Failures with mini rafts/supports not printing on platform

Support & Troubleshooting Form 3/3+
1

This is on a relatively new print tank with new resin so there are no flaws or impurities in the tank resin from previous prints, all prints with this tank/resin up until now have been without problems.

This particular issue crops up occasionally (had it happen several times on my old platform/resin) where part of the mini raft/ support doesn’t print to the platform. I’m thinking that it doesn’t print at all since there is no debris of misprinted resin within the tank after…

The platform is perfectly clean prior to starting prints. No other flaws are evident on the print.

Using BioMed Clear V1 resin.

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2

Hi @as4399,

Thanks for getting in touch! For more in-depth troubleshooting, I would advise reaching out to Support. As an initial step, I’d recommend Cleaning the Form 3 Optical Window and following Fine Tuning Formlabs LFS printers to perform the automatic Z-axis calibration. A good benchmark print would be the Form 3 Optics Test.

3

Additional photo added shows that the mini raft did adhere and print on the platform, but failed to print or separate within the layer.

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4

Hi @as4399,

Thanks for the additional photo. I see from your other thread that you were able to clean the optical window. This is definitely a good starting point, and might improve your results right away.

5

This problem is not a consistent issue. It seems to happen sporadically, with or without cleaning of the optics. I’ve had the problem in the past and I’ve cleaned the window in the past with failures similar to this at various times after cleaning the optics. I’m not convinced it’s related.

I would say that I’ve ruled out the age of the tank, cleanliness and purity of the resin (based on the age of the current tank) and optics (in the past) as reliable causes.

6

Hi @as4399,

Thank you for clarifying. This may be better suited for a Support case then, given the factors you’ve ruled out so far. Potential next steps would be to have your .form files reviewed or trying a different tank if you haven’t done so. It may also be worth trying out Full Rafts rather than Mini Rafts.

7

I’ve resisted using full rafts because it uses up almost double the resin. And the medical grade resin is $$$.

The print supports with mini rafts are what preform suggests. And usually i add a few more.

I’ve reached out to support. Thanks.

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