April Fool’s Day prank by Formlabs inspires a clever hack to make 3D prints smell fantastically fruity. Try making scented resin yourself.

Amid the usual tomfoolery from this year’s April Fool’s Day, there was one stunt by Formlabs that many wished was the real deal.

Scratch-N-Sniff Resin was pitched as a printing material that “smells as good as it looks”, with four fruity flavors and colors. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be an actual product… until Formlabs Engineer Craig Broady stepped up to the challenge.

As he recalls, “I saw the Scratch-N-Sniff prank on April 1st, and I was like, ‘That’s not real — that’s just spray paint. I can make a real version myself.’”

Broady and Materials Engineer Rachel Davis tested out different proportions of three main ingredients — Formlabs Clear Resin, color dye, and fragrance oil — and found that the process was actually pretty simple.

All they needed to do was to add a bit of color dye and strawberry fragrance oil to the Clear Resin. Then they went through the printing process as usual and hey presto – delicious smelling resin prints in bright colors.

In just a few easy steps, you can use their tested ratio to make your own sweet-smelling prints. Just remember not to eat them!

How to Make Your Own Scented Resin

All you need to create your own scented resin is the following: a Form 1+ or Form 2 3D printer, 200 ml of Clear Resin, 0.2 g dye, and 5 ml fragrance oil.

Once you have all of the ingredients assembled, the process is as simple as adding the dye, fragrance oil, and resin to a jar with a lid.

Shake it up until the ingredients are fully combined, and from there you pour the mixture into a clean resin tank and proceed to create your prints as usual.

Keep in mind that if you’re using a Form 2 then you should set your printer to “Open Mode”, and pour the mixture into a clean resin tank and print as usual.

This straightforward recipe opens up a whole new dimension for your next 3D printing project. Just add some color dye and bring your own stink.

What would you create with smelly resin? Let us know in the comments. We would make BACON.