Resin Printing: Good for a Beginner with Limited Space?
Resin Printing: Good for a Beginner with Limited Space?
I have recently obtained a friend's old Formlabs Form 2 SLA printer. I I am an absolute beginner to printing, but I am pretty excited to get into it.
However, the only place that I would realistically be able to put it is on my desk in my bedroom. From everything I've read, I need a better ventilated space with more tolerance for a mess than I could possibly provide.
I think that the right call is to just sell it and save up for some FDM printer, but at the end of the day, I have the SLA printer in hand.
I am asking whether these concerns about resin printers are really that bad and if I am actually fine to start learning printing with what I have in my bedroom.
I tried this once and decided thhat it's too risky. Do not do this.
Rsein printers are not for bedrooms. You'll constantly smell that stuff and think that you're poisoning yourself. Also: spills will happen and you don't want that stuff spilled on your regular desk or on some object of daily use which then needs to be put out in the sun, just to be safe.
Gonna second this. Unless you also install a 24/7 fume hood in your bedroom, the smell alone would be nauseating - not to mention toxic/carcinogenic.
Also, I don't have an FDM printer, but I've heard even those aren't good for bedroom use due to the fumes from the plastic.
This. I started with FDM at my computer desk in my bedroom. The noise is one thing, but I moved to resin and took the whole lab downstairs. Even in that space, without proper ventilation? I tried it once, and immediately put up the vent system I had on hand.
Simply put? It's a non-zero risk that isn't worth it. Hell, there might even be someone here that's close enough to print stuff for you until you can set something up yourself. 🙌🏽
I got my first SLA printer last year and can confirm, do not get this if you don’t have good ventilation or space away from you.
I print exclusively with water washable resins which are less potent in smell and IIRC toxicity too, and it still smells and the smell still gives me a headache if I try to do something quick without my mask. The smell lingers around the printer when printing even hours after putting on the top cover. I’m working on a solution to air it out through a dryer duct but I don’t think that will be the end all either.
Go with an FDM and print PLA until you have a better arrangement at home. Avoid ABS printing because it has similar effects and dangers for your health as resin printing.
I will say for ABS this can be mitigated with the following:
- An enclosure (I use a comgrow grow tent)
- Not opening the printer enclosure for at least 20 minutes (so the airborne particulates settle down)
- A replaceable carbon filter (I built a Nevermore duo and bought some activated Charcoal to refill it with)
After doing the above I don’t smell fumes at all. In fact I run the Nevermore even with PLA just to capture any micro particles since the charcoal is easy enough to replace.
Even so, as cool as Resin looks, I’m not having that stuff inside my house with my family. If I did it would have to be in a garage that’s vented but I have a carport and there’s no way I can regulate the environment (temp, humidity) for decent prints. So for now I’m just going with FDM
Styrol isn't a particle that settles down like dust. It is a liquid with a significant enough vapor pressure to be problematic.
An activated carbon filter can get rid of the vapor.
Chiming in to say that you absolutely don't want that in your bedroom. Not sure how ubiquitous the experience is, but if you're ever done a titration experiment in a chemistry class (the one where you add one solution into another a couple drops at a time), your body's response to being exposed to resin fumes (as well as VOC's from some of the more exotic fdm materials like ASA) is a lot like that: little by little you add more of one solution to the other and at first you don't really notice anything (beyond the volume increase), so you keep on adding more, when you finally hit the equilibrium point the whole solution suddenly changes colors.
In practical terms, the more you're exposed to resin VOC's the more you'll burn through your buffer, once it's gone your body will basically go into panic mode whenever it comes into contact with said material. It's one of those things that's high enough on the fuck around side of things that you really don't want to find out...
That said, welcome to 3D printing! There's plenty of resources around, so (for the most part) if you aren't sure about something or run into trouble, all you have to do is ask!
Yes, it really is that bad. We have a resin printer at work and it has been banished to a different room due to the resin fumes. The table it sits on is perpetually sticky, and we go through twice as much IPA postprocessing the prints than we use in resin
I have plenty of space, and I still sold off my resin printer because of fumes, mess, and general headaches. I don't recommend it if you aren't fully prepared for what it requires to do it safely and sanely.
Form 2 is challenging to operate for a newbie:
- laser -> "special" resin required. Formlabs recently moved on to LCDs meaning in the years to come the last third-party manufacturers will stop producing those resins as demand further declines. Leaving the first-party FormLabs as the only option ($100+/kg).
- Difficult to maintain resin tank. Requires a vacuum oven and an upfront investment of roughly $150 for chemicals. There are conversion kits/prints for FEP film to resolve this limitation.
I converted the closet to a 3D Printing area, adding a bathroom-style ceiling vent fan and shelf to hold the 3D printer, resin, cleaner and accessories.
I will tell you I can't smell anything with the doors shut, and the vent does a good job of removing the smell during printing.
Can't recommend TeachingTech's "Resin 3D printing beginners step by step guide" enough, that was basically the model I followed, including hanging paper towel holders on the inside doors and getting silicone mats to prevent spills.
Also, gloves. Every time. Every time I open that closet the first thing I do is put on gloves, even to touch the tools. I have no idea what still has resin on it, so I trust nothing in there.
Can’t stress the use of gloves and a mask for safety when using resin. I got some resin on my latex gloves one time, happened to go outside and I could feel the resin baking in the sun within seconds of the sunlight hitting the glove.
I can’t imagine what that would have felt like if I didn’t have gloves on.
I have a painter’s mask with the disposable filters and it is a must have as well. I can’t smell the fumes with it on but can smell the lingering fumes immediately when taking it off.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
TeachingTech's "Resin 3D printing beginners step by step guide"
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
It also isn't just the resin fumes that are toxic, but the post processing bio ethanol as well.
If you absolutely had to, print in your bathroom with the ceiling vent on. Otherwise, no.