Anycubic Photon

[Chris333]

You are more prepared than I.

[Mark W]

.... Anything else?

I'd say you got just about everything you need!

But then I remembered way back on page 2....


Don't forget your pink short shorts!   

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B4D6Y8G/ref=twister_B07B4D2NSY

 

[narrowminded]

Mark,

 That will get you up and running. It come with a few filters to filter the resin, but you might want to get some more. Here is the ones I bought.


 https://www.ebay.com/itm/50Pcs-Mesh-Paper-Resin-Filters-Funnel-Cone-Purifying-Cup-for-ANYCUBIC-LCD-Photon/283101949506?hash=item41ea30ee42:g:ZkQAAOSwoFVab423:rk:2:pf:0

Thanks, Rodney.  I had paper filters already for filtering the craft acrylics when I've used them.  I checked online for mesh recommendations for resin and found a specific recommendation from Formlabs of 190.  Turns out that's what I had, considered "fine mesh" for paint filters, with plenty left from a fairly recent order of 250 of them.  I'm calling that covered.

What I don't have on order is any spare plastic reservoir sheets.  I see it comes with one and saw the couple of posts about blank sheets as well as the PET from laminating pouches.  I don't expect to be hard on those so will probably stay with the proper material and I suppose at some point I will want to get some spares.

And I liked your trucks!

[rodsup9000]

 It's unbelievable how much time goes into some drawings. I've got over 8 hours so far in drawing up this outside braced caboose side. All I need to do now is copy and paste, then punch out the windows on each side and draw in the window frames and I think they will be done. Then I'll draw up the ends, and then assemble the four sides and add the corner braces with all the rivets. 



 

[chessie system fan]

Just noticed that for the next two hours photons are $415 on amazon.

[wcfn100]

So I tried to print tonight and ran into several issues.

First, I tried to combine two .stl files into the slicer and they don't play nice in regards to where the platform is.  I press all the buttons and didn't see a way to resolve this.

Second, I printed some box car sides and doors just standing on end (no angle and no supports on any other sides).  With that I tried to print the doors using the small supports on the Photon slicer.  The doors failed right after the supports started.  Just stopped printing them.  The sides were printed with the medium supports and printed fine except there's a wobble about half way up the print.  I'm wondering if by not having any supports, the cars sides moved with the resin as the platform moved in and out.

Besides the wobble, the sides are awesome, I'll try and get some pics tomorrow.

As an aside, I'm noticing my parts run just a touch on the long side.  Anyone else getting this?

Jason

[Chris333]

As an aside, I'm noticing my parts run just a touch on the long side.  Anyone else getting this?

Jason

Yes I think it is the bleed thru the clear resin. I haven't tried solid resin yet.

I use the light supports, but I thicken the middle radius to .60 ( I guess that is mm     )

I don't know why you can't grab the parts and move them around in the slicer. I'm using the slicer from their website, I have no idea if it is the same that came on the stick or not. Some people are using ChiTuBox for supports and slicing. I downloaded it and a box popped yup to sign in so I tried to delete it. Had a hard time deleting it because it didn't show up in add/remove programs. But anyways some also have problems with it too.

[narrowminded]

So I tried to print tonight and ran into several issues.

As an aside, I'm noticing my parts run just a touch on the long side.  Anyone else getting this?

Jason

Long in which plane?  And how much over what length?   

[narrowminded]

Don't forget your pink short shorts!   

 

Pink is a girly color.  I ordered the blue.   With my blue shorts, glasses, rubber gloves, paper dust mask, hard hat, and steel toes I should be all set to handle that resin.

[rodsup9000]

As an aside, I'm noticing my parts run just a touch on the long side.  Anyone else getting this?

Jason

 Yes, I have noticed that also with the green resin. I haven't measured anything long with the gray resin yet to see if the same thing happens.

Rodney   

[chessie system fan]

Now that a lot of you are receiving your Photons, I thought it would be useful to share some of my workflow and findings.  Important settings in bold.

Once the model is ready, I use Netfabb for adding supports.  There are different tiers of the program, but if you download the trial you'll get premium features for 30 days, then it will revert to the free basic tier.  Looking at the features by tier, the basic should include everything we need anyway.   Netfabb is lightyears ahead of the Photon Slicer when it comes to adding supports.  Since its free, I highly recommend using it!

I export my models from Maya as .obj and import to Netfabb.  Upon import, it runs a repair script to clean up degenerate triangles, fill mesh holes, and join touching shells to a single part.  Think of it kind of like vacuforming your model. 

Once the model is in Netfabb, I position so the lowest part of the model is 4.5mm off the deck.  I find this is the optimal distance to allow support platforms and trees to form and normalize before the first part layer. 

