What is your craziest printing experiment?

[Lemosteam]

Well my first experiment was an epic fail, resulting in a ruined FEP, and a cool artifact.

Bit of background, I have some cast resin flats made by @cbroughton67 that were cast by mixing tungsten powder into the two part resin. The powder really adds to the heft of the 2.5” long car, so much so that very little weight is needed, if any at all.

This got me thinking. Our printers use resin….. so I mixed up a batch of Siraya Fast resin with equal weight powder.

Took me a really long time to get up the nerve to try it based on when I started this thread.

I should have listened to my gut instinct, but what is fun if you don’t try the experiment!

Had this been successful, it could have improved the mass weight of so many small printed rolling stock or locomotive shells, etc. Oh well…

So I let her run, and this is the result:



The edges are really crisp, unfortunately it did not stick to the build plate, so it just burned into the FEP for an hour..  Looks and feels like tungsten sandpaper, lol.

I think I’ll cut it from the FEP frame it!

[John]

Nothing ventured ,.... 

In the period from 1878 to 1880 Edison and his associates worked on at least three thousand different theories to develop an efficient incandescent lamp. Incandescent lamps make light by using electricity to heat a thin strip of material (called a filament) until it gets hot enough to glow. Many inventors had tried to perfect incandescent lamps to "sub-divide" electric light or make it smaller and weaker than it was in the existing arc lamps, which were too bright to be used for small spaces such as the rooms of a house.

https://www.fi.edu/history-resources/edisons-lightbulb

[Chris333]

I would like to figure out how to correct warps in prints. From what I've read the warp happens when the molecules  link together. What I'm interested in is how that relates to a print. If I print a long thin item the center will sag a little. So should I UV expose the top or bottom of it to get the bend out?

I know I can run it under hot water, but I want to get it straight right out of the cure chamber.

I tend to always cure the bottom (side with all the supports) of a print first and then flip it halfway through.

Idunno it would be nice to have a resin that didn't warp.

[Lemosteam]

Hi Chris,

In a top end cad system you could pre warp the model so that when printed it would return to design intent. As you might guess that can get quite complicated and quite experimental, much like casting shrink rates.

[Chris333]

I have done things like that to counteract the FEP tension. But even if I could pre-bend a part the opposite way of the warp it would then print with steps showing the layers instead of being flat and smooth.

I guess my "crazy" experiment was washing the print while it was still on the build plate and trying to cure it also while still attached so it couldn't warp. But nope soon as you pop it off here comes the warp. Of course it doesn't just pop off easy now because it cured 

Counteracting molecule cross linking seems easier 

[AlwaysSolutions]

I would like to figure out how to correct warps in prints.

Couple years ago I was so frustrated with this problem.  I had a caboose chassis I was trying to dial in and warpage was killing me.  I tried printing it flat/horizontal, I tried 45deg horizontal, 90deg horizontal, directly on the build plate, then all kinds of different support configurations, nothing would stop the warp so my last effort was to "pre-warp" it so it would spring back straight.  I think the deflection was somewhere around 1.5mm on both ends.  THAT WORKED.  I was triumphant and amazed for a couple minutes, it felt more solid/rigid, too after curing.  However - the stepping/layer lines were a problem.  It just wasn't acceptable to me.  And just the thought of pre-bending everything was ridiculous.  After tabling the project for about a year, I decided to give it another go.  Guess what?  It was the resin the whole time. (Anycubic White)  The Anycubic Grey I had when reviving the project didn't warp nearly as bad.  My process now is that supports and base structures are all modeled with the model so I can support exactly where I want.  The base is about 1.5mm thick.  When I clean the print, I let it dry out for a few hours first before curing.  IF it shows any sign of warping I'll clamp it down and cure it extra long.  Printing was fun again after I got rid of that cruddy resin.

Now on topic for craziest print experiment - pantographs that articulate.  That was the "ah-ha!" project that taught me to always push the limits of what you can do.  Some things will fail, but you'll learn a lot when you ride the edge of what's possible and not possible.  I've got both diamond style and single arm articulating pans now - although the single arms I'm still tweaking.

Cheers -Mike

[Chris333]

I have also tried to clamp the work straight while curing.

let it dry out

Funny some people think the only way to cure correctly is to do it with the prints submerged in water. I have never tried that. I did see a post once about using latex paint on a print made it swell up, like the water in the paint had something to do with it.

[Chris333]

Also I blow dry all my prints with air in-between each cleaning stage. And lately the last step has been Simple Green. Don't know if Simple Green helps anything, but it gets rid of the resin smell. I don't mind the smell, but if it is gone I figured it must be doing something to remove that smell and worthwhile.

[timwatson]

Crazy thing being attempted - a mostly 3d printed Hon30 layout, rolling stock, track etc.

[cv_acr]

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Door operating handles for drop bottom ore gondolas.

[GaryHinshaw]

Replacement ends for Kato well cars.  But most of you already know this.