Greetings from the Hoosier state

[ep29030]

New member. I’ve been resin printing for over a year now. I started with Anycubic M7Pro, and added 2 smaller Anycubic Mom4 Ultras to my bench. I design and print lots of small parts, mostly for hobby rocketry. I’m working toward launching a company to sell parts and rocket kits that use Quest MicroMaxx rocket motors—tiny motors that launch small rockets in your back yard. I’m now playing with resin mixes to get properties that I want for my parts: heat resistance and toughness. Since I am mostly retired now, I am able to print something just about every day, so I keep refining and learning.

 

[Alan]

welcome to the 3D Printing community! we are glad to have an experienced professional in our community!

 

[Bandit_Sydonia]

That’s an awesome niche. Hobby rocketry plus custom resin work feels like a great combo, especially with how small tolerances matter at that scale. Curious how your resin experiments are going so far with heat resistance.

 

[ep29030]

I have two requirements for rocket parts: (1) toughness, to take falls, drops and landings; (2) heat resistance to handle motor heat and hot cars in the summer. Per NFPA regulations, motor exteriors are not supposed to be above 210F at any time, so that forms the basis of my heat test.
I keep trying out new resins to find a combination with heat resistance and some flexibility. My test is still dropping a piece on a hard floor from my waist. If it bounces without damage, it passes. My heat test is 30 minutes in the oven at 220F with no warpage. I have some resin combinations that have met both criteria. In general, I am finding that using about 2/3 flexible resin with 1/3 heat resistant resin gives me a combination to pass both of my tests. I have not found any one resin to meet both my tests.
(all ratios are by volume)
Combinations that work well for me:
2/3 3D Materials Superfast Superflex + 1/3 3D Materials Superfast Super HDT
2/3 3D Materials Superfast Superflex V-0 + 1/3 3D Materials Superfast Super HDT.
2/3 3D Materials Superfast Superflex + 1/3 Yousu High Temperature resin. (this is the fastest combination I’ve found to date)

Superfast Superflex is crazy flexible—it has an elongation at break of 180. You can fold a print back on itself. I always print a couple of test rocket ornaments with the flexible resin before I go to any combinations, just to see how flexible it is. The high temperature resins are VERY rigid-elongation at break values are usually in the 3-5 range. I’m starting to play with Insologic’s 70A Flexible resin. It has an elongation at break around 140. Not as high as Superflex, but it is $35 per kg instead of $60 so I’m willing to test it. It requires a much longer exposure than Superflex (2.4 seconds vs 6 seconds). Often you get what you pay for. I am also going to try the Resione 69 flexible resin to see how it might work in a combination. I’m learning that I need a flexible resin with elongation at break specifications in the 120+ range. Adding the high temperature resin to the flexible resin pulls elongation at break down into the 20-30 range, which is where many “tough” resins sit when you look at their specifications.

Another plus of most 3D Materials resins is they come in clear. I have a complete set of both Alumilite resin dyes and 3D Materials dyes as well. With the clear resins, I now add dyes to get colors when I need them. No more buying resins to get the color I need.