Thank you for such a great rundown of your workflow! I’m interested in hearing more about the priming sheet - it sounds like a great idea, but why/how do you print it beforehand rather than just digitally placing it under your models in your slicer? Also, do you not do a final cure or remove the supports before shipping the products out? Again, thanks for making this awesome video and your whole series on being a polymer farmer is so useful!
I print it beforehand to tell if the level is off before committing to the job. For this customer, he prefers them to be shipped "green" as he removes the support himself to reduce costs. If I were shipping finished and cured prints to him it would double the cost (labor).
I understand running what is reliable, just curious if water washables aren't worth a try to cut down on IPA consumption. I have one brand that works well and use some modifiers to reduce the brittleness, but I save hundreds in not using as much IPA (still use for final clean-up of course), though denatured alcohol is a ton cheaper when you get them in bulk. My wash station is a large rubbermaid tote and a filtered submersible fountain pump with a sprayer head where I can do large batches in sequence. When you get into 'professional consumption' of resin, you start to wonder if making a partnership with the manufacturer wouldn't be of some benefit!
@@3DPrintedDebris I can guarantee you it will be worth your while. Price difference in Resin is negligible. Use water to clean off most of the resin, then do a bath of water/IPA mix for a final clean. Will probably result in less air pollution/stink in the shop, less health risks for skin contact and breathing in, easier to clean, less wasted IPA. Honestly I think you're running a great shop. Your prices are really affordable which is a respectable thing and a boon for the people you do business with. None of that "as an entrepeneur I have to charge 100$ an hour" bullshit. Really just an honest job.
@@3DPrintedDebris Obviously mixing IPA with lots of water saves on costs, stinks less and is less toxic. So you still get all the benefits of IPA with less of the downsides.
Okay, so... Assuming you[OP] are reading these comments from email, in order. All questions pretty much answered.. -cost of materials -equipment maintenance -risk of failure and cost associated. BUT. How much time do you spend tuning an FDM printer? Are the SLA units capable of being tuned to reduce failure rate, material usage, and Ex maintenance? You mentioned screen time, I scarcely know how it works - I guess the LCD is a consumable then? Hmm.
The older MARS was good to 100 hours, the SATURN is in the thousands. The issue for me is multiple vats/color handling, and also the HAZMAT disposal (legally) of the rinse. For single color runs for a single customer at business pricing it works for me. D2C not so much.
Great Job, i love your videos. In your opinion, if i don't care about the time, elegoo mars can still be a good printer for a farm? Or i have to buy some mono 2k or something like this (Newest) . Also, the v6 heatbreak from trianglelab (with ptfe tube inner) for the prusa mini you suggest in another video, can be good? Thank you very much
My only regret on the MARS is committing too early on the scaling. After I had 12 machines running, the Mono screens started coming out. By that time, I'd already purchased a couple years' worth of spare LCD screens. They're slow, but they get the job done. I saw the triangle labs heatbreak and passed on it. PTFE linings are subpar, IMO. Repeated heating and cooling shrinks the tube down, and this is a common and recurring problem on my Enders.
I recently purchased an Anycubic Photon S. My first print, a tolerance print that was on the stick, left floaters in the resin. My second print, a lattice cube, didn't print completely, due, I think, to floaters obstructing the light, and also dents in the plastic film bottom of the vat. From this experience, I came to the conclusion that I needed to strain the resin between every two prints, but you're skipping that step, or doing something else. So I need to ask. How do you prevent floaters?
Honestly, I never get them. I think the priming sheet may be sweeping them up. I NEVER strain unless there is a hard failure, and I normally nail 99.5% of my attempts first try. I'm not printing torture tests, either. The models are sculpted to be compatible with MSLA.
I'm brand new to resin Printing and I still don't even have a machine yet but I've been researching and I'm wondering if you have any concerns about the overall strength of a printed item. I've heard that resin printed sculptures and whatnot snap pretty easily or break when dropped.
I use kosher salt to pull the water out, and then a distiller rig to pull the pure IPA out. I usually reclaim 40-50% pure IPA, which I dilute back down after I'm done. The resulting jelly goes out into the sun to cure.
I use kosher salt to separate the water, and a science lab mantle and distiller to boil out the 100% IPA. It's not terribly efficient, and probably a waste of time now that IPA is available again. During COVID, the distiller was a life saver!!
I switched to simple green and water baths during COVID. IPA was really hard to come by when the pandemic first started, and water-washable resins hadn't come out yet. Now I just use it to clean my wife's jewelry.
I have been using Kosher salt to pull the water out, then distilling it to reclaim the 100% pure IPA. The jelly that remains is left out in the sun until it fully cures and is rendered inert.
Wow, $20/hour? That's barely above minimum wage. Serious radio guy, eh? So were you good at "fields"? Most of my EE friends either loved or totally hated fields.
@@3DPrintedDebris true, but it is time away from being CEO and chief engineer. Its also critical work, bad slicing makes for big piles of goo. Kinda of like the guy who stacks the shelves in a grocery store. Pre-Covid, we didn't know how important that job was.
@@PatFarrellKTM I've found written instructions, and these youtube videos have been cutting down the learning curve big time. I'll probably put together a "Slicing the 3DPD way" and dumb it down to where an entry level farm tech can follow along. I used to write a LOT of tech procedures (test plans, test cards, work instructions) in my career.
@@3DPrintedDebris That makes sense. It would be a good intern position for someone who wants to start, then learn some slicing, later some Fusion 360 and then on to make big bucks.
