Embed objects in clear resin

Greetings folks,

Does anyone know if it’s possible to embed objects in clear resin, like drop an object in the tank and print around it.

Hello Jenny,

I would think this would be very difficult if not impossible.  You have to remember that objects are made upside down.  With them being upside down, there wouldn’t be anything to hold the object in place until the space is closed.  Also there may not be enough room to slip the object into a space between the cured part and the tray during the print process.

You could print an object in two halves and put the object in as you merge the two sides… but then you would have a seam would might not be desired.

Anyone else have an idea or trick to make this possible?

Because of the way layer-based additive manufacture works, you cannot embed a foreign object into the solid interior of a design. The reason should be easy to visualize: the printer builds the solid interior layer by layer, so your foreign object would have to intersect with the resin vat.

Instead, what you can do is simulate the effect by post-print trickery. Using 3d editing software, create a hollow inside of the solid interior of the object just a little bigger than the foreign object you want to embed. Then bisect the object along a convenient plane. Create a small “fill channel” that connects the inside hollow with the exterior of the object. It can either reside along the bisection plane or in any other convenient place. Now print the two halves you just made.

After the print is finished and the two halves are cured, put the foreign object you wish to embed inside the hollow area and join the two halves (with the foreign object loose inside the hollow). Draw up some liquid resin with a syringe and inject it into the hollow through the fill channel, and also let the fill channel itself fill up. With the part still clamped, let it cure in sunlight for a few hours (or in a UV box if you have access to one).

I haven’t tried this so I can’t say it works, but it might be possible.  If you printed something with a square cavity straight up and down so the hole is oriented in the Z direction you could theoretically pause the print a layer before it sealed off the square and stick something in there just smaller than the cavity.  As long as it wasn’t larger (in the Z direction) than the last printed layer it would never touch the bottom of the resin tray when you restarted it and wouldn’t disrupt the print.

The only problem is getting enough room between the build platform and the tray to put something in the hole/cavity.