We just started using Tough 1500 less than a week ago. We’ve printed 3 jobs so far, each with multiple parts. Of those 3 print jobs, ALL of them have failed to some extent. The 2nd job had only one part that had missing supports and turned out to be the best job so far. The 1st job had 5 of the 8 parts come out completely unusable, either not printing beyond the rafts or printing only around halfway up and looking like ancient ruins. The 3rd job had 2 of 6 parts completely fail with rafts stuck to the tank floor.
The resin, the tank, and the platform are all brand new and were ordered at the same time. I’ve never had a failed print happen on the first print of a new resin cartridge/tank but this time it’s failed the first 3 times. It seems highly unusual.
The only issue we’ve had lately was a motor jam over a week ago, using the previous tank. That tank was nearing the end of its lifetime so any issues with print quality/completion were surely due to wear. Also, that part was successful, it just didn’t have the best surface quality. Once we started using the new tank, new platform, and new resin cartridge, we assumed print quality issues would diminish. Instead, they got worse and now some parts are completely failing.
Anyone have any ideas on what the problem could be?
I have had a strange experience with tough 1500 so far and I’m working on my 6th L of resin right now. Some images from yesterday of a tough 1500 print and its layout.
It is possible, and everyone of my models came out functional. A couple of things.
First and most obvious, deep clean your machine. Galvos, main mirror, optical window (both sides). Tough 1500 is extremely susceptible to errors due to contamination of optical surfaces.
Second if you are using a large surface area, use the mini rafts. Every print where i have used over ~35% of the XY build area and full rafts i have had adhesion issues on at least one raft. Causing the print to be severely warped.
Third shake your cartridge VIOLENTLY. Espically if it is the first use out of its box, really mix up the resin.
Fourth. If it is still not printing right, Z axis and tank placement. For some reason with tough 1500 i run into errors with the resin tank being to close to the resin sensor, it shows up as a regular resin sensing error. To combat this make sure to pull back on your tank after inserting.
I wasn’t able to do a full deep cleaning as you suggested but I did shake up the cartridge violently, cleaned the optical window, used mini-rafts (since platform adhesion appeared to be an issue), and extracted all tank resin (as there appeared to be a lot of small cured debris floating around in the tank after the previous attempt at a print). This latest print job came out OK. TBH, it has been our best print with Touch 1500 thus far.
Thanks again for the suggestions. I was getting worried that the entire cartridge was going to go to waste.
