I tried searching the subject, but haven’t seen this discussed very much. I’ve had my Form2 for less than a year and have just finished my first liter of grey resin. My prints are failing at certain areas. When I look on the tray itself, it looks like the silicone is coming off. I tried to clean the bottom, thinking it’s dirty, but the silicone looks like it’s coming off of the tray from the bottom.
Has anyone else have this same problem? Can it be fixed? It just seems a bit too soon. I would think you can use a tray for at least 2-3 liters of resin. Thanks in advance.
You’ve gone thru only 1 liter of resin in less than a year?
The trays are consumables- they will not last forever.
They are rated at between 2 and 3 liter’s of resin printing time… however- that estimate is assuming regular printing. If the tray is stored for long periods with resin in the tray- that will age the tank as well.
Is 1 liter a lot or a little? I don’t know how much we’re supposed to use or if there’s a magic quantity. I do wedding cake decorators and they are usually pretty big between 3-4 inches each
I did not know that you’re not supposed to store them in the tank. How are we supposed to store them if the resin cartridges automatically dispense them? Sorry for all the noob questions. I tried to find as much as I can on the support sites, but it doesn’t say much and that you should not store resin in the tanks.
1 liter is not a lot, but it depends a lot on the type of prints and the resin you use. If you print a lot of small parts, try moving them around on the build plate. If you constantly print on the same place, it will wear out/cloud the PDMS locally.
If you’re not going to use resin for a month of two, put it in a separate container. These tanks are known to fail by just having resin in it.
I would strongly suggest not to use the tank anymore now that the PDMS has swollen. There is a very big risk that resin will come under the PDMS. This will soften the glue that holds the acrylic glass and will likely result in resin spills inside your form 2.
Thanks so much for taking the time to post your concerns here! The other users who have replied are largely correct, but I wanted to give a little more context.
We expect our resin tanks to last a couple liters when they’re being used regularly(daily/weekly) but with longer gaps between prints, I’m not super surprised it’s lasted a little less time.
In terms of resin storage, the other folks here were pretty dead on, but I’m happy to clarify. We expect the resin to be OK sitting in a printer(in the tank) for 2-3 weeks at the most between prints. If it’s going to be longer than that between prints I would recommend storing it in a cool dark place. You can get more information about proper resin care at this link.
Another thing to keep in mind is that our resins have a shelf-life of roughly 1 year, which it sounds like you may be coming up on. It’s entirely possible that this could also contribute to a drop in print quality so it might be worth investing in a new cartridge.
Also to reiterate what @fantasy2 said above me, I would very strongly recommend not using that resin tank anymore if the silicon layer is swollen or peeling. This kind of behavior increases your chances of a pretty serious spill significantly.
To sum all this up, I would expect your print results to go right back to normal with a new cartridge of resin and a new resin tank.
I hope that helps, but please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any additional questions for me! I’m happy to help.
Thanks so much for the replies and tips guys! I’ll go ahead and get a new tray then. I print maybe twice a month so I didn’t think that was a lot. And I definitely moved the parts around so they’re not in the same place. The weird part is that the silicone that is coming off is coming from an area that is towards the front of the tray, which I seldom part the parts at.
