It’s actually the same orientation as the original. There was a decent amount of dust to remove since it was my first cleaning of the new printer’s mirror.
From now on, I’m certainly going to clean the mirror more regularly. However, I think the bulk of the debris I had to remove came from manufacturing and shipping. Nonetheless, I think it’s a good idea to include mirror cleaning with regular maintenance of the printer.
You don’t happen to have a picture of how bad the dust was to give that result do you?
Unfortunately I don’t. However, I can at least say it was similar’–if not a little better–than the one in picture 2 on http://formlabs.com/en/support/help/care/mirror-checking/. Only in my case there was only dust–no resin drops.
Mirror cleaning can sometimes be necessary, but I just want to warn that the mirrors in the Form 1+ are “first surface” mirrors and should not be cleaned with direct contact unless absolutely necessary. Even a microfiber cloth can create scratches or polish away some of the reflective surface.
If deeper cleaning is needed, you can follow these instructions for direct contact cleaning…but this should only be done as a last resort:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/47ezsc7x9ca5jvm/AABcZE6R_YeC4ORxzjHqswXla?dl=0
Hope this helps!
I want to ask this:
Being the mirrors can be easily damaged etc. Is it possible to purchase replacements that can be user installed?
I haven’t taken a look inside there yet so please forgive the question if it does not make sense.
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Man, it would be awesome if the mirror assembly popped out for cleaning or replacing, this should be a feature request!
okay ill do it, you need to back me up lol
Id like to echo the “dirty mirror” from the factory.
I just took a close look at my printer and here is the mirror. The machine has been printing well with this amount of dust (yes little surface rashing here and there but no failed prints)
I think that we need to create a bit of awareness (or formlabs should) and advise used to dust off their mirrors as part of the setup.
Now regarding the wet looking spot by the back window, I have no clue what that is but I am going to contact support and ask, as I can also see some marking on the glass in the smaller rectangular opening.
The blower I bought and suggested earlier works pretty good to remove the dust particles, but does not replace a can of compressed air.
Matt, I know this is an old conversation, but it is worth mentioning:
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Don’t use canned air - the propellant will “grease” the mirrors.
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I have seen similar results (not smooth) when I print parts that have a lot of sharp edges. I think that small parts of cured resin end up floating around because it’s trying to create an infinitely sharp edge and can’t do it. The culprit to the rough finish is the particulate floating around in the resin. I have fixed the issue by filleting all corners (I use .01").
Nick–
Thanks for the advice! I’ll try adding small fillets to my parts. I used a can of compressed air, since Formlabs seems to endorse it (http://formlabs.com/en/support/help/care/mirror-checking/). What do you mean by “grease the mirrors”?
There’s a propellant in some of the canned air that may impart a film on the mirrors. I think Mongor had a post about it…
Here is the article…