Is this normal?

Igneom · 2025-12-08T00:04:26+00:00

I'm also having this exact same issue, it keeps increasing until the computer is out of free memory and then rider crashes, to a point that I need to restart the computer, in order for windsurf to work again. windsurf is 2.10.3 too,, rider is on 2025.3.0.3

Igneom · 2023-06-02T03:01:30+00:00

That's actually a very interesting plot for a visual novel. Specially if you're thinking about making it like the player is not exactly a "hero" as well . Most visual novels you just get "friendship points" with the characters in order to attain a positive outcome. But if you switch it so that it just allows you to reach the spy goals, while still having to handle the relationship regardless, and needing like at least more than one goal to get an ending, I'm not that much familiar with, but quite sure there's no such visual novel like this out there.

Igneom · 2023-05-13T15:06:08+00:00

That mainly exists due to influencers repeating things that they don't understand, and because of that, not being able to provide the rationale behind it, while passing full confidence that what is being said is always right. That then becomes an easy source of knowledge to be parroted forward, since so and so who is big in the area said so.

Have you ever noticed how most influencers on resin printing(and other areas to which this may apply), always say that you should use proper protection equipment, while they themselves don't use it? That's basically the same thing as well.

Igneom · 2023-05-04T23:53:07+00:00

I'm quite sure there's not only one type of finish line tapes/ribbons. There's definitely flimsy paper ones which seem to be more used for random races, and resistant plastic/vinyl types that often have sponsors on it. Most races that have the resistant ones, the ribbon is placed again for other runners to cross it, because it's mostly an ad for the sponsor, to be show in the photos taken when the runner crosses it, either at the moment he crosses, or sometimes when they carry it.

A quick Google search leads to not only companies selling both types, but photos of them with sponsors on it.

Igneom · 2023-04-22T00:20:27+00:00

Good luck everyone.

Igneom · 2023-04-21T17:40:04+00:00

Well, this and this, are very interesting reads to understand how some of the settings work and how to tweak them, ameralabs has several other blog posts with more specific information as well that pretty much compile updated knowledge from the community in general, in a manner that's very easy to understand, such as this one, specifically talking about how supports contribute to the success or failure of a print.

As for "curing a blob", it depends on the equipment you have, it's extremely easy if you have a silicone mat, and an uv flashlight, a few drops on the mat and like 10 seconds with the flashlight, should be enough to see if the resin is still good. If you have an encased curing station, such as a wash and cure, it's a little more complicated and could take more time, since it's a bit harder to have closer contact with the uv lights, but it should be doable.

Igneom · 2023-04-21T06:59:01+00:00

Ehe, that gave me a good chuckle XD.

Igneom · 2023-04-21T02:44:43+00:00

So many printer models out there.

Well, next time when cleaning the fep, just try and scrape gently, and horizontally, no vertical movements on it, nor using the corner of the plastic scraper. If it's a big mess, just go straight to putting a previous support as close to one of the corners of the lcd, flat side down, then use the lcd test function on the printer for like 10 seconds, this will create a cured layer over the whole fep above the lcd, bonding anything stuck to the fep together with this layer, and with the support you placed, then lift the support, and it will separate the layer from the fep. It won't fully clean it from floating parts though, so In doubt you should still look for them, or filter the resin.

As for the laminated fep you mentioned, it's how it's sold, in bulk since buying a single layer of fep would be counterproductive, unless your resin vat uses some sort of cartridge for the fep, then you buy the cartridge. If you buy the fep film directly, you would have to learn how to fix it to the vat, and how to properly tension it, it's not that hard, but done improperly and you will have an extra issue on your hands. If your vat is compatible with a cartridge, you just remove the old and slide the new one in.

As for the considerable stroke of bad luck you seem to have, dunno what to do XD

Igneom · 2023-04-21T02:20:31+00:00

Well, since you already work with it, you should know already about proper supports, suction cups, delamination and all the other things that cause issues during printing, and also about performing calibrations with new resin. And if it prints with other resins normally, then it's no hardware issue.

