"How I Do It" - 3D Printing

 The taste for resin can be acquired,

but there's no need to acquire it. 

- Raymond Postgate

Hey gang, welcome back to another Friday on the Art of Caesura!

We've been going pretty strong with the 3D printing content for the past few weeks. From our contemplative meditation on 3D printing, to a more functional approach; we've explored the why of 3D printing and then looked at everything you need to get into it, before looking, last week, at the digital side of 3D printing. Today, I thought we would finish out our coverage of 3D printing (sort of) by putting it altogether, walking you through my workflow - the practical steps that I take to actually do the 3D printing. 

Three small caveats: while this will mark the end of consecutive weeks of coverage of 3D printing, it only opens the doors to many future posts of looking at the fruits of my labours; looking at the models that I've printed, painted and plan to play with! Secondly, the workflow that I describe today is just what I do - and I am happy with the results vs. the amount of time I invest. You might have a different way that fits better into your lifestyle, if it works for you, great! 

Finally, this post might be overly detailed for you; I just know that when I was starting out, I would have loved to have a detailed breakdown of exactly how someone more experienced fit everything together. 

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of me actually doing this stuff, because I don't want to risk getting uncured resin on my phone while I'm in the throes of this process. 

Slice and Dice:

Feel free to check out last week's post for the details of this step, but the way I fit it into my life is, I follow a bunch of 3D artists on social media so I'm often perusing their work just for fun. I'll screenshot the ones I like, to remember them for later. 

Then, every so often, when my 14-month old daughter is having a nap in my arms, I'll do all the computer stuff: download the STLs and a prepare, slice, and save a few build plates worth. Storing up a few prepared build plates like this makes it super efficient when I come around to printing. 

Printing:

I tend to print for about a week to 10 days straight, then I go fallow for a few weeks until I've build up enough projects to start again. The most time-consuming active part of the printing process is emptying the vat and cleaning everything out; so by continuously printing (as long as you are careful and haven't had any failures) you can mitigate this step, saving loads of time. 

So, if I'm starting day 1 of a printing run, first thing in the morning, I'll head out to the garage, plug in my brewers belt (how I heat my resin vat), pour the resin into the machine, plug in the USB key, select the file and hit "print". Quick and easy, done in less than 10 minutes. 

That night (14 hours later) I'll pop out to the garage, put the bib on the printer to protect the internals from drips of resin, remove the build plate, use my silicone spatula to squeegee off as much excess resin as possible (many people print a little hanger to help resin drip off, but my workflow doesn't allow for that much time). I then remove the models from the build plate onto a silicone mat (check the build plate and the vat to ensure that there were no fails), and then transfer them to my wash station and set them to clean for about 12 minutes. 

While they are washing, I clean off the build plate (ensuring that there are no remaining bits of models that weren't scraped off), and very carefully and thoroughly run a silicone spatula systematically along the bottom of the vat (to mix the resin, but mostly to further check that there are no failed bits in the bottom of the vat). It would be more thorough to empty the vat (filtering the resin) each time to properly check the PFA, but I have found that if one is careful enough, this can be worked around. I then clean my spatulas and work top. 

Next, I replace the build plate and start printing the next file.

At this point the wash station will be finished, I remove the models, placing them back onto the silicone mat to air dry (if you cure them too soon after the isopropyl alcohol step it will leave a white residue). And then that's it for that session. I can do it in about 20 minutes. 

The following morning, I will repeat the previous evening's process, except I will also cure the models that have been air drying overnight (the curing time varies greatly depending on what I'm printing, but as a very rough estimate, I cure for 4 minutes per side). I also use a UV flashlight to cure the insides of hollow models. 

Depending on my life / work schedule I might miss a couple of mornings / evenings of this process. No big deal. As long as any steps involving uncured resin are out of direct sunlight and the area is well ventilated, none of this stuff is super time-critical. I prefer not to leave printed models hanging on the build plate over the resin vat for days at a time (if something detached and punctured the vat, it would be disastrous), so if I'm short on time I will either try to nip out and at least just remove the build plate and set it on the silicone mat or not start a new print if I anticipate not having much time over the following days. 

That's kind of it! Rinse and repeat (literally). If I were to do this process morning and evening for a week that would be 14 build-plates worth, which would be about 10 Trench Crusade armies! 

Thanks for tuning in over the past month an a half as we've looked at all this 3D printing stuff. Let me know if any questions remain and I'll be happy to answer them in the comments below. 

I can't wait to show you some of the awesome minis (and not-so-minis) that I've been printing!

I'll see you next week on The Art of Caesura!

Watching: Severance (Season 2)

Waiting: (Impatiently for) Doom the Dark Ages

Next Week:

Wakanda forever...