Resin 3D printing can initially be quite challenging, but there’s a resource that can help.
Most Fabbaloo readers operate FFF-style 3D printers, which can be quite effective if properly used. The key is to determine the best practices in doing so. There are tweaks to print settings, part orientations, use of support structures and much more to learn.
Normally that happens with experience, but also with the assistance of online material, including videos. There are plenty of resources to assist with FFF 3D printing.
Once FFF 3D printing is mastered, operators often add resin 3D printing to their fleet of equipment. And why not? Resin 3D printing can produce incredibly detailed 3D prints that cannot be achieved with FFF devices.
However, FFF operators almost immediately find that their FFF skills are mostly useless when operating a resin 3D printer. At first things seem to be somewhat similar, but in the end, after much experience, it turns out things are actually very different.
The result is that most resin 3D printer operators must go through a long learning period where new resin skills are tediously obtained. I can attest to this, having wrecked countless resin prints as I learned the tricks to success.
Recently I ran across an incredibly useful document that covered off most of the required learning, all in one place.
The document, hosted as a Google Doc, was produced by J3D-Tech, a popular YouTube channel that has produced hundreds of videos investigating the details of 3D printer operations.
As I read through “J3D-Tech’s Guide to Resin Printing, Beginners – Advanced”, I kept remembering how long it took me to figure out this practice, or that procedure. Here it was all laid out in a long, 10,000+ word file.
I can’t express the level of detail in this document. It includes so many highly useful tips and procedures that operators usually have to discover on their own.
The material ranges from calibration of machine & materials, to key resin concepts, to terminology, to resin handling, to quality management, to typical failures, to print orientation, to support structures, to hollowing, and even post processing.
If you intend on operating a resin 3D printer, it should be MANDATORY for you to read this document. It should be mandatory even if you already operate a resin 3D printer; you will almost certainly learn many things you were not aware of.
This document would have saved me countless hours, liters of wasted material and more, had I known of it years ago. It can save you time and money, too.
While the JDR-Tech document is extraordinarily useful, it also indicates the absolutely poor manner in which resin 3D printer manufacturers have handled the technology.
Manufacturers have designed their systems and software in ways that, while allow machine operation, also cause many of the issues described in the JDR-Tech document. If machines and software were better, then this document could be a lot shorter.
Secondly, manufacturers have done a poor job of educating their customers on how to properly use their equipment. I have never seen any manufacturer instructions even remotely close to what JDR-Tech has done.
If you’re a resin 3D printer operator, I strongly recommend reading this document from end to end.
Via Google Docs and YouTube
