Meet Form Wash and Form Cure: Professional Post-Processing for Cleaner, Stronger Parts

#92

Yes!! great addition!

#93

It’s rather presumptuous of you to even assume that it needs improvement, particularly when you haven’t even used it! So your “facts” are not facts.

As soon as our supplier gets stock we’ll be ordering one. If there are issues or places they can improve you can be assured that myself or someone else here will speak up about it.

Regarding filtering, I do run a basic paper towel filter on the primary solution maybe once or twice before changing it out. Visually it clears up the solution, but any observations regarding it’s effectiveness would be premature and anecdotal at best. And honestly, the only reason I do it at all is because I feel slightly bad about wasting 99% IPA when it costs us $30/gallon. I’m assuming once we receive the form wash I’ll stop filtering completely.

#94

I agree with Dudemeister: For small / medium quantity output the Form Wash is not ideal:
Try to wash a printed part in the “dirty bucket”, then put a bit of IPA in a plastic cup and put that cup in an ultrasonic cleaner. The IPA will turn black/blue/ whatever after seconds. No reason why it should be any different with form wash.
For most applications that residual resin is not a problem (probably way less then +0,1mm in part dimensions after curing). The bigger issue imho is the usage of different resins: If you wash a white part in a bucket that was used for black you will find black sparkles all over the part. When using Castable you do not want to have a “residue coating” from other resins since it will reduce the surface quality / surface roughness of the casted part.

I am very curious to hear first-hand experience from people using form wash with different resins.

We should remember that Form Wash was probably designed for high output users who can afford to buy several units and/or to dump 20€ worth of IPA in shorter intervals. I understand that for printing services or in a high volume production (Form Cell) it is much cheaper to keep the production streamlined then having an employee constantly handling IPA buckets.

On another subjects: Is Form Cure beeing shipped already? Any experience?

#95

I’m quite aware that the IPA is already contaminated and contains dissolved resin, but that’s not what I’m talking about,

I’m talking about all the undissolved, resin particles that end up at the bottom of the tank like sediment. You put an impeller at the bottom of the tank, and you promptly swirled all that sediment back into the liquid, leaving it free to deposit itself all over you “newly cleaned” part.

I can’t speak for anyone here, but I know that in my case, I can fill a bucket with fresh IPA, and within 8-10 prints there’s enough crud at the bottom of the bucket that I need to filter it out. I know that filtering it doesn’t actually remove the dissolved resin from the IPA, but it cleans out the solid particles. That’s why I have the “clean bucket” to remove the film of contaminated IPA.

#96

I received my wash system yesterday. I will get a chance to unbox it tonight.
The manual suggest to make the IPA last longer that you can give the part a quick pre-rinse.

Maybe 2 wash stations (dirty/clean) is the way to go :grinning:

#97

you just need the one! All this endless speculation about a device you don’t have or have not yet operated.

When your print lifts up from the 20min wash it is not sticky at all and really doesn’t appear to need curing.

#98

I have never got any prints this clean by shaking them in the two-stage bucket rinse.
That was a PRIMITIVE solution at best.

Once more, 3D resin printing is not cheap; this is an expensive process.
If you want cheap go get a $100 2D layered spool printer!!

#99

I don’t know what that is, but the cheap guy inside of me is very intrigued and wants one!

#100

I think he is referring to a basic FDM printer.

#101

I know what he was referring to. I was just having some fun. :grinning:

#102

Ok I got a bit lofty. One day 3D resin printing will be as inexpensive as paper printing.
If you are not using your FL2 for business, this is an expensive hobby.

#103

I’ll attest to that.

#104

I just finished my first wash cycles. I’m very happy with the results.
One thing to note is how big it is. The wash took about 2 gallons of
IPA to fill it.

#105

Finished my 4th wash cycle. This is the best no mess bath system as I barely need gloves; I slide the platform onto the WASH bracket and press start; 20 min later the print lifts up out of the wash. I can remove the CLEANest print I have ever experienced, after using the FL2 for over a year now, from the platform and place into the cure box.

#106

Still no Wash here (EU) :frowning:

#107

im so jealous I want mine now definitely am in the middle and have some bigger jobs coming

#108

Just received my shipped notification. Can’t wait to give it a try, I loath washing parts because sometimes I forget to set my timer. :grin:

#109

nice I wish I was you I truly need mine because warped parts are no good and I want to know whats causing them! wash and cure variables are a big part and ruling them out would be nice.

#110

No comment on the delay right now for form wash orders to march? Possible production issues?

#111

In which condition do I need the wath&cure ? Is it the must for every prints?