Who said 3D Printing was Easy!!?

All of the Failed 3D Prints

Failed 3D Prints - The force was not Strong enough 2

Failed 3D Prints - The force was not Strong enough

Failed 3D Prints - Swamp Resin

Failed 3D Prints - Wings

Failed 3D Prints - Flattened

Everyone gets started with 3D printing looking at some beautifully designed STL files in their chosen editing software. It looks great, what could go wrong? EVERYTHING!

As you can see in the images above, we have a perfect 3D file ready to go. You will also see a number of failed prints, some of the failed prints are Star Warslightsabers and another is some demon wings from a model that we have. For some reason the wings always want to print flat! 🙂

Now, part of the printing process when you print 3D files on a resin printer is adding supports. Because it essentially prints upside down, you have to be sure it has the needed supports so that the pieces do not end up printing in mid-air. This alone is an art form in of itself.
Sometimes you don’t have enough supports or you have too many. Not enough and the print will fall into the resin and stop printing. Too many supports and you end up with support damage that has to be cleaned up post printing. This usually take a whole different level of skill as you are aligning and filling gaps, and painting to cover your skilled labor to make everything look as perfect as possible.

Our goal is to be as efficient as possible and do as little post-printing repair or finishing. To do this, we have to try many different types of support and orientations until we can find the perfect amount and type of supports. It can be frustrating though as we learn a lot of ways that it doesn’t work before we find the one that does!

The moral of this story, if anyone tells you printing is easy and anyone can do it. They aren’t lying, they are just leaving a lot out. If you like tinkering and building models. I bet you’d love 3D printing! If you would rather push a button and have a perfect replica of a Star Wars lightsaber, go to the store and buy the Hasbro Black Series of whichever is your favorite lightsaber or replica helmets. They looks great, and the time you save painting and finishing a full size piece is well worth what they are asking.

There is something to be said about receiving a freshly made replica that you can paint and make your own, with custom color schemes!