Printing issues

[Car 54]

I apologize @tuyere I'm not trying to hijack your thread, but not too bad

 

[tuyere]

Ain't my thread, I hijacked someone else's first. But yeah, that's very good! I'll tolerate 19.95 - 20.05 for most purposes, you're basically bang-on.

 

[erykd1]

We got really tired of the labor and mess of ultrasonic cleaning all of our 3d models and air blasting alcohol/resin all over everything, No matter how careful we were, all of the cabinets and surfaces end up sticky and dirty . Enter the Anycubic Wash & Cure Max, this thing is pretty sweet! Pretty much an all in one washing machine and curing box. We realized we needed to give all of our models a preclean (quick shake in an IPA filled pickle jar from Amazon). This has been working great for us.

Wash & Cure MAX
Pickle Jar!

 

[Car 54]

Ain't my thread, I hijacked someone else's first. But yeah, that's very good! I'll tolerate 19.95 - 20.05 for most purposes, you're basically bang-on.

lol...I thought I checked the thread author...maybe it's the fumes and chemicals getting to me already. @rkm rdt time for a wire printer lol

 

[Car 54]

We got really tired of the labor and mess of ultrasonic cleaning all of our 3d models and air blasting alcohol/resin all over everything, No matter how careful we were, all of the cabinets and surfaces end up sticky and dirty . Enter the Anycubic Wash & Cure Max, this thing is pretty sweet! Pretty much an all in one washing machine and curing box. We realized we needed to give all of our models a preclean (quick shake in an IPA filled pickle jar from Amazon). This has been working great for us.

Wash & Cure MAX
Pickle Jar!

I agree, I went for the same type of setup. Elegoo Mercury Plus 2 in 1 wash and cure station. I'm at times re-washing and touch up curing some of my Dr's slightly sticky printed casts he sends over, it does help. Anycubic was the other option I considered.

 

[tuyere]

Resin printing is pretty innocuous compared to all the other **** you get exposed to doing lab work, honestly. The alcohol fumes are irritating and need extraction or containment, and resin itself is a sensitizer that people can eventually develop dermatitis reactions to, but a basic comprehensive lab setup and PPE/working practices should handle both pretty tidily. Meanwhile there's a hydrofluoric acid etching solution 15 feet from where I'm sitting that will necrotize your bones while you're still alive and straight-up murder you via fluoride poisoning from a single skin-contact accident.

 

[Car 54]

Resin printing is pretty innocuous compared to all the other **** you get exposed to doing lab work, honestly. The alcohol fumes are irritating and need extraction or containment, and resin itself is a sensitizer that people can eventually develop dermatitis reactions to, but a basic comprehensive lab setup and PPE/working practices should handle both pretty tidily. Meanwhile there's a hydrofluoric acid etching solution 15 feet from where I'm sitting that will necrotize your bones while you're still alive and straight-up murder you via fluoride poisoning from a single skin-contact accident.

Yep...

 

[tuyere]

re: post-processing workflows: I posted a bit about this a few pages back, but our workflow is:

1. Form Wash, first pass in the 'dirty' bath, 3-5 minutes
2. Form Wash, second pass in the 'clean' bath, 2-4 minutes
3. A quick rinse with fresh IPA squirted from a lab wash bottle, washing the parts off while they're still dripping from the second clean bath.
4. For implants/models with holes or cavities, parts with very tough to clean resins like denture teeth, nightguards that must be 100% spotless, we'll often squirt alcohol through the hole/cavity with the wash bottle tip, and/or use a fine hair brush and a dish of fresh alcohol to manually target any problem areas. With careful wash operation and part orientation, though, you can avoid almost all manual detail work.

The Form Wash units are a nice upgrade from the hobbyist-tier Anycubic/Elegoo etc combined wash-cure units, they clean a lot more effectively (the impeller switches directions once a minute to help reach every crevice + the flow is a lot stronger than with hobby units) and they automatically lift the wash basket out of the bath once the timer runs down, so parts never soak in the bath if you forget about them and they'll "dry themselves" if you start the job and walk away. The build quality is also nicer, they're not exactly "commercial-grade" but we've been running ours for almost two years, 14 hours a day 5 days a week, and they're still going strong with no maintenance needed.

At home, for my hobby printing, I use an Elegoo 2-in-1 wash/cure unit, and bought an extra wash tub for the unit, so I can run two baths by just switching the tubs on top of the base. Almost as good as the $2500 form unit, in terms of wash quality, and I don't need those little production quality-of-life features like you want if you're running parts all day for your job.

 

[Car 54]

re: post-processing workflows: I posted a bit about this a few pages back, but our workflow is:

1. Form Wash, first pass in the 'dirty' bath, 3-5 minutes
2. Form Wash, second pass in the 'clean' bath, 2-4 minutes
3. A quick rinse with fresh IPA squirted from a lab wash bottle, washing the parts off while they're still dripping from the second clean bath.
4. For implants/models with holes or cavities, parts with very tough to clean resins like denture teeth, nightguards that must be 100% spotless, we'll often squirt alcohol through the hole/cavity with the wash bottle tip, and/or use a fine hair brush and a dish of fresh alcohol to manually target any problem areas. With careful wash operation and part orientation, though, you can avoid almost all manual detail work.

The Form Wash units are a nice upgrade from the hobbyist-tier Anycubic/Elegoo etc combined wash-cure units, they clean a lot more effectively (the impeller switches directions once a minute to help reach every crevice + the flow is a lot stronger than with hobby units) and they automatically lift the wash basket out of the bath once the timer runs down, so parts never soak in the bath if you forget about them and they'll "dry themselves" if you start the job and walk away. The build quality is also nicer, they're not exactly "commercial-grade" but we've been running ours for almost two years, 14 hours a day 5 days a week, and they're still going strong with no maintenance needed.

At home, for my hobby printing, I use an Elegoo 2-in-1 wash/cure unit, and bought an extra wash tub for the unit, so I can run two baths by just switching the tubs on top of the base. Almost as good as the $2500 form unit, in terms of wash quality, and I don't need those little production quality-of-life features like you want if you're running parts all day for your job.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to keep overwhelming you with all the Winners, but your posts have been really helpful to me, thank you
And I've thought about the same thing for my Elegoo, a 2nd wash tub. Even though the wash impeller isn't like an EF4 tornado, the model I have reverses direction every minute, which helps.

 

[rkm rdt]