I’ve recently been working with some beautiful 3D printed resin models supplied by a friend. While 3D printing allows for lots of amazing new creations, it tends to limit you to using resin, which is no where near as easy to work with as plastic models.
In my mind the three big downsides of working with resin models are…
- You have to use super glue, you can’t use plastic cement.
- The resin is mostly quite brittle and can snap.
- You need to give the parts a wash to remove all the nasties from the surface of the model to ensure your primer will sick.
The first point is really my main sticking point. Literally. When working with resin models my hands often get covered in super glue and more than once I’ve accidentally stuck a part to either myself or the surface I’m working on.
However, this time I faced a bigger problem. The resin backpack I was trying to attach to the model somehow got displaced, and ended up poking out at a 45 degree angle.
How was I going to remove and correct it? I knew the resin was brittle and would likely snap if I used too much force.
After a lot of Googling, I found that the main solution was simple: to freeze the model. At very low temperatures the super glue becomes more brittle than the resin, and can then be snapped off with minimal force.
So I gave it a go. My 3D printed model spent the night in my freezer next to the ice cream. And in the morning, it just required a very gentle effort and the super glue snapped right off, with the resin intact.
It worked!