When you enter "Generate Support" mode, Netfabb will analyze the part and highlight all bottom/overhang surfaces in red.  (Yes technically top/underhung surfaces because it prints upside down from this orientation, but you get it).  You can specify the value for critical (red) and caution (yellow) angles, I use 35 and 40 respectively.  Zero is a dead overhang, 90 is a wall.  Anything above a 40 degree angle can "Brick Balance". 

Once you have your critical angle surfaces generated, you can build scripts to generate supports for a given surface zone, or add individual supports manually.  You can also adjust almost every attribute of the supports, whether scripted or added manually, and independently of other supports. 

So far I've just been adding supports manually by clicking on the model where I want the support to connect, right clicking on that anchor and choosing "Create Bar".  Here are the attributes I use by default, and I'll adjust them individually if necessary.

Bar Contour: Solid Bar
Distance to part: 0.00 to -0.20mm
Width on Part: 0.30mm (For areas that will be closer to the edge of the build plate, I'll use 0.40mm, and sometimes 0.50mm.  This compensates for bulb falloff)
Width on Platform:  1.00mm
Right Angle on Part: No (sometimes Yes)
Pad on Platform: Yes
Pad Width: 10-12mm
Pad Height: 0.40mm

Once the supports are added, there is a manager to convert the support tree to its own .STL  I then select the Support STL and the Model and export the two parts as a single prepared .STL for DLP.
I also save the Netfabb project as it will allow me to make minor adjustments to the supports if necessary.  Unfortunately, if the part must be re-oriented, you'll have to start supports over from scratch.

Now I open the Photon slicer and import all the prepared STLs I want to print in one run, position them and set my layer and exposure settings.  Hit Slice!

When the slicer is done, it will notify you with the time the print will take.  You can choose "Ok" to close the window, or "Show Preview".  The preview opens another window with a slider that lets you scrub through each layer and confirm all details are present and check for floaters.  I also use this to judge if too much is being exposed on a given slice in relation to the amount of supports under it.  Too much at once will risk sticking the layer to the FEP, ripping it away from the supports when the build plate moves. 

If anything needs to be addressed, it's back to Netfabb to re-orient and re-generate supports.     Yes, this takes awhile as you're basically starting over with the supports, but you learn quick how to do things correctly the first time.  And the bright side is once it's finalized, it's finalized.

And there it is, the part is finally ready for the USB stick!   

I know it sounds like a lot of work, but after 4 or 5 parts, it only takes a matter of minutes to build a support tree.

This ought to be it's own thread so this doesn't get lost.  It's a great tutorial.

Meanwhile, I'm stumped on this step.

Once the supports are added, there is a manager to convert the support tree to its own .STL  I then select the Support STL and the Model and export the two parts as a single prepared .STL for DLP.

For some reason I can't find that manager.  Or maybe I have and just don't know I'm looking at it?    

[rodsup9000]

Meanwhile, I'm stumped on this step.

For some reason I can't find that manager.  Or maybe I have and just don't know I'm looking at it?   

 Aaron,

 Once you have you STL file loaded into slicer and have added the support, you can save the file by going to the "File" icon in the upper left, and in the drop down menu, select "save as" and then, find the place you want to save it, and hit export.

 Hope this helps.

[rodsup9000]

 This showed up in my email today. It's a good buy for 500ml of black resin shipped for $29

https://www.ebay.com/itm/282988902997?ul_noapp=true


 500ml of Gray for $29 shipped

https://www.ebay.com/itm/US-STOCK-Anycubic-Grey-405nm-UV-Sensitive-Resin-for-SLA-LCD-3D-Printer-500ml-/282986120465?_trksid=p5731.m3795






  Meanwhile, my 1l bottle of white, and the 500 ml bottles of red, black and 2nd bottle of gray showed up today. Along with a extra vat, 10 sheets of FEP.  This morning I ordered 500ml bottles of clear and skin. I wanted to try the clear to see if it will work for windows. Now I have enough supplies to last for awhile, I hope.

[chessie system fan]

 Once you have you STL file loaded into slicer and have added the support, you can save the file by going to the "File" icon in the upper left, and in the drop down menu, select "save as" and then, find the place you want to save it, and hit export.

 Hope this helps.

I'm pretty sure that's what I did in Netfabb.  But when I open the file in the anycubic software to slice it only the angled part appears with none of the supports.   

[Chris333]

I saw on FB that people were using 16 and 32GB USBs with success so I updated the driver. The machine still works, but it still doesn't see my 16GB USB. I have some 8GB sticks in the mail.