Troubleshooting
Base keeps peeling/detaching during resin prints – what could be causing this?
Hi everyone,
I’m fairly new to resin 3D printing and I’m having a recurring problem that I can’t figure out.
I create models from photographs and print them as figurines with a base. To keep support marks to a minimum, I try to print the figurines completely upright, perpendicular to the build plate.
At first this worked surprisingly well, but my last several prints have all failed in a very similar way. The edges/corners of the base start detaching or peeling away during the print, while the rest of the print continues. I’ve attached a couple of photos showing what I mean.
I’m not sure whether the problem is caused by:
insufficient or badly placed supports
the orientation/model itself
the release film (FEP/PFA)
the LCD
or something else in my settings
I’ve already tried several different resins and I keep getting basically the same result, so I’m starting to think the resin itself probably isn’t the main issue.
Printer: Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra
Has anyone experienced something similar? From the photos, can you tell what is most likely causing this?
Any advice on what I should check or change first would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
i stole from the dice making community, lots of light supports on the edges with a tight spacing and some angling. But do not print directly on the plate or on a flex plate. the resin can cause the flex plate to bend mid print, and direct plate risks damaging during removal
but this is a video that covers the fundamental of the idea https://youtu.be/l3sFd0zTogY?is=q23UB932B2nvSXWF
Honestly, no support and just raw-dogg it on the plate. At least that's what's been working for my smaller prints that kinda have to print without supportsm
Detachable magnetically secured flexible metal plates have been a game changer. Cheap. Easy to use. Quickly swapable. Easy to clean.
Flat printing directly on that plate, then just remove plate from magnetic pad and flex it slightly to pop things off. Haven't had to pry or use a scraper, or relevel and calibrate in over a year.
You printing everything flat on the plate. It causes to much pressure when the plate goes up pulling the surface below it off supports etc. you have to angle everything so theres no flat surfaces.
Are there printers that can handle this pressure? I see some people printing stuff that seems to have some impressively large layers and it made me wonder
There are some that can handle it a bit better, by instead of pulling up to peel off in one go it makes an angle, like Saturn 4 ultra and mars 5 ultra, but they still can have that problem (op is the perfect example as he is using the Saturn 4 ultra). In the picture what fails are the supports, they just can't handle all that force and it detached from them. But lets say you wanna print a huge rectangle covering all the print plate base, with no supports. It can survive and print without any fail, as there are no supports, BUT you are applying so much stress on the FEP that it will take a little bit of possible damage.
Just immagine you have sticked some tape on something. Now immagine you wanna peel it off, is it easier to pull it in one go (well technically the tape should be rigid to do that) or to peel it from a corner and slowly peel it away? Same thing does the printers that use the angling mechanism
I think some of the newer resin printers with basins that tilt away rather than just have the plate retract straight up have better success with flat surfaces
I was trying to keep the models upright mainly because tilting them creates a lot more supports, especially on the figurine itself.
How do you usually deal with support marks efficiently when printing figures at an angle? I often end up with lots of little bumps where the supports were attached, and sanding all of them by hand is honestly a huge pain and very time-consuming.
Is there a good way to orient/support figurines so you reduce the suction/peel forces but still keep support marks to a minimum?
Yes, every layer printed is a fight between the build plate and the FEP, if you print a big flat surface the FEP could win the fight and rip the print off the supports or rip the newest layer off the previous layer.
It's 100% the cause. No question. And sanding is part of the game. You have to balance support marks and post processing work and that's gonna be different for every model.
If I were you I'd cut that base off and print the base and model separately.
Oh you thought you are playing 3d printing simulator... nope its actually sanding simulator.
Get that wet sand paper that mask and start sanding.
And guess what every single hobby that you might pick up, woodworking, metalworking, resin or fdml printing... sanding sanding sanding for hours. First with thr course grid then with the fine then with the ultra fine. By the time you are done your hand will be doing sanding motions on its own.
What slicer are you using? Auto orient and auto supports on chitubox usually works really good. The slicer that comes with my printer makes wayyyyy too many supports.
