Now after rereading I understand what you were say here:
“With LS resin we have 90% of shrinkage on first 24 hr after printing and over 10% on next two days.
After the prints are stables. We have got this data in normal conditions; 24°c - humidity 30 / 40%. In any case the shrinkage is never over 1% also on filigree.”
, correct me if i’m wrong:
Shrinkage is basically no more than 1%, it occurs in the first 3 days, and after that the resin is stable.
So if that is consistent then It should be possible to just scale up for the shrink if you know your pattern will be sitting before you invest it.
Any way I think I will be giving Bluecast a try at some point after I get my
Form2. You know, Sculpture and Italy, a powerful combination.
Little shrinkage is something you can manage prescaling model, as all jewelsmiths are used to do also with master and rubber models, defects on metal are little more tricky to manage…
Adin, I run a Jewellery Design and Casting business as a side gig to my day job. Shrinkage on this stuff is more than with FL, but I find to be tolerable. I’ll print a ring about 1-1.5 ring sizes larger than I need, and that deals with both resin and metal shrinkage. For doing that, though, I MUST invest on the same day. For gem settings, I make the settings a little bit thicker than they should be, and then burr out what I don’t need - If you’re setting a 2mm diamond, and there’s 5-8% overall shrinkage, that’s still a tiny amount of metal you need to remove. For me, this is the best resin (and I’ve tried a few!). I can print, invest and cast, all in one day, and the results are porosity free.
Thanks Charles, If I was going to do my own casting Then I think BlueCast would be workable from comments like yours and others. But wanting to use outside casters, I may stick to shooting waxes until the burn out resin for the lower priced printers becomes more fool proof and or similar to wax for a standard burn out. Also would love to print and invest un-moldabel designs. Right now though as I continue to consider possible form2 purchase, I am having my doubts as to some other aspects of the printer, that may possibly result in a time consuming experience If I am lets say unlucky, so I am not sure if I want to really go there. But still considering it.
Is there a difference in the cleaning, casting curing procedure between BlueCast Original and Low Shrinkage?
Looking at Low Shrinkage and wanted to know what the optimal method to cure is. I generally have my prints into casting process in less than 18 hours
For Low Shrinkage are people using V2 Castable or V3 Gray? Also I have quite a few empty V2 Castable Cartridges that I can use in order to have the heating element going?
Heating the resin required … ambient temp is normally about 24-26 C
thanks for any advice … getting some porosity with V2 Castable … especially with platinum so exploring other options
Also is one able to do stone in place casting with this resin?
After reading this thread, I interest in purchasing the Bluecast resin but was wondering if somebody can answer some questions.
Has anybody tried with R&R Ultravest? I see that several people tired Plasticast but was wondering if Ultravest will work and be able to hand the 800C or 850C.
I have seen a lot of posts with the original Bluecast but not with the new Low Shrinkage one. What will be the main difference?
Add 1.5% Boric Acid by Investment weight to Ultravest and it will be good for 850C. Also makes it harder to better withstand swelling. Careful… reduces working time, glossoff in 12 minutes.
I’m using the Neutec large wax sprue system, so I do steam dewax before putting into the kiln.
@rclaborne, have you tried the boric acid addition with any other investment? Do you know what it does specifically? How long are you burning out at that temperature? I’m guessing it’s pretty clean?
I don’t think anyone ever replied to this one…
I haven’t used the low-shrinkage yet, but the beauty of BlueCast is not having to cure. They list specifics of washing the prints under running IPA, but I just wash as usual in my Formlabs wash station and it works fine. I dry them, then invest. I’m actually guilty of using my hair dryer to speed things up, but if I have time I let them air dry. I live in a humid climate, so air dry sometimes takes awhile.
I have not used BlueCast in other cartridges. I filter it back into the BlueCast bottle if I’m not printing within a day or two. Castable resins are VERY caustic and will cause your tray to degrade more quickly. I recommend not leaving any castable resin on the printer. I have had a tray fail on my printer…printer was okay, but cleanup was not fun!
I use a baby bottle warmer to warm the BlueCast resin before printing. Since I always filter the resin back into the bottle, I take the 1/2 liter bottle and put it in a Philips Avent bottle warmer, which has a setting that is the same as the recommended temperature for BlueCast. Then pour it into the tray.
I have not heard of anyone doing the cast-in-place stones in resin, with the thought being that the temperature for burnout is much higher than the lower temperature used for cast-in-place. I found this discussion on the B9 site. https://www.b9c.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1985
Hi, as far as I can see sprues are in wrong place, for such big rings best is to have one pillar passing trough ring stem and becoming like a tree with at least 5/6 connections to downside of main face. Please browse images here to understand https://www.facebook.com/BlueCast3d/
I’ve tried it with R&R Ultravest and some others. It does the same thing each time… Makes the investment harder and more resistant to resin expansion. It also increases the temp you can go up to before the material starts to break down. Generally I am holding the high temp for 4 to 5 hours depending on what’s in the can. Naturally I’m speaking of FL Castable V2. I would try BlueCast but too many issues with shrinkage.
Hi, your spray solution seems important, i cast some pieces recently, all is globaly ok except some holes as you can see on wolf nose on the link behind… I don’t know much about consequences of waxit on investment but do you think it can fixe this little holes (porosity) pbls ? And when to spray model with ? (before deliver model to caster or it’s better to put it on cast tree, just before going to hoven ?)
Thank you much Chris !
