Resin hardening question

How long can a freshly printed part remain in the build chamber before the resin will harden? i.e. if I leave a part in my printer for 5 days, with the cover closed, will I still be able to dissolve unwanted resin.

First: Why would you want to do that?
Second: Why not just try it and find out?

datasmasher, I don’t know for sure about leaving a printed part in the chamber for 5 days. But for sure, I know that you can leave a printed part in the chamber over a 3 day weekend and still successfully rinse the part in IPA to remove remnant liquid resin. I saved my Form2 shipping box, and always put it over my machine upside-down to minimize the amount of sun exposure to the machine and liquid resin in the tank. So my experience of leaving the completed print over a 3 day weekend also is based on no sunlight contact during that 3 day weekend period (because I had the machine covered by my upside-down shipping box). I just don’t have any experience based on leaving the machine exposed to sunlight for extended periods of time. Maybe my using the upside-down box is an overkill. I am open to comments and others’ experiences about this.

1 Like

If it’s in a dark room then I would think it should be fine, since the resin doesn’t harden by itself.

Since the black resin lid can’t go on the resin tank with the slider on there I cover the printer with a box after I’m done printing just to be sure. Technically, the orange cover should be filtering out the wavelengths of light that cure the resin, but I still cover it just to be safe.

Thanks for the responses. I was considering starting a long print over the weekend, but I will wait. It would be a good test to print a part and leave it there for a week. It would give me a good idea of the uv blocking properties of the orange cover.

If you unlock the wiper and move it to the right, the black resin cover fits the tank as designed, while installed.

datasmasher, for sure the print will be fine over the weekend if you cover your machine before the end of your workday today. You can use a box, and I also have thought about maybe even using a black colored garbage bag to cover the machine (to block out any UV light). I have done prints over the weekend many times, based on my covering my machine with my upside-down shipping box…no problems, I can guarantee that. But you need to feel comfortable about it, as a large print of yours may use a lot of resin which you might not feel comfortable risking wasting. But based on my experience in doing this many times, and placing a box over the machine, you will not have any problems or issues.

I think covering the printer to block more light than the shield already does is completely un-necessary for indoor environments.

JoshK, thanks for this input. Would you please provide any further details concerning this, and what you base your assessment? My Form2 is right at a window, and it gets direct sunlight exposure from about 10AM until 4PM. Is your experience based on indirect light exposure, or direct sunlight exposure, or something else? Thanks to let me know more details of your experience.

My first Form1 got some direct through-window sunlight each day and it never affected the resin in the tank. Even after weeks of not printing. I did re-locate it a few months later when I got the chance. If you have yours practically on the window sill of a south-facing window, you probably want to move it to prevent fading. Like anything else, sunlight will give it a worn look after enough months/years.

Thanks JoshK. My unit is right at a south-facing floor-to-ceiling window. It is the only location where I can put my Form2 in my office (I had to use a 15 foot and a 10 foot USB cable in tandem to connect to my computer docking station - we don’t have wireless at my company). It gets direct sunlight contact for the majority of the workday. In my case, I keep my unit under an upside-down box at all times (except when I am beginning a print, finishing a print, or peeking at the machine during a print). Your information about leaving your machine at a window and not using it for weeks between prints is interesting. When you did a print after a number of weeks of idle time, did you do anything with your resin tank before doing a print?

The resin does have ingredients that settle, so I always mixed the tank by dragging the scraper around. Even if my last print was just the day before. I know this because the longer the resin sits, the clearer the surface gets and the darker the bottom gets. Stirring it (firmly) reveals a gray-scale rainbow. I think it was most noticeable with the color grey.

About your 25 ft USB cable - by design USB cables are not supposed to be longer than 16 ft. The low voltage, high speed nature suffers both voltage drop and capacitance problems as the wire gets longer. So if you ever believe the file is getting damaged during the transfer, that may be where the issue comes from. That’s good to know, because it’s a problem that tech support will probably not think to ask about. You could end up sending in a printer for repair, only to find out the next one has a similar problem. And that they can’t find an issue with the returned one.

I would be caution of completely covering your Form 2 without some sort of ventilation for the unit. The power supply and other electronics will generate heat and with the box over it; even when not printing; could cause a component failure later down the road, or sooner.

I don’t recall if the Form 2 has a internal fan or not or if it is convection cooled. In either case there needs to be some ventilation. Not print or pausing the printer does not eliminate this problem, only unplugging the Form 2 will.

JoshK, thank you very much for your input here. I have not experienced this settling phenomenon, but maybe my prints have been robust enough in design that they were not affected by any settling in the resin tank. I have been working with clear resin only, so maybe I have not seen this grey-ish darkness because I have been using only clear resin? I really appreciate the info that USB cables should not be longer than 16ft…I had no idea. Now it makes sense why I could not find a USB cable longer than 15 ft. I have not had any problems with file transfer from my computer to my machine, but for sure will be mindful of this moving forward.

Marty, thank you for your advice about being careful not to overheat my machine. I have been thinking about that, and previously I had made a side hole in the box to allow for some airflow, and cutaways at the sides of the open end that orients with the base of my Form2. I also was wondering if there was enough positive pressure within the box for the vent cap of the resin cartridge (I get that the resin cartridge cap needs to be open in order to provide positive pressure to the top of the liquid so it properly fills the resin tank). So I think I have decent airflow, but I might make some box cutaway changes to optimize airflow even more.

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.