I have an almost new resin tank and while filtering the resin for floaters I accidentally touched the very bottom. I’m not talking about the inside of the tank. I now the directions say not to touch the bottom but it’s easy to do when you are trying to drain the resin out and also wipe the sides to keep it from running down them.
So, what’s the best to use to clean this area? I know not to use API but wasn’t sure of what I should use.
If you weren’t eating Buffalo Chicken Wings while you were working on the printer, you probably can just ignore it.
Well Randy, no, I wasn’t eating Buffalo Chicken WIngs just that I’m getting flaking after doing a real good job of cleaning the mirrors so I thought it might be finger prints on the bottom of the resin tank. I’ll go back to the mirrors and see if they need more cleaning.
I have used dry PEC pads to wipe finger prints off the bottom acrylic window.
Thanks David, I did that but still had the flakes. Prints were much better than when I first tried cleaning the greased mirror. I think I need to go back and do a few more washes of the diluted Dawn Dishwashing soap then API. That seemed to have the best effect. I may not have gotten it all off yet.
The mirror surface is incredibly delicate. You may have already passed the point of diminishing returns, where trying to clean it more only makes things worse. Though if your only alternative assuming it’s the mirror is to buy another at $$, you probably have nothing to lose by trying again.
But consider… Do a test print of the same small object replicated and distributed around the build platform. If they all come out equally crummy, your mirrors are the problem, not the resin tray. If only some come out crummy, or maybe there’s just some crumminess in one or two areas on a few of the objects, then you’ve probably got some finger smudge or other dirt on the bottom of the tank in the corresponding area.
If all you did was contact the bottom of the resin tray around the edges, it’s worth noting the window extends quite some distance outside the region of the build platform. You can safely touch the window near the edges of the tank without having any effect on the prints because the laser never goes there…
The Form1/1+ are very susceptible to dust so if you’re having issues it’s likely that.
As far as the resin tray–if you touch the window on the bottom, just use a PEC pad to wipe it off, they have instructions in the help pages to show you how. Don’t use IPA to clean the tray, it will cause problems with the plastic that the tray is made out of and will start cracking, you can use it on the inside of the bottom to clean the non-stick PDMS but not the rest of the tray.
That’s one nice thing about Zak’s glass vats - you can actually clean the bottom surface. And the “floaters” are much reduced as well.
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