Comb designed for cleaning the resin tank

@Jon_Leyden Gary Cairns posted a link to his form file a few posts up.

Should be working, if it’s not then let me know.

Lovely tool. Thanks for distributing it!

Thanks a lot! Really good work!

You’re welcome!

A friend named me a fool, to give this STL for free - he said I should ask for one Euro for every download, because a comb in a shop is more expensive and not reproduceable - yes, he is right, but it is too late and I am also happy about all the tips and support things on this side and I am happy for feedback as yours.

Michael

Well Michael, sometimes sharing something for free will bring you something in the end? That said, I would like to share something of my own.

I tried to print your resin tank comb, but since I am a newbie in printing on the Form 1+, the print failed. Some of the teeth cracked, because they are relatively thin, with little support. So I decided to draw my own version of the resin tank comb. It’s based on your idea, so all the kudo’s go to you! :smile:

Here is my design (in Rhino):

I decided to make a filter like surface in the upper part of the resin tank comb. Since I’m a big fan of hexagonal shapes, I couldn’t resist to make the holes like so ;).

The advantage of this change, is that the upper part is much stronger than the original idea. The holes are big enough to pour the resin trough, but I think you need to move the resin tank comb slower than with the original comb.

Another small think I decided to do differently, is the size of the upper handle. I made it a bit taller, so one can grab it a bit more conveniently.

So here’s an overview of the orientation in PreForm:

The first attempt to print the resin tank comb was a succes, as these pictures can tell:

Back to the subject of sharing; I decided to share the files of my resin tank comb as well. To start, here’s the STL file:

And here is the form file, if someone would like to use my orientation:

I printed the resin tank comb in 0.1 mm layer height and in white resin.

I hope this is a nice contribution to your excellent idea, Michael? Thanks again for your initial ingenuity! And I hope this is helpful to some of my Form 1 colleagues? :wink:

~Jolmer

6 Likes

Hi Jolmer

Thank’s for your feedback and the cool design. That looks pretty good, espacially the hexagon shapes and I will print it as well.

Hi Michael,

You’re welcome! :wink:

~Jolmer

Nice model, I had made a scoop but found that emptying the tank and filtering the resin works best even though it’s a little more work.

Oh man. Wish I had waited a bit and printed the hexagon design, it looks way too cool.

How do you guys clean the comb before and after?

drop it in the IPA tub and leave it for a while before rotating due to it’s length.

I guess you need to wait for some time for all LPA to evaporate to avoid contaminating the resin?

That’s what I’ve been doing just wanted to be sure. thanks!

Hi Heriberto,

You could print my version as a spare comb? I myself like to have some redundancy, at almost anything I do… :wink:

As for cleaning; I dip it in an IPA bath and wiggle a bit with it. I never let it sit for more than a minute or two. Afterwards I clean the comb with some cloth.

Perhaps another tip; I always clean the tank before I start a new print, not afterwards. In that order I always know it’s clean and fresh to go. In that order, the cleaned combed has sat on my desk for a few hours, so there is no trace of IPA on it.

Nice job! I designed a comb myself a while back but never printed it. I think it was too big for the build chamber so I was going to have one printed via shapeways but maybe I can just reorient it just right :wink:

… or you could print my form file? It’s ‘ready to go’? :wink:

You can also find my design on Thingiverse:

Hey Jolmer,

I’m using your form thingiverse file. Just to be clear you printed it successfully with just these supports. I ask because I noticed when I went into the edit support mode there was a lot of red on the model.

I went through several build-your-own-strainer iterations, but in the end I found as many others did, it’s already been done and is very affordable :

A few coins for 50 at a time and each one will do two or more tanks.

Pouring the resin through a strainer is a total solution, whereas pushing a comb through the tank will never be 100% - never mind the fact that the nylon paint strainer mesh will always be finer than the F1 can print …

Yes, I printed it with just these supports. All went well… :wink:

Where did you buy these, Kevin?

@Jolmer I’m in the UK so I got them from Amazon UK - £6.19 for 50, although I can see equivalent ones (same mesh size) on ebay cheaper now. Just google “paper paint strainer” to find some local to you - ebay/amazon/whatever…