I just received my form1 last week and I’ve been eager to make prints using it. I had a couple of sculpts I did in Zbrush and I exported them as .stl’s for printing on the form1. After 3 prints, and about 400ml of resin used on my first bottle, I cleaned the resin tank (actually pored out the resin through a strainer, and used the included scraper to clean the silicone.) I noticed the center of the silicone layer is already pretty foggy. I did not vary the location of the prints, but fog occurring in only three prints? I don’t want to have to buy a $70 resin tank for every few prints - the price of the resin is expensive enough. How much does the fogging affect the print quality? Is there any way to get rid of the fogging or is the silicone layer already toast?
And secondly, why does this little piece of acrylic and silicone cost $70? That’s ridiculous. Maybe someone should take the tray to tap plastics or a similar store to have them create exact duplicates at a much reduced price, and then just add in our own silicone layer as described elsewhere on the board.
I expected to have consumables. But not at this price and short lifespan.
Hi Matt,
I see you have opened a ticket with our Customer Support team already, we will take a look at your pictures and take care of you as soon as we can. I may be just misunderstanding your post (if thats the case please ignore), but it is best practice to scrape the PDMS layer of the tank between each print. Cured resin that is easily removed after one print, can cause subsequent failures and may no longer be removable after just a few more.
I did do that after my second print, after reading about it from Monger here on the forums. But it wasn’t a tip from Form1, wasn’t mentioned in the documentation anywhere, so I’m not sure how you expect users to know that information?
I put in brand new tanks and getting disasters now. Has there been any issues with new tanks? What if they were delivered in the frozen weather? Does that mess up the silicone?
Bill,
Assuming the vat was at room temperature when you started using it and there was not any moisture left behind I see no reason why the cold would damage it. I had a printer show up basically frozen with condensation all over and in it including the vat and build platform. The vat laster longer then the printer.
Did you look for defects in the PDMS layer? I am sure you removed both “stickers” that protect the top and bottom of the vat. Are you using a new bottle of resin or resin out of a known good bottle? Other then that, I would open a support ticket and maybe post up some pictures. I would try printing the butterflies since FL support is most likely going to ask you to do this. Hopefully you do not have a faulty laser like me.
Good luck.
David
No luck so far… I am afraid to put my last new tank in (bought three extra) until I can see some progress.
When you say stickers, you just mean the top plastic with the writing on the open side, and the other plastic protecting the bottom correct? Just two? Is there a third that is also on the inside of the open side?
attached is a pic that is all I get now when I try to print. This was a simple butterfly that has worked in the past. Yet you can see most of it remained pooled in the tank.
I will try to print some small things on the edges of the tank where it is still clear.
I do get rid of the hard junk left in the pool, but you can still see ghost markings on the tank that won’t go away (even if you dry the tank and then use rubbing alcohol to try to clean it, the splotches stay there)
Assuming I understand the flow of how the problems started, You had issues, you opened up a new vat and removed the 2 plastic pieces of film, poured in new resin, printed and got the results above, I would open a ticket sooner then later. Your print looks like some of mine.
Hopefully FL will be able to help without the printer needing to be replaced. If it does, FL has stated somewhere on the forum they will work with people who are out of warranty. Hopefully they take care of you in or out of warranty. Keep us updated on what they say.
David
here is the timeline:
-made some nice prints with clear and older software/firmware… might of used version 1 as the latest that worked.
-only issues used to be a complex part needed better support on a overhang, etc… normal issues
-tried one really complicated gear part and only half printed… figure the tank tray was getting bad
-ordered 3 new trays and white & gray resin
-put in new tank tray, white resin, updated to 1.1 and tried to print gears again… half failure… lots of muck on the tray
-tried cleaning up tray and print butterfly… bad results
-tried another new tray and clear resin to print butterfly, same bad results
-tried going back to earlier versions and firmware and print butterfly… got the results of that picture I posted
…
so now I am going to the latest software and firmware and trying to print on the corners of the 2nd tray that isnt totally messed up like my original and the first new tray… we’ll see how that goes and I will post results.
Bill,
Save your resin, and time. I would open up that ticket. The fact that you put in a new tank and clear resin, tried to print the butterflies and got a failure is not good. The newer versions of Preform do not change the laser settings. At least my understanding is 1.1,1.2,1.2.1 all have the same settings. I am not sure about further back as I did not ask FL.
David
I have an open ticket as well but my prints are suddenly looking very similar to the image above. I want to clean the tank, but there are no instructions on cleaning the silicone. Please post with any new info or solutions. Thank you.
Bill - this is looking extremely like some of my prints with a machine with a laser defect. I opened a ticket and managed to get a new printer, but it took months. Ive just received the new on recently, and am printing a test piece as we speak, so fingers crossed. Id definitely recommend getting a support ticket open asap - best way to get it resolved.
Dear @MattHoover,
dear all,
we presented in other threads already a product for convenient and cost-effective repariring of the vats. Although the current thread is a bit older, the topic is still present for users. We described the process and material within our campaign on KS.