New hybrid resin mix

I have also noticed that all of my circles are more ovoid than circle - is it possible some of the detail areas are too fine? What  I find odd is that the very fine grill in the last image is perfect - and that’s the one element I was sure would have issues.

You should definitely try adding more grey into that (pour it out of the tank into a cup and then add some grey and then mix).

I used the 50:50 to print organic shapes and jewelry, so maybe for those it works good. But I’ve had success with 70% grey and 30% cherry also.

In any case your results look nothing like what I’m getting with the 50:50.

There is one thing that I can think of. None of my prints took longer than 3-4 hours to print. I noticed that the b9 pigment settles over time. It’s possible, that your prints take too long to print and they fail at a certain point when the concentration of the pigment becomes too much. Adding more of the grey resin should remedy that.

I was thinking along the same lines in terms of times - my previous print took 17 hours - I am using the last of my 50:50 batch to print a model that will take around 15-20 hours, its a single piece this time with less detail so we’ll see what we get, after that, I’ll try the 70:30 mix.

Yes, Jason. That could be the problem. The pigment unfortunately settles, and when the concentrations get higher the laser has trouble curing those layers and you get bumpiness, loss of detail and failed prints. Anything that takes 3-5 hours to prints should work great. Beyond that, not sure :wink:

could the size of the parts be an issue? if the mixed resin does not cure as much (makes sense if there’s more pigment) then perhaps it doesn’t stand up to the peeling suction force as well as the normal resin beyond a certain size.

Have you tried printing a smaller part as MD suggests Jason?

Hey Monger, UltraPorcupine touched down today, very excited to get cranking : )

Hey Jesse, Very cool name. Mine is not so excited “GuardedJoey”.

Can’t wait to see your prints!

@Jeese: glad for your. Hope you have awsome prints. Greetings from Brazil.

Morning Monger. I printed off (at 50 micron) some ring designs of mine and they came out just like yours in simple grey, they came out as expected with some stepping artifacts, obviously dropping to 25 does not solve this or you would be doing it. So perhaps I need to pop my cherry and order the b9 resin! Does the hybrid mix sand well? Or does it not really need it?

Bom dia Paulo, obrigado por sua mensagem e tudo de melhor com a sua impressão 3D também:)

I love google translate!

Hey Jesse. Glad to see you printing finally. The grey resin is fine, and you should see less stepping when using the 25 setting on that. The b9/grey mix is optimized for 50 microns. The key to getting smooth surfaces is the supports. When you use the preform supports on a ring for example, it places the tiny teeth on the bottom of the shank and during the peel process, those can bend/move ever so slightly, creating the band effect that you see. If you manually place a thick support on the bottom of the shank with a base, than you are ensuring that the ring does not move during the peel/printing process, so you will get less stepping, finer detail and smoother surfaces. The auto-generated supports really do nothing for us jewelers. I suggest using manual supports and making sure you have a firm foundation for your print.

Hey Monger, that is great advice thank you. I’ll give that a try.

Success!

So after the awful failure of 2 days ago with the 50:50 mix I switched to a 20:80 mix (cherry to grey) and got a cracking result. I’ve pictured my new print next to the original grey (which failed). Whilst it looks to me as though the quality of the print is better (only by a small margin, but better is better) I think the lower viscosity is really helping in terms of the peel process. I am now trying the Eiffel Tower model which should complete in around 7 hours without supports, so I’ll post those results in a day or two.

Looking good! However, 80/20 mix is not going to give you much of a difference, like you see. Remember that you want to stop the light bleed to get better detail. I would try the 50/50 again on that predator model, to make all the details pop, or at least a 60/40 mix.

For something big like the Eiffel tower, a 70/30 mix would work well. Be mindful of the railing thinness. The b9 resin cures much softer on the form1 (gets harder in the post-cure because part of it cures using visible light), so if the railings are too thin, they become too flimsy and fail.

So the ring at the top of the page was built directly on the build platform with no additional supports?

That’s right Jesse. The only support I put is in the middle of the ring.

Monger: You’re not using the generated supports in the PreForm software?

Are you just adding your own supports when you model the ring in order to bypass the supports in the software? If so, how? I didn’t think you could print until after the supports were generated.

Stephen,

For the ring, I didn’t use the generated supports, I used manual supports. Yes you can print without auto generated supports in the PreForm. Just make sure your base is big enough, so it sticks.

For the cross I used the auto generated supports.

I find that for jewelry it’s important to manually put the supports whenever possible. I use the b9 creator’s software to put the supports on the item and then export it as STL. Works great.

The major problem for me with the auto generated supports is that most of the supports are the same thickness. WIth manual supports you can have different thicknesses at different points on your model. I found that you need really thick supports on the lowest point of your model, closer to the base, so that the model has “no play or wiggle” during the print, because then you can get the lines/bumps on the prints surface from the slight miss-alignment during the print/peel process. When the model is firmly supported during the initial few layers, and throughout the print, then you get really smooth surfaces.

Monger - thanks for sharing that.  I haven’t been satisfied with the way my rings have been printing so far. I’ve also noticed slight bits of wonkiness when printing but didn’t know what was causing it or how I might fix it. I’ve been placing several copies of the same ring on the build platform, orienting them in different directions and then printing and comparing the results. However, I’ve always been using the supports supplied by PreForm, but just trying different settings as I didn’t think there were any other options.

I’ve downloaded the B9 software and I’ll try it out over the weekend.

Thanks again for taking the time to do all these tests and share your findings. It can be a tough slog trying to troubleshoot these issues on your own so I (and I’m sure others) certainly appreciate the help.