I purchased a form 2 about a year ago for jewelry purposes and I’ve been casting a least once a week since then and I’m still having issues with poor or inconsistent casting surface quality. I cast primarily in gold and silver and some surfaces are great and other surfaces are very rough and pitted (for instance, the inside of a ring shank). I’ve done extensive research on this and I haven’t found a solution but all signs point to an incomplete or inconsistent cure. I’ve tried two different DIY curing boxes (both recommended by formlabs), I cure for at least 36 hours with frequent rotation plus i do an additional 2 hour heat cure. I follow the exact burnout cycle and investment recommended by formlabs and my wax castings turn out beautifully. I have a particular problem with white gold using the printable resin. I’ve tried decreasing the water in my investment, increasing the air flow in my kiln, and numerous spray lacquers. I’ve seen others post this issue on the forum but I never see or hear about a solution. Others give their feedback but I never read if it works or not for the people like me who are struggling with this issue. I ordered a form cure in October but it’s not shipping until March so I can’t try that. I did a test just recently with a solidscape resin, an asiga resin, a b9 resin (the red), and the formlabs resin and all of them turned out great except the formlabs resin (which was the sample included in the kit so supposedly it was cured properly). I love this printer and so far the tech support has been awesome but I’m extremely frustrated with my casting results. If anyone has cracked this problem could you please let me know? At this point I’m willing to try anything and I will post what works and doesn’t work. Thank you very much!
Hello,
I cast mainly silver, since I started to use castable version 2, problems with castings began. The effectiveness is about 50%.
As I used castable v1, the effectiveness was 95% or more.
I would like to go back to the castable v1 but I do not see it in the Formlabs offer .
Have you tried using the printer in an open source mode with another resin? I was contemplating doing that since the form cure was going to be my last attempt to solve the issue but I’m going to be waiting another 4 months to get it.
I use Form 1+, but it does not matter.
Resin is important.
I even exposed it for 36 hours.
I follow Formlabs recommendations.
Earlier, when I used castable v1, I could cast with wax on one mandrel and on the standard casting mass. - There were no problems.
Now I have to try PlastiCast, but it will take a few days before I receive it.
(I use 2 x 36w combined nail lamps with 405 nm LED lamps)
I also bought my Form2 about 18 months ago, mainly to produce prototypes for jewelery and it has been a fantastic experience, with the Castable V1 resin I had some problems, but after printing with Castable V2 the problems were being solved, I came to the conclusion which was a matter of time and intensity in curing the resin. I built a box following the instructions of the user “3DTOPO” but I verified that the volume was too large (300x300x300mm) for my needs, I built a smaller box (200x200x200mm), I put 8 lamps of 365/405 nm of 9w each, glass shelf instead of a turning table and the result has been excellent. The curing time varies a bit.
I usually meet the recommended wash times in IPA and leave 3 to 4 hours to cure the resin, then remove the supports and re-cure for another 6 hours.
The resin does not turn olive green but rather an almost transparent brown (I can see it better in the thinner pieces, like prongs).
To cast in silver or gold, I turn to a specialized company that follows the normal parameters of wax casting, the results have been almost perfect.
My biggest problem at this moment is with the faces where the supports connect, which always check a deformation, in this chapter I have been studying the ideal density and also the height of the supports.
In smaller pieces (smaller than 10 mm) the resolution has left something to be desired, perhaps because of the small detail.
For those who had to pay for printing the jobs done on an expensive and time-consuming Solidscape printer (I even had print jobs that took 60 hours at Soliscape and now I do in 4 hours) I’m amazed with the Form2.
Ps: I think it’s time, Formlabs open a section dedicated to jewelery and mainly to talk about problems related to Castable resin and all the inherent issues.
Every day I read the forum, it is very enriching and I have learned a lot, but I verify that more than 90% of what is discussed here has nothing to do with jewelery, anyone reading this comment will recognize my point of view.
I’m sorry for the long reply, hope I can contribute a bit to help everyone doing the best job with this amazing printer.
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