i dont mean to be so off topic but does anybody know a method to log back into an instagram account..? I was stupid lost the login password. I would appreciate any tricks you can offer me.
I also found sanding helps keep it clear. Problem is the pixel resolution leaves "stairs" on the print surfaces, small enought we can't see, but big enough to refract light and make it look not clear. The clear coat helps bridge these rough edges and let the light scatter less. Try a super low layer height, like 0.01. It makes a big difference. And you really really need to tune in the clear stuff layer cure time, any bit of over exposure makes it harder to get it clear. I've done a lot of experimenting, and it's super tough to nail it lol.
Yeah I forgot to mention everything was a .05 but for sure could test that out at .01 and see. Glad to hear someone else has been monkeying around with this!
@@UncleJessy Definitely late to the party for this video but it's definitely worth trying Zona paper! It's a ridiculously fine sandpaper process that brings almost mirror shine to epoxy resin stuff, so would be good to see it on photopolymer as well
Back when I used to build aircraft model kits the trick to get a crystal clear canopy was to use Future Floor Polish on them. It's a clear, self leveling acrylic that worked really well. I imaging a clear gloss spray paint would be the same, but thought I would throw that out there.
PSA: Don’t buy IPA more concentrated than 70/30. It is extremely hygroscopic and rapidly absorbs H2O from the air. 70/30 is the equilibrium point, and that’s what you’ll end up with after a day (maybe shorter if it’s really humid) unless you keep it sealed in the bottle it came in. For work, I investigated a case of cardiac catheter failures that was linked to this. The SOP called for 99% IPA applied to a wipe and used to clean the devices prior to lubricious coating. There were a handful of devices (not for human use at that point) which essentially fell apart in the final lot of OQ/PQ testing (really final tests period). Turns out that they’d keep the 99% IPA in a squeeze bottle with a small spout (maybe 1.5mm ID nozzle) that was never sealed. The amount used for each device was quite small, so the bottle would be filled every couple of weeks. That minuscule area exposed to the atmosphere, and the air sucked into the bottle after a squeeze, was enough for the IPA to absorb H2O and dilute down to 70%. Except that the bottle ran out at some point and fresh 99% IPA was put in and used on those 5 devices, which caused chemical stress cracking in the polymer shafts.
I remember seeing someone letting his clear prints drip for longer than usual and then removing the supports and then curing without any cleaning and they stayed crystal clear
@@NoraFulcanelli How many seconds per layer to cure would you recommend? I suspect I'm over-exposing my clear resin or something, it comes off so brown even from the plate.
@@kapalakaVery dependent on what resin and what printer you use. And even with 2 identical printers, one could have a stronger display than other. Especially if you're working with a monochrome screen. My colleague said that if you're working with transparent resin, you'll even need to reduce the UV light strength of your display if you're using a monochrome screen, because it's too powerful and scatters the light too much in the clear resin.
@@kapalaka the recommended ammount the suppliers suggest. i don't do a lot of post uv curing as it increases brittleness, unless i need it to be stiff. If im doing minis very little uv curing, if you drop them the can break easier. Most of my yellowing is from post uv curing. And the print time is different from opaque resins, learned that the hard way.
When I made my hourglass with Sirayatech Blu for one of my videos I brushed on Polycrylic. I found the spray version left little dots on the print from the droplets leaving a textured finish while brushing it on left it more glass like. I also did 2 coats. The tricky part is that if the print is hollow you have to get both sides. With a pourable coating you can just pour some inside the model, swish it around, then pour it out.
Bought myself a CR10S about 2 months ago, but watching your videos is REALLY making me want my 2nd printer to be a resin printer. Love the amount of time you spent on these tests and how thorough you were. Great content.
Oh man congrats on the CR10S! I hope you're printing some helmets on that beast. The CR-10 line continues to be one of my go to printers for FDM prints. But yeah... resin... its a slipper slope haha
@@UncleJessy but of course! Iron man helmet and a Predator mask as requested from my son. Between you 3DPN and FranklyBuilt, I had to pull the trigger on a printer haha
Resin printing is easy and great! Only one motor and movement axis compared to 3+extruder for filament. Easier to troubleshoot and get good quality prints! There's good uses for both but with resin printers so cheap I say go for it!
Instead of rustoleum clear, I recommend picking up a 2k clear. Rustoleum and other store brand aerosol, use air dry, so they lose shine as they cure. 2k is chemically cleared, The same we use on automotives, so the shine you see when you spray, is the shine you get when its cured.
For the yellowing, you are going to want to use more of a violet or purple to neutralize it to a black/gray/smoke tint. However, since the yellow is not actually being removed, the print would look a touch darker then something that is clear like glass or water. The blue you were using looked too cool so that is why it still looked blue or green even opposed to a "darker" clear. You'll need to mix in a very small amount of red, maybe dip a toothpick to give a touch. A drop would likely be too much. To make something clear, what I heard is painting resin with a very soft paint brush after curing partway, then curing the rest of the way would help a lot. You probably already know that because the layers are made by pixels which defuses light like frosted glass. Smoothing those pixels is what will make things clear, so filling the spaces the same material or material with the same light refraction properties. Clear coat probably does not match the refraction and so limits how clear you can get. However, you know for sure the resin it was printed from does match the refraction so it would work very well. I have even seen lens made using the resin painting method. (Be it, cheap lens quality, but hey good lenses require fine grinding.)
@@Binary_Omlet It will slow process. Yellowing occurs from oxygen before the resin is cured (setting a timer the first time you pop the top of your container) and once cured the yellowing comes mainly from heat and/or UV breaking down the polymer. A UV blocker will run interference and slow that breakdown but it's going to happen eventually, just pushing the end result of 3 months of UV exposure to 12 months for the same color. To further reduce yellowing you need a clear coat with UV blockers to uh.. block the UV and an additive called HALS (Hindered-Amine Light Stabilizers ) that handle the oxidation that causes yellowing. Unfortunately you are looking at automotive level clear coats or a specialized coating that probably require a 2 part mix or doesn't just come in a spray can. It adds something like 20% to the manufacturing cost for HALS on top of the UV blockers so if the manufacturer doesn't go out of their way to say they contain HALS or free radical inhibitors then it probably isn't in the clear coat.
After curing, I stuff my prints in the oven, put it to around 60 degrees celcius and turn the oven on. By the time the oven hits 60, clear prints will have become more clear and any yellowing is pretty much undone completely.
I found that recently cured prints tend to dull gloss clear coat. Waiting hours for the prints to fully off-gas and stabilize seems to yield better results. Also, try 2K clear coat, as I think the lack of solvents (catalytic curing), seems to help keep the prints clear.
@@UncleJessy lol I actually just printed him him last night he is amazing looking also I’m new to resin printing I have yet to buy any clear resins yet
I have used a 'headlight restoring kit' quite a while ago to refresh our yellowed and oxidised car headlight (plastic) glass. The kit came with fine sanding paper, some polishing paste and a drill mount little buffer. Using it, the headlights lost most of their yellowing, became nice and smooth, but also became opaque due the microscopic scratches which were now even and totally covered the 'glass'. Then the kit had a tube of 'UV protectant' which also smelled like paint. I painted it on as directed and voila! the headlights looked brand new again! Completely clear and transparent. I would wager that this stuff, which is available on its own, would have the same effect on washed and cured resin prints. My observation is that the pores created by washing the prints stay there after curing - and get filled by this clear liquid, just like the tiny scratches on the headlights. I will try the stuff shortly, you have inspired my curiosity, Uncle Jessy.
For real! If you have a better method... LEMMI KNOW! I want to try out some other options with another followup to this! ResinLapse - The easiest way to create Resin 3D Printed Time lapses -www.etsy.com/listing/970847090/resinlapse-resin-3d-printer-timelapses
The whole water curing thing a is a big fad, ive gone into detail in a discord I hang out in about why its just a waste of time. there is a couple videos kicking around on YT, one where the guy sights a research paper on "photo-initiator oxidation in photo polymer resin". But he completely misconstrues the results of the research paper. I am tempted to do a video on this subject over on my Resin engineer channel. The best results you will get on clear is to test out the Anti-aliasing options in your slicer.
My best results Are from using a brush on gloss clear coat than a spray clear coat. I was using Elegoo's Water washable clear blue resin, which I would wash with Simple green, and then rinse with warm water as I removed the supports. I don't see any evidence of yellowing on my prints either. Though I used Elegoo's mercury for curing as well.
