I’m pretty new to the Form 2 and could use some advise on sorting out these issues.
First, I get a few random holes in some prints. I’m quite sure the glass and resin tray are very clean.
Second, this wall is supposed to be straight but there is a bit of waviness.
Any help on remedying these problems would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
The first imperfection is almost always caused by a dust particle on an optical surface: mirror, glass panel, resin tank bottom.
The second can occur when the model is insufficiently supported. Based on the line of touch tips, it appears that the model was free to rotate about that line, allowing the model to become warped.
Also, heat can warp a print
3D printing is not totally “plug and play”, or maybe “fire and forget” would be better. There’s both art and science to mastering the printing process, just as there is with mastering machining. This has certainly been true for me with every rapid prototyping tool I’ve used, CNC and 3D Printers. It takes some trial and error to figure out how to optimize your results.
For the FL printers, this learning includes things like which orientations work best for certain shaped objects, and how many supports you need and where they need to be and how big a point size you need (PreForm does not always make the best choices), but also sometimes designing the part so it’ll print well.
For example, my experience has been that large flat surfaces with unsupported edges like in your print tend to get wavy, with the wavelength proportional to thickness of the surface (thinner walls have tended to be more wavy for me for some reason). Initially I tried changing the orientation of the part, but the orientation of the wall relative to the peeling process (which is what I thought was causing the waviness) didn’t matter. I deal with this now by adding a “skirt” to the unsupported edge so it’s thicker, usually 3:1. So If I had a 1mm thick wall with an unsupported edge, I’d put a 3mm thick rib along that edge to give it more stiffness.
Kind of a pain to sometimes have to design for the printer (though there are plenty of things I’ve done that didn’t need any adjusting), but I don’t really see this as a compromise. Each fabrication tool I’m familiar with imposes its own set of design constraints, so this is just different not unusual.
Thanks guys, I appreciate the insight!
Thanks Randy. I’ve got CNC & FDM pretty well figured out so I empathize with your points. Just new to SLA 
I’ll try the “skirt”!
This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
