Another Nubie Getting Dragged Kicking and Screaming Into the Fold...

[JMaurer1]

Thank you Lemosteam. What I didn't already have, I have now ordered.

[robert3985]

That was a pretty complete list that @Lemosteam posted. 

As opposed to his advice, I use my wash and cure to both wash and cure.  I have two wash buckets (I bought an extra) that fill the need for a "dirty" initial wash, then a "clean" wash to finish things up.  The less I have to handle my drippy resin prints, the better!

Speaking of "drippy", you are going to drip resin on your tabletop minimally, and the best things to catch the drips of uncured resin and won't react to it, are a few silicone mats...I even go so far as to use them to set my printers and wash & cures on, with one in-between for catching prints when I'm removing them from my build plate.

You can get these in one of two ways...order them from Wham Bam for a minimum of $20 for the "small" 9.5" X 19.5" mat...in orange...or buy "Dog Food Mats" in various sizes and colors...for slightly less, but usually with a bigger lip around the edge.  Here's an example of what's available as pet food mats:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8BZ5VDT/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3?pd_rd_i=B0B8BKV8KM&pd_rd_w=7t4oC&content-id=amzn1.sym.08ba9b95-1385-44b0-b652-c46acdff309c&pf_rd_p=08ba9b95-1385-44b0-b652-c46acdff309c&pf_rd_r=W02C9VRZ1A2E4J3C60MF&pd_rd_wg=rZNzp&pd_rd_r=502b5645-b79f-49ea-b505-fdd5d3b9a668&s=pet-supplies&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1

I find these make cleanup exponentially easier than just having a bare workbench top, and you can be assured that your resin isn't going to soak in or react with them.

When I'm printing, and I know I'll be taking the build plate off soon, I cover the mats with two layers of paper towels, so that most of the resin drippings get soaked into the towel initially. After I get the prints off of the build plate, I wipe the build plate down with paper towels first, then with IPA soaked paper towels.  I take all the resin dripped-on paper towels and put them in a thin white garbage can liner and twist tie it shut so the fumes don't escape, opening it up when I have to put new dirty towels in it until it's pretty full of resin-y towels...then I take it outside on a sunny day and let it bask in the sun for a few hours.  This cures the waste resin, then I just throw it away...but not before I sun-cure the old resin.

After I wipe down my build plate pretty good, I give it a good cleaning in my wash & cure to get the resin out of the seams and hex-head bolt recesses.  In fact, I've replaced some of the hex-head bolts with plain old stainless bolts to get rid of the hex-wrench holes which resin gets into...making build-plate cleanup much easier and quicker.

Uncured resin wipes off of the silicone mats really easily with an IPA moistened paper towel, so they make cleanup much easier too.  I wipe them down after each print is finished just to make sure that any resin that soaks through the paper towels gets removed before I take off my Nitrile gloves and call it a day.

I'll be watching to see how you like your Elegoo Mars 4 9K.  I'm seriously thinking about getting one because there are times I want to print smaller rather than filling up my huge 10+ inch resin vat to print a couple of little parts.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[samusi01]

Consider finding someone else's work: a drip arm. Holds the plate at an angle and allows gravity to sort out the excess resin problem.

Here seen in use on my Saturn 2 last year:

[Chris333]

Yep I let all mine drip at 90 degrees. Then I take a foam plate under it to transfer to another foam plate to pop my print off with a scraper. Then the same first plate under the build plate as I put it back on the machine. I have never even washed my build plates, just keep re-using. No drips. Well OK one or two here and there, but I keep towels and alcohol in a squirt bottle.

All the above is without gloves because all I ever touch is the top knob of the build plate and handle of the scraper. Later when I clean the part I put on one glove (that I use about 20 times) while using a chip brush to scrub using my non gloved hand. Now to me cleaning the part is a little bit messy because I splash the alcohol. This is why I clean in a different area from where I print. I consider the print area my clean area.

When I watch all the Youtube videos I'm like well yeah you're messy





I never turn the build plate more than 90 degrees to get the print off. Top of it stays clean.

[JMaurer1]

A silicon under sink tray was even cheaper (34x22 $20)...another order placed with Amazon.