Weeping Print Platform

I was doing a print that involved a large amount of clear resin. This means that resin tank was quite full to begin with and it also meant that the print platform spent a long time immersed in liquid resin while the base was curing. Things were clearly (no pun intended) going wrong several hours into the print, so I aborted. I switched back to white resin and fortunately, I left the top on the UV-resistent tank I use, because ever since the long, aborted clear print, my print platform has been dripping clear resin all over the top of my white resin tank. This is not because I didn’t clean it. In fact, I have cleaned it three times. The problem is that resin leaked into the interior of the print platform, where it has no business being, and that resin is now leaking out again slowly. Presumably, this will work itself out (although it’s been going on for a week now), but if I wanted to do a white print (or any other color), this leaking process would be going on in both directions (i.e. clear resin would contaminate my white reservoir and my print platform would end up with a mixture of white and clear resin on it’s interior).

There are two potential solutions to this problem in terms of product design for the form 1 (and 1+ I guess, though I haven’t upgraded yet). One is to caulk the interior of the print platform, so that it does not take on resin while it’s immersed in the tank. The other would be to thoroughly vent the print platform, so that it completely drained as it emerged from the tank. I actually like that solution quite a bit. If you think about it, it would increase the maximum amount resin allowable in the tank, because the print platform would not displace as much resin when it was fully immersed. Do the current generation of print platforms have either of these solutions? Is mine just faulty? If I replace it, will I likely have the same problem? Have others solved this problem?

Unfortunately, this problem has not been solved. The best work around is to just have a build platform and tank specific for resin color. We have a clear, flexible, and black/gray resin tank and build platform setups to avoid this issue.

Sorry to hear your built platform is leaking! If the problem continues you can remove nine screws on the top of the body (three are hidden under the sticker) to remove the plate from the body. You can then clean out the resin from the inside with isopropyl alcohol. It’s a bit of a sticky task, but it’s cheaper than buying a new build platform.

Could the platform be filled with like expanding foam or a 2 part epoxy or something?

Oh…that’s not too bad. I saw the screws, but was concerned this might be one of those “uncalibrates your machine” things. I don’t mind another post-build clean-up. What do you think about caulking the seams while I’m in there? It wouldn’t add much weight to the platform. Or would silicone caulk react badly with resin?

I don’t see any reason that silicone caulk would cause a problem, though if there is a problem you could potentially ruin some resin and possible a tank. There’s already a rubber gasket between the plate and body. Perhaps you could re-align it to improve sealing.

We’ve had this problem too, but with black dripping into the clear. At this point, we have two build platforms and leave one out exposed so any excess resin is cured and seems to keep the dripping to a minimum. If we change colors, like black to white, we also will change the build platform.

I have the same issue, I was tempted to pop the build platform apart, clean it and put a thin beed of silicone rubber to seal it. My only concern with doing that is how much it may change the thickness of the build platform and how do I adjust that?

I typically white the tank down and for the small amount that may weep doesn’t seem to be affecting any prints since it such a small amount but there must be some contamination with this.

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