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Re: Formlabs castable

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 3:36 am
by printcast
I have been casting Emerald since it came out. I do about 8 mins, clean water in the ultrasonic after a rinse in tap water straight from printing. After that it's a minimum of 30 mins in UV while in clean water. That's it, cast pretty smooth every time.

Re: Formlabs castable

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 4:10 am
by eg123
printcast
Just clean water in the ultrasonic? You don't put any type of cleaning solution like soap?

Re: Formlabs castable

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 5:33 am
by printcast
I don't. I used to swirl in alcohol but stopped that very early on. I'm always amazed at peoples systems to cure resin. 10 mins in the microwave in baby oil, ultrasonic in dawn, uv for 2hrs then microwave, uv and then oven, oven for 3 cycles of temps.
Me, print, rinse, ultrasonic in clean water for 8mins, uv in water for a minimum of 30 mins. I'll leave all the rocket science for model curing to the smart people, my simple method works for me. :)

Re: Formlabs castable

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 8:06 am
by samatheang
printcast wrote:I don't. I used to swirl in alcohol but stopped that very early on. I'm always amazed at peoples systems to cure resin. 10 mins in the microwave in baby oil, ultrasonic in dawn, uv for 2hrs then microwave, uv and then oven, oven for 3 cycles of temps.
Me, print, rinse, ultrasonic in clean water for 8mins, uv in water for a minimum of 30 mins. I'll leave all the rocket science for model curing to the smart people, my simple method works for me. :)


What type of UV Curing box do you have, printcast? 30 mins in water is very fast if you are only using the normal 36W UV box for nail.

Re: Formlabs castable

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 6:15 pm
by rkundla
eg123 wrote:printcast
Just clean water in the ultrasonic? You don't put any type of cleaning solution like soap?


Must be a good ultrasonic that produces enough cavitation to blast off the uncured resin. ;)

Re: Formlabs castable

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 7:31 pm
by mongerdesigns
Hey Ron,

Have you tried Yellow Magic? I got some yesterday and it's promising, but I doubt it does a better job than IPA.

But one interesting effect is that you can't "contaminate" the liquid. Instead the excess resin gets trapped in tiny spheres and that can be easily strained out. However after leaving it in there and agitating for 5 minutes, then washing the prints with water, they were still very tacky to the touch and you could see that some resin is left on.

The next thing to try is the ultrasonic. Might help.

Re: Formlabs castable

Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 9:15 pm
by eg123
I think you are right Emil, IPA works best.
I took things a little further and use Denatured alcohol on a sprayer and it works very fast at removing uncured resin in deep cavities.
I spray around the model and then use a hair dryer to evaporate the alcohol quickly.

Good to know the different methods that are being used for cleaning prints.

Re: Formlabs castable

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 12:24 am
by printcast
That's my UV set up. There are 2 UV boxes and a solar powered turntable. Resin in water is a must.

When I put a fresh print in tap water (in that same clear bowl pictured in the attachment) in the ultrasonic cleaner the print oozes out a white milky something. If the water turns overly milky, I'll repeat that process.

Re: Formlabs castable

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 12:29 am
by mongerdesigns
Ha. Be careful. That's a sure way of starting a fire. Those things get hot and when you position them that way you trap the heat.

Re: Formlabs castable

Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2016 12:52 am
by printcast
For sure. I'm always near when running those. Been doing that over 2 years, not 1 issue thus far. Knock on flame retardant wood.