After some down-time on our Form4, found out that the resin tank with Tough 1500 V2 we had left inside the printer for a couple of months had gelled up (about 200mL). The resin became hard to pour and cleaning/recovering the tank was unsuccessful. I checked on the other resins (Grey V5, Tough 2000) we had stored in resin tanks inside a cabinet with protective covers - they all seemed to flow fine - pending print tests.
For those of you that have weeks or even months between prints - what is your experience and storage setup like? Emptying out the tank to another container (you can’t refill the cartridges, right?) and then doing a complete tank cleaning doesn’t sound great. It seems that different resins have different settling/gelling rates.
I thought that a periodic, automatically performed mixing action could prevent these scenarios, but this isn’t a feature. Support talked about recommending to shake cartridges and mix the resins up every 10 days - does anyone actually do this?
“Formlabs recommends shaking resin cartridges approximately every 10 days during storage, and always before use.”
I guess a workaround would be to use the resin pre-heating feature. You could load the stored resin tanks into the printer and let it heat and mix the resin. You could then remove the tanks and store them again for a while longer.
We had our Tough2000 in a tank long enough for the tank to expire. We get a warning every time we put it in place. Our Flex 50A also has expired, not due to usage, but from time in the tank. I believe the time in tank can really be extended if you store the print tray back in the box. Leaving it in the machine is always a bad idea. Even though the print chamber is concealed somewhat with the cover, there are still air-ways and extraneous light that can still cure the resin over time. Volatiles in the resin can bleed off and make your resin very thick. Always store back in the box for long period storage, OR pour it back in the bottle and clean the tank carefully. Some resins can be cleaned off and you can reprogram tanks for similar resins. It’s in the guide.
What process do you use for transferring the resin from the tank back into the cartridge? I have found it incredibly cumbersome and quite messy in my attempts thus far?
It’s very messy. We pour into 4 cups (4L) through 4 filters and then pour that back in the tank when filtering, but you could do the same for into the cartridge.
You really don’t need to though. As long as you take them out, put their black lids back on, and don’t do something silly like leave them in direct sunlight, I’ve had resin sitting for months with no issues.
If I leave build plates with resin on it in the machine for a week or two, I find the remaining resin gels up a little, so this supports the fact that leaving resin in the machine itself is not foolproof.
We’ve had overflows occur when starting back up. The thicker resin requires that the user toggle the float foot a few times or it gets stuck and the machine thinks it’s empty. So make sure you work that a few times. For pouring the resin, a funnel and our thick cheese cloth works great. You definitely don’t want any floaties getting stuck in the valve at the bottom of the resin can. But like Leonhart88 states, it’s just easier to put the whole tray back into it’s box (resin filled) to keep the volatiles from evaporating. BTW, I don’t like the cardboard containers. Cardboard lint in the resin is not fun. I like the old plastic boxes with the orange lids. Those were the best.
