Resin 3D Printers - Questions and Discussion

[YoungWolf777]

Anyone starting out: use the resources in my previous post. You can print 100 of the Amerilabs test w/o even making a dent in your resin tank. Start small to fail small. I know the desire to get going on that really cool model that you've been dying to print. I did it myself. I burned not 1, but 2 full 1L bottles of resin before I sorted things out the first time around. By the time I started testing other resins I had learned and wasted less & less with each one. Once you have dialed in your calibration and have your exposure times sorted out, you're free to print. But, like anything else in life, there is more to learn.

Back to your supports MM. Here are some screen grabs of what I did in Lychee:

Screen Shot 2021-12-12 at 4.14.37 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-12-12 at 4.14.54 PM.png

Screen Shot 2021-12-12 at 4.15.06 PM.png

I will confess, I lean towards oversupporting but I try not to go too overboard. I'd rather clean up a few extra supports than have a print fail.

You might wonder, how did I determine which angle to print at?

Let me save you a bunch of heartache if your model has any flat surfaces, like this ring:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs2Rb0ExnIM

Lucky for you, I've already done the math so you have a cheat sheet for the exam:

Screen Shot 2021-12-12 at 4.27.54 PM.png

The Mono X screen has a perfect 0.050 XY resolution which simplifies the math (a little). So if the XY res is 0.050 and your Z res (layer height) is 0.050, then that's a perfect 45 degrees. The stepper motor in the Mono X is only capable of 0.010 steps, so trying to print at say 0.025 (25 micron) throws things off. It took me a long time to figure that out so learn from me please. It will still print, you'll just get some weird layering issues sometimes. Just stick with increments of 0.010 and you'll be fine.

Now that we determined what angle to print that flat surface at (0 and 180 degrees will always work as well), why did I angle it upside down?

Answer? The skull in the center of the ring. The teeth protrude and leave a concave surface behind them. Also, the canine teeth end in mid-air. That requires supports as they are "islands". An island is when a feature of the model starts printing without being connected to anything, hence the term "island". If we print right-side up, the teeth become islands like so:

Screen Shot 2021-12-12 at 11.33.57 AM.png

Can they be supported? Sure. But they're smaller than even light tip size so would require "microsupports" and can be a real hassle. Rotating it 180 solves the problem altogether without a fuss.

[YoungWolf777]

Here's the printed piece:

RingSupport1-50.jpg

RingSupport2-50.jpg

RingSupport3-50.jpg

And after support removal. (ALWAYS remove supports BEFORE curing!)

RingNoSupport1-50.jpg

RingNoSupport2-50.jpg

[YoungWolf777]

And after cleaning up the support marks and post curing on my skinny thumb:

RingOnFinger1-50.jpg

If you look close you will notice a couple of letters are gone. I took a look at the .STL file and it seems that that word wasn't connected to the ring. How it actually printed I have no idea.

How it should be, (the other side of the ring)

Screen Shot 2021-12-12 at 11.19.20 AM.png

And how the bad side is:

Screen Shot 2021-12-12 at 11.19.57 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-12-12 at 11.20.33 AM.png

You can see the capital "N" is completely floating above the ring. My exposure is just so slightly over "perfect", so it might account for how it stayed on in the printer. Once I cleaned & cured it though, it broke away.

[MagickalMemories]

Wow. It's gorgeous.
I'm going to have to wait until I can properly digest that other post, though. Too much thinking to do more than skim it currently. LOL

When I tried printing the ring this last time, I did it upside down for the same reason. it only seemed right to do it upside down. Crazy about the letters. Great catch.

So, I had a successful print today.
Well, HALF successful.
I found a bunch of presupported files online. Decided to test my exposure setting with those, rather than stuff I was supporting (one fight at a time).
We,, I had 8 rings on the plate. 4 were angry hulk face rings... they failed. Looking at the file more critically, and it just didn't have good enough supports. WAY too light.

On the other hand, I *DID* get 4 of THIS baby...

Ring Success.jpg

Too bad it's too small to even fit my pinky! LOL
That's okay. Small victories!

Eric

[MagickalMemories]

Just sharing a successful print.
This is a pretty cool ring. DAMNED nice detail, too.

Free (presupported) download on.... either Cults3D or Thingiverse (I forget).

Barbarian Ring.jpg

Eric

[YoungWolf777]

Nice!

[MagickalMemories]

Very happy with it.
Moving to presupported files while I learn my resin has REALLY changed things for me. Very few fails. When I do, I can look back at the file and see where the supporter missed important things.

Pretty soon, I hope to be able to print an Inquisition ring.
; )

Eric

P.S. Got tired of waiting for AnyCubic to get the 3kg of resin I bought from their site to FINALLY arrive to me. I'm almost out of this "skin" resin... so, I ordered 4 more kg of resin on Amazon (great price @$25 each). It'll be here Sunday. I'll run a RERF, and get my motor running!

[MagickalMemories]

Christmas gift for mom...

Santa 1 resized.jpg

Santa 2 resized.jpg

Santa 3 resized.jpg

[MagickalMemories]

Fire Giant for fun...

Fire Giant Resized.jpg

[MagickalMemories]

Noise Marines.

I printed one. MY buddy is going to paint it for a friend of ours.
His 8 year old fell in LOVE with the model and wanted one, too. I told him I'd print one for him if he painted one for me.
Here they are...

Noise Marines Resized.jpg

[YoungWolf777]

Looks like you've hit the "fun" part of the hobby. Congrats!

[MagickalMemories]

Oh, yeah.
Now, if I could just get my hands on a supported file for a certain RING... *ahem*

LOL

Seriously, though... after about 80 hours (not even kidding) of YouTubing videos about supporting resin prints, I think I might be ready to try my hand at supporting that ring again. I've already FIXED a file (that Fire Giant had a print failure the first time because there was an area with enough peel force that the supports along that line failed. Ended up with some "pancakes" along that layer line). Now, I might be ready to start with something small and work my way up.

Eric

[MagickalMemories]

I've decided that I'm going to support a couple people on Patreon who are putting out the kind of content I want to print.
I'm sponsoring Wicked and Hex3d!

They're doing some awesome stuff. Look them up on any of the file sharing sites (thingi, Cults, etc.).

Eric

[MagickalMemories]

Tonight, I start my most ambitions project to date...
Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, by Wicked (who I've begun supporting on Patreon).

It'll be over 40 hours of PRINTING, and over a bottle of resin. And that's only because it's been hollowed!

Eric

[Bradgar]

3D printer acquired. My friend has gotten a PhotonX printer and wash station for the holidays. I was wondering if anyone had any tips for finding 40k STLs? Specifically looking for older sculpts but would take any available. How did you guys go about finding these files?