I am looking for a (cheap) UV chamber to cure the prints as well as something to coat the print to reduce or remove the fact that prints loose quality after some time of use. These have revealed not an easy find for me to find nearby (even in Europe) at a decent price and any tip would be very appreciated.
Cheers
Francesco
I live in the netherlands, and bought a facetanner in a 2nd hand shop for €10,-. In the same shop I bought an aquarium for €5 and I had some aluminium metal sheets lying around at my house which I used to cover the inside of the aquarium. So I had a perfectly good working UV chamber for €15,-
This was the face tanner I bought:
size is +/- 40cm x 25cm
Thanks. I will try to do the same. Does it color the resin?
Do you use any spray pain to block the UV so that the models do not change shape if exposed to the sun for too long?
Yes, it does color the resin unfortunately. White and Clear turn yellowish. However, Formlabs seem to have fixed this yellowish finish with the V2 type resin. I haven’t printed with V2 yet, so I cannot tell you if that changes color as well…
Grey and Black are fine in the uv chamber. I usually let clear and white just dry for a day.
Spraying the clear part with regular acrylic spray does not help with the yellowing over time. You’ll have to buy special uv resistant spray if you want it to keep clear.
I’'ve nearly finished my clear resin and then I will open my V2 bottle to print and see if the yellow glow doesn’t appear.
Thanks.
I am waiting for my printer with white and black, so I guess it is the v2 white resin.
For the paint I am more worried about the fact that the shape will change. My experience with more expensive resin printer is that after 6 months they prints get soft and or loose partially shape.
Maybe I should ask for replacing my white into gray resin …
White only comes in V1 unfortunately… They haven’t solved the yellowing issue for white yet…
Do you mean only the parts get soft which are coated with an acrylic spray? or even parts that haven’t had any treatment? I have some treated and none-treated parts lying around and I don’t notice any difference. However, they are a month old (maximum)…
Do you have any pictures of what happens during those 6 months?
No I do not have anything left. I thew them away the moment we decided to buy a Zprinter.
I am switching ti gray instead of white resin then, I am not so fond of yellow even if I expect to pain the model eventually.
How did you treat them? As I am not dutch native I do not even know how to ask at Brico or any similar shop what is that I look for (and my wife even if dutch native does not understand what I look for 
)
I just treated them with a clear coat. It does help in making it see-through, but doesn’t help thecoloring of the print. I haven’t really done anything else to treat them ,except of course washing them in IPA and sanding them with 1000, 1500 and 2000p sandpaper.
Got a sterilisation UV drawer for £25 off ebay. Same as this one
Not all that elegant but it does the job!
Thanks Alex fort he info.
Gary - how big pieces can you put in it?
A few pictures of the drawer. I think I can safely say, if you can print it on the form 1 you should be able to fit it in. Pictured are some of the larger prints I’ve made. The white one is 5 inches long and 3 inches in diameter. You may have an issue if you have a large print that needs more than 4 inches in height when in the drawer but apart from that, it should do what you need.
Looks big enough! Thanks, you saved me from starting making one myself!