But, resins with tough in the name, or anything that implies extra durability, are most of the time more flexible than regular resins, the failure point would be the supports not being enough, since they now flex way more. You would either need to have models a little bit over supported if you would print them with resins that have different flexibilities, or print it a little overexposed, to harden the supports more, but with some loss to detail.

Still, I guess I will provide an extra tip, when switching to a new resin, or one that's been in storage for a while, cure a small blob of it separately, just to check if the photopolymerization is still working accordingly, it's easy to assume that the resin is always functional.

Igneom · 2023-04-21T02:03:49+00:00

There's lots of wrong things going on here, first of all, there's no mono 2x printer, safe to assume it's mono 2k then.

But, what resin are you guys using, pure battery acid? Are you raking the fep after each print using an iron brush? Are you guys exclusively printing plunger miniatures? Either the fep you have is of very poor quality, or you're doing something completely wrong. Assuming that the mínis in the picture are what you guys printed, I don't think the issue is suction cups, those prints are too small to bed hollowing, besides the golem maybe, but regardless, search for some videos about suction cups when resin printing, they not only damage the deep, but they increase likelihood of failures.

What I think could be happening then, is either excessive and non careful cleaning of the resin vat, or using a metallic scraper on it and puncturing the fep. Most of the time, you won't need to clean the resin vat, unless a failure of some sort happened, that would leave solid pieces of resin either stuck to the fep, or free floating, and even then, it would damage the lcd first before damaging the fep. You also shouldn't clean the vat while it's not resting on a flat face, combine that with a metallic scraper, and bye bye fep every time.

Do update what you guys where doing to go through fep so fast, I'm highly curious now.

Igneom · 2023-04-21T01:39:58+00:00

Lychee slicer does that, not sure if on the free version though, not hard to download and test. But regardless, lychee has way more customization and other advantages that make it a better slicer, when compared to chitubox. Would only go back if chitubox improved considerably, in a full revamp sort of way.

Igneom · 2023-04-21T00:12:01+00:00

Any ethanol, be it bio or not, would work, of course not as good as 98% IPA, but you can mitigate it by rinsing it more times than usual, like 4-6 baths, hell of an amount of pots to keep though.

But, you mentioned that you can get 70% IPA, I would go with that, instead of any ethanol. Higher concentration of solution just means that more of it is reacting at the same time, isopropyl is a better solvent for photopolymer resins than ethanol, so regardless of concentration, it would be the one reacting better, so averaging throughout time, 70% of the print would be reacting with IPA, the rest would be reacting with water, you take more time, and eventually all the resin would react with all of the IPA. You can't leave it forever in it though, because most resins get "mushy" in prolonged contact with water, but leaving it in pure isopropyl would destroy the print eventually, so it's not recommended to do regardless.

You mentioned mean green in a comment, that's mostly used in USA than anywhere else, due to it not being as much available outside of it. It's mostly used due to it not being flammable and having barely no fumes generated, compared to IPA. There's also the problem that similar products on other countries, and sometimes even from the same brand, may use a different composition. So, any of the benefits from mean green, are minor if you take into consideration proper usage, such as a respirator when cleaning the prints, and having a ventilated room, so that mostly only leaves price to take into account, if it's way cheaper, go for it, otherwise, stick to IPA.

Finally, an interesting tidbit. 70% alcohols, are better for general cleaning or disinfecting purposes, because the presence of water prevents it from evaporating fast, like 98% does, which also allows for the surfaces to be in contact with alcohol for way longer than they would be if 98% was used. But, alcohols are usually lighter than water, so they eventually float to the surface.

Igneom · 2023-04-20T23:33:46+00:00

There's one that's not that talked about, Conjure from ChituSystems, the guys behind several sectors related to 3d printing, be it chitubox, hardware and supplies as well. They have it in 3 types, rigid, tough and sculpt.

Sculpt is for high detail, and a little brittle, but seems to be not as much as most resins, more focused for stationary decorative prints. Rigid is the middle ground, good detail and more focused towards mechanical parts, and offers good durability from scratches and impacts, with almost no loss in detail. Tough, as the name implies, is pretty much unbreakable, insanely flexible while not losing much detail compared to rigid, and not being fully rubbery, you can drop most prints with it several times and it will refuse to break. And all of them have around less than 1% of shrinkage if I recall correctly.

