How I Clean My Resin 3D Prints

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Going to be a quick one tonight because I’m very sleepy after a long but very good day. I want to show you how I clean resin 3D prints—I’ve noticed people I print for often comment on how nice and clean my models come out.

The Drain Tray Method

This is the last plate I printed about 2 hours ago. I reuse these trays—I keep them in a ziplock bag, put it outside to cure, and use it again. I can get quite a bit of uses before needing to throw it away.

I put the build plate in the tray so all the resin runs off. That way when I go to wash these, a lot of the loose resin is already off them.

The Multi-Stage Washing System

I use the Elegoo official wash and cure station. When the main wash gets nasty, I put in a Tupperware container. I dip the build plate in that container first before putting it in the main station.

That other container gets pretty nasty—I push it pretty far. But what stays in the main station stays nice for a while. I get a lot more use out of my ethanol because it’s very expensive.

The Right Solvent

I use denatured ethanol—whatever the MSDS sheet for my resin recommends. Sometimes it’s methylated ethanol. For Siraya Tech Build, they actually recommend ethyl alcohol. I buy it by the gallon, four gallons at a time.

The Hot Water Rinse

After the alcohol wash, I have hot water in a Tupperware container. I bust the supports off in there. My slop sink pipe can unscrew from the sewer line—I put a five-gallon bucket underneath. Everything drops into the bucket, then I cure the whole bucket.

I run hot water over all the models again to make sure all the alcohol is washed off. Then I let them sit out to dry naturally—letting all the alcohol and water evaporate off before curing.

The Secret: Patience

This takes way longer than a normal wash and cure setup. I’ll literally leave prints overnight to let everything evaporate off. I keep the room closed off so nothing can get to them.

That’s the secret: just being patient. Making sure I get as much resin off before putting it in the alcohol.

Why Not Just Heat Gun It?

Some people skip the water wash and just hit the isopropyl alcohol with a heat gun to evaporate it. But that leaves so much resin behind—nobody actually keeps their alcohol that clean. You have to have a solution to wash it off to get all the junk off and dispose of it properly.

What Clean Prints Look Like

A nicely clean model should look mostly matte. That shine you see is just light hitting the individual layer lines—you can’t really see it once painted.

When you see a print that’s glossy and shiny, it means there was still liquid resin on the surface when it got cured. That’s cured resin, but it has that glossy effect because it wasn’t actually clean.

The little guys are mostly matte because they’re way easier to get fully clean. That’s how a fully cleaned 3D print is supposed to look.