What do you suggest I do next
Sand a polish a small section. This will tell if the resin is clear or if there is a surface effect. You can use supports for this if you still have them.
Hi Bill
I have done that - just to be clear, I sanded a piece of the base support material. First sanding with 600 wet and dry used wet (both sides of 2mm plate. I then progressively worked up to a 4200 polishing mop.
Still the same results - translucent (in or out of water).
What I have noticed though is very tiny pin pricks in the material structure.
The translucency is much deeper than just the surface of the material
Sounds to me like there’s a problem with either your resin, tank or printer (maybe smudges on the glass or mirror, or dust) that is causing the small defects in the printed result. FWIW, my prints using Clear don’t have the cloudiness of the images you posted.
Hi
I am surprised - Its a brand new printer that has now done 9 prints… My money is on a defective resin
It takes a lot to get the resin perfectly smooth for clear resin, it took me 3 hours to get the windshield piece sanded smooth for my last project
Sounds to me like there’s a problem with either your resin, tank or printer (maybe smudges on the glass or mirror, or dust) that is causing the small defects in the printed result. FWIW, my prints using Clear don’t have the cloudiness of the images you posted.
I think I have got to the bottom of the tiny pinpricks that appear on the print - a close look at the build tank shows little areas (very tiny) of intense white in the PDMS which look like the position of supports from previous prints…
To me it seems quite poor that the PDMS has already started to produce defects in the surface of the prints after only 9 prints - How long before the tank needs replacing?
What material does the LT tank use? Is it still PDMS?
At this rate the consumables are in excess of £12 per print (resin plus build tank) which is expensive.
What I find incredible is that no one from Formlabs can now be bothered to reply to offer any help - I have done everything form labs have suggested. Should I just accept it and pretend that my problem does not matter?
I go back to my original question - WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN V2 and V4 of the resin.
Also another question for Formlabs - I bought another cartridge of clear from the Formlabs dealer in the UK yesterday. He told me that he was just unpacking a NEW delivery of the resin from formlabs.
I asked him what version that was - he said “it’s the latest Formlabs always supplies the latest”
It arrived this morning - Its version 2…
The website clearly advertises V4, (see screenshot below) SO DO WE IN ENGLAND HAVE TO PUT UP WITH OLD VERSIONS is that why my resin produced the results it did before. Is V4 only available in America and the rest of the world has to put up with the old? Perhaps to use up old stock?
The outside label on my original box listed it has RS-F2-GPCL-01 - thie latest box says exactly the same.
The cartridge is marked FLGPCL02, THE SAME AS THE FIRST.
There is a label by the pinch valve which says 20170622, however it does not say what that is - nor is an EXPIRY date anywhere to be found. WHERE IS IT SHOWN, AND WHAT IS THE SHELF LIFE OF A RESIN
Have you been able to get in touch with our support team? If some of the troubleshooting steps in this thread aren’t working out, that might be the best next step. Let me know if there’s any difficulty with getting in touch of a member of our team.
Chemically, the v2 and v4 resins are identical but there was a change of suppliers for one of the components which is the reason for the versioning change. We’re looking into ways of better communicating this, but this thread gives a good overview of the updates.
Print settings between Clear v2 and v4 differ. Have you been able to use both versions of the material? It’s somewhat concerning that re-sellers are fulfilling the Clear v2 material, and I’ve made sure to forward this to our partnerships team. Was the material advertised as Clear v2 or Clear v4 on the website?
Frew -
I have NOT been able to get version 4 in the UK. I have phoned two dealers and they have both said similar - ver2 is the latest version supplied to them by Formlabs.
I have not contacted “support” yet - but I have read lots of posts on here which suggests that the quickest way of getting things sorted is via the forum (many stories of people waiting months to get things sorted through support.
This is what is adverrised on the suppliers web site:
I am struggling to get my head round your statement “Chemically, the v2 and v4 resins are identical but there was a change of suppliers for one of the components which is the reason for the versioning change. We’re looking into ways of better communicating this,”
"…Print settings between Clear v2 and v4 differ. "
If the formulation is the same why would the print settings differ?
I have not been able to try version 4 - its not available in the UK
Probably because they optimized / updated the settings further and didn’t bother making these changes available on V2 resins since no one is supposed to be using them anymore. I think your supplier is just trying to sell their unsold V2 stock.
I have not been able to try version 4 - its not available in the UK
My supplier has it…
https://www.goprint3d.co.uk/formlabs-clear-resin-cartridge.html
Thanks Bill - As of Thursday last week they told me that they only had Ver2 in. So they must have had a new delivery / stock.
Rhinoweb had taken delivery on Friday and they said that was the latest - its turned out to be version 2
I also have the same problem, I printed an object on my old printer BEAN (kudo3d) with clear resin brand Monocure.
I made the same piece with my new Form2 and clear V4 resin.
There is no photo the first is very transparent, the other opaque, all 2 parts clean in IPA has 99.5%
Form2 new, new resin, new LT Tank …
All the Formlabs standard resins have a matt finish. You can test this yourself by putting a piece into water and it will become transparent. The answer is to paint the piece with a gloss varnish.
Quite the difference in clarity! Related to the printing process itself maybe?
We clean our parts with DIPROPYLENE GLYCOL MONOMETHYL ETHER. Parts come out smoother and with more clarity, but real transparency needs some more finishing.
The stuff is 12.50 euro per liter but lasts way longer and doesn’t evaporate like IPA does(ie. we never have to top-up the form wash in between replacement of the liquid, unheard of for IPA).
I print 2 identical pieces
the one on the left was not cleaned in IPA, but just exposed to UV.
The other was cleaned with IPA, become opaque, and after using a transparent spray, there was an improvement but not like the piece on the left …
Regarding the milky aspect, if it’s well-known that water causes this, I have to ask if it’s possible there is water in the IPA rinse? If you live in a humid environment, even pure IPA is probably hygroscopic enough to absorb water from the air. I guess an easy way to test is to change out the bath with known fresh pure IPA and see if the print still clouds. Does anyone know if the resin itself could absorb water and print cloudy before even touching the IPA?
Isn’t the official recommendation for rinse IPA 70%? The other 30% is water.
Or has something changed?
(I know I’ve had better results with stronger IPA.)
We actually recommend ~90%. 
https://support.formlabs.com/s/article/Isopropyl-Alcohol-IPA?language=en_US
It’s not that water makes it cloudy, it’s that the surface is rough. That’s why coating it with resin makes it more transparent because it smooths out the surface.
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