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.

Transcript

Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Uh I hope you had a good one. Going to be a quick one tonight. Uh just because I’m very sleepy. It’s been a long a long but very good day.

Uh I want to show you guys how I clean resin 3D prints cuz I’ve noticed like often the people that I print for talk about how like nice my models come out and how clean they are. So I I want to show you what I do. Let’s >> Okay. So, to start, uh, I just, this is the last plate that I printed, uh, about 2 hours ago. Uh, it finished printing and I just pulled it off the printer and I reuse these trays.

Like, uh, this one I’ve been using like the last two days and I keep it uh, in a ziplockc bag and then I put it outside and I let it cure and then use it again. I can get quite a bit of uses out of it before I I need to throw it away after again. and I just give it a final cure. But what I do is I put the build plate in here so all the resin runs off. Um, and that way when I go to wash these, the a lot of the loose resin is already off them.

And let me show you my washing station real quick just so you can. >> Okay, so washing station right now. Uh, it’s the the Eligu like official one. And I keep this like that. It’s on like just a metal like a scrap metal table uh because it’s easy to clean cuz you can see like I spill resin on it and stuff.

And then I have I have the curing station over here with of course a bunch of clutter like everything else in my life. So I this uh I use ethanol too. I’ll show you that in a minute. But when this gets nasty, I’ll put this in a Tupperware container. And I will dip the build plate in that Tupperware container before putting it in here.

So that other Tupperware container also gets another level of resin off. That other Tupperware container gets pretty nasty and I take that pretty far and push it. But this what stays what in here actually stays pretty nice for a while and I get a lot more use out of my ethanol because it’s very expensive. Okay, so this is what I use. Uh denatured ethanol.

Uh, and I just use what the MSDS sheet for the resin I’m using says to use. So, sometimes it’s like methylated ethanol. Um, it’s actually for the resin I use. It’s very rarely 100% isopropyl. Uh, like I use Cereate Build and they actually recommend ethyl alcohol.

Uh, so this this is what I use. I buy it by the the gallon. I get four gallons at a time. All right. So, I’m going to put the phone down.

Uh, pop these off. I actually don’t have a second container of of old uh ethanol right now. I just have the main cleaning station, but when I really start getting up and running on printing again next year, uh I’ll recycle that and put the new stuff in. But you can see like this before I even put it in the cleaner. Most of the resin is off of these.

So, I noticed uh I got lazy and I tried to use auto supports on some very small hands and these all failed. So, it’s not a huge deal. Um, I got to just go and scrape them off the the bottom of the bat, which is fine because I’m out of resin and I don’t plan on doing any more 3D printing for a while. So, uh, and they were extra parts. I was just I should have supported that myself, but uh, it’s not going to be a huge deal getting that off of that, but normally if I had planned on like immediately starting another print run, I clean the build plate I clean the build plate off while the print is cleaning.

And you can probably hear that running. And then that’s when I’ll go back. Um, I take the vat off. I use uh an old card, like old trading card to to stir the vat and like scrape everything off the bottom. Make sure there’s no missing or broken parts in there.

And then I recenter the build plate. And I’m ready to go again while my prints are washing. Okay. So now this is hot water that uh is I put in this this Tupperware container. and it’s pretty gnarly.

But again, I’ll I’ll after a couple of print runs, I’ll just put this out in the driveway to cure. And what you’re seeing here, um, yes, there’s a little bit of resin in here, but that’s mostly like that cloudiness comes from the the alcohol. And I mean, there’s definitely resin in it, especially now cuz that alcohol is pretty old. So, what I’ll do, I have this in hot water. I’ll bust the supports off.

And then uh this is sitting in a slop sink that the the the pipe instead of always going out to the city water, it had I made it so I could unscrew it from the sewer line and put a five gallon bucket underneath it and then I I drop all the stuff into the five gallon bucket and then cure the five gallon bucket. So, I will I’ll just run like I’ll just run hot water over all the models again just to make sure I’ve got all the alcohol washed off it. And so, I’ll bust all these supports off, rinse them off, and then I let them sit out to dry naturally to let all the alcohol and water evaporate off of them. And then at that point, I cure them. So, it takes way longer than like a normal wash and cure kind of sit.

So, I just realized that what failed was actually the other hands. So, like the hands not holding a weapon. Uh, so it actually sucks. I’m going to have to figure out a solution to that. But that’s a job for tomorrow.

So, I’ll literally leave these here overnight to just let everything evaporate off of them. Um, and I keep this room closed off so nothing can get to it. But that’s that’s that’s the secret. Just being patient. Uh, making sure that I get as much resin off before I actually put it in the alcohol.

And if I wanted to, I could hit these with a heat gun. Um, I know I think like some people don’t do that extra time with the water to actually wash it off and they just hit the isopropyl alcohol with a heat gun and let that evaporate off. But that leaves so much resin behind no matter how like clean your And nobody like actually keeps their alcohol that clean either. So, it just doesn’t get the resin off. So, you have to have a solution to wash it off to get all the junk off of it and dispose of it properly.

So, that’s really where the challenge 3D printing comes from. So, like I said, I I’ve got that bucket of junk uh that I will put out in the driveway tomorrow. I have like a little like fenced off area in the driveway where I put that and I’ll cure that box and then I’ll throw all the supports away. I cured the supports, too. So, it’s really all that part of it.

So, thanks for watching. Uh that’s the trick to getting really clean prints. Oh, I guess I should probably show you how the prints look after they’re cured. Okay, so uh this is the salt knit brazen bowl. So, this is fully cured, fully washed.

You can see that it’s mostly matte and that shine you’re getting is like the shine from the light hitting the individual layer lines, which you can’t you can’t really see when you paint it, but that’s just the reflection of the light. So, when it this is how a like nicely clean model should look. And actually underneath here um where there was still some coming out of that hole, you can kind of see how it’s glossy. I’ll probably that’s fully cured, but it has that glossy effect because it wasn’t actually that clean. So, when you see a print that’s glossy like that and shiny, uh, it’s just that just means that it it’s cured resin, but there was still this liquid resin on the surface of the model when it got cured.

But, I didn’t really care about that. You know, it’s not going to be seen. Here’s another example on a little guy. Like, the little guys are mostly matte just cuz they’re way easier to get fully clean. And I still got a little bit of supports I need to clean off of them, but they This is how a fully cleaned 3D print is supposed to look.

Okay, see you tomorrow where we return to painting the last hunt