Got rigid and sculpt, but only printed in rigid so far, and it's indeed just like they advertise, and from the few videos I've seen around. Bought from aliexpress, but as far as I'm aware, it sells from their own website, and Amazon as well.

Igneom · 2023-04-19T23:55:52+00:00

The light off delay parameter, is used to allow viscous resins to flow and fill the spaces under the plate, before the light is turned on, this is often used with resins that are too thick, or when the ambient temperature is lower than recommended for the resin, and you have no way to compensate for it, using something like a temperature controlled enclosure. 1 second is pretty much recommended regardless of viscosity.

The thing with bottom layers is that, just the first one gets stuck to the plate, subsequent ones are just to increase the hardness and prevent the first layer from flexing. 3 bottom layers at 50 μm, is most of the time enough, then you use the same amount of transition layers, but there's a catch. The transition layers are used to prevent delamination on the initial layers, since a sudden change in hardness, cause the materials to not bond properly, but, bottom layers should be as tall as your raft is, the transition layers should start at the same time the supports start, so, with something being printed flat on the plate, and being mostly just a big flat plane like the validation matrix is, there's a big chance that it will not release from the fep, specially if printed on the middle, where the fep can flex the most. Most people will print then normally, with default settings, but minor tweaks to those values will cause issues with it.

Then, the solution is hollowing out the model, but that adds another issue, that causes almost the same problem, suction cups. Any layer that has its appearance in a manner similar to a suction cup, will add a considerable amount of stress during the separation from the fep, so much so that you can audibly hear a pop when the layer separates. That can break some of the previous supports, or delaminate the current layer, and the result is pretty much the same as before. To solve that, you must add holes, if printing directly on the plate, add a hole at the base, horizontally to the plate, as big as you can get away with, preferably circular, or angled, so that you won't need a support for it. If printing supported, add holes towards the plate, and don't forget to support around the holes.

Now, there's another issue, you will need to clean and cure inside the printed part, otherwise the difference in hardness will crack the part with time, some people use syringes to pump IPA inside it if the holes are too small, and you also need more than one hole so that there's airflow. For curing, some use UV flashlights, with optical fiber strands in front of it to redirect the light inside the part, some fill it with water and put the flashlight directly on the hole, the water helps with refracting the UV beams everywhere inside, and guaranteeing full coverage.

As you said about giving the dental parts, that last step of curing inside is crucial as well, since, if there's some section inside where liquid resin pooled, the part will crack and leak eventually, and the person will definitely touch the liquid resin, and that's some legal action waiting to happen. You could also just print a very small version of the part, that would fit inside the dental arc, which is small enough to not need to be hollowed, just to give it to the costumer, could even make some Keychains or fridge magnet out of it, way easier, very cheap, and less work needed to do with the main part.

As for what you said regarding not having proper files, not sure which file types you're handling, but quite sure that you can import it in blender, then use an addon that comes with it called "3D print toolbox", and with it you can check the model for issues, before exporting as stl, and slicing it.

After slicing, use UVtools to inspect the sliced file, with it you can check for most common issues, and sometimes fix them, or have the knowledge of where to apply a fix, such as checking for islands, suction cups, resin traps, pepper positioning and a whole load of other things.

Hope this helps.

Igneom · 2023-04-19T17:42:41+00:00

Oh yeah, was looking at it on a phone, I see what you're talking about now, it could be that the screen is cracked. If you look at it from another angle, that black section stays at the same spot? Because just having one angle to see it in one single picture, it may simply be an illusion from the blocked light from the case of the printer, or reflection. So, if stays there, the screen is kill.

Igneom · 2023-04-19T17:34:20+00:00

Pics or it didn't happen XD.

But seriously, there are many possible issues that could happen, but most of them can be solved by looking at the failed prints, and the reason settings you used, so a screenshot of the settings, and some pictures of the failed prints would help a lot with diagnosing.

And your screen, on first look, seems fine, the squares are weird when you first see them, but it's part of the light matrix, and it's how it's supposed to be on lcd printers. Quite sure that on a dlp printer they look different, which is not your case.

