Well, this is disturbing: my resin 3D prints are melting

There was nasty gray sludge on the shelf, under a 3D print of a chess rook. It was not the way I wanted to end a long day.

As the video shows, one or more rooks (there are four on the shelf) either began melting or oozing very toxic resin all over my shelf. But why?

I will clearly follow this up, hopefully with better answers. Until then, if you know what caused this mess, please leave comments below. Have you every had your resin prints melt or explode? Let us know.

[davidgeller]

Looks like uncured resin from, perhaps, a part that was “solid” when printed. I don’t think your cured resin liquified or “melted.” If the part was solid you might need to put in weep holes so lots of interior resin can drain. See if the liquid stuff cures under UV light. If it does then my theory is correct.

[moonblad]

That's a design flaw of the test print provided by Elegoo inside the USB Stick. You can see evenly spaced dots on the bottom. I've printed mine with clear resin and I could see it more clearly that the bottom part (that looks like a base of a trophy) is hollow without draining holes and the dots on the bottom are columns (or you can say internal supports). The hole you see on the side is designed to work as draining holes for the inside of the tower (where you can see the double helix), not for the base part. I could see clear uncured resin flowing inside the base, so i drilled a hole to drain them out and let it cure under the sun. It became yellowish, but fully cured.

[Doitdragonstyle]

Did you possibly print these hollow and not put in drain holes? Uncured resin trapped inside of a print will eventually crack the cured resin and leak out all over the place. Once resin is cured it will never "uncure" it can be melted with other chemicals, but won't turn back into what you cleaned up. I would check the inside of the prints to see if they were hollow, if they were, that is your culprit. You should also check your other prints, you can shake them. If you hear a sloshing noise you have uncured resin inside and should either drill a hole somewhere in it to drain it and rinse with IPA again, or throw them out.

[sierralarars]

Doesn’t look like it dissolved tbh! You can see from the cross-section of the split that the model from the factory has been sliced hollow and has a drainage hole. I think it’s just that you’ve not cleaned out a few/one of them properly inside and it decided to ooze out. I know some folks like to use a syringe to get IPA in to clean and a single UV LED poked inside drainage holes to cure the inside after cleaning just to be sure. I think it’s possible you probably know all this now so ignore this if you do!

[dekurvajo]

Cured resin does not melts but tends to crack. That cause trapped, uncured resin escape from the inside.

[zenginellc]

It appears hollow and the uncured resin didn't drain out during the washing/curing steps.
After some time, for some reason, it's come out now.

Not exactly 'Melting', but still spooky.

[Ardeact]

Resin does not melt once cured; it scorches and deteriorates. The gunk is uncured resin that slowly went to the bottom

[joycreateslife]

Uncure resin from the inside leaked out. You may want to check/change the uv bulb in the printer. Color resin sometimes need extra time and or stronger exposure. One of the best way to avoid this is to stay with clear resin. This happens all the time with gel nails. It is unsafe to just have uncured resin as a core. It is less structurally sound and can randomly explode. The gel nail community have some great tips

[ghostrangerp.]

This also depends on the type of resin that you are using as well...there are resins that are marketed as good resins when in reality they are low quality resins then there are resins that are much higher quality and produce a greater print than others...I would suggest do some research on various types of resins don't get persuaded by brands try to stick to just one resin one that produces high quality prints....just because it doesn't smell it doesn't mean it's great...

[GameArtsCafe]

unless everything on the shelf is resin prints and a year old, I would say that humidity in the room attached itself to the prints and interacted with the shelf material, caused it to split and maybe leaked out because otherwise, if you put a print into fresh resin will it cause it to melt? I don't think a leak would suddenly start otherwise if something didn't damage it. Essential Oils/cleaners for example can melt plastics.

[emal]

Yea, the wet resin inside gassed up and burst the print. Hollow print without drain hole, or covered up drain hole with wet resin still inside. Heat accelerated the gas buildup. Just a guess.

[ChristiansCartoons]

I just picked up a print my brother made a year ago that was sitting on top of a plastic case I had and the whole bottom was just melted goo and it stank. This is the only thing I could find where something similar happened.

[DEADAcademy]

Did it happen to be water washable resin? Every single hollowed out print I've made with water washable resin, from every company I've purchased it from, has now cracked or spilt open like a flower. Sometimes it happened within a week, sometimes it was over a year later, but I stopped using that garbage for hollow prints. Some survived okay in dry, high attitude Denver, but I recently moved to humid sea level Cleveland and every surviving water washable print I brought with me split wide open over the course of my first month here. I'm done with water washable resin. Good riddance. None of the super-toxic resins have split like that, they just make me feel sick if I don't take proper precautions.

[alexdeville]

I have had this happen and also do not know what caused it. Half the mini i printed had slid into a liquid state.

[LuisGonzalez-bqgl]

I have hear of this before or a exploding parts that didn’t have drain holes and it didn’t cure right

[DukePipeGG]

you guys think that IF I do my prints completely solid with no hollow and punch, this can still happen? Anybody knows if there's anything we can cover our prints with to make it stronger?

[D_dreams]

Was there any air pockets at d time u printed them. They tend to expand over time, and resin expands…

[Kindgott]

Just discovered a base on a mini had burst open. It stood in a dark corner of a shelf, no heat etc. I guess it was printed not fully solid and there was still liquid resin in it, that expanded over time and found a weak spot in the side.

[notasleepwalker]

Put Led diodes plugged into drain holes. Should cure inside nicely

[augustvonmackensen]

How long ago was that printed ?
Please wear protective equipment when handling liquid resin.