Form 1+ won't print away from hinge side

My company uses a Form 1+ and lately we’ve had a lot of trouble printing anything in the center and left (away from the hinge side) of the tray. When I say trouble, I mean it won’t adhere, If it does, quality is non-existent. We can still turn out parts that are just fine on the hinge side, but larger parts and multiples are impossible.

We’ve used multiple resins and had this problem with all of them (v1 clear, v2 flexible)

I found this problem seemed to be a common issue a couple years back (forum posts from 2014 and 2015) but I never found a definitive answer as to what the problem actually is, and how to fix it.

With a F1+ your troubleshooting usually starts and ends with dust.

What is the condition of your main mirror?
What is the condition of your build platform?
What is the condition of your tank?

If everything is clean and clear you should search through the FL Help to find the steps for adjusting the initial Z height.

Final thought. When was V1 Clear last produced? Your resin may be expired. I have personally printed numerous prints using expired resin, but once it finally does “go bad” you have little to no chance of getting good prints out of it.

The build plate has some significant scratches on it, likely time for a replacement, there is a small amount of dust on the mirror that I’ll clean and then test it out. The tank looks to be fine.

Our resins were produced in 2015. They’ve been stored properly, what’s the lifespan of those typically?

One year sadly. That could be your problem, but seems unlikely given the good results near the hinge side.

One other thought I had, can you throw a torpedo level on the top tank edge? There could be something going on with the peel motor and the tank isn’t getting parallel to the build platform anymore.

I sand my build platform if I make some deep gouges but that hasn’t really happened since all of the preform base upgrades. Build platform feels like the least likely culprit, though it might not hurt to sand yours flat either way.

If unfamiliar with mirror cleaning, look up the help page with instructions. Like any optical system, don’t use compressed air, don’t use anything even slightly abrasive, and don’t use anything that will leave behind lint.

Thank you so much for the help @Brandon_A I’m ordering some PEC-PAD wipes to clean the mirror, after pulling the tank off there’s a significant amount of dust on it - probably more than I would leave uncleaned on my bathroom mirror, so I’m can see how it would be enough to throw off print quality, it does also seem to be concentrated more on the side of the mirror where we’ve been having issues.

Thanks again for the help!

-Ryan

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