I have had EXCELLENT results after curing by spraying on Krylon Crystal Clear Glaze. I did a Terminator bust in Elegoo translucent green and sprayed it with the glaze and it was perfect.
you could potential try dipping prints in Pledge Revive It Floor Gloss, its a clear high gloss acrylic finish that lots on molders uses on clear parts like airplane canopy's or even airbrushed as a lacquer for more slight satin finish, might work on 3d print
i found when experimenting with anycubic standard green (translucent) resin that it is the alcohol that dull the shine of the resin. like it is attacking the surface of the resin. so my technique was to very quickly dunk the print in alcohol for a second and then thoroughly clean it in normal water. then let it dry and cure. gave me amazing results that made the resin look just as transparent and colored as in the bottle
A few things I've found: - Automotive clearcoat is better - Print solid - If you're going to take your prints outside and don't want them to turn even more yellow, get yourself a car headlight restoration kit with UV protectant. It's usually kind of protectant that chemically bonds to plastic like a clearcoat that blocks UV light. - If you print a flat-ish surface, you can do the old wetsand polish thing where you keep doubling your standpaper grit. Once you hit 4000 grit, go ahead and clear coat.
Dude I am so envious of you... I have been watching your videos for weeks trying to convince my woman we need a printer and as much as I amaze her with your videos, she keeps proving to me we can't afford it. I can't wait to see what the future holds... Maybe one day we will all be printing our homes and toys lol
AnyCubic Photon Mono for $200 brother and you cannot go wrong; it’s the best purchase I’ve made in a long, long time. I’m a newbie but, trust me, it ain’t hard to get amazing results - just be ready to do the whole ‘God please let her go to bed so I can have a few hours alone to play with my printer’ Lolol
Hey Jessy! There is one thing you forgot to test: Dont clean at all, only cure. That can make a bit more messy print regarding uncleaned resin hanging around - but I get totally translucent prints with that method! :)
I tried not cleaning and it still yellowed and just ended up looking really gross on the outside because of all the extra resin not washed off. It did however stop it from clouding as much
Hey Unc J... try the tip someone in the comments said, quick dip in ipa then water. To add to that I suggest do not let it cure in any light until the clear coat is dry. I mean let the clear coat dry in the dark. Also try airbrushing a 2k polyurethane clear coat that is reduced thin enough to limit the amount of detail reduction. When all coats are dry , cure. ....lastly, please tell us what resins you used in this video. The greens I think it was 2 different ones are amazing, also that red figure after the clear was beautiful! I bet one of the green was syratech? Keep up the excellent work brother.
Another issue is you are cleaning your prints almost right away and in doing so you are removing the thick goo that would dry shiny and clear. Just let them drip dry and be exposed to a little light in the room before washing and you'll have a more smooth surface to start with. With FDM printers the secret is extra pressure at the start by having the distance between the nozzle and the build plate more tight than usual and using a slow print speed moving nozzle slowly over the surface and using a little more heat and a lower fan speed and having ironing option on and just slightly over extruding maybe 2 or 3 percent and using extremely low layer heights so the pressure and heat smooshes the layers together. I've gotten printed rupies to to look completely clear.
@@UncleJessy I used automobile clear coat that comes with hardener and mixed 2 by 1 and 1 thinner, it looks like a glass, I got so may hate comments, telling me its resin molded lol
Great video. I'd be wary of clear coating before curing as a lot of clear coats are UV protective, so they will block the curing and leave your part under-cured
If you don't mind me asking, where did you get your Saturn? They're always sold out or price gouged whenever I look. Edit: nvm, I got one by pure chance while watching the amazon page.
I've found that the more water (including water washable resins) contacts printed clear resins the cloudier your resulting part is. I've tried to print optical parts before and one successful technique was to clean a part made with water washable resin inside a ziplock filled with mineral oil. The resulting part is transparent to this day.
@@retromodernart4426 Its been a while but I generally spent some time giving it the "shake n' bake" treatment to try and rinse off the resin inside the bag with mineral oil inside. I think I figured why not cure it in there too and just threw the whole bag into the uv curing box. Not to oversell it- it's not crystal clear optical lens material, but its very notably better than parts that get clouded by contacting water. Actually now that I'm thinking of it, I'm not sure if I skipped the alcohol step or not.
I don’t think post processing is nearly as important as which clear resin brand you are using, kind of think you should do another video with 5-10 different clear resin brands. Having worked with epoxy for a long time, the brand makes a huge difference!
from my time working with plastic model kits, try a much higher grit paper. You start achieving a clear transparency after 2000 grit, and I have always taken it to 7000 for most, and in clear/untinted up to 10000 grit. You can buy polishing compound to get an even higher shine. REmember soft sanding is going to take away the hard edges and produce some soft corners. Sanding with a hard stick will get you a flatter area to see through. Also be careful with your clear sprays, some can do wonders, some can actually only add a dull shine. My experience is to stick with some Alclad II Klear Cote, or Automotive Clear Coats. If you can add some leveling compounds (a paint additive for modelling paints) can help get a good transparency. Also, a good thing for removing support marks for clear parts is to do the same thing modellers do. Do some big supports, and grab a sharp pair of nippers and cut it with a little bit of the nub left. take your time and sand that nub down with a sand stick or cut it afterwards with some really shallow cutters. By tearing your supports off or cutting them right at the point of the part, you end up cracking it in a way that leaves a mark. You want to take as much stress off the cut as possible.
My resin crafting butt said "YES!" when I read the title, but apparently missed the "3D prints" part. 🤣 Still watched, cause I haven't spent nearly enough on resin and molds. Now I need to buy a 3D printer. 🤭
@@UncleJessy I've not had a chance to try more than 2 brands of print resin but I've found with Casting and Craft resin the harder the cured resin the better it will sand and polish. Not sure that has much effect on 3d prints as I don't know how much hardness varies. Looking forward to what you find out!
So I work with resin pours and yes, you can get a super high polished finish with going higher grit sand paper, and some super fine cut polish. That Mando visor can be clear enough to wear and still see with relatively high clarity.
I work with epoxy resin mold making and what I have found is that when you sand you need to take it up to 10,00 grit to get that smooth and clear finish. Also, I have not had a lot of luck with clear sprays, they turn yellow and are not as smooth as a resin top coat.
I clean sand then "re dip" in resin hang to let any extra drip off then without touching any surface cure it under a light. this gives me an amazing high gloss clear finish.
Clear / super blonde shellac lays up better on matte surfaces than a few layers of rattle can clear unless you upgrade to Spraymax 2K* catalyzed clear ($$) or put on several layers of conventional rattle can clear. I get near optical clear with 2 coats of ~1-1.5 lb cut shellac. Bonus, you can make the shellac on demand with IPA or denatured you already have on hand. And alcohol inks work with shellac to adjust color or even do multi / layered color translucent prints. One other coating for ultimate UV protection / anti-yellowing would be Sylvania's Headlight Restoration Essentials kit. That coating has lots of self-levelers for creating an optical grade finish on freshly sanded plastic plus tons of anti-yellowing UV inhibitors. For wet sanding, probably start at 600 or 1000 on resin prints unless you have layer lines or glitches from a print that came out not so great. Below 600 grit, it's sanding much rougher than where the surface started and really changing the shape and details more than smoothing the surface finish. *If you're going to spring for a can of Spraymax 2K clear, make sure you have enough stuff spray to use it all in one go. It's a catalyzed urethane, the same as automotive clear coats and once you pop the can, it has pretty much that day to be used. And it requires a VOC respirator -- more so than any resin, alcohol, or other solvent that you have handled. In fact, I would recommend swapping in fresh VOC filters with it.
I can't give advice on the models, but I have experience making visors, lenses and other smooth large surfaces that need to be clear. I followed a similar to what I do for blacksmithing, sanding, buffing and polishing - no clear coat. This gave me massive control over how clear/opaque my prints are. I suspect if you want to clear coat them, you will have to go through the process twice, first without the clear coat on then again with it on being carful not to remove it all. I also do all of my processing and post in a well ventilated shed doing any sanding in a filtered extraction chamber, and use a 3 stage IAP cleaning process, quick dunk in dirty IPA, quick brush in moderately clean IPA finally 2.5 minute was in clean (or dam near) in an elegoo wash and cure. I keep my resin in clear lidded containers, and put them under uv-light between every few prints to cure the resin out of them. When they start looking bad I filter the IPA though filter paper, and eventually replace it. Making sure there is no liquid resin in the final wash bath has been the most pivotal thing i've found for clean prints.
I know this is an old video, but I'm Woodworking/woodturning when we work with epoxy and we're trying to get a clear/gloss finish, we and up through the grid (220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1,000 without skipping grits), then move in to either micromesh pads, and then playoff Pulliam with a buffer (not everyone uses micromesh). Again, probably not viable for miniatures or highly detailed, but for that Mando visor in guessing you could get it near glass looking
Krylon Tripple Clear Glaze. I cure in water for just a minute or two. I also clean my stuff in Mean Green, I haven't used alcohol since it started getting difficult to get. Clear coat fills in the tiny scratches.
if you are planning to do a lot of wet sanding I highly suggest getting Micromesh wet sanding products. In a pack for a good price you get reusable/washable pads that can go up to 12,000 grit. I use them when making acrylic pens for a perfect looking surface.
