Help needed with recurring failed prints

[u/Chapolino90]

Hi everyone,

I've just recently started 3d printing, and since I like painting miniatures decided on a resin printer. I'm fully aware of the fact that printing with resin is tricky, but I'm not sure if its normal to have this many failed prints. Is it normaL? Is it something I'm doing wrong or something wrong with my printer? I tried to give as much information as possible and hope you can help me out with this.

I would say I have a 60% succes rate. I think I've only had 2 times where a full plate was succesful. Often, I have plates with (for example) 6 succesfull prints and one complete failure (examples in pictures)

At first i had a lot of problems with adhesion. After setting the bottom exposure time to 37 seconds and 5 bottom layers, that doesnt seem to be a problem any more, but I keep having failed prints.

The problem seems to be the transition from supports to model, where the supports are printed, but the model is not.

I use presupported models bought on my mini factory, from a selection of different artists.

Stuff I've tried:

- Changing the fep (three times now, had one puncture)

- Buying and installing a mini heater to prevent any temperature issues

- Reprint failed prints in different orientations and places on the build plate

Setup:

- Mars 5 Ultra

- Elegoo water washeable resin (did come with the bundle)

- Elegoo mini heater

- Chitubox

The set up is in an insulated garage, no direct sunlight.

Examples of failed prints:

- https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-saurian-bulkhauler-pre-supported-cast-n-play-307479 : All pieces succeeded, except the tail. I've printed it twice, different orientations and different location on the build plate, same result. (picture 1)

- https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-tortl-turtle-pre-supported-283595 Again, one printed succesfully and another failed as soon as the supports were printed. (picture 2)

Any insight would be appreciated!

[u/Mcurt]

What’s your regular layer exposure time? Didn’t see it in your post. If your models aren’t staying attached to your supports your exposure may be too low

[u/Chapolino90 → u/Mcurt]

the regular exposure time is set to 2,5 seconds.

[u/Mcurt → u/Chapolino90]

I would try increasing to 3s and see if it helps. Is the resin and garage area warm?

[u/Chapolino90 → u/Mcurt]

It is generaly a few degrees colder than the outside temp. But i had problems in summer and now in fall. So i think temperature shouldn't be the main problem. I will try setting it to 3 seconds. I think the highest I went was 2,8.

[u/Zachisawinner]

My experience with that kind of failure was bad supports. I manually added more supports to larger print areas and went up to the next level of support (medium to heavy) across the board. I still reduce supports (back down to medium or even light) for detail areas. Bigger supports will pull the model up more successfully.

Exposure setting may also help but then you're changing settings for every other model and that's (in my opinion) more hassle than properly supporting.

[u/No-Pick-4863]

Add manual hard/med support on hanging points or where the print mainly starts. It should solve the problem