Hollowing Resin Prints

Resin for 3D printing is expensive, and while I personally prefer the weight and feel solid prints, I still hollow most of my AFVs as it saves a significant amount of resin, making them even cheaper to produce, it also means you are less likely to need to fill up the vat multiple times during a print, something I learned the hard way.

There are multiple ways of doing this, and the stock slicer that comes with the photon does not support the hollowing of prints.  If you want to use the stock slicer, the best bet is to use a piece of third party software such as Meshmixer, which can handle the heavy lifting as outlined on this Makers Muse video:

Open

Personally I prefer an all in one solution, which means I’m using the powerful Chitubox Software.  It’s still a work in progress, so don’t expect it to work all the time (something you should be used to now with 3D printing) but now that I’ve got the hang of it, I seem to have no problems. You simply select the models you wish to hollow and click the “hollow” option to hollow out the model. This will hollow out the model according to the settings you select.

You then want to ensure that you include some vent/drainage holes on the underside of your print to allow a) air to flow which will help resin drain during printing and b) to allow uncured resin, IPA and/or water to drain out in the pre curing process.  Ideally you should make these holes as big as you can get away with without damaging the model, I usually start at around 8mm for a 15mm scale tank with multiple holes in the base of the hull, and 4mm for the base of the turret (sometimes I can fit two holes in there).  Ultimately the more the better when it comes to having a clean model for curing. I don’t use plugs to fill the gaps in, as I hide mine in the underside of the model, so you can safely delete these plugs most of the time.