I love ur videos and I got myself elegoo Mars 2 pro and mercury. I've been experimenting with the clear resin prints, but I've only done simple shapes like rupees from zelda series and oval gems. I've gotten amazing result sanding with up to 7000 grit wet sanding paper and finishing off with flitz polish. Another successful result i had was with clear uv resin used to pore casting in silicone molds. It can be little tricky but with a bit of practice, this yielded some really cool results. After a quick cure and some light sanding, clean off all the debris (it catches all the dust). Then carefully cover the surface with the clear uv resin, just enough to cover the surface evenly. It kind of felt like putting on nail polish. It also seems to naturally smooth out while its still wet. When it stops dripping, and just settles on the surface, I give it a good cure in the Mercury. At least till most of the tacky ness is gone. Another thing is to do this one both surfaces of course. I do want to test out on visor like piece because I think I can get it super transparent.
I like the Oni mask. I wonder if in the future you might try clear coating only parts of the model and keeping other parts more opaque for some contrast. Also I wonder if you could lightup something like the ONI mask with leds, kinda purge mask style
Hi, great video, thanks for sharing. Just curious about what kind of ink did you use? and I didn't understand about the clear step, is that the coating spray? Thank you though.
I know a lot of work went into this Jessy but if you haven't done an update, use 2K clear. The cans are about $25 but the clear is WAY WAY WAY YYYYYYYY better. You'll see just how shiny and clear things come out, it's a night and day difference.
I am very new to 3d printing. I watched this as an informational vid to projects I am working on. A few things crossed my mind while watching. One was the haze that envelopes headlight lenses and the cleaning there of with silicone oil sprays and cloth buffing. Another that crossed my mind was waxes. As someone mentioned floor polish for example. Being a zoids collector and some of them are of clear or translucent versions and a very old blog, by internet standards, was a product called "the treatment" applied to one of the guys clear parts zoids. The pics given by him were remarkable results. I will be trying the silicone method on a dome for a Mr. Freeze bust being made for a coworker's dream batman chess set I am working on for him. Hoping for the best.
Hobby lobby or I’m sure Amazon had little 2 inch by 2 inch square sanding foam pads near the model cars and airbrush paints. Wet sad up to about 600 with plain sand paper but then use these pads. They are really fine grit. I think they go from 1000 grit to 12000 grit! It takes time but especially for the visor you would want total transparency. You can also use a good quality clear coat and then do the sanding for the absolute best result! I was a hydro dipper and learned these techniques . I also made resin ink pens that spun on a lathe which made wet sanding way easier due to fast revolutions.
When sanding use a sanding sponge instead of just a sheet of paper and that'll make a lot of difference as it'll form around the object and won't miss as many sunken surfaces; skip over the rougher grades and just use the finer grades right away. Or use pumice on a sponge dipped in mineral oil or olive oil instead of a sanding sponge. Or just use a buffing machine set to the lowest speed and use a very soft loose sewn buffing wheel with white rouge used for silver and brass and plastic.
A bit late to the video but I didn't see anyone else mention this... I find that IPA causes a lot of my issues with translucent prints, causing that cloudy/frosted look. Due to this, I wash with Mean Green (have never noticed an issue with color) in my ultrasonic cleaner, then cure in water for just a few minutes. In this process the water actually removes the stickiness, while if I air-cure them they remain sticky even when over-cured. Final step is to clear-coat with Krylon Crystal Clear, usually needs 2 coats. When printing in the colorless resin I usually don't cure for more than a minute or two before spraying them.
So, speaking as 3D artist who primarily works in physics-based real-world materials ... most of the optical properties you're testing are based on surface smoothness. Highly clear plastics and glasses have surface smoothnesses measured in microns. Using a plastic polishing kit would give you spectacular results in my opinion.
I clean, dip my prints in polycrylic, amd lightly blow off excess with compressed air. The polycrylic seems to have some uv protection because it took 2 years for one of my prints to yellow sitting on a window sill.
What I have found (because my family was in the abrasive machine business) is that figurines cane be run through a rock tumbler or a vibration tumbler. Use walnut, then go to #20 glass bead. You've at that that point, wet sanding a detailed figure. Which does mean you might need to exaggerate your print a little, expecting abrasion.
Some people have printed my Scarlet Witch tiara in translucent red and it looks incredible. Just a spray of 2K clear on top, and amazing result. I also did this for the Starlord Blasters cartridges, clear coating and polishing the inside and outside and the result is incredible.
Also, to prevent the oranging of the clear resins, I found out it was better to spray it with a UV resistant clear and then not cure it too much, but eventually if you polish it it will also get rid of the orange
i found that _for some resins_ the prints seem way clearer since i started to run them under hot water after washing to soften the supports during removal, and then curing. maybe some of the "half washed away" outer layer gets washed off further during that process? (for other resins it just makes them goopy, fingerprinty and ruins the result, so i don't use those for prints that need support softening) a combination that works really well for its price/effort i found: 1:1 Elegoo ABSlike + "frenshion" (aliexpress fake brand as far as i can tell) cheapo fingernail gel resin, on the abslike's printing profile, washing in ancient dirty 99% IPA, washing/unsupporting under 60ish°C water (ouch), curing. have been printing structural components, miniatures, busts, etc with that, they all look and work pretty great even without a spray coat (though of course better with one). and as a bonus it's somewhere between just abslike and the expensive "tough flexy" resins in terms of hardness, so it's a bit more forgiving for tiny details in models you want to handle/drop.
I know I’m pretty late to the game here but, you can buy rattle cans of automotive 2k clear that absolutely won’t yellow and flashes pretty quick. And once you pierce the activator it can last up to a week. So if you have quite a few items to clear coat a can of automotive 2k clear may be an option, it won’t yellow and is much stronger then our typical clears.
For white resin that has discolor or turned brown, I pop prints a bowl of water and microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. Brings 'em back to pure white. May work on clear resin as well. Gotta be careful because the heat does soften prints momentarily and could warp smaller items.
I bet if you use higher grit sand paper like you said, will definitely make it better on that visor. Start with 180/220 and have at least two more progressions after with higher grits. The more you have, the better outcome. I work for a mfg company that makes wood veneered panels, and while I know wood and resin are totally different, I am assuming the process and results may be similar.
Hey Jessie. Any idea where or how I can get my hands on that living armour stl. I've been looking around and it seems like the stl. Is no longer available.
from my own personal experience with my original elegoo mars, you might be able to get slightly better results from cleaning but the biggest thing is to clean properly and use a clear coat spray after curing. while the resolution of my elegoo mars is great, its not quite good enough to make a smooth enough surface to really allow good light penetration. I normally just use IPA to clean and water to rinse, cure it, and afterwords i would apply the clear coat (uv blocking) to seal and give it less cloudy result. 2-3 even coats seems to do well for me, some models i can see being harder but I havent had much issues in my own limited experimenting.
Were you using deionized water for the water cure? Mine don't seem to haze as much with it. Shorter cure time perhaps? I'm also using a mix of pure ethyl and isopropyl (alcohol fireplace fuel).
I have found clear resin to be tricky stuff, over curing definitely yellows it even some of the colored stuff it’s just less noticeable, I under cure in cure station then let sit in gentle filtered light for a day or so taking it in and out of light source, a bit more work but better results... you can also water cure then let dry and if the piece doesn’t have too much detail that could be lost, I paint a thin layer of clear resin over my prints then cure it with a handheld light then cure normally, again be sure not to over cure this will crystal clear prints... do keep in mind that if you hollow the object you will need to put resin inside as well, I will also put clear resin inside a mini but not the outside this will preserve exterior details and give cleaner clearer looking print... the issue is the micro layers even if we can’t see the layers, think of them like rough sandpaper how it puts scratches and digs into and object, these micro layers refract light giving you a dull or satin finish, sanding and filling these layers makes it smoother and the smoother you can an object the more glass clear it will become basically what they call optically clear the light passes straight through the piece thus making it truly transparent, more fraction less transparent... So try this clean the print normal cure for 30 sec then water cure for your normal time maybe a bit less to prevent yellowing if you can or skip then paint a clear coat of same clear resin on outside let it level a bit then cure immediately this will render a nice clear result, also use a I’ve inhibiting gloss clear spray coat on outside then sun cure... obviously you can’t do this on a mini but you can water cure and clear coat inside of mini then cure again for a few seconds then use clear coat spray is last step to fill any other layer lines that remain... try this out hope it helps. Edit: also print lowest layer height as possible or bearable because again even though we don’t see it this helps with light refraction
This might seem like common sense but looking for some kind of official response to this... On a solid, not hollowed print, will a clear UV resin fully cure all the way through? With a solid print using non transparent resin, even with a curing station the inside partially cured resin will eventually find a way to sweat out of the model (even primed and printed) so I'm hoping that if I print and cure a statue with clear resin, that the longevity of the painted piece is guaranteed... Any thoughts? Like I said it seems like a "no duh" question but hey, even the clearest of windows block UV light to a certain degree 😊 thanks in advance!
have you tried just letting the parts drip the excess resin and cure it with out washing it? because the goopy layer is already molecularly smooth. clear coating just re-applies this go layer.
