Hello all !
Im really frustrated and thinking about my bad decision on buying this machine considering the lot of complains about Warping. (i saw this complains once we start having it).
I talked with Katy from Formlabs support dept. with a great support from her including free tanks and materials they sent me to ran test and tests and tests. However im still having problems with parts warping during the curing process.
I tried many things and we have good progress but at the end we have deformed parts.
I was not sure if was a design problem but, we try different models with the same issues, so at this point design is not the problem.
This picture is from first try and we have deformation on the left side.
I cure 30min at 60o With supports, 15 min with supports and 15 without support.
We dry the parts up to 48 hours
We cure without heat
Wash time is always 10min
Any other ideas?
AGAIN: Katy from support was really nice helping me with this for 2-3 weeks and materials. But they are in the point that cant help me anymore.
This is the file she sent me with the best results on the rail but deformation on the points.
we also have the same problem with the grey, custom tray and Dental LT v1 for thin long objects.
The solution we came up with was day light drying at a window for 24hrs, 48hr if still tacky. then cure half time, wait until cool to touch and cure remaining.
It slowed down production time that we moved to Model V3, and stop using Dental LT V1.
We were doing short rails, that needed really smooth surface contact. We’re trying to seal a liquid inside using rubber gaskets and plates that mate to the surfaces. Warping was also an issue.
We did the similar drying before we cure. But when we cured, we made THICK plastic plates that we put against the faces in contact. Then we used rubber bands around them to keep them flat against the plates. Warpage was reduced to nearly invisible. We had some deformation from the pressure so we reduced rubber-band pressure on another run and it worked great.
Wow, 40 to 48%? is it raining in there?
That’s pretty high humidity. Moisture in the resin can be an issue. normally, the heat from printing should be enough to keep the resin mostly clear of water. but that’s really a lot of humidity.
I"m in AZ, so our humidity doesn’t exist, except when the monsoons come around.
@fcishop Isn’t that bad. I’m at same bench mark currently, I fine 40% is ideal. with the resins i’m using I don’t see the difference unless I’m over 70%. If i’m over 85% its not a good show.
I have use a food dehydrator for my Elegoo resins before curing, just to make sure they do not bend. but I’ve moved on the Formlabs
Hi all.
This might be sacrilege but I was watching an Elegoo video, one of the Youtubers was doing some custom support tests. They created ‘Continuous Supports’ to help maintain straight edge quality and to prevent warpage.
i don’t know if this is something you all might be interested in. Near the end they describe a part of the software they use that has the ability to string the normal supports together very closely, in effect, creating a ‘wall of support’ along a selected edge. I might try this on my next straight edge print.
Posting a link might be an issue with Preform forum rules, so just go to youtube and search for ‘Continuous Supports’ in a video by Uncle Jesse.
Consider lowering your wash time to 3 minutes or maybe less. In my experience the longer you leave a print submerged in IPA, the more warpage/deformation you’ll get. Remember, you’re only trying to get the excess resin off the print, so wipe it clean before washing it, then dry it thoroughly. I use a rotary table and a fan for a couple of hours to dry parts. Hope this helps.
I’ve found that the best results come from a quick hand wash in IPA (~30 seconds), then 3-5 minutes in Wash.
IF needed, then another quick wash.
Also never cure a wet part, always let it FULLY dry before puting it into cure. (I use a fan)
Thanks… we lower the wash time and looks better but still warping. We let the part dry for 24 hours. But the rotary table is something we did not try at this point. Will do it.
My first cure box, I purchased a solar powered display which rotated in sunlight. The UV was enough to power the table and it worked great as a poor mans cure box. Now that I have the official Formlabs Curing station, I used the solar power display for painting and such. I’ll try using that to cure my devices in sunlight. I think a slow cure might also be a solution… although, not an efficient one. Solar powered display
