So I let my Form 2 sit for a couple months with resin in the tank. I went to use it today and it seems the glass on the tank has separated from the orange frame. Resin has leaked through and onto the area under the resin tank. That would not be a big deal, but somehow resin has seeped under the glass. There is a picture of this at the following link. Look at the bottom right hand corner as that is where it is worse.
It is very frustrating to me that the tank can leak in the first place. The fact that resin can get into the “sealed” area is disturbing.
What are my options?
it’s a well known topic that it’s risky that tanks start leaking after some time. That’s why you should never leave it longer in the printer than neccessary. But anyway…
I would contact the FL support and request an instruction manual to properly do a rebuild to your printer yourself. Means disassembling, cleaning, reassembling.
I hope that your printer will be okay after reassembly.
I could imagine this being discouraging after a brief hiatus, and generally it is safe to leave the tank in the printer for extended periods of time on the order of a few months. We’re working to prevent leaks like these on the Standard Tanks, and did implement better sealing into the new LT tanks.
Our support team is going to be best suited to help out with this, and hopefully not much else is required side replacing that optical window.
Thanks @Frew and @MerlinDepta. I have five active tanks. Of course, the only one leaking is the one that was in the printer. I’ve reached out to support. I’ll wait for instruction from them.
I did notice the new and improved tank. I put one in my cart a couple weeks ago and then realized it is 10 weeks out, probably less now. Sounds like a great improvement.
A question I keep forgetting to ask our esteemed FL comrades: do you prime your resin tanks with anything before pouring the PDMS, to promote adhesion? I too kept resin in a pair of tanks a bit longer than I planned on, and the resin did seep under the PDMS (only the plastic areas, not the glass). My point is that one tray was direct from FL and the other was a SylGard refurbish on my part, yet both had the same amount of seepage issues. I didn’t prime my tank because I don’t have the chemicals, but surely FL does?
Turns out I was mistaken about the resin leaking under the glass. It looked very much like it did, but once I tried cleaning the top of the glass it became apparent that the resin was on the top only. Cleaned it all up carefully and am running a print now. We’ll see. It is next to impossible to get the glass perfectly streak free, but I think it is good enough.
Left the print running overnight and came in this morning to an error 1/3 through the cycle. The printer thinks there is no cartridge. Re-seated the cartridge and it is continuing along. Sensors are a great thing…when they work reliably.