What caused this failure?

[wcfn100]

Some say if you just un-plug the fan it will keep from blowing the smell outside the box. I only smell it when I open the door and it's faint.

I'll check that out, thx.

Jason

[IronPenguin]

It's interesting that the smell issue varies so much from individual to individual. Neither my wife or I are bothered at all. We simply don't notice it. Other folks find it overwhelming.  It seems to be a very individual thing.

I second the idea of unplugging the fan. That does seem to help some folks.

[Mark W]

There's a funny comparison of the Saturn V Rocket and your Wifi router. 

The Saturn V had a million moving parts and successfully flew to space 13 times; 8 of them to the moon and back!
Your Wifi router has no moving parts, and is always having problems. 


Well, the Photon has a few moving parts, and sometimes ya just can't explain what goes wrong. 


https://i.imgur.com/YGF0Mdo.jpg


This was the second print of a 15 print batch.  The first one was perfect, and the 14 after were perfect.  Obviously, something happened around layer 50 and about half of the supports just did not expose.  They did resume exposing the rest of the print, but with the 1 or 2 layer gap, they all stayed with the FEP.   



https://i.imgur.com/fMJTc81.jpg

[garethashenden]

I’m really bad at follow up.  There was a tear in the film, around where everything was curving down towards. As if the film had been flexing when the plate rose. I replaced the film, and promptly set it down on a pair of tweezers, tearing it again. So I need to order more film and try again...

[Mark W]

...I replaced the film, and promptly set it down on a pair of tweezers, tearing it again. So I need to order more film and try again...

Doh!   

I experienced my first FEP puncture yesterday.  Had a little bit of resin leak and cure onto the LCD.  I used a straight edge razor blade to carefully scrape it free.  I didn't use any pressure; "Let the tool do the work".

For replacing the FEP, I had an idea of a jig that could be made to make the process so much easier!  We have a state holiday here in Nebraska tomorrow (Arbor Day!), so I'll use that time to build it and share. 

[IronPenguin]

I've been lucky so far. Stuff that has stuck to the FEP has all been small,  so gentle pressure from underneath  has popped  them loose w/o having to use razor or such.
Look forward to seeing your jig.
Arbor Day? I didn't think that had trees in Nebraska...

[Mark W]

I've been lucky so far. Stuff that has stuck to the FEP has all been small,  so gentle pressure from underneath  has popped  them loose w/o having to use razor or such.

Oh, I would NEVER use a razor or any pointy object to remove failed print bits from the FEP.  In that case, yes, the same press from underneath. 
But when the resin leaked and cured a thin layer to the LCD screen, that's where the straight edge razor came in. 

Arbor Day? I didn't think that had trees in Nebraska...

We didn't, not until the first _(American) Arbor Day was established, right here in Nebraska. 

[IronPenguin]

Oops, misread your resin leak.

[garethashenden]

Carrying on from where we were, I replaced the film and levelled the plate. It printed fine up to the bell tower roof. However, the print separated at this point. I think it has to do with the roof being solid, rather than hollow. I increased the exposure seconds substantially. I’ve been using 16 for green and 20 for grey. For this in black I set it to 35 seconds. This is probably overkill, but it is working well. It’s working so well in fact that the plate isn’t level again and it still printed! It’s been fixed, but these are kinda cool looking even though they’re unusable. The higher up on the print you get, the better the accuracy gets, probably because it wasn’t bending as much. I’ve added a few supports to the caboose roof to keep it flatter.

[wm3798]

Salvador Dali would be proud!
Lee

[narrowminded]

If it helps, I've been successfully using 17 seconds for gray and black.