Models curing - Jewelry

http://www.phoenicia-ltd.com/architecture/ultraclear

Contact a local glass cutter, ultra clear fliat is quite common and you can get a piece for cheap.

Paul, you have great skill and experience, I just suggested you some possible improvements to your project like power ramp and lower frequency UV according photoinitiators, oxygen problem, chemical postcuring as our experience as formulators.
Why you wonā€™t discuss about this technical aspects in order to improve your project? Just a question.

I contacted @pmcgarr a while ago through the forum. Like most of you, Iā€™ve tried everything for curing, from the box cutter solution through to building my own curing box using the info gained from this very forum. I wanted to know what a proper formlabs white paper cure would look like, compared to my homemade efforts. Paul, very kindly, cured 5 sets of prints for me at different settings, then mailed them from his home in the US to my home in Scotland, at his own expense.

Iā€™ve cast the results, and his curer definitely works better than my homemade solution. Iā€™ve been planning to share my results with Paul once work has calmed down and I have time to properly collate my data. However, one thing Paul said to me in his emails, was that if I wanted to release the data into the wild, he was good with that, whether the results were excellent, or devastatingly bad. When he says heā€™s a man of integrity, heā€™s not kidding.

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I see no issues with any posts or claims made by @pmcgarr, in fact, quite the opposite. He strikes me as someone whoā€™s put effort into creating a product that will cure Formlabs resins. Like @katkramer itā€™s beyond my budget at the moment, however, if Iā€™d seen it while I was setting up my workshop earlier this year I would likely have budgeted for it.

i use a nail curer at the moment after using, with great success, the jar/LED method shown by @Randy_Cohen. I even put an upturned egg incubator on the jar to bring more heat into the mix. My LEDā€™s faded though & I decided to experiment with nail curers. My next step will be the method shown by @BlueCat with one on top of the other & a sheet of glass between. In the mid to long term I might experiment more with the introduction of controllable heat, I like to mess with Arduino so that could be a project.

Bottom line, if people have the budget for a purpose built cure box that is easy to use & does the job then thereā€™s no harm in that. Similarly if people want to hack nail curers/glass jars or Ikea boxes, then thatā€™s OK too.

Best wishes to you all for 2017 - Happy Printing

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If you create somethink like a door made by a mirror you gain more uv, but consider a fan to avoid overheating, you can play with arduino and PTC and some FET to improve the project.

Consider also something like this to be sure power is uniform distribuited on model
https://it.aliexpress.com/item/TA-Exhibition-Stand-Solar-Auto-Rotating-Display-Stand-Rotary-Turn-Table-Plate-For-mobile-MP4-Watch/32557719593.html?spm=2114.010208.3.10.w1wNbZ&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_4_10065_10068_10000009_10084_10083_10080_10082_10081_10060_10061_10062_10056_10055_10037_10054_10059_10099_10078_10079_10077_427_10103_10073_10102_10096_10052_10050_10051-10050,searchweb201603_3,afswitch_5&btsid=31a91b3a-7056-4dbd-a009-c0d92bde7358

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Thanks for the info, @Charles_McManus. Although the Curebox isnā€™t in my budget right now, it looks like a well-engineered, neat, professional option for folks. Good to hear real-world results.

Iā€™ve gone through two so far, the UV light nail curing unit, and then a second LED nail curing unit. Because I actually using my curing unit for nails AND 3D prints, I noticed that gel nail polish actually cures in 60 seconds in an LED unit, but takes 3 minutes in the UV light model. I donā€™t have the wavelengths handy for both. Hoping that the LED unit would cure faster, I tried curing with that one, but it didnā€™t. The parts (castable v2) never hardened, and they stayed bright blue. However, four hours in the UV unit, and they have darkened quite a bit.

Iā€™m not sure of the difference, but thatā€™s my experience. It makes me wonder if the wet curing (in water) with the LED version works better than dry? Whatā€™s the difference between UV and LED?

Anyway, off to cast Christmas presentsā€¦happy printing to all!

