Shopping list for my new Form1 printer

General Discussion
1

Hi everyone,

I’m just organising buying a Form1 and now need to get in the consumables I’ll be wanting to get up and running quickly. I’m sorry if this has been covered before but I’ve not been able to find a concise list anywhere and thought it may be useful for other new users.

The printer I’m buying (fingers crossed, the deal isn’t sealed yet!) comes with some resin and trays to get me started, so I’m hoping to get away with not needing to purchase any of those just yet. As far as I can work out, I need to be gathering the following items so that I can get printing as soon as possible once the printer arrives:

Consumables

  • Isopropyl Alcohol - to have in the cleaning tank to clean the prints off, and in the squirty wash bottle to aid cleaning prints and mirrors etc. Must be over 90% pure according to posts I’ve read. How much should I be buying to get started with? A litre? 500ml? I don’t want too much hanging around as I’ll be working from home and worry about too many chemicals (this is just classed as a cleaning product though, yes), I already use standard casting resins so am not worried about those so much.

  • Novus1 Acrylic Cleaner - to clean the tank after each lot of resin. I understand the PDMS layer just needs the resin scraping off gently before storing before each session? The Novus1 won’t affect the PDMS layer if it gets onto it will it?

  • Pec Pads - to clean mirrors and bottom of resin trays so the laser beam isn’t affected.

  • Anything else I’ve forgotten?

Optional items:

Longer term, I expect to need the following items to help with the continued use of the machine, to keep it healthy and happy and reproducing parts for as long as possible:

  • Glad Tall Bags - to keep the dust out both during storage and use of the printer (might try to find an alternative as these are silly-expensive in the UK).

  • RainX, Driscoll Ultra4 or similar release agent - to apply to the PDMS layer prior to pouring in the resin, to protect the PDMS and enhance its life expectancy.

Items for PDMS layer replacement:

I’m confident with using silicones for mould-making, so hope to be able to replace the PDMS layers when they go.

  • Sylgard 184 Silicone - the material used to replace the PDMS layer

  • Low temperature oven - to aid/speed up the curing of the newly poured PDMS layer

…and ultimately, I reckon I’ll be needing this:

  • Form 1+ (or 2, by the time I can afford it!) upgrade.
2

I don’t know who put this none-sense out there that the tank needs to be cleaned with Novus1? Don’t do that. This only if your tank was scratched on the bottom and the scratches affect the optical clarity. And certainly don’t use it on the inside of your tank and on the PDMS!

3

Novus 1 is just used to clean fingerprints off acrylic. Don’t touch the bottom of the clear optical window in the resin tank and you’ll be fine. But if you do get smudgy fingerprints there (or on the cover) and you want to clean the acrylic, Novus 1 is the best choice. Using alcohol or a cleaner like Windex can cause acrylic to crack.

4

FYI, novus 1 contains isopropyl alcohol.

5

Ok this is confusing - I found this post about cleaning the inside of the tank but still didn’t quite answer the question : Cleaning INSIDE the resin tank

What is the correct way to clean out all of the liquid resin ready to be stored until the next print? Or is the answer that you don’t clean it, ever?

6

You can store the tanks with resin still inside them. If they sit for longer then a couple days just make sure to use a scraper or other device to mix the resin before you print on it again. This ensures any components that separated out over the preceding days are remixed back into the resin. I’ve had tanks that have been sitting around for 2-3 weeks that required a little stirring before printing and worked just fine.

3 Likes
7

True, but it only contains 0.5 - 1.5% IPA by weight and is designed for cleaning acrylic. 90% IPA, which we recommend for washing parts, can cause acrlyic to craze, although it is still less damaging than a cleaner which contains ammonia such as Windex.

1 Like
8

Thanks guys, simple answers that are really useful to know!