With clear plastic I only ever put so much effort into it, but I read an article on removing scratches from model car windshields, aircraft canopies, etc., in which they detailed using multiple grades of wet sanding getting finer and finer, then rubbing with toothpaste, then finally coating it with FUTURE floor polish. You might give that a try and see what happens. The spray on clear coat seems to be skipping the toothpaste and FUTURE. Barring toothpaste, maybe some form of plastic polish. Google how to polish plastic to clarity. That should give you some ideas. Great vid.
After curing try dipping it in Future floor wax. Might be labeled as Pledge Floor gloss. Dip it then look for bubbles or dust particles and if present, re-dip till there's none. Remove then let drip out/cure. It's acrylic based so can use Windex to clean up.
Hi Jessy, I'm looking into a Wash & Cure station but not sure which one is a good bang for buck. Now that the Plus version from anycubic is out in the wild, could you look into making a review for all of them? Maybe compared to a DIY station and then a final recommendation at the end based on your experience with each of them. This video is really helpful btw! I love the effort and edit that went into making this video! Awesome stuff
I'm printing off a space ship and was curious about the screen as a I use translucent resin. I assumed polishing the resin like normal resin... Looks like that will be best! Interesting video!
I keep telling you, once you get the process down you need to test visors and eye inserts. Maybe make the entire mando helmet smokey clear and masking off everything you want to stay clear and painting the rest.
I just saw a video about water curing. They say it works much better than standard curing methods. Have you tried this? Or would you try it to give us your take on it?
isn't the curing gassing off, and wouldn't that be stopped by the clear coat? so my question is has the clean/spray/cure version lost its toxicity as I would expect the clean/cure/spray to?
Interesting. I'm printing anycubic clear now. It still goes drastically yellow with a 2min cure, however after a week on the shelf it's gone back to white... super fascinating and i'm experimenting to see if i can replicate.
I am following this as well. I have nearly gone through a whole bottle of clear resin and tried different methods. Some turn out more yellowish than others. Instead of blue I also tried black to give the clear a "smoked" tint look. A question I have and maybe others will reply, what is the easiest way to "thicken" up resin prints? Several prints I have downloaded were designed to print on a PLA printer and parts of the print on the resin printer comes out to thin and flimsy.
That sounds more like a support structure issue. If you look up 3D Printing Pro on YT, you should be able to find videos from him that would help you fix your issues.
Hey there thanks for the additional info! For your file question... is it that the walls of the file are extremely thin? You might be able to use a service like MakePrintable.com and see if that would work
Has anyone noticed straight lines of bubbles when printing thick pieces in clear? Usually at the center mass of suction on the print. I left the resin for a while after printing so bubbles all pop, and upped my delay time so the resin can flow back under the plate. Could it possibly be cavitation in the liquid due to excessive vacuum forces, or is cavitation more a result of speed alone (i.e. mantis shrimp).
I have noticed this in relatively thin parts (2-3 mm walls) I have been trying to make using Elegoo Clear resins (both ABS-like and standard). It is like a tiny column of air bubbles, starting partway through the print. I had the vat clear of any visible bubbles before trying to print. I have tried filling the vat more and using a slower retract speed, but got a near identical result. This consistency makes me think the bubbles are forming due to some kind of chemical off-gassing or cavitation, rather than just getting entrained from the motion of the build plate/part in and out of the vat. I am now trying a few different orientations and locations on the build plate to see if I can fix it. Super frustrating! Let me know if you found a solution!
Is there a water washable red transparant resin? Or a water washable translucent/transparent resin where you can add some coloring to yourself? I'm looking for a coca cola color, the drink itself (not the bottle)
I am so used to sanding PLA that sanding resin feels amazing. I actually love printing in ABS over PLA if I am going to be sanding the print just because ABS sands pretty nice compared to weird ole gummy PLA. The first time I took sandpaper to resin, I wont lie it gave me goosebumps seeing how easy it was. However I have to admit I haven't been using a mask while sanding mostly because I am am stupid and didn't even consider it.
I've noticed that if after printing, cleaning, and curing you apply a very small amount of uncured resin on the model (with a brush or something like that) and then cure it again it ends up a lot more clear for some reason. I really don't know why, but hey, it works!
The benefits of water curing are removing gaseous oxygen from getting to the model, so in order to get the best results you will need to clean it very quickly and limit the exposure to air as much as possible before putting it into the water. This is mostly for surface quality and even curing, since water allows a more even refraction of light in small crevices of the surface. Since these tiny areas get more light and cure more it will probably cause them to look hazier. I'd imagine that coating them in clear before curing will give you similar results since you are also forming a barrier between the model and the open air. But water curing is usually done for durability and surface quality rather than clarity throughout like with clear prints. So maybe if you want clear prints go with spraying on a clear coat, but if you want durable prints go for water curing?
Just been doing some water washable and a long drain period on the build plate using a mount to tilt it in a diff direction half way through. Rinse off in a water bucket while still on build plate and then carefully remove and try not to touch your item and handle by the supports. Allowed to air dry then in the UV using large tweezers to minimise damaging/roughing up the surface. Maybe where practicable adding a removable handle will help you not touch the item surface until its cured to help remove the supports without touching the item? Not perfect but it's definitely better the less you touch the uncured surface.
I've found that dipping it in resin before curing gives me the best result. It gets rid of all those pixels refracting light weirdly and you can't get a smoother finish than that.
Any tips on how long that cure takes? I put a thin coat on a part just to test and it took forEEEVER in the cure station. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.
@@santiagoricoy1313 It should only take a few minutes. Depending on the resin, 2-5 minutes. Although I've had one that took 10 minutes to cure too. Sometimes they're stubborn
i got a question, is it possible to do a solid resin print with clear resin, but has internal details? like a crystal with internal fractures or something
You could maybe try a headlight restoration kit for your flat surfaces it comes with a the high grit sanding pads for a drill so you can do a high speed sand/buff some include a clear coat for uv protection
"the difference between screwing around and science is writing it down" ~Adam Savage lol
And don't forget failure is always an option LOL
If he actually did say this hes not wrong. Modern firearm gunpowder was discovered from some chemist spilling acids 😂😂
sounds about right
i dont mean to be so off topic but does anybody know a method to log back into an instagram account..?
I was stupid lost the login password. I would appreciate any tricks you can offer me.
Am I missing an eyebrow?
I also found sanding helps keep it clear. Problem is the pixel resolution leaves "stairs" on the print surfaces, small enought we can't see, but big enough to refract light and make it look not clear. The clear coat helps bridge these rough edges and let the light scatter less.
Try a super low layer height, like 0.01. It makes a big difference. And you really really need to tune in the clear stuff layer cure time, any bit of over exposure makes it harder to get it clear. I've done a lot of experimenting, and it's super tough to nail it lol.
Yeah I forgot to mention everything was a .05 but for sure could test that out at .01 and see. Glad to hear someone else has been monkeying around with this!
Great comment bro
@@UncleJessy Definitely late to the party for this video but it's definitely worth trying Zona paper! It's a ridiculously fine sandpaper process that brings almost mirror shine to epoxy resin stuff, so would be good to see it on photopolymer as well
Ooo starting to doable with clear resins gonna have to try this
Back when I used to build aircraft model kits the trick to get a crystal clear canopy was to use Future Floor Polish on them. It's a clear, self leveling acrylic that worked really well. I imaging a clear gloss spray paint would be the same, but thought I would throw that out there.
Spray paints dry as the particles go through the air. It's not the same as dipping something into a gloss varnish.
PSA: Don’t buy IPA more concentrated than 70/30. It is extremely hygroscopic and rapidly absorbs H2O from the air. 70/30 is the equilibrium point, and that’s what you’ll end up with after a day (maybe shorter if it’s really humid) unless you keep it sealed in the bottle it came in.
For work, I investigated a case of cardiac catheter failures that was linked to this. The SOP called for 99% IPA applied to a wipe and used to clean the devices prior to lubricious coating. There were a handful of devices (not for human use at that point) which essentially fell apart in the final lot of OQ/PQ testing (really final tests period). Turns out that they’d keep the 99% IPA in a squeeze bottle with a small spout (maybe 1.5mm ID nozzle) that was never sealed. The amount used for each device was quite small, so the bottle would be filled every couple of weeks. That minuscule area exposed to the atmosphere, and the air sucked into the bottle after a squeeze, was enough for the IPA to absorb H2O and dilute down to 70%. Except that the bottle ran out at some point and fresh 99% IPA was put in and used on those 5 devices, which caused chemical stress cracking in the polymer shafts.
