Then you’re going to like the Universal Cartridge as well. No more 100ml limitations.
OMG!!! This is great! Thanks for sharing!
FWIW, I use the ALW resin as well, and I re-coat my tanks with Sylgard.
I’ve been doing this for at least a year now, and I don’t have any issues with the PDMS edges or corners lifting. It did happen to me once, but it was an issue with the recoating on that particular tank (did not properly clean it before recoating).
I don’t think that’s all that important. Idon’t do that, and I have tanks that have had resin in them that went unused for weeks without any issues.
So welcome to the DIY world of Formlabs. You’ll love it.
Thank you for the input, that is good to know. And thanks for the welcome .)
You print that on an F1+ or F2?
If an F1+ use OpenFl and get the material file from Kevin as the stock gray v3 or v4 settings might not be adequate for your machine. I had issues with stock settings.
This came as a surprise and made a real mess. ALW’s resin is having a weird reaction with FL’s PDMS and it makes it lift from the tank, slowly lifting until they get big enough so that the resin goes under and SPILLS FROM UNDER!!!
Yikes, this is not good.
Does anyone know if this also occurs with their Resin Tank LT?
Also, does anyone have a link to where we can buy some Sylgard 184 silicon?
Hi,
Yes yikes indeed but as long as there is a solution that is saving money and on waste, we’re fine. I don’t think it is too much hasle. Also I linked to a PDF above on how to recoat (z-vat also has a step by step on their FAQ)
Z-Vat industries (the ones making glass tanks) are directing to this supplier: http://krayden.com/buy/dc-184-sylgard-0-5kg-1-1lb-kit.html
Or you can find others online too.
You can buy Sylgard just about anywhere. At the moment, prices for Sylgard are high, as there seems to be a worldwide shortage of Silicone elstomers.
The best price I was able to find was at Ellsworth for $109. Here is a link:
Remember, a 1/2Kg of Sylgard will yield about 7 tanks, max for a Form 1 standard tanks, assuming you do them all at once. The average Form 1/1+ tank will take ~65-67g. The ZVat takes about 56-58g.
If coating Form 2 tanks, those are about 105-108g, so you’ll only get about 4 tanks out of the Sylgard container.
There are other alternatives to Sylgard as well which are cheaper, such as ML Solar, or Qsil 216. In fact Qsil is about $40 for 1 LB of the stuff.
Last but not least. Don’t buy now thinking that you’ll recoat sometime in the future. This stuff has a shelf life of about 2 years from the date of manufacture, after that it will not cure properly. So make sure you check the date of manufacture and use it before it expires.
Krayden is too expensive right now. They charge $145 for a 1/2Kg kit.
Yes I saw… I guess it depends on how much is needed. Not there yet
Oops did not see your previous post
Thank you for all that info. Never heard of Qsil… I will look further into that. Have you tried? What was the print quality? How cloudy does it gets?
Best
451, thanks for sharing your experience with ALW’s resins.
Another question for you, did you have any issues with tanks leaking during long 10+ hour prints when using ALW’s resin? Im thinking of buying their resins but now worry about having leaks and spilling onto or into the printer. Between prints, I do leave the FL resins in the tank and in the printer for weeks at a time.
I have not had any issues with LT tanks leaking but haven’t had ALW resin in them over really a month yet. What I have had an issue with is FL LT resin tanks while more expensive and supposedly lasting longer are much more unforgiving with scratches or impacts (caused by miss prints) issues with adhesion to the build plate. I literally have an LT tank now with a gouge in it that I’m sure was caused by a piece that came off from the build plate plastic. But was told by CS that it looked like a spatula gouge from me using the sharp vs round edge spatula.
Im no idiot and did use the corner spatula not the round edge one but definitely didn’t try to use the corner of the spatula to remove the failed print from the LT tank.
So while they seem to last longer if you impact that layer in anyway consider it trashed after and FL not replacing it.
That being said I’ve got about 6 cracked. PDMS coming up, or bubbling Standard resin tanks. A few were replaced by FL so I can’t complain too much about there level of customer service for the Standard tank issues.
Hi BuildHubTV,
The prints I did lasted for up to 35h, since it was on open mode, I could not always refill in time so it added to the original 26h prints I was doing.
I started to have leaks at the end of the second print, so I’d say it took about 70h before leaking. You’ll start seeing the PDMS layer lift at the refilling corner at about 30h. What you can do, like the ALW guy told me, is to litteral glue that corner with silicon glue. I’d do that before pouring the resin though.
But if you let the ALW resin sit in it for weeks, it will flow right out.
So. I made a little cost comparaison. I limited the types of resins to the three resins FL and ALW share, being the Grey Resin / Grey Resin, Rigid Resin / Black Resin and the Flex Resin.
I made one comparaison for 10L being used and another with 50L being used, so we can see how the gap widens when we use more resin.
For FL, we just have resin and tank costs. For the ALW, we have the resin, the tanks (from Z-Vat), the silicon and universal cartridge for the ones who want that.
As a quick conclusion, FL’s print cost is about twice as much as ALW.
Here is the link to my Google Sheet
Peace!
I updated the link as it was private to my organization… It is now public.
Think the heading on your last ALW sheet is wrong, looks like you have 50L but labeled 10L. Or I cannot read, public schools. Thanks great info.
You are right, it was supposed to be 50L. I updated it. Thanks!
Did they have you glue on the underside of the tank?