolutely imperative if you want to avoid repeat failures that you remove all pieces of resin both those that you can see and those you can't from the vat your printer probably came with a plastic scraper and this is where you use it because it's plastic it shouldn't damage the fep on the bottom and hopefully you can locate any chunks of huawei resin floating inside the only foolproof method to make sure you've got all of the floaties and the reason i have spare vats is to transfer the resin from the old vat to a new clean one using a strainer and that's because some of the pieces that come off are really small and also really flat which means they like to stay stuck to the feb just remember that anytime you change vats you need to re-level the bed let's say you have a messy spill that is hopefully captured by whatever surface you're working on and this includes making a mess of the bottle we can simply put these parts out in the sun and after a while the resin should cure and then peel off easily i found that this resin doesn't really bond that well to plastics so even what looks like a huge mess can be cleaned up nicely once the resin has been cured in the sun this is generally the best way to dispose of any resin printing waste collect it all up including discarded support structures and put it in the sun to fully cure you can test with a stick that any resin has fully cured and that means it's at its safest state to put into the bin if you're sure you're leveling the bed properly but your prints refuse to stick there's generally no harm in using some sandpaper to scuff up the surface of the build platform just remember to clean off any debris with paper towel and ipa afterwards you should know that the fip sheet is a consumable and will eventually need replacing you can look from underneath to see if it's got any creases or if it's still smooth i like to keep a really tidy work area that means immediately cleaning up any tiny drips and keeping any surfaces i touch with bare hands very clean which is why i still have ipa on hand as well as resin away i also regularly clean the resin off my tools and i'd recommend you do the same as it lessens the chance of spreading resin throughout your setup finally whatever your solvent is will eventually be saturated with resin and become quite dirty at this point it will lose its cleaning effectiveness and after your final curing you'll notice shiny spots that weren't completely washed and therefore a thin film of resin was cured onto the outside of the model rather than throwing out your cleaning solvent you can instead put it in a container in the sun much of the resin present in the solution will solidify allowing you to strain the solvent for reuse and easily collect the resin component to be fully cured in the sun before it goes in the bin it's not a perfect method but it can save you some money and prevent wastage and that's my take on resin printing and some people will still think it's too messy and that's fair enough for this reason i still prefer fdm but when i do resin print i feel that my setup and workflow at least makes it efficient since this video was aimed at beginners please head to the comment section and give your best beginner tip for resin 3d printing thank you so much for watching and until next time happy safe and efficient 3d resin printing g'day it's michael again if you like the video then please click like if you want to see more content like this in future click subscribe and make sure you click on the bell to receive every notification if you really want to support the channel and see exclusive content become a patron visit my patreon page see you next time

Channel: Teaching Tech

Views: 589,708

Keywords: 3d printing, 3d printer, 3d print, 3d printed, resin, sla, msla, dlp, beginners, guide, how to, step by step, how it works, fep, failure, mess, clean, workflow, steps, slicing, chitubox, support, raft, vat, ipa, resinaway, resin away, removal, wham bam, phrozen, prusa sl1, prusaslicer, lychee slicer, curing, cure, wash, spill, gloves, safety, failures, drying, maintenance, procedure, tips, tutorial, lesson, bed, build platform, stick, peel, level, leveling, levelling

Id: UU6tWhV010M

Length: 23min 49sec (1429 seconds)

Published: Fri May 06 2022