During the pandemic we went WFH and left everything. All of the IPA evaporated out of the wash, leaving a sticky somewhat hardened mess at the bottom. The stirrer is now glued in place. We’ve only used White FLGPWH04, so that’s what’s in the bottom. I’ve tried adding some IPA back to clean it up, but it hasn’t been very effective at dissolving the resin, which appears to be partly cured. Is there a solution to recovering this tub, or do I need to replace it, and is it possible to replace just the tub part of the wash, since everything else seems to be in perfect condition?
Hello @bobbaddeley -
I’m sorry to hear about the issue with hardened resin at the bottom of your Form Wash. You should be able to scrape out most of the residue without concern using IPA to help soften it - but there will always be a bit of cruft left behind, that’s hard to avoid.
If you do wish to purchase a new bucket, please reach out to Support and we can assist with setting up a Wash bucket in your Formlabs cart.
Kind regards,
are you using 99% iso?
similar experience with buying a second hand washer
if you have a Dental Vibrator you can place it on there on the gentle setting with alcohol for a few minutes, but if its really bad maybe 30minutes.
This will help out the stickiness and be easy to flake out using an scraper or x-acto flat Chiseling Blade.
For the mixer, I still haven’t figure out how to remove it but if you apply pressure after a long time sitting in alcohol it might be able to move. If the cured resin is interfering movement and cannot be scraped off, last resort is to file/sand it down starting with the rough/low to highest grit
good luck
Thank you all for your feedback. I have finished cleaning it up and wanted to update on how I did it in case others have similar problems.
There was roughly 1/4" thick resin in places. It was very sticky, but hard, I’d say like the consistency of a wet Bit’O’Honey. Along the edges it was possible to get a sharp point under and then slowly pry it up. It separated from the basin fairly easily once I started prying. Occasionally the chunk would snap cleanly from the rest of the residue and I’d have to start over on a new section prying up the edge and slowly pulling the rest up until it snapped off again. The stirrer was very difficult to remove, as the resin had coated the bearing area, making it difficult to pull off the boss. It was slow going, but eventually came off. The hardest part was removing the dried resin from inside of the three lobes of the stirrer. Because they are not solid, the resin had hardened inside. I was able to force a screwdriver through the lobes to push the chunks out through the bottom, though it required a scary amount of pressing and support of the plastic around it. Once all the chunks were removed from the basin and stirrer, I was able to use IPA to remove the leftover uncured sticky resin. Ultimately I returned the unit to its original working and clean state.
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One thing to note is that the bucket is semi-flexible. It helps getting under that edge. Ive done this also, extremely embarrassed that I had left something so long. It was Christmas holidays and it was low going in.
All I can really say is good job. I’ve also been told by colleagues that I could probably let it completely cure, making it inflexible. Then it would probably break free easier. It seems completely backwards from what I would think but now that I’ve done it, having the resin completely hardened probably wouldn’t have been bad at all. However, a rough-surface on the inside of the bucket will only give the resin more grip. So i’m not sure my idea would work for old buckets.
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