I remember seeing someone letting his clear prints drip for longer than usual and then removing the supports and then curing without any cleaning and they stayed crystal clear
Thats what I do
@@NoraFulcanelli How many seconds per layer to cure would you recommend? I suspect I'm over-exposing my clear resin or something, it comes off so brown even from the plate.
@@kapalakaVery dependent on what resin and what printer you use. And even with 2 identical printers, one could have a stronger display than other. Especially if you're working with a monochrome screen.
My colleague said that if you're working with transparent resin, you'll even need to reduce the UV light strength of your display if you're using a monochrome screen, because it's too powerful and scatters the light too much in the clear resin.
@@kapalaka the recommended ammount the suppliers suggest. i don't do a lot of post uv curing as it increases brittleness, unless i need it to be stiff. If im doing minis very little uv curing, if you drop them the can break easier.
Most of my yellowing is from post uv curing. And the print time is different from opaque resins, learned that the hard way.
That’s what I do.
When I made my hourglass with Sirayatech Blu for one of my videos I brushed on Polycrylic. I found the spray version left little dots on the print from the droplets leaving a textured finish while brushing it on left it more glass like. I also did 2 coats. The tricky part is that if the print is hollow you have to get both sides. With a pourable coating you can just pour some inside the model, swish it around, then pour it out.
Bought myself a CR10S about 2 months ago, but watching your videos is REALLY making me want my 2nd printer to be a resin printer. Love the amount of time you spent on these tests and how thorough you were. Great content.
Oh man congrats on the CR10S! I hope you're printing some helmets on that beast. The CR-10 line continues to be one of my go to printers for FDM prints. But yeah... resin... its a slipper slope haha
@@UncleJessy but of course! Iron man helmet and a Predator mask as requested from my son. Between you 3DPN and FranklyBuilt, I had to pull the trigger on a printer haha
Resin printing is easy and great! Only one motor and movement axis compared to 3+extruder for filament. Easier to troubleshoot and get good quality prints! There's good uses for both but with resin printers so cheap I say go for it!
Instead of rustoleum clear, I recommend picking up a 2k clear. Rustoleum and other store brand aerosol, use air dry, so they lose shine as they cure. 2k is chemically cleared, The same we use on automotives, so the shine you see when you spray, is the shine you get when its cured.
KBS Diamond clear is a phenomenal clear if you want a wet look.
@@johnellis6911
I replied to op, in the event they don't see it, could I get your feed back to ensure I pulled up precisely the correct one(s)?
For the yellowing, you are going to want to use more of a violet or purple to neutralize it to a black/gray/smoke tint. However, since the yellow is not actually being removed, the print would look a touch darker then something that is clear like glass or water. The blue you were using looked too cool so that is why it still looked blue or green even opposed to a "darker" clear. You'll need to mix in a very small amount of red, maybe dip a toothpick to give a touch. A drop would likely be too much.
To make something clear, what I heard is painting resin with a very soft paint brush after curing partway, then curing the rest of the way would help a lot. You probably already know that because the layers are made by pixels which defuses light like frosted glass. Smoothing those pixels is what will make things clear, so filling the spaces the same material or material with the same light refraction properties. Clear coat probably does not match the refraction and so limits how clear you can get. However, you know for sure the resin it was printed from does match the refraction so it would work very well. I have even seen lens made using the resin painting method. (Be it, cheap lens quality, but hey good lenses require fine grinding.)
Would something like UV-resistant clear coat work better for long-term usage?
@@Binary_Omlet It will slow process. Yellowing occurs from oxygen before the resin is cured (setting a timer the first time you pop the top of your container) and once cured the yellowing comes mainly from heat and/or UV breaking down the polymer. A UV blocker will run interference and slow that breakdown but it's going to happen eventually, just pushing the end result of 3 months of UV exposure to 12 months for the same color. To further reduce yellowing you need a clear coat with UV blockers to uh.. block the UV and an additive called HALS (Hindered-Amine Light Stabilizers ) that handle the oxidation that causes yellowing. Unfortunately you are looking at automotive level clear coats or a specialized coating that probably require a 2 part mix or doesn't just come in a spray can. It adds something like 20% to the manufacturing cost for HALS on top of the UV blockers so if the manufacturer doesn't go out of their way to say they contain HALS or free radical inhibitors then it probably isn't in the clear coat.
@@lordbinky Thanks for the info! I didn't know that!
After curing, I stuff my prints in the oven, put it to around 60 degrees celcius and turn the oven on. By the time the oven hits 60, clear prints will have become more clear and any yellowing is pretty much undone completely.
I found that recently cured prints tend to dull gloss clear coat. Waiting hours for the prints to fully off-gas and stabilize seems to yield better results. Also, try 2K clear coat, as I think the lack of solvents (catalytic curing), seems to help keep the prints clear.
The red living armor is really cool ✨ and so is the mask 👹 I didn’t realize how much finesse was involved in clear prints!
Thanks! Yeah i'm slightly obsessed with that Living Armor statue from Loot-Studios
@@UncleJessy lol I actually just printed him him last night he is amazing looking also I’m new to resin printing I have yet to buy any clear resins yet
I have used a 'headlight restoring kit' quite a while ago to refresh our yellowed and oxidised car headlight (plastic) glass. The kit came with fine sanding paper, some polishing paste and a drill mount little buffer. Using it, the headlights lost most of their yellowing, became nice and smooth, but also became opaque due the microscopic scratches which were now even and totally covered the 'glass'. Then the kit had a tube of 'UV protectant' which also smelled like paint. I painted it on as directed and voila! the headlights looked brand new again! Completely clear and transparent.
I would wager that this stuff, which is available on its own, would have the same effect on washed and cured resin prints. My observation is that the pores created by washing the prints stay there after curing - and get filled by this clear liquid, just like the tiny scratches on the headlights.
I will try the stuff shortly, you have inspired my curiosity, Uncle Jessy.
PS: the headlights stayed clear and transparent for a year so far. The car is always outside in the sun and weather.
For real! If you have a better method... LEMMI KNOW! I want to try out some other options with another followup to this!
ResinLapse - The easiest way to create Resin 3D Printed Time lapses -www.etsy.com/listing/970847090/resinlapse-resin-3d-printer-timelapses
The whole water curing thing a is a big fad, ive gone into detail in a discord I hang out in about why its just a waste of time. there is a couple videos kicking around on YT, one where the guy sights a research paper on "photo-initiator oxidation in photo polymer resin". But he completely misconstrues the results of the research paper. I am tempted to do a video on this subject over on my Resin engineer channel.
The best results you will get on clear is to test out the Anti-aliasing options in your slicer.
My best results Are from using a brush on gloss clear coat than a spray clear coat. I was using Elegoo's Water washable clear blue resin, which I would wash with Simple green, and then rinse with warm water as I removed the supports. I don't see any evidence of yellowing on my prints either. Though I used Elegoo's mercury for curing as well.
Can you try Monocure 3D ResinAway ? It's suppose to help keep prints clear.
Try wet sanding with Zona paper.
I have had EXCELLENT results after curing by spraying on Krylon Crystal Clear Glaze. I did a Terminator bust in Elegoo translucent green and sprayed it with the glaze and it was perfect.
you could potential try dipping prints in Pledge Revive It Floor Gloss, its a clear high gloss acrylic finish that lots on molders uses on clear parts like airplane canopy's or even airbrushed as a lacquer for more slight satin finish, might work on 3d print
Cool. I was looking for a way to make a clear lense for a dial.
After the 1k/2k grit, try wet sanding with Zona Paper. Dice makers wet sand with Zona to give their masters a crystal clear finish.
Thanks for the tip! I'm going to look that up now!
Thanks for the tip! Ordering now!
i found when experimenting with anycubic standard green (translucent) resin that it is the alcohol that dull the shine of the resin. like it is attacking the surface of the resin. so my technique was to very quickly dunk the print in alcohol for a second and then thoroughly clean it in normal water. then let it dry and cure.
gave me amazing results that made the resin look just as transparent and colored as in the bottle
Hey for the visor you can try zona paper to polish. It’s what we use to polish dice and it turns clear resin ice transparent.
A few things I've found:
- Automotive clearcoat is better
- Print solid
- If you're going to take your prints outside and don't want them to turn even more yellow, get yourself a car headlight restoration kit with UV protectant. It's usually kind of protectant that chemically bonds to plastic like a clearcoat that blocks UV light.
- If you print a flat-ish surface, you can do the old wetsand polish thing where you keep doubling your standpaper grit. Once you hit 4000 grit, go ahead and clear coat.
Dude I am so envious of you... I have been watching your videos for weeks trying to convince my woman we need a printer and as much as I amaze her with your videos, she keeps proving to me we can't afford it. I can't wait to see what the future holds... Maybe one day we will all be printing our homes and toys lol
AnyCubic Photon Mono for $200 brother and you cannot go wrong; it’s the best purchase I’ve made in a long, long time. I’m a newbie but, trust me, it ain’t hard to get amazing results - just be ready to do the whole ‘God please let her go to bed so I can have a few hours alone to play with my printer’ Lolol
Hey Jessy!
