A UV lamp, magnetic stirrer and isopropanol are just a few of the accessories needed for resin printing. However, they are not the only ones. Read this guide to find out the essential resin 3D printer accessories you need to have.
Resin 3D printers produce more accurate and finer 3D printed models than FDM 3D printers. Getting started with resin 3D printing is also easy for individuals, thanks to budget resin 3D printers such as Elegoo Mars, Anycubic Photon, Nova3d Elfin, among others.
In this guide, we go through the important resin 3D printing essentials you need.
Let’s get started.
Essential Resin 3D Printing Accessories You Need
1. Safety Gloves
Resin 3D printing comes with its risks. For health reasons, you should ensure the resin or uncured material does not come into contact with your skin. If it does, this can lead to irritations and allergic reactions. Therefore, always wear disposable gloves when printing.
AVAILABLE ON WALMART
Safety gloves are available in different sizes and materials. We use inexpensive nitrile gloves for our tests.
2. Respiratory Masks
The work area should also be well ventilated. During printing. some fumes are produced and you don’t want to inhale them. However, thanks to the pressure room covers, only a small amount of the fumes end up in the room air.
AVAILABLE ON WALMART
When the finished prints are cleaned with 99.9 percent isopropanol, vapors and a strong odor develop. For your safety, you should wear respiratory masks. There are protective masks available for single use as well as more expensive models with replaceable filters.
We use relatively cheap disposable masks (FFP2). However, in the medium term, it is worth buying a higher quality mask.
Safety Goggles
If you rinse your prints with a spray bottle, you should also protect your eyes. A single drop of resin or isopropanol in the eye is dangerous. Here, wearing simple safety goggles will be useful.
AVAILABLE ON WALMART
Tape
During printing, if there is a leak in the resin tank, the liquid resin may get inside the printer and damage it. To avoid this, tape the edges around the exposure monitor with Kapton tape.
If you work properly here, you will prevent unnecessary damage without affecting the print.
AVAILABLE ON WALMART
Anycubic understands this issues and therefore, ships the Mono X with a masked display.
Isopropanol Alcohol
It is not only the liquid and UV-reactive resin that are required for printing with resin. Before the printed products come under a UV lamp for final curing, they must be freed from resin adhesions and cleaned. As mentioned above, isopropanol alcohol is also used.
AVAILABLE ON WALMART
While isopropanol packed in 500 to 1000 ml bottles is relatively expensive, prices are cheaper for larger containers. We recommend buying isopropanol alcohol in 5 liter batches. Buying small units is not economical. The only advantage with buying the small units is that it’s easier to handle the bottles since they are small.
Metal Sieve
If the remaining resin is to be returned to a bottle after printing, it should be filtered with a sieve. Some printers are shipped with disposable paint screens. However, these screens are quickly used up. Although the sieves are also made of metal, they must be cleaned thoroughly.
AVAILABLE ON WALMART
If you don’t have a metal sieve, you can use cheap disposable sieves.
Foil Bottoms
The foil bottoms of the resin tanks are also part of the consumables. Although the FEP films do not break immediately, they become unusable if they are used frequently or treated improperly.
Replacement foils are available either from the respective 3D printer manufacturer or from third-party suppliers. If you use different types of resin alternately, consider whether a replacement resin tank is worthwhile.
These tanks come with a matching lid. Therefore, the entire tank does not have to be cleaned and rinsed after each print (which also costs resin). The unused tank is simply exchanged for another one and then stored protected from UV light until the next use. Such replacement tanks are made of aluminum and plastic.
However, the cheap version made of resin plastic tanks has a non-replaceable foil base. If this is damaged or scratched, it must be thrown away. In the medium term it is worth investing a little more money here.
Curing Chambers & UV Lamps
There are curing chambers, or wash & cure stations, for cleaning and final curing of the printed products. The curing chambers are available from various manufacturers, including Anycubic (Anycubic Wash & Cure), Phrozen (Phrozen Cure V2), Wanhao (Wanhao Boxman UV Curing Chamber) Elegoo (Elegoo Curing Station), Creality (Creality Wash & Cure) and more.
AVAILABLE ON PHROZEN3D
The curing stations come in a wide range of prices. For example, XYZprinting and Formlabs curing stations are quite expensive. As practical as the finished solutions look, they are ultimately a chic combination of magnetic stirrer and UV lamp with turntable.
For small objects, you can clean them with isopropanol and a spray bottle. If necessary, you can also use a soft toothbrush to clean. If the print product is larger and more complex, you can use a magnetic stirrer or an ultrasonic bath. Both devices are cheap and help to remove resin residues in hard-to-reach places.
A UV lamp with a light wavelength of 405 nm is required to harden the cleaned print result. Such lamps are available, for example, as spotlights or as LED strips. We use a combination of both, along with a plastic bucket.
AVAILABLE ON MATTERHACKERS
To ensure that the objects really harden properly in all places, we also use a small motorized turntable. This gets its power from integrated solar cells.
For small print products, such as tabletop figures, UV lamps, which are also suitable for curing nail polish can be used. This chic solution is cheap, but it will only work for small models.
Spatulas
To get the finished prints off the printing plate, most printers come with a plastic spatula. Unfortunately, these are not particularly resilient and wear out quickly. Metal spatulas are more durable but damage both the printed product and the printing plate. We have therefore ordered half a dozen inexpensive plastic spatulas.
AVAILABLE ON MATTERHACKERS
The magnetic pressure plates made of flexible sheet steel, which have been available since the end of 2020, are really practical. After the printing process, they are removed and the printed object is released by slightly bending the steel sheet. For resin 3D printers with a magnetic print bed, scratches and damaged prints should be a thing of the past.
Side Cutters and Files
To remove the support structure, you can use a side cutter that comes with you resin printers.
However, sometimes, traces of the support will remain visible on the surface of the printed objects. To remove them, you can use files of different sizes and shapes. For some prints, processing with a deburrer will be helpful.
AVAILABLE ON WALMART
Conclusion
Working with resin requires more effort than printing with filament. To avoid health issues, always work with a mask and gloves. If you use a spray bottle for cleaning, you also need safety goggles.
While the UV lamp and files for post-processing are only needed once, other accessories as consumables. Therefore, if you print a lot, you should always have a small supply of isopropanol alcohol, filters and FEP films at home.
