Just about a week ago, I bought some resin that was expired. This particular stuff was Grey F100G, and had a LOT/Manufacture date of February 2014. So it expired about 15 months ago.
So after running a couple of tests, my prints would come out mushy or have parts that had failed altogether primarily because the supports were too soft and failed.
Then I had found a chart that someone posted with the laser exposure values for the different resins, so I though I’d try a higher exposure value. The default exposure value for Grey 01 is 118 (I assume it’s milliseconds), so I tried a couple of higher values. I found that when I print with Clear 02 (138), my prints come out near perfect.
So obviously this raises some questions:
is something others have found as well?
will the higher exposure do anything detrimental to the printer?
will the value have to be bumped up as the resin ages further?
what’s the oldest resin you’ve worked with?
Interesting observation here. I just got a Form 1 with what appears to be its original combination of parts - including two (rather, 1 unopened and 1 almost-gone) bottles of Clear resin.
The unopened bottle has a Lot number: 20130710-01.
So, if that translates to production date as I think it does, that makes this stuff just about 3 years old!
No wonder my prints are coming out like mushy, indistinct blobs that mostly just stay in the tank with only several of the first layers firmly affixed to the build platform. Would vigorous, continuous mixing, say over several hours, or driving with it in my car for example, bring it back to life? Or am I SOL?
(I can’t seem to find the “new thread” button, and this is the most relevant thread I can find. )
(update: ohhhhhh, that’s a lot of air bubbles… maybe I mixed it too much. )
(update: nope, it still prints sludge, even mixed, and using Black 0.05 setting. oh well)
Finally had to dump my old resin as it was getting “mushy”. I posted photos in another thread on this subject of old resin. 12=14 months is the absolute length the resin should be (attempted) to use. Write the purchase month and year on the bottle when you receive it. That way you’ll know if it’s getting old.
I dumped the old resin back into one of the bottles and lost about half a liter out of two and a half that were old. I just purchased an new liter last month. So, I wiped out the resin tank and cleaned the build platform real good then ran a job. Came out really nice so that cured the issue.
The date on my bottle is 20140208-01, so it expired in February 2015. As of now, I used about 2/3 of it. I have another, unopened bottle with a date code of 20140408-01, so that one had expired about 13 months ago. We’ll see how it works when I get to it.
While I’m waiting for my order of new resin, I’m still playing around with different settings, and what causes the catastrophic blob failures - and what I can do to make a single solid print. So far, not a lot of luck…
Of course, mine is fairly more expired (mid-2013), but it strikes me that it’s able to produce a fairly solid (and sometimes thick, and fairly strong) base before it goes off into a blob. Maybe I’ll try Clear 02 next…
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