While the 25 micron setting on the Form1 is wonderful for tiny details, for jewelry, we may need even finer details. Is it possible for the Form1 to print at 10micron layer thickness? Would this be something that can be easily added to the software? Is the stepper motor capable of such fine steps? I know it would take way longer to print something at that settings, but for certain things, it’s worth the wait, and it would be nice to have the option.
It is my question too. we own a form 2 & prints jewelry Models with Castable Resin.But some times our models Don’t print totally successful.
I think our problem is in orientation & support instructions?
Preform isn’t suitable for Tiny jewelries like lace rings.
What Can we Do to give the Best Result?!
Many of our users will create their support structures in the modelling software itself. This allows total control over the base and support placement as well the touch point sizes. I believe Zbrush has a plugin for this as do most of the common jewelry modelling programs.
I’ve seen a number of very impressive lace designs printed in Castable that can’t necessarily be cast but do show off the capabilities of the printer pretty well. We have a new model orientation video on the support pages that you should check out for help with orienting your designs.
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Going down to 10 microns won’t likely improve the results much. Something that would help with detail more would be to use a laser with a smaller diameter, that would allow for sharper corners and thinner details but at a decrease in speed.
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Is it possible to change the layer thickness in open mode?
Many of my models have small text, usually size as you often see on coins and I try to keep the layers slightly parallel to the text to get the most detail. Often doing this I can use 50 micron layers and have little noticeable difference with a 25 micron print. I can definitely see having a smaller layers in jewelry because I would think it would be almost impossible to take advantage of orientation to compensate since the details can be in various directions and not one plane.
A smaller laser spot size would be awesome, wonder if that is a possible upgrade for the FL machines?
If lowering the layer to 10 microns would be ideal for printing of jewels we work with many small details with a finer resolution we can even decrease the diameter of the support and have a better finish.
could you please introduce me the name of the Zbrush’s Plugin?!
Can we change Form2’s Laser to a laser with a smaller Diameter?! I don’t think So!!
if there was this sollution the company would do that! if you have any information about better Laser please help us
please share with us some photos of your successful prints.
It looks like I was mistaken with there being a plugin. A number of users look to be modelling their own support. I’m having trouble finding the thread but manually modelling supports can give even greater control over how points are placed.
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The Form2 laser is actually a bit smaller than the Form1+ laser. They could certainly make it smaller but the issue there is that the smaller they make it the longer it will take to print things and so it’s a tradeoff for speed, it would have a significant impact on speed.
It could be possible in the future to where they could have an adjustable laser where you would have the choice to use a smaller laser diameter if you’re OK with the slower print times.
we are okay with times.
quality & resollution & Accuracy of prints are important for us. because we print complex jewelry & gold models & each bad micron can effect of our prints.
Thank you very much for your discriptions
do you mean manually modeling in preform or other softwares?
I’ve seen a few jewelers using programs like Zbrush to model their own support structures for greater control.
I’ve played with the layer thickness in Open FL in the past. Can it be done? Yes. Can you print at those layer heights? Yes if you tweak in the profile. Is it worth over twice the print time? No
15 microns actually printed fairly well in black but it was a pain to get set up properly.
Here are the problems:
- It’s extremely hard to apply supports without islands in the print (manual, or in your 3D software)
- The layers are so thin that they deflect when pealed from the PDMS. So, the edges of the layers don’t line up properly.
- The surface finish caused by #2 will need to be polished out even after the extremely long print.
- You will waste time, resin, and tanks because there will be regular failures.
10 microns is about 1/8th of a human hair. The standard 25 microns is about 1/3 of a human hair.
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I presume the easiest way to create supports in Zbrush would be Zspheres, Not a plugin, its part of the soft.
I am also using ZSpheres to create supports, and added a video on one of the threads. I’ve learned a different way to do it since then, but here’s a link to the videos that I shared in another thread. http://www.katkramer.com/zsphere-supports
If you are using the new ZBrush Core, this is the right technique, although I’m a little lazier now and I don’t use the polygroups feature to mark the supports. If you’re using ZBrush regular version, you can use the ZModeler functions to create a very simple base. I then convert the piece to a very low-resolution Dynamesh, mask off areas that I can “punch through” to make the raft take up less material, use the Extract function under the Subtool menu (and accept), stretch them out to be thicker than the base, then use a boolean subtract with the base (put the extracted layer below the base, click the “moon” icon, use Merge Down, then perform a Dynamesh function to finish the subtraction.
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