How to make food-safe 3D printed models

You probably know that regular 3D printing is usually considered unsuitable for food contact. But do you know why? And do you know how to make your 3D prints truly food-safe with the surface coating?

DISCLAIMER: Please use stainless steel nozzle for printing food-safe objects. Our hardened steel nozzle may contain lead as well as the brass nozzle.

Music: Shane Ivers - Cruise Control

[dukemagus]

It's important to take chare when chosing the epoxi resin. just like plastics, there is "food grade" epoxi resin. While not mandatory, it's good to look for a reputable brand and maybe mail them about it. cheap materials from unknown brands can have harmful substances mixed in the resin

[Dave_the_Dave]

A couple of points regarding the ptfe tube mentioned in the beginning of the video:
1, ingesting ptfe is not a concern. Only the fumes from very high temperatures are toxic.
2. It may be safer to use a used/aged ptfe tube than a new one. When you heat a material that outgasses or leaches anything out, most of that stuff will come out very quickly, but that leaves less volatiles behind. After a while, maybe just a couple hours, the rate of outgassing or leaching will drop to almost none. Everything that's can outgas has done so. So, in this way it could considered safer to use a tube that has already been "baked out" than a new tube that has a higher (new) concentration of volatiles.

[jimguy]

9 out of 10 biologists approve of this use of the heated bed. super cool!

[ryancrazy]

3:02 "thoroughly" haha I like your pronunciation more! your English is still much better than my Czech.

[nickmitchko]

May I suggest doing a PLA cast video? The idea that you can make many cast able objects with a 3d printer is very cool.

[ElectraFlarefire]

Remember that food contact rules are different for: Quick contact: Biscuit cutters. Short/Medium contact: Bowls/Plates/etc. Long term: Storage containers.
ABS often considered is food safe for the first two under those rules as you wash the tools first. Use them then put them away again. And even leaded pewter while not recommended is fine for short term use, like as cups where the liquid is only in it for under half an hour or so.

[tikishark]

I would have liked to see a glass or ceramic control for comparison. I would imagine a washed glass cup would have grown some level of bacteria as well. Ty for the experiment though.

[spamcan]

😂 I love the spoof of those crummy infomercial videos. They also show the most inept people lol.
I like that you actually tested them too, instead of just blindly guessing.

[kohlikt]

Přesně tohle jsem hledal.
Díky moc, za super video. 👍

[noahrusnock]

May be a stupid question, but what does it matter if the filament and extruder are food-safe if you use the epoxy surface coating? Doesn't that completely encase and seal the filament?

[Idiomatick]

Just fyi, nearly all italian spaghetti is extruded through brass nozzles. There is no meaningful risk of any sort there.

For brass, the ld50 (point it kills you) is roughly 1/4 of your body weight when taken orally. To get this from printing, you'd need to print literally hundreds of thousands of dishes and then eat all of the dishes.

[avelkm]

What the hell??? Epoxy is not food safe! Even "medical grade" epoxy is not food safe if tech process is slightly off (and it needs baking to finish polimerization!)

[faytechcompany]

Short and sweet video like always. Thank you.

[apinakapinastorba]

That bacterial joe at the end is funny :)

[bmbl]

If I’m not mistaken epoxy contains bpa.

[MikeHarris]

Resin, as it cures, can get hot too.. so if you put too much on, you can MELT your prints... Be sure to brush on light layers and then the second, or if you do a third with two very thin layers, you can go a bit thicker. The resin will auto level out on your print and be the same thickness for the most part. But I do this with any resin items, even wood. with anything that can have air in it as it cures, resin will bubble. so brushing on lightly seals those gaps up and on the second or third coat, there is no more pockets for air and your resin will be smooth as glass.

Also, like you stated, resin does wear down and scratch. This makes grooves for bacteria to trap as well!. Be sure to inspect before each use if using as a dish or food safe, and if any scratches or wearing is showing, just clean it and do a new layer of resin on the bottom or inside and good as new!

[waralo]

A safe and really nice alternative to potentially toxic resin i have found, is nail laquer.

[chill_turtle]

From the research I have conducted. ABS is food safe and dishwasher safe. All that is needed is to smooth the abs with acetone and then apply polyurethane resin to make it drink safe.

[GregAtlas]

hardened steel nozzles also contain lead to my understanding. You want the stainless steel nozzles for this.

[AV]

This is a big topic. If 3D printing manages to be food safe it could even become the industrial catalyst everyone was expecting it to be. It would be interesting to see similar analysis for toxicity of UV cured 3D resins. Or maybe they are all toxic anyway xD.