I’ve done a bit of testing with my new printer.
I really need a ‘clear’ print. But the second it hits the IPA, it ‘frosts up.’ That looks cool, but not what I need.
So I put a print directly from the printer outside for a few days. It hardens and is crystal clear, but is hard a a rock, including the supports.
While I would love to test this for a few more days, let me just ask this question.
Should I just print my ‘clear’ print, rip off the supports and put it out in the sun for a couple days?
This seems logical, but instead of spending 3 days, I thought it might be prudent to just ask.
I guess it depends if you need your part to be dimensionally accurate or not. The reason you put the part in the IPA is to remove excess resin on the surface. If you let this set then your part won’t be dimensionally accurate.
The best option and easiest is to take the part you’ve already made that you dropped in IPA and spray it with WD40. Let that dry off on it’s own and it should be nice and clear.
you can also sand and polish the material to get it clearer to get that wet look you can spray a clear top coat paint and it should help keep it from yellowing too bad there was a discussion about this in an earlier forum that i posted on showing pictures of my results and process. search for the topic “The clear resin can be polished?” Also to cure the material I have been using a UV bulb and I only cure my parts for 2 hours and then wet sand, rinse, and paint it helps keep the yellowing from happening in my opinion.
Hopefully this helped a little
I’ve noticed that when I repair a print with some new resin, the new resin clears up the frost all around the repair. You could try processing the print as usual in IPA, then brushing on an ultra-fine layer of fresh resin, and let that thin new layer cure in the sun. It probably will not take as long as curing a layer with none of the extra surface resin from the print rinsed off.
Just spray paint it with a glossy finishing spray.
Something like Krylon or similar brand crystal clear acrylic should do the trick.
In addition to making the part transparent and glossy, it will protect it from yellowing and cracking under prolonged UV exposure (daylight) as well.