Hey there,
I recently made a fairly large print that I hollowed out to save material and also put a vent hole. From the looks of it the hollowing wasn’t the best since the gaps in some spots are fairly small. After the print I did the IPA rinses and it looked like some IPA got trapped around the vent hole, as the vent hole now appears to be “melting”.
Can I rinse this part with water, or will it damage the print? Is it possible to reverse the melting of the print?
IPA won’t melt the part nor would water. Sounds like something else is wrong. Can you post a pic of the model and a screen shot of it in PreForm?
True IPA won’t “melt” a part, but it can degrade the material considerably. I left a part (standard black resin) in IPA over a 4day weekend once and it was so bendable it was like flex material.
Also be careful about rinsing it with water. I have also left parts out to dry after rinsing with water only to find semi-permantent water spots on the parts.
Once IPA evaporates out of the model it will become considerably brittle. In most cases this is not an issue since many make parts for looks and not a functional purpose such as mold making or prototyping.
As far as water marks that might be possible if the water has any contaminates in it. So far I have not run into that other than when I had some really putrid water full of algea that I had used for post curing.
Still like to see some pictures of the melting you were talking about.
The city I live in has EXTREMELY hard water. I have to take apart my faucets in my bathrooms/kitchen every 12-24 months and clean with CLR. If I don’t I am forced to replace them because of the extreme scale build-up and/or corrosion.
I’d like to see pics too!
@DLowe, this support article on cleaning cavities and channels from FL might be helpful to you.
Hey @kevinduhe, as a side note, have you considered installing a water softener? Although they are expensive.
@SL_PIO Ironically the company I work for manufactures water filtration systems and water softeners. Here in our building we have many water softeners but the labratory I am in has a regular tap, not filtered or softened for water testing purposes.
A further irony is that the city I work and live in recently banned water softeners. There are alternatives, however they are as you correctly stated very expensive…I can’t afford them even with my employee discount!!! 
@kevinduhe, can we be friends, since I work for a faucet manufacturer?
Srsly? We also manufacture faucets as well as spouts, diverter valves, filters, cartridges, etc. (www.qmpusa.com)
What company do you work for?
Years ago I used to output film for the printing industry as a service bureau and used an inline water filter which I changed out every few months. It was hooked to the line in with a shut off front and back. Not expensive at all and really saved the faucets and water heater. Amazing how much junk goes through the pipes. Might as well brush your teeth with beach sand.
Anyways a gal of distilled water works good in my laser and should last a while.
I’ll post pictures of the flaws once I am back in the office with the part.
The reason I say melted, is because I believe it literally has melted part of the print. This was right after removing it from the printer so there was no post-curing, which suggests that some of the actual print could have been dissolved in IPA could it not?
As for the other stuff, I don’t know why people are advertising on here? All I asked was if I could wash a part in water without doing any damage to it. The part is printed on Tough, and is for all intents and purposes a structural part rather than a visual prototype. Don’t care about water spots, I just wanted to make sure water wouldn’t do more damage.
IPA shouldn’t melt the cured resin. It will over time absorb into the resin and soften and expand it, if left long enough can definitely ruin the part.
Water shouldn’t hurt the part at all. I don’t have a post curing setup (other than a sunny window,) so I often rinse my parts in tap water after pulling from the IPA bath. I don’t believe any of the resins are hygroscopic at all, so leaving in water or wet is fine. The water gets rid of the IPA residue and blocks oxygen (which is a curing inhibitor,) so it helps to reduce the tackiness of non-post-cured parts.
The thread might have gotten a little tangential, but if you’re able to upload a few photos, we should be able to help out a bit more. The ‘melted’ sections very well may be uncured resin that didn’t dissolve off the part and photos will help us to investigate further.
Yes sorry about that…
Back on topic, as an experiment I printed an extra item of mine on Friday in tough and let it sit in 99% IP all weekend. Aside from it being extremely flexible there was no melting or degradation of the material. And I suspect after it dries/cures it will be “tough” again?
As @frew mentioned I often have little areas of uncured resin, either from the printer or sometimes picked up from the IPA bath if it is particularly dirty.
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