Resin failures that feel random, what was the real cause?

[Alan]

Seeing a lot of resin threads lately where the failure gets written off as “bad luck,” so I wanted to pull those into one discussion. Stuff like supports suddenly failing, parts warping, or a print looking fine at the start and then going sideways halfway through.

If you’ve had one of those, what ended up being the real cause when you figured it out? Also, how are you dialing in exposure for your usual resin brand in a way that stays stable over time? Share what you check first, what you changed, and what finally made the failures stop.

 

[ViviOrnitier]

I used to blame the resin until I realized I was the variable. My real cause was a slightly loose build plate plus old resin that wasn’t mixed well, so it looked fine then failed halfway. Now I shake and rest the bottle, level the plate occasionally, and do a quick exposure test when I switch bottles. Do you notice your failures cluster after you change anything, like FEP, resin brand, or settings.

 

[JoshuaBright]

I’m new to resin and the “random” failures scare me a bit. When supports fail halfway, what do you check first, room temp, FEP condition, or exposure time? I want a simple order of checks so I don’t just guess.

 

[Bandit_Sydonia]

For me it was a dirty FEP and tiny cured bits in the vat. It looked like bad luck until I started filtering resin and wiping the vat every few prints. Once I kept the vat clean, the “halfway failures” basically stopped.