There is one thing you forgot to test:
Dont clean at all, only cure.
That can make a bit more messy print regarding uncleaned resin hanging around - but I get totally translucent prints with that method! :)
Definitely going to try this, thanks!
I tried not cleaning and it still yellowed and just ended up looking really gross on the outside because of all the extra resin not washed off. It did however stop it from clouding as much
Cost is Loosing details.
Hey Unc J... try the tip someone in the comments said, quick dip in ipa then water. To add to that I suggest do not let it cure in any light until the clear coat is dry. I mean let the clear coat dry in the dark. Also try airbrushing a 2k polyurethane clear coat that is reduced thin enough to limit the amount of detail reduction. When all coats are dry , cure. ....lastly, please tell us what resins you used in this video. The greens I think it was 2 different ones are amazing, also that red figure after the clear was beautiful! I bet one of the green was syratech? Keep up the excellent work brother.
Jesus that Oni mask looks insane !😍😍😍 absolutely jaw dropping💎👌💎
I just got my first bottle of translucent resin so this video came out at the perfect time haha I'm excited to try these methods out!!
Thanks so much, was just getting ready to set up a bunch of trials and then came across this. Saved a lot of time and resin. Thank you
try using Pledge Floor polish on the miniatures! either airbushing it on, or even just dipping them in it and then shaking off the excess.
Another issue is you are cleaning your prints almost right away and in doing so you are removing the thick goo that would dry shiny and clear. Just let them drip dry and be exposed to a little light in the room before washing and you'll have a more smooth surface to start with. With FDM printers the secret is extra pressure at the start by having the distance between the nozzle and the build plate more tight than usual and using a slow print speed moving nozzle slowly over the surface and using a little more heat and a lower fan speed and having ironing option on and just slightly over extruding maybe 2 or 3 percent and using extremely low layer heights so the pressure and heat smooshes the layers together. I've gotten printed rupies to to look completely clear.
8 days ago I printed rc headlight lens on my channel with clear resin and sprayed clear coat without washing it, it came out amazing
How you prevent the print from being sticky? I find clear resin to be much more sticky if I don't clean with IPA. Did you cure after the clear coat?
Nice man! I forgot to mention that when I directly sprayed without cleaning my prints were super sticky after.
What sort of Clear Coat did you use?
@@UncleJessy I used automobile clear coat that comes with hardener and mixed 2 by 1 and 1 thinner, it looks like a glass, I got so may hate comments, telling me its resin molded lol
@@fusionor yes after print didn't wash it, just put it under sun light and then wet sanded it and clear coat it
Scale Addiction,,, love your videos
Great video. I'd be wary of clear coating before curing as a lot of clear coats are UV protective, so they will block the curing and leave your part under-cured
Man the Saturn is so great, I love it.
Such abadass little machine
If you don't mind me asking, where did you get your Saturn? They're always sold out or price gouged whenever I look.
Edit: nvm, I got one by pure chance while watching the amazon page.
Where did you get it?
I've found that the more water (including water washable resins) contacts printed clear resins the cloudier your resulting part is. I've tried to print optical parts before and one successful technique was to clean a part made with water washable resin inside a ziplock filled with mineral oil. The resulting part is transparent to this day.
Sorry for the late question, but do you *clean* the part in the mineral oil, *cure* the part in the mineral oil, or both?
Thanks for the info!
@@retromodernart4426 Its been a while but I generally spent some time giving it the "shake n' bake" treatment to try and rinse off the resin inside the bag with mineral oil inside. I think I figured why not cure it in there too and just threw the whole bag into the uv curing box. Not to oversell it- it's not crystal clear optical lens material, but its very notably better than parts that get clouded by contacting water. Actually now that I'm thinking of it, I'm not sure if I skipped the alcohol step or not.
@@salukikev Very interesting, thanks!
I just paint on a thin layer of clear resin with a small brush and then cure. works like a charm. awesome channel btw good stuff.
I don’t think post processing is nearly as important as which clear resin brand you are using, kind of think you should do another video with 5-10 different clear resin brands. Having worked with epoxy for a long time, the brand makes a huge difference!
from my time working with plastic model kits, try a much higher grit paper. You start achieving a clear transparency after 2000 grit, and I have always taken it to 7000 for most, and in clear/untinted up to 10000 grit. You can buy polishing compound to get an even higher shine. REmember soft sanding is going to take away the hard edges and produce some soft corners. Sanding with a hard stick will get you a flatter area to see through. Also be careful with your clear sprays, some can do wonders, some can actually only add a dull shine. My experience is to stick with some Alclad II Klear Cote, or Automotive Clear Coats. If you can add some leveling compounds (a paint additive for modelling paints) can help get a good transparency.
Also, a good thing for removing support marks for clear parts is to do the same thing modellers do. Do some big supports, and grab a sharp pair of nippers and cut it with a little bit of the nub left. take your time and sand that nub down with a sand stick or cut it afterwards with some really shallow cutters. By tearing your supports off or cutting them right at the point of the part, you end up cracking it in a way that leaves a mark. You want to take as much stress off the cut as possible.
My resin crafting butt said "YES!" when I read the title, but apparently missed the "3D prints" part. 🤣 Still watched, cause I haven't spent nearly enough on resin and molds. Now I need to buy a 3D printer. 🤭
If you follow up on more sanding testing I would like to recommend also trying micro mesh pads and Zona Paper.
I just ordered some! Really excited to test that out!!
@@UncleJessy I've not had a chance to try more than 2 brands of print resin but I've found with Casting and Craft resin the harder the cured resin the better it will sand and polish. Not sure that has much effect on 3d prints as I don't know how much hardness varies. Looking forward to what you find out!
Don’t get the pads, they don’t hold up. Get the cloth backed micro-mesh. Much better product and very long lasting when wet sanding.
This is actually a really good idea as well
So I work with resin pours and yes, you can get a super high polished finish with going higher grit sand paper, and some super fine cut polish. That Mando visor can be clear enough to wear and still see with relatively high clarity.
I work with epoxy resin mold making and what I have found is that when you sand you need to take it up to 10,00 grit to get that smooth and clear finish. Also, I have not had a lot of luck with clear sprays, they turn yellow and are not as smooth as a resin top coat.
I clean sand then "re dip" in resin hang to let any extra drip off then without touching any surface cure it under a light. this gives me an amazing high gloss clear finish.
Clear / super blonde shellac lays up better on matte surfaces than a few layers of rattle can clear unless you upgrade to Spraymax 2K* catalyzed clear ($$) or put on several layers of conventional rattle can clear. I get near optical clear with 2 coats of ~1-1.5 lb cut shellac. Bonus, you can make the shellac on demand with IPA or denatured you already have on hand. And alcohol inks work with shellac to adjust color or even do multi / layered color translucent prints.
One other coating for ultimate UV protection / anti-yellowing would be Sylvania's Headlight Restoration Essentials kit. That coating has lots of self-levelers for creating an optical grade finish on freshly sanded plastic plus tons of anti-yellowing UV inhibitors.
For wet sanding, probably start at 600 or 1000 on resin prints unless you have layer lines or glitches from a print that came out not so great. Below 600 grit, it's sanding much rougher than where the surface started and really changing the shape and details more than smoothing the surface finish.
*If you're going to spring for a can of Spraymax 2K clear, make sure you have enough stuff spray to use it all in one go. It's a catalyzed urethane, the same as automotive clear coats and once you pop the can, it has pretty much that day to be used. And it requires a VOC respirator -- more so than any resin, alcohol, or other solvent that you have handled. In fact, I would recommend swapping in fresh VOC filters with it.
I can't give advice on the models, but I have experience making visors, lenses and other smooth large surfaces that need to be clear.
I followed a similar to what I do for blacksmithing, sanding, buffing and polishing - no clear coat. This gave me massive control over how clear/opaque my prints are.
I suspect if you want to clear coat them, you will have to go through the process twice, first without the clear coat on then again with it on being carful not to remove it all.
I also do all of my processing and post in a well ventilated shed doing any sanding in a filtered extraction chamber, and use a 3 stage IAP cleaning process, quick dunk in dirty IPA, quick brush in moderately clean IPA finally 2.5 minute was in clean (or dam near) in an elegoo wash and cure. I keep my resin in clear lidded containers, and put them under uv-light between every few prints to cure the resin out of them. When they start looking bad I filter the IPA though filter paper, and eventually replace it.
Making sure there is no liquid resin in the final wash bath has been the most pivotal thing i've found for clean prints.
I know this is an old video, but I'm Woodworking/woodturning when we work with epoxy and we're trying to get a clear/gloss finish, we and up through the grid (220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1,000 without skipping grits), then move in to either micromesh pads, and then playoff Pulliam with a buffer (not everyone uses micromesh). Again, probably not viable for miniatures or highly detailed, but for that Mando visor in guessing you could get it near glass looking
the mad scientist back at it again!!!
