You are aware that resin workflow is toxic, end-to-end; right? Its something you don't want sharing air with living things.
Meaning you really want to have a dedicated space for it that isn't your hobby room, spare room etc. sharing air with the rest of the house.
Secondary building on your property: A shed for example. Subdivide your garage so you can contain and vent it. That sort of thing.
Generally the cost of the printer is well less than the one-time investment in initial setup of the environment as well as all the other things like PPE, supplies, consumables etc.
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Now the long winded FAQ reply to "I'm thinking about getting a resin printer".
Not scaring you off - just lots of people new to resin printing aren't aware they need to set up a safe working space.
Here's my long winded advice post that I put up whenever someone says "I'm gonna get a resin printer". Hope it helps. Not trying to scare you out of getting one. If you have the environment they are terrific. But nobody needs to spend a grand on getting set up only to find out they can't use it - that's really painful.
The entire workflow is toxic. Period. If you want to believe the people selling the stuff when they say its "less so" you do that. I'm old enough to remember when asbestos was safe, so was talcum powder, about 50 medications that PASSED FDA certifications, over the counter heartburn pills that give you cancer. But sure, you go by the word of the people making bonuses and salaries on the volume of sales. ME... I won't have it in my house and won't go in the resin room without a VOC respirator.
Vat Photopolymerization and VOC Emissions: Study Results and User Guidelines
or
Particle and vapor emissions from vat polymerization desktop-scale 3-dimensional printers - PMC
Be aware of what getting a resin printer means - in its entirety.
It is NOT a spare bedroom technology like an FDM printer.
Context: I have a dozen FDM machines in one building, and 4 resin in another.
These are so toxic that even though I have a dedicated printing building, resin workflow couldn't go in there.
10 minutes in the resin trailer and my wife won't let me walk in the house wearing that cotton t-shirt because it has already absorbed the smell.
The printer is the least of your concerns when it comes to fumes. It's mostly contained but as soon as you take the lid off all that comes spilling out.
Venting the printer only does a small part. The rest of the resin workflow involves open bottles, open vats, big buckets of open alcohol, parts off-gassing while curing, resin waste and paper towels in the trash all off-gassing. Fume residue settling on everything.
There isn't a step in resin workflow that is 'safe'. This is all industrial grade chemicals, fumes and handling. You need to accept this up front or don't bother.
Great video on resin/VOC fume control. All hands-on
You get what you pay for.
Buy a $200 printer now and in 60 days you'll be pissed at yourself for buying a postage stamp that can't do much beyond DnD minis.
Save yourself hundreds in the long run by buying your 3rd printer first. Go as big as you can afford. Remember that big printers can make small things, but not the other way around.
Besides, the printer is the cheapest part of it all. By the time you get into the ventilation fans, bins, resin, alcohol, respirator mask (for fumes), etc., you'll be about a grand as your initial set-up expenses. Alcohol for washing is a consumable. I buy 5gal drums for $50-60. I use a {$100} distiller to clean the alcohol regularly so I can re-use the same alcohol several times, but there's always some loss in any process. So budget accordingly
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My standard "Welcome to resin printing" post:
• Order more resin, you don't have enough.
• Search the forum before asking because the printer may be new to you but it isn't new to the forum and there's LOTS of good advice already here you're missing if you don't look.
• Order more resin, you don't have enough.
Mine worked great out of the box. Continues banging out product 8-12 hours a day (compared to my FDM's that I run around the clock) while I adapt more of the detail parts of my products to resin manufacture. But even with years of FDM printing experience behind me it was 2 months of dialing in before I had production quality parts that were dimentionally accurate and without elephants foot issues.
Don't confuse "odorless" or "water washable" or "plant based" with "safe". Plenty of odorless chemicals that will kill you or severely screw you up. Oleanders are plants too, and they'll kill ya dead. Resin, alcohol, MEK, acetone, cleaning fluids... that's all industrial grade chemicals. It has no place living in your bedroom/spare room, or on the same air conditioner as the rest of your house. That's like having the airflow of the fiberglass auto-body shop pumped into your living room. I tried setting it up in my main shop but 3 days of that showed me it needed its own space and own air handling. Not just for resin smell but also alcohol etc. That resin room has a continuous fresh air in/out and so far after a month the printer and cover still look as new as the day it arrived. Simply put - this is all industrial-grade materials and your health deserves industrial-grade precautions. This has no place in a spare bedroom sharing the air conditioner with the rest of your house.
"Water washable" does not mean you wash it down your drain! It is still an industrial chemical solution that you have to take to a proper hazardous waste material collection center.
My solution was to not concentrate solely on the printer and simply force vent the entire room; and I still wear a 3m-7500 series mask when in there. I like my lungs. I've seen people with lung issues gasping for every breath. No thank you.
3m half mask
Amazon.com
VOC filters (put them on monthly subscribe and save)
Amazon.com
Off brand full face but it takes the 3m filters
Amazon.com
> What others did about fumes?
Well... Ask 100 people you'll get 100 different answers because everyone has a different situation.
For me... I wasn't silly enough to think industrial manufacturing belonged in my house. So I put it in a small cargo trailer that had no purpose at the time. (see pic) Others subdivide a garage. or basement. Or... that spare room over the garage... Or buy a Shed as a dedicated maker space. Someplace to put the work shop on its own air handling not shared with the family and pets.
Then comes the retort: But I'm only a hobbyist making little gaming wizards and my apartment doesn't the room for a shed. Well… The chemicals don't know or care about what you're making. If you don't have room then don't do it. I'd love to have a full-blown cabinet workshop, but I can't so I don't try.
In my resin trailer I added air con as well as a dedicated vent fan.
4" vent fan
Amazon.com
Duct
Amazon.com
I tried setting it up in my main FDM shop but 3 days of that showed me it needed its own space and own air handling. Simply put - this is all industrial-grade materials and your health deserves industrial-grade precautions.
Lots of people will say "Oh, that's overblown. A box fan in a window is all you need." Ok. *YOU* do that. I would never work for someone that takes that attitude about worker safety and that's only 8 hours, 5 days a week. Why the hell would I do that in my own home around my family and pets 24/7?
I'm not telling anyone what to do. Just sharing what I do and my perspective. But my two cents worth: If you wait until you're having lung problems to accept you need a better situation: You're already having lung problems.
Still insisting on having it in your house? If you google "VOC rated room air filters" (not just the HEPA stuff) but actual VOC rated... Look at ratings... then look at the spec for the size of the space they can handle... Looks like something in this range-ish, is what you're probably looking at.
Amazon.com
My personal advice is to not worry about buying resin printing tech if you don't plan to treat it like an industrial machine using chemicals that require special handling. If you plan to use it with no more safety than a inkjet printer and drop it in your spare room you're not being realistic.
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