Almost a Year of Printing Minis: Lessons and Advice

I'm going to try and keep this as pared down as I can. Started printing minis and terrain 10 months ago. No real reason. I don't use them. I paint them and I put them away. Maybe I'll run a game again some day but for now I just enjoy the act of making things. I started with the Ender 3 v2 and then last December or January I got my pre-ordered Phrozen Sonic 8k Mini. So here is what I've learned. This advice is mostly for people who are new to printing and are not terribly concerned with imperfections and efficiency. I'm just a guy who prints for fun.

• Relax. You'll have a much better time not trying to optimize everything. Tweaking things is super fun but nothing will ever be optimal. Little errors can actually turn out looking really cool.
• There is no best slicer. There is really no best anything. Use what you can get, what's comfortable, what you have presets for. If it works, go with that.
• Your baseplate is going to get scratched. In some cases it might actually increase adhesion. It's not going to ruin your prints unless it's absolutely massive, in which case it might mess them up a little. If your resin printer baseplate is scratched just make sure it's not poking out above the rest of the baseplate with a little sharp bit.
• Get a mask and gloves for you resin printer. It's not really an inconvenience and it'll make you feel like a scientist or some mad alchemist in your lab.
• Try not to feel like just because you have a printer and it can take a while to print something that you should always be printing 24/7. I don't follow this one either so who am I to tell you what to do.
• Ender 3 v2 specifics
  • You REALLY don't need that upgrade. As a hobbyist you're not going to increase your detail by much if at all with anything you add to the ender 3 v2. I installed the creality direct drive upgrade and the microswiss all metal hotend. Unless you have a specific need for higher temperature or flexible filament, and with minis or terrain you really don't, then you don't need those upgrades and frankly neither did I.
    • Upgrade your leveling springs though. And get the capricorn tube. Something like this.
  • Use an alcohol spray on your build plate right before you print. It really helps things stick. The plate does NOT have to be perfectly clean and free from marks from previous prints. Just getting the dust off really helps.
  • If your print isn't sticking it's almost always because you need to adjust the bed. I never used an auto level but you can, I just don't think it's really needed and I like the little tweaks. The paper trick is good, though sometimes I'll just slide the head around and check by eye whether it's getting closer or farther away depending on where I move it. If all else fails you can just slather some glue stick on there. Not my favorite but it does work.
  • You can ABSOLUTELY print minis on the ender 3 v2. Once you've finished and painted it it can easily look better than any of the stuff you might get in an Icons of the Realms box. Get a 0.2mm nozzle and slow the print waaaay down. Tree supports are your friend. Print one at a time so if something goes wrong it doesn't mess up a whole batch.
  • If your nozzle seems to be clogging a lot a big reason can be that the temperature of the tube right above the nozzle. If the heat is traveling too far up it melts the filament high and it starts gumming up like trying to push glue through a straw. It needs to only be melty right at the bottom where the nozzle is. Make sure the fan is working correctly, they tend to break. I kept mine running for a bit longer with some lubricant.
  • I will also use an old airbrush needle to unclog it as it reaches all the way down to the nozzle with the direct drive build. I just "thread" it down like it was filament and then hold the extruder open and push whatever is in there out. I'm sure some people are aghast at this but it works.
  • The number 17 head for utility knives can be pretty useful at popping off finished prints, but really just let the plate cool down and then if it still won't come off throw it in the fridge or freezer. Almost always worked for me.
  • If it has a few thousand reviews and 4 and a half stars on Amazon it's probably a fine filament. I wouldn't worry about it all that much. You can save money if you don't care about what color your filament is, stay open to more than one brand( Hatchbox, sunlu, esun, overture, probably others), and look for deals to buy in bulk. Even if "bulk" just means like 2 or 3.
• SLR Specifics (Sonic Mini 8k)
  • I practice the way of lǎn dàn(懒蛋) (lahn dahn). This means I want to do as little as possible while still getting good results.
  • I use nFep, it's more expensive and I have no experience with FEP so I can't tell you whether it's better. It works for me. I'll print dozens of times on one sheet. I hate replacing them it's a pain.