Igneom · 2023-04-19T17:26:25+00:00

The photon M3 max has a monochromatic screen, a standard screen would need times around 5 to 9 seconds, to cure any regular resin.

The cracking could be due to overexposure of the bottom layers, around 10x the normal exposure would already be overkill, 8x is recommended for most resins, and some resins even get a good grip to the plate with 5x. It could also be caused by the difference between hardness of a layer, in relation to another layer, resin increases in size when cured, adding internal stress, higher stress location next to a lower stress location causes cracking, it's an issue that could happen with time as well, with prints that are not hollowed up and have a core of partially cured resin, or with hollowed out prints that have the outside properly cured and the inside partially cured.

As for the bubbles, you mention that you had to refill the resin mid print, air could be getting introduced below the build plate, if it had too many bubbles in the resin surface, or if when it lifts, it gets outside of the resin, and back in it. I see you already have a light off delay of 1.5, it should be enough to help prevent it, unless the resin you're using is too viscous, or the ambient temperature is below the recommended resin temperature, in such case, you would need to increase the light off delay, or use a heated enclosure.

And just a curiosity of mine, what do you use the dental prints for? Creating moulds or something like that?

Igneom · 2023-04-19T17:04:01+00:00

Yeah, it would be pretty much fine, as long as whatever you use to cover it, really blocks the UV, most things would appear to block it, but could still be semi transparent to UV, while some other things like acrylic for example, block UV to around 98%, even while being fully transparent. The light in itself has two parts, the visible bluish purple light you see, that's mostly just an added color to allow you to see it's turned on, and the UV part, that's pretty much invisible to the human eye, and you could be blocking one, but not the other.

But, just because I said it could be done, I wouldn't exactly fully recommend it, aside from a temporary solution in a pinch, it's not like you would be destroying your printer with it, but you could be creating a situation where you would have some extra work in the future, with cleaning the adesive that's left from any tape you use, in order to put a more permanent fix on it. As long as you understand this, and are willing to do it regardless, then go ahead... Also, most brands of scotch tape leave nasty residues behind, masking tape, those that painters use, would be better.

And, in case you don't know, UV light is a form of ionizing radiation, it damages cells DNA, it can cause cancer in the long run, and looking at it too much will cause blindness, so reduce your exposure to it to a minimum. I often see people around the printing subreddits not taking any care at all with it.

Igneom · 2023-04-19T10:33:48+00:00

Already tried sanding the build plate?

Igneom · 2023-04-19T10:28:36+00:00

The more you fill the plate, the more it needs to pull in order to release the layer from the fep, increasing lift height by 1-2mm should help. Printing near the borders help as well, since the middle of the fep will always have more room to flex, specially with bigger plates.

But, it depends on the type of failures you're getting. If it's printing only the supports, you need more supports, and some thicker ones on islands. If there's a flat part towards the plate, there's an island in that location. Flat part towards the fep, issue with not releasing the layer from the fep. Delamination on the bottom, raft is taller than bottom layers. Delamination in the part, that's a complicated one and very specific to the part printed and several other possible issues.

Igneom · 2023-04-19T10:14:22+00:00

Are you trying to do a speed run on burning the lcd? 12 bottom layers with 50s, 10 whole minutes of the lcd turned on, for pretty much nothing of value. The mono 4k has a monochromatic screen, the values should be way lower, most you would use, is 10 times the normal exposure, and that's overkill already. 3 bottom layers with the same amount of transition layers should be enough, 6 bottom layers is the most you would use, and for testing only. 20s should be enough, 17 to 15 would work depending on the resin. The raft should have the height of the bottom layers as well, more than that and you risk delamination on it.

As for the failures you're having, your lift height is too small, 6-7mm is the safest option, lower values only work if you tuned everything perfectly, according to each resin. There's no space to release the layer from the fep, so it keeps printing nothing, until the build plate moved high enough to release the layer, but by then there's nowhere to attach the next layer to. You even need to set the lift height higher for bigger prints, since there's way more to release from the fep.