I would think that the clean/clear/cure method would end up in an uncured/undercured part, as most clearcoats contain UV blockers by design.
This is my thought as well
Krylon Tripple Clear Glaze. I cure in water for just a minute or two. I also clean my stuff in Mean Green, I haven't used alcohol since it started getting difficult to get. Clear coat fills in the tiny scratches.
if you are planning to do a lot of wet sanding I highly suggest getting Micromesh wet sanding products. In a pack for a good price you get reusable/washable pads that can go up to 12,000 grit. I use them when making acrylic pens for a perfect looking surface.
I love ur videos and I got myself elegoo Mars 2 pro and mercury. I've been experimenting with the clear resin prints, but I've only done simple shapes like rupees from zelda series and oval gems.
I've gotten amazing result sanding with up to 7000 grit wet sanding paper and finishing off with flitz polish.
Another successful result i had was with clear uv resin used to pore casting in silicone molds. It can be little tricky but with a bit of practice, this yielded some really cool results. After a quick cure and some light sanding, clean off all the debris (it catches all the dust). Then carefully cover the surface with the clear uv resin, just enough to cover the surface evenly. It kind of felt like putting on nail polish. It also seems to naturally smooth out while its still wet. When it stops dripping, and just settles on the surface, I give it a good cure in the Mercury. At least till most of the tacky ness is gone.
Another thing is to do this one both surfaces of course. I do want to test out on visor like piece because I think I can get it super transparent.
I might also try letting it drip for longer in the Mars and skip the washing and cure it straight away.
I like the Oni mask. I wonder if in the future you might try clear coating only parts of the model and keeping other parts more opaque for some contrast. Also I wonder if you could lightup something like the ONI mask with leds, kinda purge mask style
You could easily tape off parts and only clear coat the unmasked areas... and I'm right there with you about adding some LEDs to this prop ;)
Those time lapses look so amazing
All this info is pure gold!
Hi, great video, thanks for sharing. Just curious about what kind of ink did you use? and I didn't understand about the clear step, is that the coating spray? Thank you though.
I know a lot of work went into this Jessy but if you haven't done an update, use 2K clear. The cans are about $25 but the clear is WAY WAY WAY YYYYYYYY better. You'll see just how shiny and clear things come out, it's a night and day difference.
I am very new to 3d printing. I watched this as an informational vid to projects I am working on. A few things crossed my mind while watching. One was the haze that envelopes headlight lenses and the cleaning there of with silicone oil sprays and cloth buffing. Another that crossed my mind was waxes. As someone mentioned floor polish for example. Being a zoids collector and some of them are of clear or translucent versions and a very old blog, by internet standards, was a product called "the treatment" applied to one of the guys clear parts zoids. The pics given by him were remarkable results. I will be trying the silicone method on a dome for a Mr. Freeze bust being made for a coworker's dream batman chess set I am working on for him. Hoping for the best.
Hobby lobby or I’m sure Amazon had little 2 inch by 2 inch square sanding foam pads near the model cars and airbrush paints. Wet sad up to about 600 with plain sand paper but then use these pads. They are really fine grit. I think they go from 1000 grit to 12000 grit! It takes time but especially for the visor you would want total transparency.
You can also use a good quality clear coat and then do the sanding for the absolute best result! I was a hydro dipper and learned these techniques . I also made resin ink pens that spun on a lathe which made wet sanding way easier due to fast revolutions.
When sanding use a sanding sponge instead of just a sheet of paper and that'll make a lot of difference as it'll form around the object and won't miss as many sunken surfaces; skip over the rougher grades and just use the finer grades right away. Or use pumice on a sponge dipped in mineral oil or olive oil instead of a sanding sponge. Or just use a buffing machine set to the lowest speed and use a very soft loose sewn buffing wheel with white rouge used for silver and brass and plastic.
A bit late to the video but I didn't see anyone else mention this... I find that IPA causes a lot of my issues with translucent prints, causing that cloudy/frosted look. Due to this, I wash with Mean Green (have never noticed an issue with color) in my ultrasonic cleaner, then cure in water for just a few minutes. In this process the water actually removes the stickiness, while if I air-cure them they remain sticky even when over-cured. Final step is to clear-coat with Krylon Crystal Clear, usually needs 2 coats. When printing in the colorless resin I usually don't cure for more than a minute or two before spraying them.
So, speaking as 3D artist who primarily works in physics-based real-world materials ... most of the optical properties you're testing are based on surface smoothness. Highly clear plastics and glasses have surface smoothnesses measured in microns. Using a plastic polishing kit would give you spectacular results in my opinion.
I clean, dip my prints in polycrylic, amd lightly blow off excess with compressed air. The polycrylic seems to have some uv protection because it took 2 years for one of my prints to yellow sitting on a window sill.
What I have found (because my family was in the abrasive machine business) is that figurines cane be run through a rock tumbler or a vibration tumbler. Use walnut, then go to #20 glass bead.
You've at that that point, wet sanding a detailed figure. Which does mean you might need to exaggerate your print a little, expecting abrasion.
Some people have printed my Scarlet Witch tiara in translucent red and it looks incredible. Just a spray of 2K clear on top, and amazing result. I also did this for the Starlord Blasters cartridges, clear coating and polishing the inside and outside and the result is incredible.
Also, to prevent the oranging of the clear resins, I found out it was better to spray it with a UV resistant clear and then not cure it too much, but eventually if you polish it it will also get rid of the orange
And also, last but not least, really cool video man!
i found that _for some resins_ the prints seem way clearer since i started to run them under hot water after washing to soften the supports during removal, and then curing. maybe some of the "half washed away" outer layer gets washed off further during that process? (for other resins it just makes them goopy, fingerprinty and ruins the result, so i don't use those for prints that need support softening)
a combination that works really well for its price/effort i found: 1:1 Elegoo ABSlike + "frenshion" (aliexpress fake brand as far as i can tell) cheapo fingernail gel resin, on the abslike's printing profile, washing in ancient dirty 99% IPA, washing/unsupporting under 60ish°C water (ouch), curing. have been printing structural components, miniatures, busts, etc with that, they all look and work pretty great even without a spray coat (though of course better with one). and as a bonus it's somewhere between just abslike and the expensive "tough flexy" resins in terms of hardness, so it's a bit more forgiving for tiny details in models you want to handle/drop.
I know I’m pretty late to the game here but, you can buy rattle cans of automotive 2k clear that absolutely won’t yellow and flashes pretty quick. And once you pierce the activator it can last up to a week. So if you have quite a few items to clear coat a can of automotive 2k clear may be an option, it won’t yellow and is much stronger then our typical clears.
apparently denatured alcohol doesnt cause frosting
I tried printing something flat on a wham bam plate and it awesome you can print very detailed figure without support the base
And no ruin it with spatula
Awesome right?! Love those whambam flexplates
For white resin that has discolor or turned brown, I pop prints a bowl of water and microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. Brings 'em back to pure white. May work on clear resin as well. Gotta be careful because the heat does soften prints momentarily and could warp smaller items.
I bet if you use higher grit sand paper like you said, will definitely make it better on that visor. Start with 180/220 and have at least two more progressions after with higher grits. The more you have, the better outcome. I work for a mfg company that makes wood veneered panels, and while I know wood and resin are totally different, I am assuming the process and results may be similar.
Hey Jessie. Any idea where or how I can get my hands on that living armour stl. I've been looking around and it seems like the stl. Is no longer available.
from my own personal experience with my original elegoo mars, you might be able to get slightly better results from cleaning but the biggest thing is to clean properly and use a clear coat spray after curing. while the resolution of my elegoo mars is great, its not quite good enough to make a smooth enough surface to really allow good light penetration. I normally just use IPA to clean and water to rinse, cure it, and afterwords i would apply the clear coat (uv blocking) to seal and give it less cloudy result. 2-3 even coats seems to do well for me, some models i can see being harder but I havent had much issues in my own limited experimenting.
Were you using deionized water for the water cure? Mine don't seem to haze as much with it. Shorter cure time perhaps? I'm also using a mix of pure ethyl and isopropyl (alcohol fireplace fuel).
Dude your channel is so informative, how do you squeeze so much content in the one video
Thanks I try. A lot and I mean a lot of editing 😬🤣
@@UncleJessy I don't doubt that lol
Wow, Great test and retest!
