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I am looking to get a new liquid resin printer to build directly on the build platform with, to reduce cleanup time and defects from support points. Obviously, the side of an object facing the build platform will be flat.

Did anyone here currently print this way, and what would be the best liquid resin printer for this purpose?

Thank you very much for any tips

Any printer and resin could, in theory, do without supports. However... you're going to be very limited on what models you can actually do. If you can manage to orient the model so it has no "islands" and a good flat base against the build plate, you might be able to manage it. But your designs are likely to be pretty limited.

Edited to add: I have done some simple models (bases in particular) flat against the base and with no supports. You will get some "elephant foot" but that can be managed. Also did a handful of tokens this way. But if you have anything that isn't self-supporting due to its geometry, there's no real way around supports at some point.

Thanks for the input

I've done a fair amount of printing on liquid resin printers, but just haven't had any experience printing directly on the build platform. The "elephant foot" you mention is one of the things I'm worried about.

But I guess bottom line, it doesn't matter which printer, it's more a matter of mastering settings to print like this? Was leaning towards the Elegoo Mars, although I do love the B9 Creator and other projector-based printers if cost was not a factor.

Right, the printer itself won't make any real difference here. It's all about the object. Every resin printer is going to have Elephant Foot to some degree or another, though it can be mitigated by how long your initial base layers' exposure time is (you still need it sufficient to adhere to the build plate) and how many layers you do for that (really don't need more than 4-6). There is no way around it at some level, though, with any of the lift-model printer types (you might be able to mitigate it even more with a top-down printer like a Gizmo3d or the upcoming Hitry Rocket, but not completely, I suspect).

And again, you will not be able to completely remove the need for some supports for some models. If there is any point where a part of the model would "angle down towards the base" you will create an island which will require a support.

 RiTides wrote:
Thanks for the input

I've done a fair amount of printing on liquid resin printers, but just haven't had any experience printing directly on the build platform. The "elephant foot" you mention is one of the things I'm worried about.

But I guess bottom line, it doesn't matter which printer, it's more a matter of mastering settings to print like this? Was leaning towards the Elegoo Mars, although I do love the B9 Creator and other projector-based printers if cost was not a factor.

It has more to do with what you're trying to print. There are many sculpts designed to be printed supportless, but many more aren't.

As to the "elephant foot" current slicers have settings to account for it.

 RiTides wrote:
I am looking to get a new liquid resin printer to build directly on the build platform with, to reduce cleanup time and defects from support points. Obviously, the side of an object facing the build platform will be flat.

Did anyone here currently print this way, and what would be the best liquid resin printer for this purpose?

Thank you very much for any tips

You can fairly easily reduce the diameter of your supports and get them tuned in to the point where they can just be pulled off the supports. You dont need to print supportless. I guess if you wanted to youd probably go for the Mono X or whatever has a huge build plate.

A few thoughts

1) As noted if you are going to print support-less that does rather heavily limit what you can print on an SLA printer. There are some sculptors that work for this, however its not very common and tends to happen more with FDM prints where the physics of things are a little different (there's no fep pull forces going on). Rocket Pig do supportless, but that's "FDM Supportless" not SLA and bringing their models over might well result in islands appearing.


2) If you go this path I'd look into one of those "wham bam" or other brand magnetic/flexi plate attachments. Basically because you will have very solidly cured models on the build plate and so getting stuff off might be more a challenge, esp when you don't want to damage it at all. So a flex plate might lose you a little Z height but will make getting models off a lot easier

3) This video might be of help when calibrating to deal with the elephants foot aspect and other scale issues







That said I'd think this wouldn't work for a lot of models. Supportless isn't common in the sculpting world so you're down to things like terrain, bases and simpler designs. It's just not a market that's catered too really. Instead you might start to work on improving your supporting method. Learning the tolerances for your resin in what kind of tips it creates at different sizes of support.

Eg in my experience 0.2 tips are not going to leave any marks or if they do its a little stub that breaks off. 0.25 to 0.3 is a sliding scale of shifting from almost nothing to small dents in the model and by 0.3 and beyond its what you'll get every time.

So with that knowledge you can already start to place those heavier tips in places that won't show when assembled and/or are easy to clean up with a blade once printed.
You can add more light supports to help cope with increased weight and areas to support; you can build support fans and other structures to help with adding more.

You can also "cross" supports - eg if you've the thin edge of a blade you can put a small tipped support either side at the lowest point. Individually they have low damage, but together you get increased hold.



There's an art and skill to supporting and I'd say it might be worth learning if you want to reduce damage to the models.

Thank you very much for the tips, folks!

I've been using a FormLabs printer ever since their original Kickstarter, and just their standard (PreForm) software for generating supports. So maybe I should change that up on the software side

In this case, since I'll be printing some models that don't have overhangs, I'll try printing directly on the build platform for the first time. Fingers crossed!

It is a worthwhile venture to understand and fine tune your supports so they pull off super easy. It really defeats the purpose of printing on a resin printer to only print supportless files - those are maily designed for FDM printers.

MDSW, this is for an experiment using files of my own creation. For other things that need supporting, I'll definitely look into improving my supports (which I think must come down to minimizing the contact points) based on the feedback here

If it is only for the few versions of a model (and not huge amounts or big stuff) then many of the original printers from Photon, Anycubic or Elegoo will do the trick, as no reason to go with the bigger options for more money. I had an Elegoo Mars for years and ran literally thousands of runs and it is a great machine.

Good luck!!

I'm just at the start of learning about resin printing. What is this elephant's foot thing you all are speaking about?

 bbb wrote:
I'm just at the start of learning about resin printing. What is this elephant's foot thing you all are speaking about?

Your first few layers use a much longer exposure time in order to ensure the print adheres to the build plate. This also means that *more* resin hardens, resulting in those first few layers being noticeably wider than the higher ones. This isn't usually a problem when you're using a raft, as it'll just be the raft and maybe the bottom of some supports. If you're printing directly on the build plate, however, the part of the model touching the raft will look like it's squished outwards, like an elephant's foot.

You can also look at your slicer settings, as most will have a variable that will ramp down the fist few layers with a decreasing exposure time so the 'foot' is not so noticeable. If you try your first few layers with too short an exposure time, they will unlikely stick to the plate, as pieces placed flat exert a lot of pressure when being pulled off the FEP during the layer printing.

It is a conundrum of resin printing that perplexes many!!