If you read my blog regularly, you might know that I try to push the accuracy of resin printing as much as possible, as I use resin printing for functional parts. We have already explored resin shrinkage, warping, blooming (part one and part two), and we also briefly touched on how temperature affects precision. However, I haven’t covered one of the most notable problems – cross-layer curing.

When you have geometry without overhangs, you don’t have to care. However, in practice, some overhangs are often necessary. In this post, we won’t look at techniques to avoid overhangs, and we will also not deal with overhangs that need to be supported. We will focus on the overhangs that are nicely printable – e.g., steep ones or such that cannot be supported, e.g., metric threads. Yes, you can actually print functional M3 threads right out of the printer. If you use the right resin and give the trial-and-error approach a chance, you can also get somewhat functional M2 treads.

How is a layer formed, and what is cross-layer curing

To fully understand the problem of dimensional inaccuracy caused by cross-layer curing, we first must understand how a layer in an LCD resin printer is formed. The general idea is – I hope ­– clear. A build plate sinks into the resin tank so that a thin layer of resin is between the resin tank film and the already printed part of the model. The LCD exposes this thin layer of resin to UV light and cures the resin. See the image below:

The following observations are noteworthy:

Continue reading “Cross-layer Curing and Layer Bulging on Resin Printers: Enemy of Overall Dimensional Accuracy and Printed Threads” →

The summer is over, and winter is near in the northern hemisphere. What does it mean? The resin printing groups are getting full of questions regarding suddenly failed prints. Why is it so? What can you do to prevent the failures? Note that you should continue reading even if it is not cold outside but you experience print failures. In this post, I will summarize all my findings on various ways a resin print can fail and tell you what you can do about it. The advice I present is no random guess; it is formed from many experiments, and all of them are supported by data (you can read all my other posts that explain the topic in depth).

I know this isn’t a flashy TikTok/Youtube video, and reading this post will take you about 15 minutes. But trust me, I think reading this thoroughly can save a lot of headaches, time, and money in the resin wasted on failed prints.

The short summary is as follows:

• read this blog post that explains what goes wrong,
• and follow this blog post that explains what UVTools post-processing passes to add proper rest times.
• If you are willing to spend money, ensure that your resin is at a constant temperature during the whole print and across prints (e.g., via heater)

If you want the full story, continue reading:

Continue reading “The Winter is Coming – B̶r̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶Y̶o̶u̶r̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ –Prepare Your Resin Printer And Prevent Print Failures” →