Love that your share your expriences with all of us :-)
Thanks for checking it out and will be doing more followup as I'm sure there are still better ways to do this
I have found clear resin to be tricky stuff, over curing definitely yellows it even some of the colored stuff it’s just less noticeable, I under cure in cure station then let sit in gentle filtered light for a day or so taking it in and out of light source, a bit more work but better results... you can also water cure then let dry and if the piece doesn’t have too much detail that could be lost, I paint a thin layer of clear resin over my prints then cure it with a handheld light then cure normally, again be sure not to over cure this will crystal clear prints... do keep in mind that if you hollow the object you will need to put resin inside as well, I will also put clear resin inside a mini but not the outside this will preserve exterior details and give cleaner clearer looking print... the issue is the micro layers even if we can’t see the layers, think of them like rough sandpaper how it puts scratches and digs into and object, these micro layers refract light giving you a dull or satin finish, sanding and filling these layers makes it smoother and the smoother you can an object the more glass clear it will become basically what they call optically clear the light passes straight through the piece thus making it truly transparent, more fraction less transparent... So try this clean the print normal cure for 30 sec then water cure for your normal time maybe a bit less to prevent yellowing if you can or skip then paint a clear coat of same clear resin on outside let it level a bit then cure immediately this will render a nice clear result, also use a I’ve inhibiting gloss clear spray coat on outside then sun cure... obviously you can’t do this on a mini but you can water cure and clear coat inside of mini then cure again for a few seconds then use clear coat spray is last step to fill any other layer lines that remain... try this out hope it helps.
Edit: also print lowest layer height as possible or bearable because again even though we don’t see it this helps with light refraction
This might seem like common sense but looking for some kind of official response to this... On a solid, not hollowed print, will a clear UV resin fully cure all the way through? With a solid print using non transparent resin, even with a curing station the inside partially cured resin will eventually find a way to sweat out of the model (even primed and printed) so I'm hoping that if I print and cure a statue with clear resin, that the longevity of the painted piece is guaranteed... Any thoughts? Like I said it seems like a "no duh" question but hey, even the clearest of windows block UV light to a certain degree 😊 thanks in advance!
the green resin is amazing
have you tried just letting the parts drip the excess resin and cure it with out washing it? because the goopy layer is already molecularly smooth. clear coating just re-applies this go layer.
With clear plastic I only ever put so much effort into it, but I read an article on removing scratches from model car windshields, aircraft canopies, etc., in which they detailed using multiple grades of wet sanding getting finer and finer, then rubbing with toothpaste, then finally coating it with FUTURE floor polish. You might give that a try and see what happens. The spray on clear coat seems to be skipping the toothpaste and FUTURE. Barring toothpaste, maybe some form of plastic polish. Google how to polish plastic to clarity. That should give you some ideas. Great vid.
After curing try dipping it in Future floor wax. Might be labeled as Pledge Floor gloss. Dip it then look for bubbles or dust particles and if present, re-dip till there's none. Remove then let drip out/cure. It's acrylic based so can use Windex to clean up.
Hi Jessy, I'm looking into a Wash & Cure station but not sure which one is a good bang for buck. Now that the Plus version from anycubic is out in the wild, could you look into making a review for all of them? Maybe compared to a DIY station and then a final recommendation at the end based on your experience with each of them. This video is really helpful btw! I love the effort and edit that went into making this video! Awesome stuff
I'm printing off a space ship and was curious about the screen as a I use translucent resin. I assumed polishing the resin like normal resin... Looks like that will be best! Interesting video!
i have seen good results applying thinned UV resin with an air brush,
I keep telling you, once you get the process down you need to test visors and eye inserts. Maybe make the entire mando helmet smokey clear and masking off everything you want to stay clear and painting the rest.
A fully transparent Mando helmet would be wild to see
I just saw a video about water curing. They say it works much better than standard curing methods. Have you tried this? Or would you try it to give us your take on it?
isn't the curing gassing off, and wouldn't that be stopped by the clear coat? so my question is has the clean/spray/cure version lost its toxicity as I would expect the clean/cure/spray to?
This is really cool! Do people often ask you if you can 3D print stuff for them?
try switching resin brands, Anycubic's Clear is a lot better then Elegoo's Clear(and I'm a diehard Elegoo user)!
Interesting. I'm printing anycubic clear now. It still goes drastically yellow with a 2min cure, however after a week on the shelf it's gone back to white... super fascinating and i'm experimenting to see if i can replicate.
I am following this as well. I have nearly gone through a whole bottle of clear resin and tried different methods. Some turn out more yellowish than others. Instead of blue I also tried black to give the clear a "smoked" tint look. A question I have and maybe others will reply, what is the easiest way to "thicken" up resin prints? Several prints I have downloaded were designed to print on a PLA printer and parts of the print on the resin printer comes out to thin and flimsy.
That sounds more like a support structure issue. If you look up 3D Printing Pro on YT, you should be able to find videos from him that would help you fix your issues.
Hey there thanks for the additional info! For your file question... is it that the walls of the file are extremely thin? You might be able to use a service like MakePrintable.com and see if that would work
how did the cut and polish go ? (if you did it)
also probably better to use a drop of dish soap with water on a 2000 grit wet dry sandpaper
If I just want to scan a persons face and 3D print so I can use clay to sculpted. What would you suggest? And what kind of 3D printer? Thanks
Has anyone noticed straight lines of bubbles when printing thick pieces in clear? Usually at the center mass of suction on the print. I left the resin for a while after printing so bubbles all pop, and upped my delay time so the resin can flow back under the plate. Could it possibly be cavitation in the liquid due to excessive vacuum forces, or is cavitation more a result of speed alone (i.e. mantis shrimp).
I have noticed this in relatively thin parts (2-3 mm walls) I have been trying to make using Elegoo Clear resins (both ABS-like and standard). It is like a tiny column of air bubbles, starting partway through the print. I had the vat clear of any visible bubbles before trying to print. I have tried filling the vat more and using a slower retract speed, but got a near identical result. This consistency makes me think the bubbles are forming due to some kind of chemical off-gassing or cavitation, rather than just getting entrained from the motion of the build plate/part in and out of the vat. I am now trying a few different orientations and locations on the build plate to see if I can fix it. Super frustrating! Let me know if you found a solution!
You guys fixed it?
Is there a water washable red transparant resin? Or a water washable translucent/transparent resin where you can add some coloring to yourself? I'm looking for a coca cola color, the drink itself (not the bottle)
I am so used to sanding PLA that sanding resin feels amazing. I actually love printing in ABS over PLA if I am going to be sanding the print just because ABS sands pretty nice compared to weird ole gummy PLA. The first time I took sandpaper to resin, I wont lie it gave me goosebumps seeing how easy it was. However I have to admit I haven't been using a mask while sanding mostly because I am am stupid and didn't even consider it.
I've noticed that if after printing, cleaning, and curing you apply a very small amount of uncured resin on the model (with a brush or something like that) and then cure it again it ends up a lot more clear for some reason. I really don't know why, but hey, it works!
Is it still yellow?
@@kapalaka I've used red resin, but yes, its still the right color. It's just more shiny.
Is there any food safe resin in the market?
Not that I'm aware of. I believe you would need to mold and cast to do that
The benefits of water curing are removing gaseous oxygen from getting to the model, so in order to get the best results you will need to clean it very quickly and limit the exposure to air as much as possible before putting it into the water. This is mostly for surface quality and even curing, since water allows a more even refraction of light in small crevices of the surface. Since these tiny areas get more light and cure more it will probably cause them to look hazier. I'd imagine that coating them in clear before curing will give you similar results since you are also forming a barrier between the model and the open air. But water curing is usually done for durability and surface quality rather than clarity throughout like with clear prints. So maybe if you want clear prints go with spraying on a clear coat, but if you want durable prints go for water curing?
Just been doing some water washable and a long drain period on the build plate using a mount to tilt it in a diff direction half way through.
Rinse off in a water bucket while still on build plate and then carefully remove and try not to touch your item and handle by the supports. Allowed to air dry then in the UV using large tweezers to minimise damaging/roughing up the surface. Maybe where practicable adding a removable handle will help you not touch the item surface until its cured to help remove the supports without touching the item?
Not perfect but it's definitely better the less you touch the uncured surface.
I've found that dipping it in resin before curing gives me the best result. It gets rid of all those pixels refracting light weirdly and you can't get a smoother finish than that.
Any tips on how long that cure takes? I put a thin coat on a part just to test and it took forEEEVER in the cure station. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.
@@santiagoricoy1313 It should only take a few minutes. Depending on the resin, 2-5 minutes. Although I've had one that took 10 minutes to cure too. Sometimes they're stubborn
What Printer did you print that oni mask on? It looks like it would be too big for a Saturn.
i got a question, is it possible to do a solid resin print with clear resin, but has internal details? like a crystal with internal fractures or something
Did you liked cleaning with the 70% alcohol over the 90%? Or are they about the same?
I dont really notice any difference.I was using 70% because they had a TON at the dollar store
I've actually read that 70% IPA is what is recommended to use and if you buy 99% or whatever manufacturers suggest diluting it
You could maybe try a headlight restoration kit for your flat surfaces it comes with a the high grit sanding pads for a drill so you can do a high speed sand/buff some include a clear coat for uv protection