Hi everyone, I have an interesting print dilemma for a customer of mine. I’m printing a cylinder that has some reliefs cut into it on the “top” of it and a completely flat “bottom” that I want to print directly on the build plate. I’ve been doing research about people using their own custom rafts or adding a single layer of resin to use as… leverage I suppose to get the spatula underneath the print? Like what this guy did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoVUvTqsYHI
I’m wondering the best way to go about printing this to save resin and cost. If I use the supports and rafts in preform, the material used almost triples and doesn’t give my client the detail he needs due to all the cutting and sanding of supports.
The cylinder is 130mm in diameter and 14mm tall.
Side note: The cylinder is being using as a master mold for vacuum molds of some sort so I was going to print it in tough resin and print it solid to hold up as long as possible for him.
I print directly on the build plate all the time and save a crap ton of resin.
That video is OK but there is a much easier way to remove parts from the platform without that Honorable tool formlabs gives you. That thing will gouge and mess up your build plate & parts.
Get a nice thin paint scraper with one edge sharped not both and keep that side up & when you use it just slide it along the build plate toward the parts base giving it a few light impacts and parts will just pop off the build plate.
One thing to note with that is your Z-fine tuning will have a lot to do with your Z dimension & how well your part sticks to your build plate when you print your part.
I feel that With 130mm surface area on your build plate your going to have issues with the peel process.
Also if its just for vacuum forming I would use clear resin. Quicker & easier to print and is less likely to deform like tough loves to do under heat.!