  • I never remove the tray if I can help it. Which means so long as the fep isn't completely compromised it stays right on top of that screen. Even with failed prints I'll just scrape the failures out with a playing card while it's still in the machine.
  • USE A RAFT.
    • As a fun trick you can actually overlap your rafts a bit, then when you go to remove them they'll all come off together.
  • MY SETUP: Really quite cheap. Keeps light out, pumps air out.
    • 24""x24""x36" Indoor Hydroponic Grow Tent with Observation Window and Floor Tray
    • I put it on the floor and the printer inside on the floor. The floor is very stable. I also have a kneeling mat in front of it.
    • I have a duct fan and some tubing going out a nearby window with a portable AC window kit that the duct hooks into.
    • Pickle Jar - Lock & Lock pickle tray. I prewash in this after getting the prints off the plate.
    • Wash and Cure station. Do you need one? Absolutely not. But Lan Dan means lazy egg.
    • Sealable container big enough to fit the build plate, usually lined with paper towels and maybe some rubber.
    • When the print is done I remove the build plate and put it in the container. Then I use THIS. Really anything like that will do. I place the tool flat/flush on the plate just under the lip of the raft. The build plate is angled because it's resting in the bin like this \. So kneeling over it I take a small hammer and GENTLY tap on the back of the putty knife until it scoots under the raft and the whole things starts to peel up. Then I gently work it around to loosen up all the other rafts. Coming at the raft from a diagonal while still keeping the tool flat can help if you find the raft is chipping. Wipe the build plate off, doesn't have to be thorough just make sure there is nothing on the bottom flat part. Then put it back on, put the lid on, close the grow tent.
    • Then I throw the minis in the pickle jar for prewash, then throw them in the wash and cure for 5-10 minutes.
    • Take off the supports BEFORE you cure. If they're hard to remove then just go run them under warm water, they will pop right off. Then MAKE SURE TO LET THEM DRY. People skip this step and they get weird white stuff all over. Let them dry a bit and drip off excess alcohol and resin before you cure. I cure for like, 3-10 minutes. I honestly have not really been able to tell a difference in how long I cure affecting anything, including how "brittle" the minis are. Don't sweat it. Then I add them to the giant evergrowing pile of unprimed minis that I'm going to get around to painting one day STOP PRESSURING ME.
  • Wear your mask and gloves. I have consistently tracked headaches with exposure to breathing resin.
  • For failed prints I try to use Hoyle Waterproof Clear Playing Cards to scrape the stuff off the fep sheet. They're great, they're not going to scratch anything, and I get 52 of them for like 5 bucks. You really want to make sure there is nothing left but liquid resin in the tray when you start your next print, but I've made mistakes and missed little pieces and it didn't break the machine. As soon as I heard the motor struggling when it got to the bottom I just turned it off and got whatever the problem was out. Though I'd probably recommend replacing your fep at that point because you just jammed a small piece of resin into/through it.
  • The screen is gonna get replaced. Either by wear and tear over time or because it gets ruined. It's not going to get ruined as easily as a lot of people seem to think though. If you spill resin on your screen it's not the end of the world. Many times you can just cure it on there and scrape it off with something. I recommend those playing cards.
  • I've tried a number of resins. I like the Phrozen 4k(I know "4k" is a gimmick but I like the resin regardless). I've also tried elegoo, photon, epax..., that new Vulcan stuff(not a fan), and siraya tech. My favorite is Siraya Tech Fast Navy Grey. Again though there is no best resin. I find it makes a difference in how many failures I get, but not really in the level of detail.
  • I prefer Lychee but use whatever you like.
  • I would recommend not getting obsessive about supports. Use presupported or let Lychee make the supports for you. I have printed hundreds of models and I've never had a problem with just letting Lychee make my supports. Hit that magic button and hit I feel lucky.
  • USE CLEAR/TRANSPARENT RESIN. Try it out. It's so fun. There are so many possibilities. You can color it afterward, you can mix it with your models to have parts that are transparent, you can even fill them with liquid or whatever. FUUUUUUUN.

There. Very Pared down. Sure I missed some stuff but here you go. If anyone reads this, well, just wow, thanks. I'm happy to answer questions but all this is just my experience. Nothing concrete.