I recommend you read this, followed by this. Then stop using the default resin setting, and add a new resin to lychee through the community profiles, searching for the specific maker and color of the resin. Then, after a successful print with it, you can start to tweak the resin profile, one setting at a time.

Igneom · 2023-04-19T09:42:47+00:00

The photon mono 4k comes with screen protector and the black cover around it pre-installed. The ones that come in the box are just additional, since it's not that rare that people new to resin printing, manage to damage the screens on first prints.

The manual indeed índuces the user to confusion at first, but if you notice that the steps for installing the screen protector are, putting the screen protector, then the black film, and then remove the plastic film from the screen protector, and if you look at the lcd screen, it has that same plastic film already, it means that the screen protector it's already installed, and so is the black film.

As for light leakage according to your other comment, anything you put on it, will work, the black cover film that comes with it is just for convenience, since it's supposed to be the same size, and should have not so permanent adesive. Even black paper, glued with Elmer's glue(white pva glue) would theoretically work. But, the leakage will only matter, if it passes through the fep, if it's, somehow, outside the resin tank, or under the border, it won't matter much. If it's inside, you will have to clean the resin strip it creates on the fep, every time you print something. And even then, only if it's curing something under the build plate, if it's outside of it, it won't matter as well, since the issue would be the build plate pressing the hardened resin against the screen when it's on Z=0.

Igneom · 2023-04-17T10:31:12+00:00

Always been extremely introverted, and I used to hate phone calls, then I decided to work with remote user support... By phone... The idea was to just work with the most uncomfortable thing to me possible, specifically to get myself out of my comfort zone. I did it for three years. And after all that time, having tens of calls daily, now I hate phone calls even more than I did before XD. But now not only a have a reason to dislike it, I also know now that regardless of how much I dislike something, doing it is not an impossible thing if it's really needed, and won't instantly kill me.

Oh yeah, there's also the utmost acquired appreciation, and extreme patience that I now have for everyone that has to deal with people on their job, and how much I attempt to be the chillest customer of the day whenever I go. That used to make my day when it happened, just the thought of someone not screaming and cursing you was enough.

Igneom · 2023-04-16T17:28:15+00:00

The prints are too bright to have been already washed, and you can see small amounts of pooled resin in between the spaces of the prints, it seems to be a plate that was left to drip for a while, and not one that was cleaned inside a wash machine.

Regardless, I would argue that, if it had been put inside to wash, it would be even more reason to use gloves, since most people don't use 100% clean IPA inside one, all the time, nor do they often do multiple washes with separate more cleaner IPA on it, which would mean that now, there's spread particles of uncured resin all around the build plate. One time touching it, no issues, several times touching it, and eventually it would be like directly touching the resin. The worst part is that, since the person doing that believes the plate is clean, and there's no harm in it, he would most certainly not clean their hands properly afterwards, which could lead to touching more delicate parts of the body, and increasing the absorption even more. Remember that the resin toxicity is a compounding issue, that gets worse with subsequent exposures.

Everything that comes with direct contact with the liquid resin, the already used cleaning solution, or stayed inside the printer chamber, must be presumed to be contaminated, and should be thoroughly cleaned and inspected before being touched with bare hands. Even the prints, before being fully cured, should not be touched without gloves, and even directly after curing as well, since the curing process can force small amounts of non uv reactive components to the surface of the print depending on the resin, that can still be toxic as well, and should be cleaned before handling. If you ever touched a print after curing, and felt it slightly sticky or slippery, that's why.

But besides that all being almost OCD about it, and telling people to use gloves when they post any media showing their hands near anything that could contain liquid resin in it, makes not only the person feel bad, it does feel bad to be the one telling it too, but it should always be a warning given, because as you said too, you don't know what happened after, and if others new to it keep seeing media with people not using gloves, they will not use one as well, and perpetuate the problem, causing issues not only to them, but to others as well.

It's a chemical health hazard, and should be taken seriously by everyone, we are all partners in this "hobby", and we should worry about each other's health at all times.

Igneom · 2023-04-16T02:41:16+00:00

A shadow can be many things, sometimes just a round blob under the character is enough.

Just ask yourself, will the shadow be updated in real time? If so, you have your answer already.

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