Resin Printer - FEP issues, extremely short life

I have a Creality LD-002H and it printing really well, but the FEP sheets don’t last more than 6 prints.
I have very few failed prints.
Bed is level…
All layers print fine
I have triple checked islands and used advanced precise search in lychee slicer and resolved all islands.
I’m very careful wiping fep sheet never use paper towels
LCD screen is perfectly clean
Tried dry PTFE lubricant
Happens with all resins I have tried
First print the FEP look almost perfect, very little residue stuck to FEP
But the FEP always degrade very quick and develop soft spots which causes resin build up.
I use a brush & IPA to clean FEP after each print
Any help or suggestions would be most welcome.
Thank you

Welcome to the forum!

I’m a bit newer to resin printing, so hopefully someone with a more experience can chime in as well.

The first few times I changed my FEP I didn’t have the right tension set for my FEP sheet and it was a bit too loose and uneven. I noticed the FEP was getting worn quickly in certain spots because of that (ruined in like 4-5 prints).

I now check my FEP with a sound meter and a light tap and try to get it in the 300Hz range for tension and I haven’t had the same issues since.

I might recommend you check your FEP tension, it sounds to me like you have checked or tried almost everything else I would check!

1 Like

Are you taking about a film of exposed resin on parts of the fep?
If so, I always get it in the back left and front right corners. Pretty sure it’s a problem with design of the printer. There are comments on reddit and the creality facebook group about the 002h overexposing.
I have a suspicion that with the announcement of the new creality printers from last week where a highlight feature was a more uniform illumination they are acknowledging that they had a problem.

2 Likes

Thank you Blair. The FEP sheet appears to get badly worn in different regions very quickly. You can see the soft spots were resin has built up during the print. The printed objects are typically near perfect.
I have become fast at changing fep sheets, and they have a nice ring to them when tapped gently. Even the bad fep sheet have a nice ring but if you avoid the damaged areas. But 5 or 6 prints per fep sheet is tedious and not reasonable.
Im on my second supplier of fep sheets now, but observe the same issue.

Thank you turkeyonrye, I will download a sound meter. With all the practice changing fep sheets, they appear smooth, and highly tensioned and a nice sharp ring on them when tapped gentle.
But I will try anything, so thank you for the suggestion.

1 Like

I have heard good things about nFEP film, it is supposed to have good life and stick less.
I need to get through another pack of regular fep before I try switching to it though.

6 prints seems very premature, I’ve been getting probably 3 times that. Only difference in our methods seems to be that I don’t clean with isopropyl but I do use blue shop towels. Every few prints I use ptfe lube and try to rub it in well

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07N7TVWZJ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_i_HHP2HGPXWNG3N3WYFJS4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

1 Like

Thank you, I replaced fep sheet last night with fep sheet from 3D printing Canada. First print was perfect, slight mark on the fep in two places. Cleaned very carefully did not use IPA.
Second print on the printed fine, but two fine holes in the fep sheet!
Checked last nights fep sheet and the problem areas are in the same place… given to totally different prints, the issue must be something connected to screen.
I checked the screen, removed small resin buildup, and the screen looks perfect.

There have been reports that the UV lights are overpowered and people have been putting buck converters in to drop the voltage a bit.
I feel that is accurate considering how much shorter my layer times are than what the resin manufacturer suggests for this machine. With Monocure Rapid I’m at about 1.5s layers.
Since my overcuring is in the same spot each time I don’t think it’s a faulty screen necessarily, I think it is that the projector for the UV light has hot spots and isn’t uniform. (The screen test looks fine)
I was considering trying to see if I could install some photography diffusion material between the light source and the screen to both knock the power down and even out the light spread.

2 Likes

Agree, when I started I could not understand why everything was over sized, so I did print calibration test prints and was shocked at how little Time was required to get a nicely exposed print and how much the quality of each print improved. What is don’t understand is how two fep films have the same burn in damage. You might be correct on the projector issue, I will log the problem with creality because this is an almost new machine.

Thank you Blair this made an interesting read.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/resinprinting/comments/ls1id7/creality_ld002h_overexposure_issue_is_an/]

1 Like

I think I might have found the issue! Resin over-exposure…
More information to follow as I print of the next few days…

1 Like

I’m curious what you end up finding out.

Hi Blair, after an intense round of exposure testing and running the printer for the last 30 hours and 4 successful print cycles. Just light cleanup of the vat with plastic scraper. All successful.
Only things I have changed is exposure time, bed raise speed and started adding more holes to hollow parts.
I will report more as I learn more. Things are looking much better!!!
With FDM printing when the object looks good, you don’t worry.
I have learned is just because the objects look good, does not mean the exposure time is correct.
Resin printing exposure time is extremely critical with this machine.

1 Like

That sounds pretty much where I’m at with mine.
There is always some cured resin in the vat after a print in the same two spots. If I’m running back to back prints I can just peel it out with the plastic scraper gently and keep going without draining and doing a full clean off the vat.

What resin and times are you using?

1 Like

3D resin solutions, Hero fast cure and 3DRs fast
Esun water washable
Eryone water washable
I really like the Erone water washable from Amazon
They all print nicely. I now think my major problem was over exposure.

Most of my prints are 8 hour cycles, run back to back. I have been doing a chess set for fun.

For the last two days using the hero fast, the vat just requires a little gentle clean, I have not removed vat, just lifted out thin skin on the fep.
Tomorrow back to erone water washable.

I have been cleaning objects in quick rinse of ipa, gentle brush detail area, then 10 minute cycle in mr green bath, then final wash in ultrasonic cleaner in water.
I have also 3D modeled 2mm and 3mm plugs which I print in sets of 10 to plug the drain holes.

1 Like

After more testing, now I have lowered exposure I’m seeing a lot more failed prints, with models pulling off supports and objects tearing in half or chunks missing from the objects.

I contacted Creality with a list of everything I have tried, photographs and serial number & Tony at 3D Printing Canada who was extremely helpful.
Creality is sending a replacement power supply to test.
I also updated my firmware & LCD firmware last night…

2 Likes

@sgspenceley Great to hear you’ve found the Sweet Spot for Curing times!!

1 Like

Hi Keith, I have not found the sweet spot. When everything prints nice, the fep sheet don’t last very long, just 1-5 prints.
When I lower the exposure time, the exposure validation tests look great, but real production objects fail every time. I just did another round of testing today with stronger supports. The fep sheet lasted 10 prints, now has hole in the normal two location which never has objects placed in this area.
I updated firmware last night. So looking forward to the new power supply to arrive from creality.
As Tony and Lee have confirmed I appear to have a bad machine.
I have spent more on fep sheets and resin in the last month than the machine cost! So very disappointed…
I have asked to return the machine to creality under the 30day warranty and they say that’s up to dealer to apply for.


Two failed prints, lots of large supports, 40mm lift speed, 1.5sec exposure time. Exposure test object print perfect 1>2seconds. Waterbased resin, Eryone, was printing really nice with longer exposures, but this caused rapid build up on fep!

I tried another print with the object more vertical, failed more dramatically object pulled off supports, even though it had lots of heavy supports

A machine which needs the fep changing 1-3 prints to get good prints is useless to everyone. So if the replacement power supply change does not work then I will be insisting the money back warranty is given.

Creality has admitted this machine has an overpowered power supply, which causes over exposure issues. So a money back refund is the least they should offer.

1 Like

I understand your pain, at least Creality has offered a solution!

2 Likes