Toxic? Where to put printer?

so- you’re saying that the formwash releases IPA fumes when NOT in use or not even open?

How long does it take for all the IPA to evaporate? Or enough that you need to top it off to wash more parts?

There are no gaskets on the lid. They did tests and determined gaskets didn’t make much difference. I’m willing to bet that’s because the lid is so lightweight and there’s nothing really pushing against the gasket to create a seal.

Original Form 1 rinse buckets had great clip-on lids with silicone[?] gaskets that created a perfect seal. Unfortunately the gaskets would degrade over time after lots of exposure to alcohol. The latest Form 2 manual rinse buckets have lid gaskets which I think seal decently when using the clip-on lids but don’t do much when you use the convenient, flip-up lids integrated into the station. They help a bit, but are not as effective. The Form Wash abandoned gaskets altogether. Some users (including myself) do find it evaporates quicker than expected - you have to top it off regularly.

Hope that answers your question!

i have the wash station with the flip up lids- the gaskets seal them well enough that I can’t smell any IPA at all when they are closed and I have seen zero evaporation.

but there is a LOT of fumes whenever I am using the thing, and while the parts are drying out.

This guy hit the nail on the head! The real question I wanted to ask is “Would the wife be able to smell it?”

@JLYL33 > I found a kitchen furniture (from Conforama in France)

Can you find a link to the cabinet?

That’s the one I got :slight_smile:
Is that what you are looking for?

As several have mentioned, the form 2 needs to be in a dust free environment. Do not let anything blow dusty room air on it or it will eventually stop working well.

And I agree with all who have said the IPA is the real problem. My Formwash IPA evaporates at an alarming rate. It is not sealed at all and can be smelled when you enter the room. IMO, if you do not print every week then the static IPA evaporation from the formwash will far exceed the IPA evaporation from actual part washing.

My ordinary work place :+1:

Hi James,

You may want to consider where your FDM printers are located in relation to the Form 2. As others have identified, the Form 2’s greatest enemy is dust!!

My own thoughts were originally that all the printers could live happily together, the reality is that after a period of use of the FDM printers then there was noticeable dust in the workshop. After reading the article in the link below we have now put each FDM printer into its own air filtered cabinet, that cut the dust down dramatically. Its also hopefully helped everyone live a little longer!!

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.5b04983

It’s pretty shocking considering that young adults and kids have these 300 dollar FDM machines in their bedrooms and living room and how little warnings are given out about the dangers.

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I totally agree

I’m wondering though if that counts fumes while it’s printing or just if you open the bottle and inhale… Certainly there’s a difference and the MSDS of the materials would be for fumes of the material without being printed.

From my experience here in the office, the only time I can really smell it at all is when a bottle is open. I’m currently working in a space with probably 70 printers and I don’t smell any resin at all, nor have we had any issues with anyone getting dizzy or anything like that.

that is because you destroy your receptors in nose with IPA :joy::joy::joy::joy::laughing::laughing:
No really I moved my printer to office and IPA is in other office room that is not using and its well ventilated. I red that IPA is bad for nose receptors, head hurt, dizziness and stuff like that, Is it really that bad because it is type of alcohol? I smell Jegermaister :smiley: Also red something abut resin but there is my link up there I posted year ago

@Komy do you have a source showing IPA destroys smell receptors? I’m not disagreeing with you, I’m just interested (as always) in reading more literature on the topic.

I think I red somewhere on forum, but here is couple links from wikipedia and some other link. When you read literature on this topic please inform us about conclusion you made :slight_smile:

I don’t see anything in the Wikipedia article specific to smell receptor degradation. It mentions several other symptoms of poisoning of course (e.g. respiratory irritation, skin irritant, visual / hearing problems, headache, nausea, vomiting, coma), but not that one. I skimmed the other link - didn’t read through the whole thing but didn’t find any mention there, either.

I know someone who lost their sense of smell from chemicals, but I don’t think IPA was one of them.

I have a Form 3 and I seem to have no smell using Grey or Clear Resin.
There is a very strong smell from the alcohol so I try to have the Form Wash open for as little time as possible.

C/P from the same question on another thread:

I’m not a big poster but thought I’d add something. I’m the lead AME for a $12B engineering company and our Health & Safety Engineering team is extremely stringent on chemicals and safety. A full panel chem review was conducted on our print lab which runs a multitude of printers 24/7 producing thousands of parts a year; this included a 24 hour test of chemical/vapor emissions, a noise study, and an in depth analysis on every MSDS sheet on every Formlabs resin. With every printer in our lab running everything was given the full go ahead with no fume hoods or vapor extraction required. Just a normal room with A/C and no opening windows.

If that HSE team certified it to acceptable standards I’d imagine your personal Form 2’s or 3’s will be just fine.

EDIT: I should also add that the only PPE that was required based on this assessment are gloves for handling tanks/cartridges/IPA soaked parts and goggles when we make custom Formlabs resin blends in our mixing room (Last week we made a translucent red that glows in the dark with properties simulating ABS).

EDIT 2: For the sake of thoroughness I should also add that the only fume extraction requirement we have in the print labs is a fume hood over our IPA stations but that requirements exists company wide anywhere IPA is used. That is not tied to the Form Wash being unsafe just that IPA in general is a chemical that we required fume extraction for.

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The biggest issue I’ve had is that inevitably the resin gets on nearby surfaces. It is seemingly impossible to prevent, so a guest bedroom may be an issue as far as surfaces getting the resin on them (a tiny drop gets a fair amount of counter icky). The resin isn’t toxic in the cyanide sense, but can produce an impressive skin reaction once you are sensitive to it (repeated touches). It was way worse with my older mSLA printer than the form 3 and wash station. It’s often from a drip when moving the build platform to the wash. And while you wear gloves, then you accidentally touch a counter leaving a resin fingerprint…