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As a small business owner, I’m always looking for 3D printer resin that will give me the best value for the money. It’s part of being personally frugal and trying to run a business with a small market share.
Over the past 2 years, I’ve used and tried many different resin brands. Some worked great, some were OK, while others were not acceptable in the shop. Eventually, after much trial and error, I ended up with my top 3 “GO-TO” resin brands.
In this article, I’m going to share that with you. And as a BONUS, I’m also going to share the print settings and configuration we use for each brand. It is my goal to save you time and headache.
However, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re obligated to only use the brands mentioned here. Although we use them DAILY in the shop, it is still only a recommendation. Also, please keep in mind that we are using the AnyCubic Photon S 3D Printer.
Having said that, I can only speak for the printers we use. I don’t know how these resin brands will work with other printers, nor different printer models from AnyCubic. Lastly, I am uncertain how the settings and configuration mentioned here will work for other printers.
OK, now that’s out of the way, let’s dive in.
RESIN BRAND # 1 – ELEGOO Standard Photopolymer Resin
I recommend the top resin brand for GENERAL PURPOSE printing is the ELEGOO Standard Resin. Most of our 3D printed accessories for sale in our eBay store are printed with this resin brand.
We use the following colors in the shop:
- Black
- Grey
- Yellow
- Red
- Green
The black resin is the one we use and go through the most. You may notice most of the 3D printed accessories we sell in our eBay store are black in color.
I like the ELEGOO black resin because it is opaque. After the printed models come out of the printer, the opacity remains. The same is true even after curing in the UV curing station.
Like the black resin, both the grey and yellow resins are opaque. We use yellow to make a custom gun muzzle flash and ricochet effects and grey to make 3D printed gun rack accessories.
On the other hand, the red and green resins have a transparent look. It’s not a big deal because we use them to make our custom blood splatter effect props.
The ELEGOO resins we use have EXCELLENT printing qualities. The models we print do not lose details, which is very important for us in the MAD shop. Also, the finished objects come out of the printer “solid” but not “too brittle.”
We have tried other resin brands in the past, and sometimes, the printed models are way too brittle. When this happens, the object becomes very difficult to handle for post-processing. It also never turns out good if you accidentally drop it on the floor.
For us in the MAD shop, we can’t have our 3D printed accessories “brittle.” It would be way too risky to ship through the mail because they can break. Moreover, buyers often handle these printed accessories upon arrival, so they can paint and add their own peripherals. The bottom line is they were simply not acceptable.
The ELEGOO resins work for us perfectly. Below, you will find the print settings and configuration we use for the ELEGOO brand resins using the AnyCubic Photon S 3D printer.
PLEASE NOTE: The settings shown here is what works for us in the shop. Depending on your printer, you may need a different configuration. Please always consult your printer’s manufacturer and support team for more information. We are not responsible for any damages and/or injuries that may occur.
ELEGOO Print Settings (for all COLORS mentioned above):
| Layer Height | 0.05 mm |
| Bottom Layer Count | 8 |
| Exposure Time | 18 s |
| Bottom Exposure Time | 115 s |
| Light-off Delay | 6.5 s |
| Bottom Light-off Delay | 0 |
| Lifting Distance | 5 mm |
| Bottom Lift Distance | 5 mm |
| Lifting Speed | 65 mm/min |
| Bottom Lift Speed | 65 mm/min |
| Retract Speed | 150 mm/min |
RESIN BRAND # 2 – AnyCubic Standard Resin+
The second-best resin brand I recommend is the AnyCubic Standard Resin+. It is also great for GENERAL PURPOSE printing; we use them in the shop to print a few accessories. These include our Custom 1:12 Hockey Mask and our Custom 1:12 Skull War Mask.
We use the following colors in the shop:
We’ve used the AnyCubic Standard Resin+ for all our printing needs in the past. Recently, however, we switched over to ELEGOO. It’s NOT because AnyCubic’s resin is inferior, but rather a personal preference regarding their opacity.
