3D Printing - Holiday Lessons

Hey there, me again…
I took a few weeks off to concentrate on all things Christmas. While I tend to excel under pressure in a working environment, the same doesn’t apply to Holidays with my kids involved. Guess it’s a different kind of stress when my “clients” are my kiddos. Good thing I learned some 3D printing “holiday lessons”.

As with most Holidays, this is usually the time I fire up my small army of 3D printers to print anything from decorations to gifts for family & friends. Since I took a hiatus from additive manufacturing for a few months, getting back into this hobby this time took a lot of work. Between leveling beds, replacing parts, updating the Marlin firmware, and being reminded that a bad day with FFM is not the same as a bad day with SLA – I learned a few holiday lessons I wanted to share in this post.

Without further ado, here we go:

1) (SLA) Hot Water & Soap

If I had to rate my recently gained printing knowledge, the most crucial takeaway is letting the print sit in hot water with dish soap before curing. While I cannot remember where I got this idea, it makes all the difference when removing supports, even on fine details (i.e., a miniature’s fingers). It literally makes them come off like velcro. The soap helps remove some remaining resin and aids with that pesky resin smell on completed prints. Current post-precessing MO:

Clean print in 1st stage rubbing alcohol (IPA). I use two stages to minimize the amount of cleaning solution and for better results without residue from prior objects.
Clean print in 2nd stage cleaning solution (see the previous point)
Soak in hot water & soap for a few minutes#
Remove supports
Cure

Sidenote: I recommend using a pickle container and a wash & cure station to help with this process.

2) (SLA) Pre-Heating Resing

Pre-heat your resin! Besides scuffing your build plate, this is a great way to maximize build plate adhesion. It also allows you to slightly decrease initial layer exposure times, resulting in easier removal of prints and less yellowing of clear resin, especially on the first few layers. Getting your resin to temp can be accomplished by various methods (radiator etc.), but if you are fortunate enough to own an FFM / FFF printer, use the heat bed ;). My sweet spot is between 30 – 35F (including celsius).

3) (SLA) Magnetic Screwdrivers

Save yourself a ton of time and frustration, and get yourself some tools with magnetic bits. Imagine painstakingly replacing the FEP just to slip on one of the last screws, inevitably puncturing the FEP.
Recommendation: The iFixit Toolkit

4) FEP Spacer

Take the time to perfect your FEP spacer. Using one of these is a fantastic way to get repeatable tension on the film. I use a piece of foam core measuring 8.5cm x 5cm x 1cm for my Mars 2 Pro, but that will vary by printer and desired tension.

5) Z-Endstop Sensor

I added a magnetic build-plate (not sure how I lived without it) and forgot to add a z-stop spacer. I have seen plenty of folks online claiming this won’t make a difference, but that is not the case with my Elegoo machine. It took me a while to realize that homing before a print repeatedly pushed the build plate hard against the FEP and screen, causing elephant’s footing. An excellent way to do this is to print a spacer with the desired height and install it above the printer’s Z flag. In my case, I needed a 2.5mm spacer. You can determine the ideal size of your spacer by measuring the thickness of your newly added magnetic build plate. Give this thing a try for an Elegoo Mars 2 / Pro printer.

6) SLA Printer Sensitivity

A big lesson I learned over the past month is that resin printers are less sensitive than I initially thought. I used to clean the resin after every print (unnecessary) and freak out over the tiniest scratch in the FEP or screen. Come to find out; these printers can handle more tender loving abuse than I believed. After a catastrophic mistake – I forgot a tiny support – I ended up with a punctured FEP, a cracked screen (about 5mm in size), and some minor scratches after trying to remove the cured resin from the machine painstakingly. I can still print; all I have to do is ensure I don’t print over the damaged part of the screen. This realization saved me over the holidays.

Sidenote: The crack barely influences print quality, especially when printing with non-translucent resin. Why is that, you ask? Beats me…

my scratched and slightly cracked screen

7) CR6 Bed Upgrades

Short and sweet: DON’T DO IT! Unless you have a bed mesh that looks like unicorn-puke on your screen, you are in for a nightmare. See my previous post on CR-6 Heat Bed Insulation.

8) Electric Toothbrushes

I am constantly improving how I handle SLA prints to save on gloves, IPA, etc. Besides cleaning my prints in two stages, an electronic toothbrush is another tool I have found to be quite useful. I purchased a really cheap one (roughly $4) a while back, and it has helped substantially in removing the leftover resin before treating it in my wash & cure station.

cheap toothbrushes work amazingly well in cleaning prints

9) Cool Christmas Prints

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some sweet Christmas prints I did over these past few weeks:

Have you learned some invaluable tricks you would like to share as well? Let me know in the comments!

3D Printing – Holiday Lessons