I would like to know out of the three basic high resolution resins. Which one is more handling friendly? Which one is more likely to survive some bumping, handling. Which one has more reliable printing characteristics? I ask because I need to order more high def resin. I was using the gray resin which looked great but seemed a lick fickle when printing larger flat surfaces.
Thanks for your time.
The issue with printing large flat surface may be in your orientation. Grey and black are supposedly the best for fine details. I’d say they all handle the same within the standard resin category.
You might check out the engineering materials page which has a graphic towards the bottom comparing the material properties for our Standard and Engineering Resins. If you’re consistently noticing issues with large flat surfaces, orientation might be an issues as @cjryker06 mentioned and we’re happy to help out on the forums.
The reason I’m asking these questions is because I have read some posts that talk about how brittle or how the gray resin warps and cracks when done printing. I know they are suppose to be the same. But the posts say other wise. So I just want to make sure my next resin purchase fits my needs.
Some claim black and grey are more or less brittle, but from a formulation view, they should be the same. So take it with a grain of salt as not everyone uses the same equipment and process. My grey have all been fine. Warps can be from curing after support removal on thinner parts. I always cure with supports on to avoid this. A warp can lead to a crack and son on.
I always cure with the supports. And still had cracks with the gray resin.
Are you getting all the alcohol dried off quickly prior to curing?
I couldn’t say. I dip them then let them air dry for about 15 minutes.
That may be your problem in general. From what I’ve always read and been told, if you don’t get all the alcohol dried off or you let the parts sit with alcohol on them for too long, it can lead to structural failures. this would be cracks, cracks leading to warps, discoloration or accelerated strength loss.
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That’s something I did not know.
Thanks!
Allowing parts to fully dry is important for long-term strength. The IPA swells parts slightly and curing them before they’ve returned to their original state can lead to issues like cracking. Try letting parts dry for 1-2 hours before curing them and let us know if that corrects this for you!
I haven’t used the new resins but I always rinse off the print in water before curing
After IPA? The water doesn’t have any kind of impact on the resin before it’s cured?
Just rinsing off is not enough. You really need it to wait for the IPA to evaporate as it’s in the part. You might get away with it with the standard resin, but something like high temp resin is very sensitive to residual IPA while curing.
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If you’re in a hurry, blow-drying the print with an airbrush (with the compressor set to as high as it goes) can do wonders. Especially when your object has cavities / is hollow.
I usually airbrush-dry them immediately after the IPA bath, then let them dry for an extra 20-30 minutes.
The worst thing you can do is put a print out in the sun while still soaked in IPA - like someone said of watching the parts disintegrate in the IPA in another thread, “it’s only fun the first few times”. In this case, they don’t disintegrate, they just blow up or crack into pieces. I had a stand for a figurine (flat, large area, hollow) blow up into a completely concave, lense-like shape once (should’ve been a flat cylinder).