G’day
I managed to damage a print when agitating it on the basket.
It was a model cylinder head with 1mm thick fins.
The Vorex was still a bit soft straight off the bed.
So I thought that there must be a gentler way of doing this and have come up with a bubbler.
I make prototype PCB’s and for this I use an etching tank with an aquarium bubbler pump for agitation, so I have designed this item which will fit in the bottom of the IPA container and agitate with bubbles.
It is currently printing on one of our FDM printers (only 8 hours to go).
If it works as I hope I will make the .stl available to anyone who wants it.
Hi
Pressure depends on the aquarium bubbler / pump you choose but you can adjust the pressure by fitting an inline bleed valve.
I have put some pics of the file; solid and see through on my website. Link here : http://penguin3dprint.com.au/3d-design-gallery/
It is 124mm x 124mm x 4mm. It has 667 x 2mm holes in the top.
If it works out I will add a barbed hose inlet for a standard aquarium hose size.
I will post pics on my website of the completed item tomorrow provided the print finishes OK.
It is printing now and is due to finish at 1.00am Australian WST.
Ooops, didn’t answer your question fully.
Solidified resin shouldn’t be a problem due to pressure from the pump but can always be blown out with compressed air if necessary.
Just a guess as this is all new to me. Only had my Form 1+ about 5 weeks.
I haven’t has any success with Formlabs Tough Resin yet so I will continue to use ‘Vorex’; prints really well.
Looking forward to the cleaned results. Though wouldn’t a ‘hollow’ model be good enough (1mm in thichness)? Would save mor e resin and result in easier cleaning of blocked holes.
Good point!
Perhaps being able to clamp it to the basket would solve the trick. Or design the model of Steven into a basket which replaces the original one for better distribution of the bubbles.
G’day
Well the print failed because of the bed temperature being too high; default setting and caused warping / melting. Grrrrrrrr…
It’s currently reprinting with a lower bed temp.
I was thinking of stopping it floating or moving by sticking it down to the bottom of the container with something resistant to IPA.
This method will be just for testing. If it works out I will design something a bit more elegant along the lines of what Alex has suggested.
The lid will have to be left off of course due to air pressure.
As far as printing it hollow goes, I did think of that but due to needing to print internal supports for the top I decided against it.
It is possible to print it standing on its edge which would eliminate the need for internal supports but I have only just thought of that; should have thought of that earlier. Doh!!
As far as saving more resin, I am printing this on an Filament printer so no issue as filament is cheap.
I was thinking of holding the piece being cleaned to the basket so it can’t move by using a simple twist tie across the support base and through the basket holes.
Anyway, enough of me rambling on for now.
Hopefully will have something to report tomorrow.
Hi
Well, second print failed miserably as well. Can’t print it flat due to bad warping so it is now printing vertical.
I also went with the idea of Alex and made it hollow.