Since i cant find any tanks for a form 1+ i have decided to try and construct one. The only real concern i have is what type of material to use for the bottom that will allow the right amount of laser light through and still be sturdy enough. Has anyone done this? If so did you use glass or some type of plexiglass?
You might want to get in touch with Zak at Z-Vat Industries; he manufactured an all-glass resin tank for the Form 1+ that worked very well and was selling them for a while.
Also, I still have several unused Form 1+ tanks (some still new in the package) and might be willing to sell you a few.
I had run across the z-vat site, but considering my goal is in experimenting with different resins that are probably going to have a high probability of not working or messing up the tank, I was wanting to be able to create my own tanks and avoid spending more than 100 dollars each time I try a new resin that doesn’t work. Which is why I’m probably not going to worry about using UV blocking walls on any of the tanks. My plan was simply to use clear acrylic for the walls, but wanted to know if the bottom needed any type of special acrylic or glass to work properly and not break or block too much of the laser.
The vat bottom is acrylic, but i don’t know if it is plain acrylic sheet material or an uv-transmission optimized material like TOPAS 8007X10.
Quartz glass and high borate-borosilicate glass offer higher UV transmittance than acrylic.
As long as you don’t need to maximize laser power reaching the resin in the tank, i would say the best option is to test it with simple clear acrylic.
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Your post sent me down the road of searching out the best uv transmittable material. Most all platics and acrylics are horrible at transmission in the 405nm wavelength. I did find some specialty plastics that would work but a sheet large enough to make 4 to 6 tanks was nearly 700 dollars. The glass appears to be the most economical option. I know why zvat is using glass. Only question it left me with is why bother with a yellow tint when even clear plexi appears to be 98% effective at blocking 405nm uv.
The Z-Vat ones have a borosilicate glass bottom. I might have been mistaken about the rest of the frame, their website says “Polycarbonate Frame”. But the one I have is an early prototype so it’s also possible it’s different (e.g. it’s not tinted).
Are you sure you didn’t mistake Transmission for Absorption in that graph? Because PMMA transmits about 85% of the light at 405nm…