Some of my prints will still be sticky and seeping resin after i UV cure them. I wanted to know what i may be doing wrong. Am I not bathing the prints in alcohol long enough? Should i always do the 2 part rinse or is a vigorous bath in one tank enough?
I let it sit in my custom UV light box for several hours.
Also, I notice sometimes theres a build up of seeping resin around some supports, that then leaves me with more sanding and clean up.
Thanks!
Steve
I’ve had a similar issue with some of my prints in the past when the alcohol in my cleaning bath becomes too saturated and doesn’t effectively clean off all the uncured resin . If you haven’t changed alcohol recently I’d recommend that as a first course of action. My parts typically spend 10mins in each cleaning tank (20 total) before I put them in the UV curebox.
That makes sense. I was going to pick up some new alcohol today. I ran a bunch of prints the last time i used my printer, and it just may be too saturated.
You find it working best to do the two tank bath?
The nice part about having two tanks is that the first tank cleans off the lion’s share of the uncured resin while the second tank finishes the soaking process. I find that I need to replace the alcohol in my first tank more often, but I don’t have to dump my whole supply of alcohol because the 2nd tank doesn’t have as much resin in it.
Honestly, I’ve had success in the past with a single tank setup as well - im just used to the two tanks as part of my cure process. Would be interesting to see what other user’s opinions are.
I would recommend using a squirt bottle with alcohol in it and vigorously squirt the parts as much as possible. After that let them sit in the first bath for 10-15 minutes then a final 10-15 minute rinse in a clean bath of isopropyl alcohol. Let them air dry for a little bit and then cure in the UV.
Chris
If you have an old airbrush, that’s got gaskets that don’t degrade in IPA, crank up the pressure on the compressor, pour IPA in the airbrush, and blast the hard to reach areas like in-between supports, holes, recesses etc. with it between the two washes.
I do it even with Form Wash, for certain geometries.
I just use a bottle of new IPA to rinse off the print when I take it out of the container of IPA.
Also, it can help if you cure the print submerged in water for like 5-10 minutes first which will help the outside surface cure fully so that it’s not sticky. After that, dry it off and then 45 minutes should be fine to finish the curing.