3D Printing… Where do I start?

[blinky465 17025xp 0]

I found scrubbing tends to break fragile/thin parts of a model if you’re not too careful. And, tbh, with acetone, you don’ t need to. When I used IPA I used to leave my minis soaking for about 10-15 minutes and even after that, I’d take them out and have to give them a quick rub down with a soft brush to make sure all the uncured resin was out of the deepest recesses (otherwise after curing, the minis look a bit “soapy” as the finer details are obsured).

@warzan refuses to “post-cure” his prints, and there is a benefit to this, as it keeps the resin slightly “springy”. I find with genuine Anycubic resin, post-curing tends to harden it to a glass-like brittle finish. Personally, I stick to ABS-like resin or eco-resin and I like the finish after curing.

My process is print, leave to drip (most of my prints run for 5 hours or more so I leave them running overnight) then remove and rinse, one mini at a time in acetone for about 15-20 seconds at a time. If there’s lots of “scaffold” or I can see that there are lots of places where uncured resin might get trapped, I might stretch it to 30 seconds.

I leave each mini on a paper towel to dry (the acetone evaporates pretty quickly but you can pat them dry if you’re impatient) then dunk them, one at a time, into scalding hot water – this makes the supports much easier to remove; the minis are quite “rubbery” at this point – the acetone and the hot water makes they quite soft and pliable (this is actually a good thing, as it stops “scarring” from where you remove the supports and also makes them less prone to snapping as you get in there with your scalpel/clippers).

Only after removing all the supports to I lie them under a UV nail lamp and let it run for the full 120 seconds. Flip the minis over, cure the opposite side (I find just doing the front and back sufficient) and you’re done! I’ve also left minis on a window ledge to cure over a couple of hours too (although glass is supposed to block UV enough seems to get through to do the necessary curing on the resin). If you’re happy to do your curing during daylight hours, sunlight should suffice. If you’re impatient or want to prep your minis in the evenings (now that the nights are drawing in) a simple UV nail lamp from ebay for about £15 is more than enough.

 

[iceeagle85Participant 4965xp 0]

So I did my first tets print, the file that comes with the printer and it worked, nothing exploded no one died 🙂
Of course I got some questions now, I cleaned everything today, the tools, the vat, the printing bed/head (whatever it is called). But I want to print some minis today.
My question is how do you clean your printers and if I want to print on do I have to empty and clean the vat?

And how often can a funnel be used and is there a less smelly Resin? I’m using the Basic TRansulcent Green Resin from Anycubic and that smell is awful.

 

[blinky465 17025xp 0]

Anycubic’s own brand is pretty pungent. I use ST and Elegoo resins and either I’m much more used to the smell, or they’re not as stinky – I couldn’t say which! (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FD84353/ )

You can leave your resin in the vat – I often leave mine for weeks and weeks on end. But find and print/lasercut yourself a resin cover! (there’s an AnyCubic vat cover on thingiverse I printed years ago that’s still going strong). The only thing is, if it’s been standing for, say, a month or more (not often, but it has happened) I give the resin a stir with a soft-tipped cotton bud before printing (or if it’s really cold and I can see that the resin is starting to “separate”).

I only clean my vat when I’ve had any kind of failure (again, that rarely happens for me, but when it does, I *always* clean the vat fully). If there’s a chance any amount of cured resin might be floating about in the resin, clean the vat (else it’ll damage your screen). Otherwise, it’s fine to leave it in there (with a light-proof lid over it).

[blinky465 17025xp 0]

Your funnels (those paper filters with a bit of mesh in the bottom?) can be used as many times as you like – until either the mesh fails – and lets solid bits though – or gets so gummed up with resin, it stops letting the liquid through. I use a metal tea strainer – it means after filtering, I can rinse it in acetone easily.

ALWAYS clean your print head and your tools. It’s also good practice to mop up any spills *as soon as they happen* and if the area around your prints starts to feel sticky (no matter how careful I am, this always seems to happen after a while) give everything *non-plastic* a wipe down with acetone (for plastic stuff, use IPA if you have it, or regular house-hold cleaner also works if you’re thorough).

[blinky465 17025xp 1]

If you’re rinsing your prints in IPA, try acetone (you can get a bottle of nail varnish remover for cheap from the chemist just to try it out). It’s a game-changer! 10-15 seconds instead of 15-20 minutes. Super-crispy details. Slightly softens contact points on the supports, which makes removing them (by soaking the mini in hot water after cleaning) really easy.

[iceeagle85Participant 4965xp 0]

So I have already printed some minsi but know I want to ask all the smart people here if you know good files for basing
Not necessarily whole bases but basing bitz, stuff like this: https://www.myminifactory.com/users/Pellinor

What I’m looking for is plants for jungle/Catachan and mining equipment, crystals, walkways for my Genestealer Cult.

And does anyone know files for christmas, you know trees, presents, snowman, reeinders ans Santa?

 

[blinky465 17025xp 0]

Its’ the one area I struggle with for my minis. By the time I’ve finished painting, the base is often little more than a plain black disc!

I print quite a few sci-fi minis and have a few “textures” of sci-fi/cyberpunk tiles that I just put into Blender and “boolean intersect” to create a disc/slice to glue onto a base. I’ve never thought of printing little bits and bobs to glue onto a base – that link you left has a load of freebie greebles that would be ace for basing – nice find! I’ve spent a fortune on Patreon in the last couple of years, so tend to just print complete bases when I need them.

[sundancer 42713xp 0]

By the time I’ve finished painting, the base is often little more than a plain black disc!

Nothing wrong with that! All my Star Wars: Legions minis look like that!

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