Introducing our new functional resins, Castable and Flexible

Hi All,
I have been casting the Form 1 Blue casting resin since it came out . I am looking for the metal conversion formula so that I can send out accurate quotes to my clients when I cast their designs for them.
I run a large production facility that does casting, finishing /setting, enameling and many other processes for designers, stores , Students and basically any one in the Jewelry trade.

If you do need castings, we can do it for you. for you folks that are casting yourself, It is very important to adequately cure the material before casting. Large items take longer to cure

I have been multiplying the weight of the model in grams X 9 to be modest, (or X 10 to be safe) for 14KW seems to be very close.

I am interested in the Young’s Modulus for the Flexiblle Resin… (Not published in Material Property Data Sheet. ) I think that a combination of resin , eg clear with flexible will result in a composite with hybrid properties. The behavior would be synergistic not unlike fiber composites. A real potential winner for 3d printing with SLA type printers.

Flexible Resin is nice.
How can i put it into black colour?

How is the printing with the castable resin? are you printing it well? Do you mind sharing your experience please.

did you print with the castable resin? Do you think it is a easy task or you got any problems? I heard that some people had a problem of it not sticking to the plate…

I tried to print and cast with castable resin many times. No chance to get any acceptable result. Hard after print process, impossible to cast, even with recommended Plasticast. No way. The resin enlarges first, then melts, during burnout process. So, that enlarging brakes the mould and result is corresponding. I gave up…

But the printing was ok? Only the casting that was difficult right?

Hi Daniel,

How is the printing process with the castable resin? Is it ok, is it sticking to the plate? How is the definition on the the final print?

How is your castable resin going? Is it easy to print? does it offer a nice definition? I am about to buy the printer and I want to know how is it performing…

Hi Julio,
The Blue resin prints very nice detail, but unfortunately, it does not cast very well on most items… Only thin ladies rings will cast if you take absolutely every precaution possible. Like mixing very strong investment, Adding air feeds to the oven to increase the oxygen so that the material has a better chance at burn out and Vacuuming out the interior of the flask to get rid of ash.
These are all methods that I developed for other castable materials over 2 years ago.
Items with deep engraving like words are a failure with the current formula…
The Ash test some people try to prove their material burns clean is not an actual , factual test… That test is to leave a piece in the oven through the burn out procedure… Usually it burns away completely because it is not held inside a mold.
Once it is inside a mold, ash can stay in some areas causing a bad casting… so Using a vacuum to suck the dirt out of the flask, then putting the flask back in the oven to bring it back to casting temperature can help solve some casting issues.

Often times when people are having issues with the castable resin, it’s because they are not using our suggested burnout curve. It’s important to remember that this material is a resin, not a wax, and so it requires higher temperatures. I’m attaching our usage instructions here for reference.

Castable-Tutorialv4.1.pdf (2.9 MB)

I also found that for larger pieces vacuuming the flask is important. This is usually true for all castable resins, not just the formlabs resin.

Hi Jory,
I certainly did try the exact burn out program you suggested… many times. On some small ladies rings I had some success, but Items with deep engraving and other designs was not good. I also develop methods and processes for various materials. I noticed many have copied some of my methods from another forum and posted them here without giving any credit where credit is due.
I have used Microwave in water or baby oil to aid in the curing process which does work on some materials . A microwave works by curing the interior to the exterior. Then additional UV curing . This has helped a lot on quite a few different materials.
I just posted pictures up here answering another question and showing how to set up the pattern on a casting tree to remove as much ash as possible… All castable materials from most suppliers need to be improved further to get optimum results… A lot of the tricks I am mentioning will help your material cast better.
I have 47 years doing extreme volume and casting all kinds of different items which has given me knowledge that many don’t have. I was using assortments of plastics for burn out and casting in the late 1960’s . Thats where I used Boric acid at 1% to 2% as an additive to the water to make the investment more resistant to break down.
I added air using controlled compressed air at 3 PSI to the bottom of the oven going diagonally under the flask to help draw the material out. this is a big help, but must be done properly for it to help.