How do I get more Gray Resin added to one of the Form2s? It says it’s low and can’t print my model. Is that something I need to do, and if so, where do I find the supply of resin to fill it or do what is needed. I’m new to the resin printers. I don’t see anything on the Wiki.
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Resin has to be purchased from formlabs. There isn’t a way to refill the current cartridge that the space subscribes to.
I haven’t been able to get a successful print out of either printer recently. We aren’t low on grey resin, as I have emptied the tray, cleaned it out, and refilled it with new resin from the cartridge with plenty left over. The Form2 printers are at end of life. The next step would be to replace them with a single Form3 printer ($2500-3000 with consumables). We also need to re-think the $.40/ml resin price as that’s nearly 3-4x cost and has probably kept people from using the printers historically. I’m also in favor of offering a cheaper/shorter crossover class to existing/experienced FDM printers. I mention all of the non-technical issues here because at the moment, it sounds like there isn’t much managerial support for replacing the Form2 due to the low historical use. If the powers that be can foresee a higher demand than has existed in the past, it would support getting a new printer. However, it’s hard to generate much demand, even with new resin prices and class structure when the existing printers don’t work. If I have misread the winds, please let me know.
Thank you for your responses. And it makes me sad to hear what you said.
I’m no longer trying to use CalmLlama because it looks and feels and says it’s empty. So I’ll ignore the refill problem for now. Moving on.
Then I have another problem. This time with SkittyDinosaur…
There is a mismatch with SkittyDinosaur. Notice how SkittyDinosaur says its Cartridge is Rigid 4000 Cartridge and it reports its Resin Tank is Gray. What is going on with this mismatch? How can they mismatch?
Here is what is in the Tank. It looks white so I assume it is Rigid 4000 and not Gray. (If I look at CalmLlama the resin indeed does look gray).
This is what is on the FormLabs2 screen
This what I see in PreForm.
If I choose Gray and try to submit a model to the printer, I get back from PreForm
If I choose Rigid 4000, send it, it accepts the submission, and I start it, but then I get a failure.
Alex, Is this the same type of failure you have been experiencing and mentioned above?.
How do I switch the Resin Tank to one that tells the FormLabs that it contains Rigid 4000? Any help or pointers would be appreciated.
Ran into the same issues.
The resin cost also covers the cost of replacing resin trays, cleaning supplies and more. Just fyi.
The tanks are coded to the resin that is first used in it. You can’t walk backwards if I recall correctly. Like you could use grey resin in a tray and then rigid resin in the same tray but once rigid is used you can never go back to gray.
Rigid resin has glass particles in it to give it strength so the tray is locked after rigid is used in it.
I got a follow up email from Form Labs this morning with some troubleshooting things to try. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.
Alex
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Thanks Alex, looking forward to hearing more…
If there is something I can do to help, just ask. I’ve gotten a project for a friend that would benefit from resin prints and it’s due to him before Nov 1. So that’s why I’m so interested in solving this problem. If a purchase is needed please contact me and we’ll see what I can do to aid you in your efforts. Thanks.
Is there any news on this issue?
I haven’t looked at it, but more issues are coming up with those, I don’t think it is wise to upgrade to the form 3 for us. Having proprietary resin that is much more expensive/less variety/ large tanks that get mostly wasted in the end is not a great solution for the space.
The elegoo printer has been much more reliable and fun to use. (have you tried that one?)
I would recommend getting the bigger versions of the elegoo like the mars 4 max or others at about 10% of the price of the form. @pearlgreymusic or @Devmani probably have other recommendations as well.
I haven’t tried the Elegoo printer. The resin course did not cover that printer - sigh. Do you have a written procedure I could follow including what slicer I should use and how to connect to it? I wish that our wiki would contain more information.
P.S. What Elegoo model do we have at ASMBLY?
I’m just going to keep editing this post as people correct things that are wrong and add pic’s etc.
Machine: Elegoo mars 2 Pro,
ROUGH Procedure:
-
Download Chitubox, Should be able to do it directly off Elegoo website.(ADD LINK)
-Also might be downloaded on laptop by polyprinter -
Buy Resin
Elegoo has a great selection but most regular 405nm resins will work,
Just need to buy one that has the recommended cure times documented. -
Program in Chitubox with resin settings and put onto flash drive.
-
Go to machine and open lid.
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If part is on build platform remove as you would normally and set in a safe place.
-clean build platform with---- and put back on -
Remove resin tank by… and dump resin back into container with funnel that is next to machine.
-
wipe remnants with (lens cleaner towel?) and clean with Isopropyl alcohol? that is in squirt bottle next to it
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replace resin tank and fill with desired resin.
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Plug in usb to printer( if it doesn’t recognize usb turn on/off printer with usb installed
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find print on lcd and click go (usb will remain in for duration of print)
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When finished remove part and clean out tank etc.as per previous instructions.
@EricP, thank you.
I concur with this in spite of the fact that I really like the FormLabs stuff for my own use.
The Form printers simply are not a good match for a shared environment like ours.
Any of the Chitubox-based (Elegoo, AnyCubic, Phrozen, etc.) resin printers are 1/10 the price, and the disposables are quite resonable so people can be expected to have their own.
FWIW, we ordered a new Elegoo Saturn 3 Ultra 12k about a week ago. Or at least that was the plan, not 100% on if it has officially been ordered (@cfstaley?). That workflow should be very similar to Eric’s above.
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It was the plan, but I have held off. Alex was going to try and ressurect the Form2’s. I have not heard a status or ETA on that effort.
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