A First Resin Project

This project takes one small print through every step of resin work, so that each step is practiced once before you try anything ambitious. It assumes you have worked through the Resin Beginner Path up to washing and curing. The print is deliberately boring: a small test model from your printer or resin maker, or a simple shape of your own about the size of a matchbox.

1. Read the SDS and set up protection

Every resin comes with a Safety Data Sheet. Read the one for the bottle you will use, not a different resin's. As one example, Formlabs' SDS for its Grey Resin says the resin may cause an allergic skin reaction and serious eye irritation, tells users to wear protective gloves, protective clothing and eye protection, to use it only with adequate ventilation, and to wash hands after handling. Formlabs' handling guide adds nitrile or neoprene gloves (not latex), soap and water for resin on skin, and no alcohol or other solvent on skin.

Put out everything before you open the bottle: gloves, eye protection, paper towels, a tray, your wash container and a sealable waste container. Resin PPE covers choosing them. Water-washable resin needs the same protection; it is not harmless and it is not drain-safe.

2. Choose the model

A maker's test model is the best first print because the maker has already checked that it prints with their settings, and it usually includes small features that show whether exposure is right. If you would rather design your own, keep it small, solid and simple: a short cylinder with a few raised letters on top, or a small block with holes of different sizes. Avoid large flat plates and hollow shells for now; both bring problems covered in later lessons.

3. Orient and support it

Do not lay the model flat on the build plate or put a large flat face parallel to the vat. Prusa explains that large flat horizontal areas need a lot of force to separate from the bottom of the tank each layer, and that tilting the model spreads the supports more evenly and gives a better-looking surface. Prusa also says to minimize islands: spots that would start in mid-air with nothing beneath them.

1. Tilt the model so no large face is parallel to the plate.
2. Keep the side you care about most facing away from the supports.
3. Use your slicer's automatic supports, then check the island or unsupported-area view and add supports where it flags anything.

Resin Orientation and Supports explains the choices in detail.

4. Exposure

Use the exposure settings your resin maker publishes for your printer and layer height. There is no universal exposure time. If the maker does not list your printer, run an exposure test before this project, and read Resin Exposure Settings for what each value does.

5. Print

1. Shake or stir the resin as the maker says, and fill the vat no higher than its maximum line.
2. Check that the vat film and build plate are clean (see Vat, Film and Build Plate Care).
3. Start the print and close the lid. Stay nearby for the first layers.

6. Remove, wash and cure

Wearing gloves and eye protection, remove the build plate and let excess resin drip back into the vat. Take the part off the plate over a tray. Wash it with the method and liquid your resin maker specifies, then let it dry and cure it as the maker says. Washing and curing times vary by resin, and the details are in Washing and Curing Resin Prints. Remove the supports when the maker's instructions say to; Finishing Resin Prints covers the options.

7. Clean up and handle the waste

The Formlabs SDS says not to discharge the resin into public wastewater or surface waters and to dispose of contents and containers by local, regional and national regulations. Formlabs' handling guide applies the same rule to resin dissolved in alcohol, partly cured resin and anything contaminated with it. That covers gloves, paper towels, support scraps and used wash liquid. Collect them in your sealed waste container and follow Resin Waste and Disposal and your local rules.

Wipe spills with paper towels and wash the surface with soap and water, as Formlabs advises, then take off your gloves without touching the outside and wash your hands.

8. Inspect and record

Look at the part closely. Are the small features sharp? Is the surface free of tacky spots? Did any support fail? Note the resin, layer height, exposure, orientation and wash and cure times that worked. If something went wrong, the troubleshooting pages for layer separation, prints stuck to the film and sticky prints start from what you see.