The resin is filtered with 190nm mesh paint strains
The tank looks very clear
My idea - maybe the main glass? I tried to clean it up with a IPA-99% and there are whitish stripes - im afraid of polishing them away with paper towels or using aceton for cleaning, still waitung for the delievery of PEC pads.
Du you have any thoughts?
Edit: Standard grey resin, 50nm print.
My grey resin looks much more brighter than the sample from Formlabs… is it expired??
I’ll let Formlabs post on cleaning the main glass but if there are any streaks that’s your problem. For what it’s worth it may not be glass and IPA may damage it. Acetone is a super bad idea because the outer edge of the glass is sealed with rubber.
I use regular glass cleaner for the main glass with a good microfiber cloth. No ammonia.
Edit: Looked back at the print and the areas that aren’t smooth look like an optical path issue. The main glass isn’t clean or is damaged from IPA.
For your print I would raise the height to 8mm which will give it some more space from the base. There’s a line on the bottom due to how it changes printing after the first 5mm which have a higher exposure.
If you have a hole in the print then that’s likely from a particle of dust or something like that.
If you have noticeable streaks on the glass then that can affect the print as well. IPA is safe to clean glass but it would be better to use Novus with Pec pads. IPA is not good to clean the acrylic cover or the acrylic tray though since it can break down the plastic. If you get distortions or lines near the top of the print then that can be caused by not having enough supports to stabilize the print–as it gets taller it can flex more so it can require more supports to keep it stable.
It does look like there could be something obscuring your optical path. Streaks on the mirror can modify the exposure of the laser and cause issue. I’ve gotten in touch with our support team and one of our members will reach out over email to help troubleshoot. We can also guide you through the correct steps for optical window cleaning.
Thanks a lot for the answers.
I took a risk and used an alkohol based glass cleaner spray from a grocery to clean up the main glass - wished gently away with a supersoft toilet paper - the glass is looking streak free.
Also I used the same glass cleaner on the downside of the resin tank - the plexiglass was easy to clean with it.
Only issues i got were on the silicon layer in the tank itself. There are streaks if I use IPA and its impossible to stay lint-free while using glass cleaner (silicon is not as sleeky as glass and the paper sticks to it).
Frew thanks for caring, maybe the formlabs team should think about finding alternative methods of cleaning the printer- so many people are complaining about streaks, there has to be something else to use. An “ultimative guide for cleaning” , containing every part of the printer and all the right fluids would be super nice also…
We generally err away from recommending common glass cleaners. The best method is to slowly wipe the mirror with IPA and a PEC pad. You should check out the tutorial on our support center. Common glass cleaners could leave behind particulate which obscure the optical path.
The bottom of the tank is a bit easier and can generally be polished with Novus 1 and a microfiber cloth. Generally, this is done to remove fingerprints or other oils from the bottom of the tank.
This is exactly what I mean - Formlabs recommends IPA but customers complain about streaks while using it. So there is maybe an alternative which is yet to discover.
As for me, this one worked out, even with a paper towel (I dont have my PEC pads yet but will report about my experience) :
I use eye glass cleaner. I have a bottle available to clean the lenses on my laser cutter. Works fine and allow it to dry totally before putting the resin tray back in.
Toilet paper is designed to clean our rears…
Pec-pads are designed to not scratch glass and mirrors.
Maybe pec-pads and glass cleaner but toilet paper on first surface mirrors is a bad idea. I hope you have better luck at not scratching your mirrors then I have in the past.
I have found that if my mirrors are dirty enough to need IPA to clean them, they need to be replaced. For the Form 1 series, the main and small mirror are easy enough to replace. It just takes a little time and some special epoxy.
I have no idea about replacing the mirrors on a Form 2 though.
