Build Your Own SLA/SLS

My printer was originally built with a tilting vat (I was using Qsil on glass for the vat floor) and I just never stopped using it. Most people printing with flexvats do not use tilting. I will probably run some parts this weekend with the tilt turned off to see if there are any differences but I wi...

Hugues Tension is the key to this type of vat. .005" FEP is a tough material it will not split under tension unless it is stretched 300 or 400 % or more. Tension makes the vat floor "rigid" just like a piece of glass, this tension combined with a sufficient "squeeze out" tim...

If your FEP is not under a good amount of tension it is not going to be flat and you are going to get sagging in the middle of the vat floor. BTW you got the FEP from me and it works flawlessly on my rig but I have the film under tension ( http://projectsinterestsandetcetera.com/wp-content/uploads/2...

from your exposure time and the look of your print I would suggest you have too much pigment in your resin. The light from the projector is not able to penetrate deep enough into the resin to "stick" the layers togther. I had similar problems until I adjusted my pigment concentration down.

I just finished a print run using ver 1.0.0.54 after upgrading from an earlier version and it ran flawlessly on my rig. I used supports but only the bed of nails. However, I did use the mask feature and it worked perfectly with my brightness correction mask.

Excellent work as usual.

It would be nice to be able to move the bed of nails supports as a unit in the x and y directions to aid in centering the supports on a part.

I want to clear something up. If you decide to take advantage of the FEP vat challenge you are only entitled to 2 sheet of FEP (1 unit in the shopping cart). I reserve the right to refuse any FEP challenge purchase and refund the purchase amount for any FEP challenge purchase that does not comply. h...

You can go here: http://projectsinterestsandetcetera.com/store/ for 12" Wide .005" FEP by the foot . You might also want to take advantage of this http://www.buildyourownsla.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2500 if you want to get a few sheets of FEP cheap, there are still some slots open.

The top piece was machined out of a 3/4" thick piece of hdpe on my cnc router. I made it out of hdpe because it's what I had around in that thickness at the time. There is a bead of silicone that acts to seal it to the piece below.

I decided to look into building a flex bottom vat because I was tired of redoing the sylgard/qsil vat coatings like everybody else. However, the prices I saw for FEP on a per square foot basis were pretty outrageous. So I did what I usually do, I lurked around the usual places until I found a deal.....