Hey All,
I have two tanks which have been sitting with resin in them since the pandemic started (lets say 7 months). Each tank has only seen a few actual prints. They look like they are still in good shape. Do you think they are good to use? The printer says I should throw them away immediately. If I do need to discard them my price per print just went through the roof.
Thanks
So print something and see how it does. Worst case, you just have to throw it all away anyway. Nothing to lose.
We have been locked out of the office since March. I came back to realize my situating this afternoon. I ordered a new tank which I will treat better. If I drain the tank any time they will sit for too long, should I just let them drain or is there an acceptable solvent to use? From what I have read, you should not use solvents on the tanks.
@Randy_Cohen Will the tank fail catastrophically and ruin the machine? I would love to just run a small part.
I doubt the tank will fail, but I really couldn’t say. I think that the effect of exposure to resin is accelerated by the printing process, but it’s the same mechanism at work if you just let the resin sit in the tray. it’s a degradation that reduces the optical quality of the tank bottom, but not the mechanical integrity…
Printing now, thank you for the clarification!
Fingers crossed
Please let us know your results. I am in somewhat of a similar situation. We can go to the office to print but I have only been using our FFM printer for the last 6 months or so, the Forms have been sitting idle with resin in the trays.
The part was simple with no crazy details. It came out great. I need to do the usual cleanup but I am stoked.
I just noticed yesterday that one of my Form 2 tanks leaked resin all over a stack of tanks in our storage shelf. It seems that the resin will eventually eat through the seals. This is the second time this has happened to me with materials I don’t use often. I am now draining the resin through a fine mesh paint filter and putting it back into the cartridge and storing the tanks empty when I don’t anticipate using them for a while.
The Form 3 does a basic calculation of how long the tank has been in use and assumes that the resin has been sitting in it the whole time. I believe if the resin is removed, it won’t attack and weaken the tank. I plan to inspect the tanks when pulled from storage, manually fill them, check for leaks, and roll the dice and print with them.
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