Over the summer I picked up a secondhand Saturn 2 to play around with. Pretty quickly got it dialed in and was getting good prints out of it, mostly miniatures for tabletop games
With the holidays and such I had to take a couple months off from printing, and in that time it got cold. My printer is set up in my basement and right now the temperature down there is usually hanging around maybe 55 degrees fahrenheit (around 12-13C)
And I just cannot get prints to adhere to the plate. The handful that have stuck have come out pretty nice, so my overall settings can’t be too far off, but we’re talking about maybe 2 or 3 useable prints from a whole batch that I used to come out without an issue.
I’m using grey sunlu ABS-like resin, which is what I was using before and got pretty decent results
I’m using a wham bam magnetic build plate, which hasn’t caused me any issues before (well at least not since I figured out that my printer came with 2 plates and that one was already on the machine,) I’ve cleaned the plate thoroughly and scuffed it up a bit with a brass wire brush. I’ve also re-leveled the printer using the same process I have since I first got it.
My FEP is also fairly fresh, I replaced it a few months back and only did about 2 or 3 prints before I took my little break from printing
It’s possible my settings are a little different, I had to make some changes to my computer and didn’t write down my old settings, but I’m pretty sure I had pretty much settled on the recommended settings I’m using now.
So pretty much the only thing I can figure is that it’s a temperature issue.
I know some people preheat their resin in some hot water before printing, but personally I tend to leave resin in the vat and top it off as needed, I usually have something lined up to print next so it doesn’t sit there very long, and I don’t want to deal with the potential mess of pouring it back into the bottle if I don’t have to.
I’m also aware of things like the thermalvatband or other ways to heat your printer/resin. That’s certainly an option but I’d rather not spend money on another gadget if I can avoid it.
And like I said, the couple of prints that have turned out have actually been pretty good, my only issue is them just not wanting to adhere to the bed.
I’m gonna try cranking the burn-in times way up and lowering the lift speed way down and see where that gets me. If that doesn’t work out though, does anyone have any other ideas on things I should try out?
More exposure time on first layers.
Yeah that seems to be the key here, I’m doing a 60 second burn-in time for the bottom layers now, and lowered the lift speed and things are coming out a lot better
I’m still having adhesion issues on about half the plate, but I’m pretty sure I’m just going to need to re-level again to fix that
May still look into a heating solution but as long as they stick to the plate, everything seems to be coming out fine otherwise
Get a small portable heater and put it in an enclosure with your printer.
like this.
not this
I use this.
Your temperatures are too low even for the datasheet specified storage conditions of the resin (15-35C), trying to print with it that cold is simply a fools errand.
60 fahrenheit is the bare minimum for resin printing. Ideally you would not print resin less than 70. The resin you’re using is best above 75 and into th 80s.
You need to find a heating solution. The vat band is cheap and you can pre-warm resin by using a second on on the bottle to keep your speed up.
Resin printing is a very consumable heavy hobby, if you can’t afford a couple heating bands I’m worried about your ventilation and PPE situation.
I’m worried about your ventilation and PPE situation.
It’s vented outside through flexible ducting with an inline fan, I have VOC monitors around my basement, and I wear a p100 organic vapor and acid rated respirator, disposable nitrile gloves, goggles, and a rubber apron
But do go on being a judgemental prick for no reason. I’m not skimping on safety, but if I can save myself a few bucks not buying a boring piece of hardware I don’t really need, I’d prefer to do that.
That’s money that could buy me more resin, paints, disposable gloves, beer, coffee, ice cream, books, movie tickets, or countless other things that I’d rather be spending my money on.
I think it was pretty reasonable of them to worry - lots of people who don’t like spending unnecessary money also don’t like spending not-obviously-necessary money on safety equipment, and there’s plenty of material on the internet that would imply resin printing is completely safe as long as you don’t drink the stuff. Resin printing with woefully inadequate ventilation/PPE is really common, so it’s a pretty safe bet that anyone asking questions is probably also doing something unsafe without realising it, especially as resin not liking the cold is something a lot of people learn about fairly early on (unless they live somewhere where it never gets below 20°C).
