Have you been able to use them yet? I think I got around 10 filter washes in before I used Tough2000 - and it seems the pigments are quite fine and other filters just don’t seem to scoop it up. I picked up a ‘fine’ filter last night and ran it, seemed a little better, but using Tough2000 just keeps the IPA cloudy.
Haven’t had a chance to yet - planning to on Saturday since I’m going to be doing a distillation/recycling maintenance cycle.
We built a cheap ($150) recycler, which I noted somewhere on this forum.. we run it 2-3x/week,and are able to recover ~80% of our IPA using it.
Found it: scroll down to the bottom of this discussion.
only caveat - we originally built it with a 5gallon tank, but have since swapped out for a 3gallon pot, modified the distiller a bit ( to enable a closed circulation), and are cooling it with a powered chiller (as shown in the post). it takes ~90-100 minutes to recycle 3 L, and we do this 3x/week, generally.
Thanks for the info, this was a super-helpful writeup.
We have 2 Wash stations (a Wash 1 and a Wash2).
Wash1 - runs IPA
Wash2 - runs SimpleGreen.
We recycle our own IPA and use a settlement process to keep the SG clean.
Using your pool filter idea, we found some on Amazon last week,and started running the same simple cylinder type as you.
One in the IPA and one in the SG.
after 30 minutes in each.
Filter on left is IPA, filter on right is SimpleGreen.
This will help us significantly in the clean up of IPA during recycling, as it greatly lowers the amount of sludge and partially hardened resin during the process.
The fact that these cylinders can go in vertically is very good - the impeller actually sucks liquid thru the center, causing it to be captured in a really direct way.
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How did these compare with the others you got from Amazon? Looking to try something similar for my own setup.
@leonhart88 did the pool filters work well?
Haven’t tried yet. I was so busy leading up to my China trip and I’m still traveling right now 
@derailed3d I’ve not noticed any difference in whether a filter from Amazon or Walmart performed any better, it’s all about the size of microns it can filter. I have noticed that the BlackV5 can be cleaned up in one 20 minute session, but after using Tough1500 or Tough2000 seem to have smaller pigment particles, and require 1-2 40 minute cycles to clear up the IPA
So I finally had a chance to try this yesterday before running a distillation cycle. It works OK and I’ve found similar to @Kemolagger that it can take a couple of 30-60 minute wash cycles to grab a lot of pigment and extra “stuff”
The other thing I notice is that a lot of “stuff” can fall off the filter if removed too quickly from the wash bucket. For example, if you pull it out manually.
I had a wash bucket that was heavily saturated with white pigment from White V5 and running a 60 minute wash with the filter seemed to make it significantly less cloudy, but it never really got back to being clear.
My conclusion here is that I will likely keep two of these pool filters around to use for filtering heavy pigments out if I’m changing between say, lots of white to black or vice versa, but overall for me it’s easier/better to simply recycle and distill my alcohol more frequently. It’s definitely a nice to have for those situations where there’s a lot of gunk in your wash and you don’t have on-site recycling though.
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I’m finally chiming in here – until now, I’ve just been a silent reader.
We exclusively print with ESD resin on the Form 4 and have noticed a rapid decline in cleaning performance, even though we pre-wash manually in a separate tank.
Today, I tried out your tip and used a filter from a wet vacuum cleaner we had lying around.
The result is impressive: the filter turned blue, and the IPA is now at least free of particles.
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my conclusion is that the filter doesn’t alter the chemical state of the IPA as much as it does lighten the particle load carried in it.
This translates to less ‘crap’ on your part while washing (and potentially a better clean), BUT more importantly, it reduces the amount of crap carried into your evap/recovery system.
We are now running recovery systems 5-6x/month, and the amount of resin goo recovered on the bottom of the pot can be as deep as 1.5-2.0” (40-50mm).. it’s a significant amount of sludge.
using the filter has cut that by a huge amount. I believe it’s making the recovery process faster, and is giving us less hassle in post recovery clean up…
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It definitely does nothing chemically at reclaiming IPA saturation.
Interesting to hear it helps with your recovery. We use a Uniram industrial solvent recycling system and didn’t notice any difference this last time I ran it, hence my preference to not bother. We tend to recycle IPA frequently though and our IPA is often not super overly saturated with resin.
Are you basically using a set of filters once before distillation and then throwing them away?
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Agreed - no difference in saturation..
will probably use a filter a couple times before tossing, though the bulk pack on AMazon makes ‘em cheap enough that the hassle might not be worth while to keep a wet/dirty filter around….
I think the ONLY 2 possible advantages with filtration are:
- visual (aesthetic)
- potentially more effective cleaning by removing more dense resin which leeches over time (translating to slightly longer IPA life before saturation)
I stand by my earlier premise that a real SimpleGreen wash significantly lowers the overall wet resin level from the product, thereby stretching your IPA life.
We’re working on a SUPER low cost SimpleGreen pre-wash system (think < $150 for entire wash system) - hope to have working demo before Thanksgiving. While it COULD potentially be an alternate to the FormWash, i would not suggest it, for a couple reasons. But I’ll cover that when we show it…
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This would make sense. There are two mechanisms by which resin is washed off parts. Mechanical agitation and solubility. The formers effectiveness decreases when there is more “stuff” hanging around in the wash
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Yep, my entire intent is to keep darker particles off the lighter prints (especially clear V5)
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