I find that the AnyCubic Standard Resin+ appears to have more transparency when compared to ELEGOO’s. Because of this, we decided to only use the AnyCubic resin for accessories that do not require full opacity. Our Custom 1/12 Black War Skull Mask is an excellent example of such an accessory.
Like the ELEGOO, the AnyCubic Standard Resin+ also has EXCELLENT printing qualities. The models do not lose their details and are not “too brittle.” The finished products are easy to work with, and according to past customers, they are great when applying paint and sealers.
Below, you will find the print settings and configuration we use for the AnyCubic Standard Resin using the AnyCubic Photon S 3D printer.
AnyCubic Standard Resin+ Print Settings (for all COLORS mentioned above):
| Layer Height | 0.05 mm |
| Bottom Layer Count | 8 |
| Exposure Time | 18 s |
| Bottom Exposure Time | 115 s |
| Light-off Delay | 6.5 s |
| Bottom Light-off Delay | 0 |
| Lifting Distance | 5 mm |
| Bottom Lift Distance | 5 mm |
| Lifting Speed | 65 mm/min |
| Bottom Lift Speed | 65 mm/min |
| Retract Speed | 150 mm/min |
RESIN BRAND # 3 – Liqcreate STRONG-X Resin
Sometimes we don’t know how a particular custom weapon will do in the market. Because it is so unique, we may not have anything to reference to make a decision. Since our custom weapons are injection molded, we do not make an aluminum mold for that particular accessory when this happens.
Instead, we make a 3D Printed Mold for low volume injection molding. We use the Liqcreate STRONG-X Resin for printing the mold.
This works really well for us in the shop. It saves me time and money in the long run because I don’t have to commit to making an aluminum mold, which is both time-consuming and expensive.
3D Printing the injection mold allows us to test the waters and see how the custom weapon will do first. If it does great and sells, we will make a production aluminum mold. If, on the other hand, no one is buying the weapon, we can simply trash the mold and move on to developing the next accessory.
From experience, the Liqcreate STRONG-X resin prints with excellent quality. Despite the longer printing times (due to the resin requiring more time to cure in between layers), it has produced great 3D Printed molds for us without losing details inside the mold cavities.
We were also amazed at how strong this resin is. After testing the first set of molds, it could withstand 300+ shots from our benchtop injection molding machine. This was so much more than what we initially anticipated.
Even after going through 300+ cycles in our injection molding machine, the 3D printed molds barely showed any sign of defects. From what I could tell at the time, the details inside the mold cavities remained intact, and it was still able to take on more shots.
I’m sure that the results will vary depending on the size of the object being created and the type of plastic used to inject it. For us in the MAD shop, after using the Liqcreate STRONG-X resin once, we never looked back in search of a competitor. We were sold from the start!
Simply put, it’s an AMAZING product!
If you’re interested in reading my story on how I got started using Liqcreate STRONG-X for injection molding, you can find the featured story from Liqcreate here. Please disregard any references to our previous eBay store name (Elsa’s Discount). That was WAY BEFORE we became Mini Arms Depot (MAD) and back when we were resin casting and 3D printing all of our accessories.
Below, you will find the print settings and configuration we use for the Liqcreate STRONG-X resin using the AnyCubic Photon S 3D printer.
| Layer Height | 0.05 mm |
| Bottom Layer Count | 6 |
| Exposure Time | 25 s |
| Bottom Exposure Time | 120 s |
| Light-off Delay | 6.5 s |
| Bottom Light-off Delay | 0 |
| Lifting Distance | 5 mm |
| Bottom Lift Distance | 5 mm |
| Lifting Speed | 65 mm/min |
| Bottom Lift Speed | 65 mm/min |
| Retract Speed | 150 mm/min |
CONCLUSION
There you have it, our TOP 3 recommended resin brands for 3D printing. If you have any questions or concerns, please send me a message.
Until next time, take care and God Bless.