Anycubic Photon

[JMaurer1]

We are all capable of great feats of violence, but we are not all capable of being naked...

[AlwaysSolutions]

Anyone printing successfully in a "cold" garage?  My garage is around 50 deg F now and I'm getting a lot more failed prints than I'm used to.  Figure the viscosity of the resin might be at play. Going to warm it up and see if that helps, but wondering what others are doing?

[narrowminded]

Anyone printing successfully in a "cold" garage?  My garage is around 50 deg F now and I'm getting a lot more failed prints than I'm used to.  Figure the viscosity of the resin might be at play. Going to warm it up and see if that helps, but wondering what others are doing?

If you do a search on uv resin curing temperature I think you'll find that it very well may effect the curing time.  I don't have anything specific to add but am interested in this topic, probably for the same reasons.

[Chris333]

A lot of people on FB have some sort of heater for their machines. Mine is inside.

[narrowminded]

The effect, if it's there as I think it is, isn't necessarily the resin viscosity but the reaction instigated by the light is also raising the temperature.  It cures from the raised temperature instigated by the resin reaction to UV light so if it starts at a colder temperature it doesn't get to the curing temperature as it should.  That's what I'm gathering this far but wouldn't consider this complete or necessarily correct.  Getting the temperature up to ? and/ or consistent would assure a predictable result, something that will be important to quality, repeatable printing.  At a certain temperature you'll need a certain exposure time, variable with the temperature.  That's what I think is going on and why I'm interested in the actual story because if this is all as I suspect it would logically follow that it will have an effect on strength, too.

[Chris333]

I've seen heating belts that you can wrap around the vat. The vat is probably aluminum so it would stay toasty.

[AlwaysSolutions]

I've seen heating belts that you can wrap around the vat. The vat is probably aluminum so it would stay toasty.

I hadn't heard of those so I checked them out.  That got me thinking on something sort of similar... what about these heating pads for reptile enclosures?  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076FKX9JC/ref=psdc_3048867011_t3_B07C5HLBP6?th=1  Think slapping that on the side of a closed photon with a one hour pre-heat time would do anything?  Unlike the FDM heaters we don't need anything super hot, just a fair weather temp.   Hmmm....

[muktown128]

Based on my knowledge and experience with resins, coatings and UV curing, the colder temperature will increase the viscosity of the resin (increased resistance to flow).  I have seen a lot of viscosity vs. temperature profiles and it is amazing how much the viscosity of paint changes when the temperature changes from 50 to 70 F.  The reaction of UV photoinitiators to create free radicals should be independent of temperature.  One of the advantages of UV curing vs. thermal or baking is that the coating will cure at room temperature, which is beneficial for heat sensitive substrates like plastic, paper and wood.

[Chris333]

If any of you guys are idiots like me you can do this. Once you have items in the slicer and spend a while adding supports. You can save the sliced file and then you can change the setting for a different type of resin and slice it again. Once you close the program you can't open the sliced file. So saving it for different resins all at once can save you time re-adding all those supports...

The more you know 

[DKS]

If any of you guys are idiots like me you can do this...

The more you know...

Contradictory statements. Chris, you are anything but an "idiot."

That said... all it takes is communication of experience. And this forum is, if nothing else, an exceptional database for those willing and eager to learn.

Thank you, 

[Mark W]

One more reason I love Netfabb.  I import my 'model.stl' model and add supports, then export my 'model_DLP.stl' supports and all.  If i need to adjust settings for new resin, I dont need to go through adding supports again (though I can easily go back and tweak supports in Netfabb).  Just reopen my model_DLP in the slicer, reposition on the platform and go. 

[wcfn100]

If any of you guys are idiots like me you can do this. Once you have items in the slicer and spend a while adding supports. You can save the sliced file and then you can change the setting for a different type of resin and slice it again. Once you close the program you can't open the sliced file. So saving it for different resins all at once can save you time re-adding all those supports...

The more you know 

But you can open the .stl file and do this.

Jason

[Chris333]

For my next trick:



This was just a test to see if it would even come out. I've since added more details to it. It was printed flat, have one in the cooker now tilted 5 degrees.

[tom mann]

 

[C855B]

That is just insane. I had to look really hard to find any aliasing.

Shapeways who?