Hey, so after looking through the forums and getting peoples input, I have noticed a lot of discussions of problems/solutions I have never heard of or have yet to encounter. SO does anyone have advice for new printer owners, things you wish you knew about and were prepared for when you just started? thanks~
Set realistic expectations on what you’re going to print. Analyze the model orientations, supports to make sure there are no unsupported layers. Mix your resin well in the bottle before you pour it into the tank. Scrape the tank with the spatula gently before each print to mix the pigment in the resin. When you get failed prints, don’t give up and automatically start blaming the printer. Instead change the orientation and position, put more supports and try again.
For the most part, trust the ‘automatic orientation’ function in PreForm. I see a lot of guys trying to print things flat and close to the platform and the print comes out horribly. I know, I know… it appears it’s really orienting things in the most bizarre way possible, but it’s doing it for a reason.
And if you do have a failed print, don’t skimp on cleaning out all the cured chunks. I know the resin is expensive and you want to avoid scrapping as much as possible, but getting rid of a tank of resin is really better than hitting your head against the wall when you have failure after failure due to contamination.
I have to agree with the statement above.
The more you print or I should say once you start to understand - I don’t want really want to say limitations - but rather once you understand the medium and how the printer works, you will have a higher rate of success. I consider myself pretty new to the form1 but I have gone almost through 1L or resin with only 1 or 2 failed prints. I have done a lot of reading in the past 4 weeks and I think the more experienced you become the better your prints will come out.
part of the 3d printing workflow contrary to popular belief, just as in any other method of manufacturing, you have to construct models thinking on how they will be printer or made.
Here’s my pipeline based on Thomas Roussel’s workflow:
“…What I’m writing bellow are global general advises, I don’t know what are your 3D Printing knowledge…
• If your suspect your printer, load the default FormLabs butterfly clip, duplicate it several time to populate your resin tank and print it (I remember also scaling one a little bit bigger than the others and one slightly smaller). If they are printing fine, perhaps it’s not the printer** (but it still may be…). **Inspect the support, if all of them are fine, not some of them missing or melted, etc…
• Always inspect deeply your successful prints when the are finished and see if you don’t have somewhere a parts which look melted, failed or melted. Even a small one. If yes, it means that you have in your resin tank some floating cured/solidified/half-solidified/jelly resin. This problem is important because using your spatula to check your silicon layer may not let you see these. But of course, they can interfere with your next prints…
• *Always check your design before printing, when you are done with the supports creation. Do it layer by layer (up arrow key). You may discover that some parts of a layer will start “appear” without being connected to another part of your prints or to a support. It happened to me several times and even on a small location, it can create a failed print…
• Take care when playing with the support creation settings: reducing the touch point size or the density of them can be the source of failed prints: keep in mind that supports have two main goals: making parts “growing” from this support, and giving strength to your print during the printing process to support the peeling process and of course, it’s own weight (which can be important one big prints…
• On a regular basis, and especially after a failed prints or small parts unprinted/melted/missing, always filter your resin. I’m using a metal tea filter for that, I know that someone mentioned painting filters. The filter must be thin enough to remove all the small cured resin and especially the jelly resin. (search for a thread dedicated to the jelly resin in this same forum)…
• Before each new print, use your spatula (or a silicon one…) to make your silicon layer in your tank breathing. It will reduce your failed prints, reduce clouding and especially make the first layers being more sticky to the build platform. I’m doing that for a minute approximately. Credits to Monger Designs from this forum, read above for more information!..
• Hollowing the model can be a huge time and resin cost saver, but it means that it can increase the need of support, especially internal one. But in some scenarios, when the distance between two surfaces are close, PreForm may not be able to create the internal supports. And then it’s a source of failure. That’s why I’m advising to always check each layers one by one above…
• check on regular basis that you don’t have dust in your printer mirror or on the bottom part of the resin tank (as well as finger prints). It may not have a big impact on big failure, but it may create some laser derivation and then, create this Jelly effect or partially cured resin. I’m not totally sure about that one, but I’m always taking care of having a clean mirror and resin tank…
• Like mentioned on the protection of the new resin tank, never clean it with IPA or something else. I’m also never mixing resin in my resin tank. I have one for grey, one for white and one for transparent resin…
• Always inspect your new resin tank before using it. I had one which had some scratches on the side and the silicon had some kind of small waves on it. The support replaced it me right away…
• On a regular basis, check the silicon layer and see if you don’t have cloudy areas or small circles here and there. This silicon is a consumable part of the printer which is an important part of the printer and need to be changed times to times…
• IPA alcohol and resin are not good friends. I’m always taking care of not contaminating the resin with some alcohol that could remain on the spatula after cleaning it, or worst, from the building platform. Each time I need to clean one of this item, I do it with the IPA, drying it, then I’m using some water to rinse all potential remaining alcohol and rinsing again. Also take care that between the building platform black plastic and the metal part, you may have a small thin area where water or worst alcohol can go in. Then if it can go in, it can go out while printing. That’s why it’s always important to cleaning carefully your stuff…
And don’t forget to check Robert Vignone’s site, Mold3D TV. Tons of great information, tips and tricks, a MUST!
Good luck and patience!
Frank J. Guthrie
frank@710films.com
www.710films.com
a lot of great advice so far! thank you everyone 