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I just got an anycubic photon mono and am trying to decide where to use it.
I live in florida where it's currently rainy and almost always humid.
My choices are outside or in my bedroom.
Is it too bad for inside and will the weather ruin my prints outside?
Of course it will be in my patio out of the rain... lol.

I would not put it outside. Even on a patio with some shade, you will get too much extra UV exposure which will cause problems with resin curing in your vat, and temperature control is also a thing.

Depending on which resin you get, the smell can be almost nothing to kinda bad. Even inside, I would say keep it away from a window to avoid accidental UV exposure again.

If you put it in your bedroom i would suggest setting up a properly ventilated extraction hood. I dont think its a good idea to marinade yourself in the fumes while you sleep.

I have a spare room where I have put the printers (it originally was "the bookcases' room, now its both ^^).

If you want to put it in your bedroom, make sure you ventilate after each print, and do not print while you sleep.

A few thoughts

1) From what I understand humidity isn't an issue for 3D printers, or at least if it has any effect on them its so far not been enough for people to have noticed.

2) Temperature is important as is slow gradients of change in temperature. You need at least 20 degrees centigrade for 3D printing with most resins to actually work. Ideally you want to work between around 25C and 30C and not push beyond 30C since at somewhere around 35C things start breaking down again with some resins (resin to resin will vary, these are rough figures to give you some guidelines).
Smooth transitions of temperature are important. So a room getting hotter and colder is fine, but if you put it in a small enclosure and then want to heat that you have to use a proportional heater and thermostat - using a regular fan heater will give you problems with expansion lines when the heater turns on.

3) Resin is not good stuff for your health and even if you can't smell it, it will give of fumes. A simple organic vapour and particulate hazard mask is good enough when working with the resin.
However this does mean you ideally want it in a room you can ventilate and where you're not active all the time.

I do know people who print in their offices and such and they typically setup a contained unit (eg a cupboard with sealed doors) with ventilation inside it so that none of the fumes can escape. They can then leave it safely printing all day and night and only expose themselves to the fumes when they open it up (by which point they've also put on their mask, gloves and safety glasses).

For that reason if you wanted to print in your bedroom I would very strongly suggest you'd need a fully sealed enclosure for the printer with ventilation inside.


Ideally a basement/attic/shed/garage/spare room is easier and means you don't have to get as intense with a container for it.




3D printing is pretty safe, but it has some health risks that require some basic management.

 Overread wrote:
A few thoughts

1) From what I understand humidity isn't an issue for 3D printers, or at least if it has any effect on them its so far not been enough for people to have noticed.

It very much is for fdm, I haven't noticed anything for resin.

Ack yes sorry I forget that there's two kinds at times (probably because I don't --- yet --- own an FDM so I'm less aware of its ins and outs)

If you can not place the printer in a separate room, you could use a grow tent. They are meant to grow plants inside your rooms and are quite tight.
They will have some kind of opening for fans. Install one and use a coal filter and/or run some exhaust hose to get the air out of your window.
Just google grow tent to find offers on amazon and anywhere else.

The resin brand you use has a big part in how much you can smell it. The Elegoo brands and the Siraya Tech are my favorites for low odor.

I print in my game room, which the prointer sits on my desk where I work all day, but the room is super big, almost 500 sq', so any fumes dissapate pretty well and the most smell I get is when opening the rinse bins and cleaning pre-cure.

So my advice is to try and place in as large a space as possible, even the kitchen, to help give any possible fumes more room to dissapate and a tiny bedroom you sleep in is, as others have said, probably not the best and I wpould definitely not do it outside, personally. Again, use some low-odor resins and anywhere not right next to you when sleeping inside the house should be fine.

I bought ELEGOO Water Washable Rapid Resin LCD UV-Curing Resin for 3D Printers - Grey 1000g / US

it was a little more expensive but i am hoping its easier than dealing with acetone or is it alcohol... whatever you use to clean it

I did 1l of normal resin, and the IPA fumes were really bothering me. I've gone through about 4l of water washable now, and I love it.

Honestly Water Washable isn't much different to washing regular resins in IPA save that you're using water instead of IPA.


At the end you've still got a contaminated liquid that you can't put down the sink. Instead you've got to do just the same as you would with IPA. Once it no longer washes the resin cleanly, and unlike IPA which you might want to cure and then re-use; simply leave the water in a container and expose to sunlight. Ideally something like a tray, but covered so that wildlife/people don't tamper with it. You then need to wait for the water to evaporate off and you'll be left with a sludge/cured resin which you can safely dispose of.

Basically anything resin contacts needs to be cleaned and that cleaning apparatus cured before disposal. Cursed resin is as safe as any other plastic or resin in the environment (ergo its not safe, but for all modern intents and purposes its safe to dispose of in the rubbish). Uncured resin is far more hazardous

“Inhaling large amounts of isopropyl alcohol can cause nausea, vomiting, irritation of the nose and mucous membranes, throat irritations, and even difficulty with breathing as coughing can occur making it difficult for you to catch your breath.”

Water washable takes away a whole set of toxic chemicals. Otherwise, yes, the actual cleanup process is similar.

If you're working with resin you're already wearing a mask anyway to deal with the resin fumes. That said if you want to cut down on exposure to IPA you can get one of the wash+cure stations which can take a lotof the potential mess out of things.



Actually the worst mess with IPA I've been in was when I forgot to put the plastic funnel into the resin pot before putting the resin filter in an then pouring out the VAT.... that made quite a mess and required IPA cleanup

 Flinty wrote:
“Inhaling large amounts of isopropyl alcohol can cause nausea, vomiting, irritation of the nose and mucous membranes, throat irritations, and even difficulty with breathing as coughing can occur making it difficult for you to catch your breath.”

Water washable takes away a whole set of toxic chemicals. Otherwise, yes, the actual cleanup process is similar.

At a practical & realistic standpoint though, the amount of IPA fumes you're "normally" exposed to during resin processing isn't even remotely close to the critical levels which can cause such issues. Obviously everyone has different levels of tolerance to fumes, but IPA is not "toxic" to the body as resin and other VOC's are - it's the same stuff health practitioners use on the cotton to sterilize the site of injection. Even overdrinking water can be dangerous for you at critical amounts.

Plus, the used water from water soluble resin can be just as toxic as used IPA.