I printed a replacement puzzle piece for my kid’s wooden puzzle. I printed it directly on the platform since it is a nice solid piece. This is what it looks from the top. It is 14mm tall and the inside is hollowed out a bit to save material.
I printed it in Tough v5 since that’s what I had in the resin tray.
The print finished but to my dismay, there was no puzzle piece. The platform is completely void of anything. Instead, a very short silhouette of the shape of the print seems to be stuck to the tray itself. See below:
I wouldn’t print directly on the platform even though it is a flat piece. I would generate supports and put a small angle to the piece. That said, I don’t think that had anything to do with the failure of the print.
Your print did not adhere to the build platform. If I were you, I’d open a support ticket and they will help you troubleshoot.
Some common reasons prints do not adhere:
Build platform is too smooth (if you sanded it down with too fine a grit)
z-axis issues (you need to adjust your z-axis offset)
Something in the optical path (smudge on the optical window or mirror)
In order to complete themedulla information, also printing a hollow piece like that is going to create a cup effect, which will be prone to this kind of failure. I would open a small hole somewhere not visible to the final piece.
Anyway, as stated, this might be a build platform adhesion issue. If a layer delaminates and stay on the resin tray, the print will not grow.
The tray is recoverable, just grab a pair of gloves and peel it off with your fingernails. Carefully not to damage the silicone layer of the tray.
Is that a standard FL resin? Looks like just the initial layers printed but the rest might have been under exposed leading me to believe the exposure isn’t correct. Base layers are exposed more to get them to stick to the build platform and the rest are left green to save wear and tear on the tank.
A marginal exposure can be wrong settings, foggy tank, dust on mirrors and/or glass, and in some cases really really old resin.
If you print directly on the platform leave it solid and put a bevel around the edge for popping it off. For me, Tough is notorious for peeling off of the build platform and when I print with a base in supports I increase the support density.
I managed to do it with the spatula… it came right off!
I tried a few more times unsuccessfully, but then I managed to get it to print just fine using clear resin. It’s weird PreForm didn’t complain about cupping. Anyways, I learned something about printing directly to the platform. It’s near impossible to peel off when you print a large flat piece like this directly to the platform. So subsequent prints I did with supports at an angle with lots of holes in the piece. No cupping issues.
I wonder if the problem with this was just cupping + “Tough” resin + building directly on the platform.
How old? The tough was in the tray, covered up but installed in the printer, for about 6 weeks. Maybe this was the issue? The clear was even older, but it was covered tightly with the tray lid.
That looks exactly like it initially stuck to the tray… and then the hollow space you created resulted in enough suction on peel that the tray pulled it right off.
Subsequent layers tried to solidify resin- but there wasn’t any resin because the piece was stuck to the surface of the tray preventing resin from getting under the layer that stuck.
Some resins do stick a lot better to the platform.
Some tend to stick more over time to the point of being a problem getting the prints off the platform.