Paulā€™s CureBox looked like a cool project and Iā€™d like to have a nice curing device. My tiny nail-curing box has a timer that I would restart every time I would walk by, not really much of a serious drying effort. I figured at some point Iā€™d bypass the timer, maybe buy another, put the parts in a larger box, basically mimick the several project curing solutions discussed here or elsewhere on the web.

Iā€™m quite good at making things, to paraphrase Spiccoli from ā€˜Fast Times at Ridgemont Highā€™, I have a ā€œmost awesome set of toolsā€ and I like to use them. Iā€™m pretty sure that most people who own 3D printers this early in the technology are also pretty capable too.

However, instead of cobbling together my own, I opted to buy Paulā€™s product and ordered one from him earlier today. I like the project, heā€™s clearly put thought into it, and although itā€™s reletively pricey for me, I like the design and features. I like when people build a solution to a very specific need and do it well. Small projects like this are cool and I like to support.

So I did. Hurry up with my order, Paul! :slight_smile:

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@Billions_McMill Thank you for your support. Weā€™ll get you a Curebox as soon as humanly possible.

@katkramer UV refers to a range of wavelengths and LED refers to a lighting technology so they cannot be compared directly. UV can be emitted by LED, incandescent, fluorescent, etc. I suspect the differences you are observing are due to differences in wavelength. Youā€™d have to know the bulb specifics to know for sure. Clearly your LED unit emits strongly at the wavelength your nail gels respond to.

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Good to know! Thanks so much for the information, @pmcgarr! A girlā€™s gotta having UV/LED curing standardsā€¦and fun tools.

AND, an interesting observation. So over the holiday, I finally cast some jewelry. Sometimes I get lazy (forgetful) and probably over-cure my prints. The prints that I had cured for 36 hours or more cast WAY BETTER than the ones I had cured for 6-7 hours. For the first time ever, I had a little flashing on a cast, most probably from expansion of the castable v2 resin during burnout. My longer-cured models never did thisā€¦

Iā€™m also using Kerrā€™s Satincast investment (with no borax as suggested by someone in the forum). Since itā€™s $60 or more to order new investment and it goes bad, I figured that I would just use what Iā€™ve got, and it works fine.

are you saying with regards to castable resin you donā€™t have to post cure?

Our BlueCast resin requires NO postcuring,
So, answer is yes, BlueCast does not require postcuring at all.

A bargin at twice the price.

Thanks for this!

I just ordered the unit, looking forward to receiving it. I was hoping formlabs had something similar at a $500-1000 pricepoint.

I was messing around at the thought of buying used lab ovens and UV lamps with control circuitry and looked at lab DNA crosslinkers [surplus] but nothing would fit my needs quite right. Iā€™d rather spend my time making products to keep the lights on.

I wouldnā€™t have fed the troll with your production costs [thatā€™s a super low margin btw thatā€™s why Iā€™m whipping out a credit card right now]

I make things and thereā€™s always one guy who jumps out and screams ā€œwhy are you charging $1200 for something made out of $100 of steel and aluminum, etcā€. You factor in R&D time, build time, labor costs, overhead, taxes, product liability insurance, rent, training, software licenses, hardware, employee benefits, etc, etc. It all adds up quickly.

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So a person canā€™t raise concerns or ask questions about a product being pitched here on this forum without being called a troll? We arenā€™t allowed to express our opinions here in a forum? Take a look at my posts and contributions to this forum and I think you will realize you have made an insulting error.

Hi @katkramer,

Could you elaborate a bit more on your casting process?
So you print using castable resin
Then cure it for over a day in a nail salon cure?
Then cast? Using Kerrā€™s Satincast? What burnout do you use?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge?
Regards,

Niels

the timer on the curebox for castable is 2 hours.

just curious what is the temperature range of the oven.

and delivery times?

thanks
t

If you canā€™t say something nice, itā€™s better not to say anything at all.

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So one isnā€™t allowed to be objective in this forum according to you? Nothing but roses for you?

I was concerned that for $500 people might be disappointed with the performance with only 36 watts of UV light - thatā€™s all.

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