Resin
Resin cost calculator
Resin is billed by what leaves the bottle, not what ends up in the model. This one counts supports, waste, consumables and failures.
Worked example: 30 ml on the default fields
Standard resin $21.99/kg, 15% supports, 10% waste, 3 hours, $0.50 of IPA, 10% failure, 40% margin, US electricity. The panel prints:
- Model resin only
- 33 g
- Resin used, supports and waste in
- 41.7 g
- Resin cost
- $0.92
- Electricity
- $0.08
- Consumables
- $0.50
- Subtotal
- $1.50
- Failures
- $0.17
- Cost
- $1.66
- Suggested price
- $2.77
At 90 ml: 99 g of model resin, 125.2 g used, $2.75 of resin, $3.33 subtotal, $3.70 cost, $6.17 price. The resin triples while consumables, electricity and machine time stay put.
Why resin cost is not “price per ml × model volume”
A 30 ml model does not use 30 ml of resin: supports, plate waste and the print you bin come out of the same bottle.
| Line | Formula |
|---|---|
| Resin weight | volume_ml × density × (1 + supports%) × (1 + waste%) |
| Resin cost | weight_g ÷ 1000 × price_per_kg |
| Electricity | watts ÷ 1000 × hours × price_per_kWh |
| Machine time | (printer ÷ life_hours + maintenance) × hours |
| Failures | subtotal × f ÷ (1 − f) |
| Price | unit cost ÷ (1 − margin) |
| Basis: failure divides the subtotal by (1 − f), so 10% is a 1.111× multiplier. Resin $21.99/kg mid, liquid 1.100 g/cm³, US electricity $0.1831/kWh, checked 2026-10-24. | |
No measured average draw is published for this printer, so its rating (144 W) is used and electricity is an upper bound. It is rarely the expensive line: the resin and the failure rate are.
When this number is wrong
- Supports and waste are your percentages, not measurements. 15% is a starting point, not a reading from your slicer: weigh one cured print and its supports once. Drips in the vat, film on the plate and resin on your tools are waste too, and IPA, gloves and FEP are consumables — none of it is resin, and folding it in hides the difference.
- Density moves with temperature and formulation, and the panel uses the liquid figure. Standard resin is 1.100 g/cm³ liquid and 1.195 g/cm³ cured (Elegoo, checked 2026-10-24): the 30 ml part weighs 35.9 g on a scale, 8.6% more than the 33 g you paid for. Water-washable spans 1.05–1.25 and is computed at 1.15, ±9% inside its own spec.
- Failure rate multiplies rather than adds: at 10% the subtotal is divided by 0.9; at 25% the same $1.50 becomes $2.00, where adding a quarter says $1.87. The line is only as good as the failure rate you type in.
Frequently asked questions
Should I enter the solid or the hollowed volume?
The hollowed volume — that is the resin that becomes the part. If your slicer reports the solid figure, hollow it and re-slice: the difference is 60–80% of the resin cost.
What support percentage should I use?
10–25% of model volume for typical miniatures; thin or overhanging models need more. If you slice the same way every time, weigh one cured print and its supports once.
Why include consumables separately from resin?
Because IPA, gloves and FEP film are real cash but are not resin. A per-millilitre resin price that hides them is a price you cannot check.
Does this work with water-washable resin?
Yes. Pick the standard resin, put your actual price per kg in the resin field, and add the wash liquid to consumables.
Why does machine time show $0.00?
The dataset holds no resin printer price, so the machine rate starts at zero. Enter what you paid under “Printer cost, life and maintenance” and it charges by the hour.