Im currently running Tough 2000 on a Form3+ and have been struggling with the “mixer decoupling” issue. Ive seen some comments about how this is caused by how thick the tough 2000 is.
Is there a good product prototyping material that is less viscous than Tough 2000? Specific properties are not super important, I just dont want to deal with this mixer issue anymore, and if switching materials fixes it, great!
I think for a product prototype and small incremental improvements both Draft and Grey resins should do the job honestly.
Tough 2000 is very specific and it depends on what your project is about. I’ve never encountered this specific issue but Tough2000 is quite finicky compared to the rest.
Still, If you are having issues with the mixer, I suggest you contact support, they are quite quick and tackling problems, it might have to do with your tank.
Thanks for the suggestion. Ive been working with them, and they already sent me a new tank the problem persists. Still waiting on their response (its been a few days now), so hopefully they have a better solution.
Short term, i am printing without the mixer, and simply ignoring the mixer error.
Ill check out Grey resin next. Thanks!
I found Tough looses its shape, no matter how you cure it, so use rigid 4K. That works exceptionally well, if the properties will work for you. I use it as finished product…
Andy
We’ve had similar problems sometimes with the Tough 2000. Some cartridges have resin that’s fairly thin and has no issues with the mixer. Others are fairly thick and decouple the mixer every other sweep. We even had one incident where it decoupled early in a job and the platform came down and impacted the decoupled mixer. We were confused why the printer didn’t auto stop because if I recall, if the mixer decouples during a sweep, it detects it. So we’re guessing this happened because during the left sweep to nest, there was a lot of thick resin that built up on the left side of the mixer on the final sweep, so when the LPU released the magnets, the weight/pressure from the resin build-up on the left side of the mixer shoved the mixer out of nest towards the right and under the build plate.
One thing I also find with Tough 2000 is it seems to produce details a bit oversized. That is, if you have mating parts, you might need to sand or trim down your parts to get them to fit together because the fit is too tight. You could try Tough 1500. I’ve found this resin to produce parts closer to intended nominal (I’ve mostly only done fairly small and thin walled parts). Keep in mind, the tough resins apparently eat/damage the tank bottom layer over time, so the tank lifespan is shorter than if you were using standard resins.
Most importantly, you should print knowing what your parts will be used for. Does it have to be a tough resin? Or can you get away with using white/black/clear/grey? Tough is good for really thin wall sections and parts you need to not crack/shatter as easily. Otherwise, you’d probably want to use one of the standard resins.
Thanks for the insight!
Yes, that is exactly what is happening to me with the Tough2000. Mixer decouples all the time, and has (on several occasions) popped out of its home or nest location resulting in the build platform impacting it. Still working with CS, they keep saying that its unlikely to be Tough2000…but we’ll see.
I think we might be able to get away with standard resins most of the time, but I do have some thinwall parts with o-ring glands that may be fragile, which is why our sales rep had me buy T2000 with the printer.
I think I’ll check out Tough1500 next, and see how that works for us. Thanks for the suggestions!
I’ve used Tough 2000 a lot. And I can say definitively that you should NOT use it to prototype anything. You can’t really clean it without obliterating details if any actually printed. Use the Greyscale resins, and black if you really need details at .025.
To be clear, Tough 2000 is great if you’re making brackets or hammers. Not prototype parts.
Interesting. They suggested it to me because I am prototyping electrical enclosures with O-ring glands. Wall thicknesses of 0.040 in and thinner in some places. I have certainly noticed its difficult to get the parts clean, and the wall thicknesses are not very accurate…
Im assuming regular gray resin is a concern due to being brittle, which is not so great for thin walls.
Im working through the mixer issues with Service, so maybe ill try to get them to send me some gray resin and a new tank to give it a try.
thanks!
I’d suggest Grey (for more details) or/and Draft for faster printing times.
Personally I print in Draft until I get a model 90% there, then switch to Gray when I want to print the final prototype as much dimensionaly accurate as possible
Just to clarify, do you mean Grey Pro, or standard grey resin?
Standard Grey v4. Grey pro can’t be print at .025 apparently.
Standard Grey. It’s only because I don’t need any special mechanical properties for my parts, they are used just for further production steps…
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