Resin settling is a concern for almost every resin other than clear. Can we please program the machine to run a wiper program at a set interval when the machine is idle? Printers invariably go idle. Or you grab a resin tank for a resin you haven’t used in a while. The issue is closely related to the automatic resin dispensing.
I most recently suffered this problem and it was actually quite costly…and upsetting.
My Castable resin had settled after a period of inactivity. Because the Form2 dispenses far more resin than required for the prints I send to it, it was wiser to filter the resin back into the cartridge and shake it than to risk squeegeeing the tank and get resin all over the machine (again, why does the machine over-dispense prints when the Form1 taught us we don’t need a full resin tank for success?).
Thanks to this, I inadvertently poured filtered Castable into my Black cartridge, a mistake that could have been saved if the machine didn’t dispense 250mL for a 3mL print.
Anytime you leave room for user-error, you will eventually get user error. This was a mistake that could have been avoided with either a) more reasonable resin dispensing or b) making use of the wiper that sits idle when not printing.
#LoveMyForm2 #Frustrated
BONUS REQUEST: While we’re at it, it’d also be great to have a pre-heat function for the resin tank (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been away from the machine and wanted to pre-heat the resin for a job).
If you aren’t printing for more than like half a day, it is best to use the scraper to stir the resin in the tray to make sure that the pigment gets mixed in again. I also take the cartridge out and shake it to mix the resin in there as well. This has always worked just fine for me, and I’ve only had one failure which was due to not stirring the resin.
It shouldn’t make a mess to use the scraper to stir the resin, and it can do just fine to mix it up enough.
As for dispensing less resin–there’s a couple of things
First, there needs to be enough resin to cover the bottom of the tray, which that can be quite a bit of resin. Also, it needs enough resin there so that it can flow back quickly enough after the wiper goes across the bottom, if there’s less resin it will take longer to flow back and there’s a chance it might not flow back in time for the next layer to print.
Also, since it can’t remove resin, if you print something big and then do something small it’s not like it can put resin back into the cartridge.
It’s likely that they’ll add the option to pre-heat the printer though, people have asked for that.
Before a print, the wiper typically goes back and forth a few times which mixes the resin up. This has always been adequate for my builds, but Castable is the one resin that I don’t use. Perhaps a more rigorous version of this would be beneficial for you. I would be concerned about a machine automatically moving without input or verification that it is okay to move. Regular interval of wiping like that would also put additional wear on the PDMS.
I agree that there is too much resin in the tank for how short the walls are. Normal wiping during a build pushes the resin scarily close to the edge, and there is no lip to protect.
+1 for the preheat if there aren’t enough votes for that already.