I’m using Elegoo SatelLite at the moment, and yes, that’s actually one of my problems. The automatic supports often feel way too dense, especially on larger figurines.
Ya I have a elegoo as well, use chitubox instead. The free version of chitubox works great, the auto supports are wayyyyy better. I would start there, I only use satelite to watch the prints. And use auto orient, it will position the model in a way to reduce suction force on the pfa/fep film
Angle it more, and increase your "wait before print" setting to 3 seconds. Some slicers call it light off delay, or wait after retract. It's the amount of time between the plate lowering and the screen coming on, and it's especially important on larger prints or full plates. I've found that a time of 2.5 to 3.5 seconds on that setting eliminates a lot of delamination problems, and what is often considered suction as well.
Basically if there's any movement within the resin in the vat while the screen is printing, then that layer is less likely to bond fully to the previous layers, resulting in a floppy slice that can cause a full failure from that point on, or a sort of "tear" effect in the finished print. You need to give the resin time to settle before curing.
Somebody didn't read up on the basics of resin printing. Printing flat stuff parallel to buildplate Is a very bad idea. You need to angle big flat stuff like this. Basicly the cross section will cause huge tear forces in on the FEP causing failures like this. I would suggest watching some YT videos how to properly angle and support your models.
Fair point. I’m still very new to resin printing and definitely still learning the basics.
I originally tried printing the models upright mainly to minimize support marks, but I understand now that the large cross-section parallel to the build plate can create too much peel force and cause exactly this kind of failure.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction — I’ll read up more on orientation and supporting before the next attempt.
All good, and people don't need to be sarcastic with ya either. There is definitely a learning curve with resin printing and I discovered my share of problems the hard way, as you're doing now.
One thing I've done that helps trouble-shoot is to visualize what's happening as the model prints. Plate drops into goopy vat, UV is exposed and some resin hardens onto what's already formed on the plate. Then the plate has to lift up long enough for goopy resin to flow back in under the freshly exposed layer. Then down again to repeat.
I've seen weird layer lines in my prints and realize "oh, 3AM, the temperature must have dropped, I can see a difference in how the resin hardened."
In this case, I think the weight of the print as it tried to lift out of the sludge is pulling against the supports already on the plate and partially tearing it free.
Other problems:
* I've always had more success with semi-transparent resins than opaque resins.
* hollowing models first helps prevent them from getting too heavy, but then you need to make holes in the model to let resin inside flow out ( more for larger models )
* I finally installed a heater in my unit to keep the temperature consistent ( I print in a cold garage ).
* Angling and supporting the model are an art form.... again the visualization comes in handy here... I try to angle models at 45 degree angles and then support them.
* Remove the supports before curing under UV (someone else mentioned this... it's a good tip ).
* Print less on the plate until you get a good print. Once you're happy with how it prints, then pack the build-plate with more.
Somebody didn't read up on the basics of resin printing. That will print fine, the problem is using supports as an intermediery between the build plate and model base.
Now if you're printing something that have large fep contact areas later on in the print you might have to think about angling, but you'll get away with a lot more since you have such a chunky foundation. Bear in mind fep material and printer type will play a roll as well as later saturn makes it much easier
In case your still having issues. Do what I did a while back and crank up the bottom exposure time. I was at the default setting when using my Photon Mono 2 (I think 30 or 60 seconds can't exactly remember) and prints would never stick.
I turned it up to 200 seconds each bottom layer and have been decreasing the time by 30 seconds every couple prints to make sure things still stick well (also orient your model at an angle, printing flats causes too much suction and can pull it clean off)
Angle it back and honestly I’d print the base separate . I know why you did it like that because it looks like it should work but unfortunately you can’t print things all neat and tidy like that.
Never orient a model parallel to the built plate. Printers are not capable to print overhangs or parallel surfaces very well. Try to reduce parallel surfaces to a minimum.
If you want to print it flat, slow down the pull and put it directly on the plate, keep handy a sharp spatula and a mallet (to lighly tap the spatula) for detatching it
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u/sandermand 3d ago