I’m curious about resin prints and pin joints. Is it effective to have pinholes and metal pins as your joints, or is the resin likely to fracture? Do you instead just try to use more durable resin? Do you prefer to use FDM printing for the articulation parts (PETG, TPU, or something else less brittle)?

 

So here is what is a close to final version of a reverse convoy blaster, as well as some heel upgrades

trying to decide if I want the hinge to be pinned, or just make it with nubs, and the test copy is almost ready. Also working on a signal lancer, however not sure if it’s gonna happen fully, as I am having some trouble designing the head

 

Also here is a sample of some more stuff I’m working on

this is a scanned blaster rifle except it’s not quite finished yet, trying to make another with a 3/4mm port

 

Finished up Swerve! The new mix worked out nicely and I got a good solid connection on the neck joint. It pops on and off with no signs of strain on the ball and moves freely and cleanly. The rest of the joints and parts also have just the right amount of extra flex for me to not be worried about anything cracking while posing or transforming him.

 

Personally, I'm just using files other people created, but the pin joint system plus peg joints seems pretty effective so far. The only cracking I've had was when I got overly aggressive in trying to tap a pin through a hole; it seems like a good method for a more brittle material otherwise. I wouldn't try ball joints with just standard 3D printer resin because I doubt there would be enough give to make it work and not just break when you tried to pop the ball into the socket, but incorporating a little of a flex resin seems to add enough flexibility to make it work. I only have a resin printer, so maybe someone who has both a resin and an FDM printer an chime in here with an opinion on that, but just going with resin for the articulation seems to work well enough on its own.

 

any good tutorials on installing pins?

 

I’ve only worked with standard resin as well. I’ve just used the standard Anycubic resin so it is pretty brittle, but the best way I found is to get a hobby mini hand drill, get the right sized drill bit and clear the hole for the pin. This step has significantly lowered my parts cracking or breaking when inserting the pins. I got mine on amazon. Looking up precision hobby drill.

Then the step would be simply grab the pin tightly with a pair of wider ended pliers and insert the pin in a rotating manner. Sort of twisting it in. That works best for me. Then snip off the remainder of the pin if there is any sticking out and file it down.

I’ve used the methods on all my projects, for example this Perceptor here and it does tend to work well. Hope this helps.

 

I'll second that. I think getting one of those hobby drills is pretty important for putting together figures in resin without cracking anything because it makes things so much easier. The one time I cracked a piece while putting a pin in, I had forgotten to drill out the hole with a 1.5mm bit before I tried to tap the pin through, and I immediately regretted it. It was fixable, but getting a drill and drilling out all of the holes before you try to assemble anything will save a lot of frustration and potential broken parts.

 

Thanks for the responses. I assume you have the pinholes in the 3d model, and use the pin vise to slightly enlargen it after printing?

This sounds great! I want the detail of resin prints, but the reported fragility of resin made it sounds unsuitable for figure’s with functioning joints.

 

Yes, the holes are already there in the models, and you just drill them out a bit with the pin vise to ensure they're the right diameter for the pins to go through properly. They tend to come out a little smaller than the diameter of the pins meant to go through them, so drilling is very helpful in making sure there are no problems putting them together. The plain resin seems reasonably durable so far as long as you don't go attempting to put excess strain on the joints, though just moving them around for posing has been fine so far.

 

how do you go about using screws in pla? like should i just take a drill and go at it? or get the hand drill mentioned above>?

 

I'd take a hand drill and carefully go at it. The set I got came with bits up to 2 or 3 mm diameter, which should be enough for screwing any pieces together.

 

Bingo ^ PLA is soft enough that you can often screw something into it, and it should hold. If you're really concerned about it, you could also look into a tap and die set

 

just a snippet of my big project

 

alright so! i am done with my second upgrade kit except for two pieces

Spoiler: Destiny is calling and i must answer

it took me 1 day to whip this up. And it is a upgrade kit for cybertron mudflap and converts it so, SIGNAL lancer

u must config the mudflap body as such
Unscrew the legs and arms, also head must be detached and try to maintain the 5mm post on his head. This kit will utilize 2 of the leg screws, and the 2 arm screws, it can shrink and expand the legs due to ratchets built in them, modeled after the original, the lance screws into one of the feet, and it will have a flat stand soon which I’m working on. The 2 remaining lights I will have to work on after the kit is printed first, this has not been tested yet, it also has hands sculpted with 5mm sockets and rotation. Transformation works the same as mudflap! I call it The Mighty Adventurer upgrade
I did this guy because this is how I feel about my life, I have sat around too long watching people make upgrades and I have felt like things have gone missed and not tried at and I saw a golden opportunity with this, it’s not done but getting close. Also reverse convoy upgrade is in printing stage so we will see on that, ,

I most likely will end up having this test printed before I go further so I can see where I am with it

 

final ver before test print
stop sign stand shield added, also other lights added and can attatch to arms via 4mm peg

Edit: stop sign is wayyyyy bigger now, and whole kit is still in printing stage

 

another tip that might be useful. I use the pin vice and a lot of models do have tiny pin holes, however I’ve found that using the holes tools under hollowing you can make the pin holes every slightly larger (minimum for the holes and lots of length)
That way I’ve been able to use thick paper clips on nearly all my models
The other tip would be that any pin vice work do immediately after you have washed your print before it dries
The resin is a little more playable at this stage to make life easier without cracking.
Another tip for ball and socket joints it to have a slightly lower exposure time setup like 0.5 ms lower than normal and this will make sure that so long as the resin is still curing solid that it’s just a little bit softer that the ball and socket joints can be easily popped into place after washing the resin off - then make up for it when you cure it.

Just things I’ve found useful - oh and also any ball joints, print extra of the ball in case they break - often the ball part of a joint you can fit at least an extra couple on a build plate rather than putting something together and bam a slightly forceful push and you have to re-slice and print

for future larger jointed projects I will be buying some flex to mix with my resin specifically just for the joints themselves as most figures that’s where the stresses are

 

Excellent additions there, especially about doing the pin vise work before it dries. Having a little extra play in the resin is very helpful!



I finished my RERF test for the 50/50 water washable/Siraya Tenacious mix and the sweet spot for my printer seems to be 11s exposure/60s bottom exposure with .05mm layer height. I'm printing out this Sunstreaker by Toymakr3D Download free STL file G1 Transformers Sunstreaker • 3D printable template ・ Cults
and the first plate of parts printed at that exposure setting seems to be good. This is fresh off the printer, pre-washing and curing:

 

thanks for the advice! I’m not sure I understand what you mean in your first suggestion, the part I’ve made bold above. Can you please explain?

 

it has to do with whatever slicing software you're using to set up your print files for your printer. In Chitubox, say, there's a tool in the software specifically for making holes in the 3D model of any size you want.