Brand new printer with only two prints, all with Castable V2 resin. Both prints had a problem with the parts falling of the platform.
So I started the third print last light before leaving the office, to find it ready in the morning. I wake up in the morning finding more the 120 email on my phone from the Dashboard. Print Interrupted - Print Resumed, one mail every five minutes or so.
I go back to the office to check what is going on and this is what is see.
The resin is everywhere, on and around the printer. Also if you notice in the second picture the orange cover has to cracks on it. This happened in both sides of the cover.
Of course nothing was printed and I think the printer is destroyed…
Exactly the same happens to me. Get straight on to Formlabs support they are brilliant. Castable resin V2 does not stick to the build plate as firmly as the other resins. So items tend to fall off end when they do they can catch the wiper and force resin over the side of the tray. The resin level falls as a result and so the machine releases more resin into the tray which then gets wiped over the side until the cartridge is empty and the machine is full of resin.
Keep the machine in a darkened room away from sunlight and stray UV and contact support. they will tell you how to deal with the resin and sort the problem out. Formlabs is working on a new support structure for Castable V2 resin that avoids the problem of items falling off the build tray. Once you get the machine sorted out I suggest you avoid running the machine overnight until Formlabs have properly sorted out the Castable V2 issues.
I have a remote camera and a remote outlet switch on the FL2 in my office.
I use my phone and iPad to monitor the printing FL2 if anything goes wrong on camera I use the remote outlet switch to turn off the printer .
though all it takes is 20 seconds for your tank to overfill, so unless you are looking constantly it’s still possible you can miss it. At least with the F1 I can leave it on over night and completely forget about it during the day. Is there really not a manual resin pour only option for the F2?
I had a new printer out of commission after getting a bit too bold in my first week and filling the shell with resin. Mitigating resin overflows and limiting the damage caused when they do occur is something we’re always looking to improve. It sounds like you’re in touch with our support team and I want to echo Hillzzz great advice of keeping the printer in a darkened room and minimally handling so that we can help get it running again as quickly as possible.
If it’s the valve then the level sensor should be able to detect that the level is too high even though it’s not filling up resin, maybe an option should be in the software to send you a warning notification that the resin level is increasing more than it should.
I don’t think the problem was the valve. The valve is not leaking. I believe the problem was exactly what Hillzzz said.
“Castable resin V2 does not stick to the build plate as firmly as the other resins. So items tend to fall off end when they do they can catch the wiper and force resin over the side of the tray. The resin level falls as a result and so the machine releases more resin into the tray which then gets wiped over the side until the cartridge is empty and the machine is full of resin.”
@NFan I’m glad to hear you are in touch with our customer care team. They’ll help get you back up and running…even with such a resin-coated machine. Could you post a screenshot of the part you’re trying to print within PreForm? Often, the wiper should detect when it hits a part and pause the print, throwing an error. I’d be curious to see why that wasn’t the case with your print.
To address the point of @Edward_Peretti and @aad345, we’ve seen an uptick of castable v2 parts not sticking to the build platform. Most prints are fine, but the ones that aren’t are still cause for concern. Our team here is working on a solution to fix the issue. It didn’t make it out with this week’s PreForm 2.7 release, but expect to see something soon.
@CraigBroady I was printing a few different parts in one job. It was not one single part. I don’t think the wiper hit any part because only a few millimeters were print before the parts fell of the platform.
The printer is brand new, this was my third print. In the first print there was 4 parts all same height, 3 came out fine and 1 fell off.
In the second 13 different parts, 8 came out fine, 5 fell off.
This was my third print and when I came back to the office nothing was on the platform, everything was in the tank.
This is why I think the castable resin sticking to the platform is the problem.
You can see in the pictures I posted what I found in the tank.
@NFan thanks for the additional info. It sounds like the parts were too small for the wiper to detect the failure at the time they fell off. And your diagnosis of the problem seems reasonable.
I’m sorry to hear you’ve had such a sticky experience. It sounds like you’re on the right track getting the problem resolved with customer care.
Given FLCABL01 is giving some serious gyp at the moment with the same thing, is there any reason the improved rafts weren’t incorporated for that resin version too?
