Build Your Own SLA/SLS

not anybody, you said you wont supply to me because I need a custom size.. its your choice, but kinda sucks you wont share with me..

Sounds like we should start looking into what goes into making these sheets...anyone look into the process any?

I have been, Havent found much though. Sounds like its gonna be mostly experimenting till we figure out the best way. Its easy to make small sheets/membranes but harder for larger ones.

Spin coating seems to be the most reliable way to make thin sheets. Spincoaters usually dont make sheets large enough for me though. I might have to make a custom spin coater. Id be nice if we could just sandwiching some teflon af in solution between some glass with a 0.1-0.2mm spacer along the edges to make a sheet, but im not sure its possible as you need to evaporate the solvent.

Hmm, let me see what I can do asking the brain trust at work . Part of the perk working at a university.

someone previously mentioned silpuran, a ultra thin silicone from wacker, being sold by silex.co.uk . price is relatively cheap, compared with teflon AF. but, what silex offer online is ELASTOSIL, who has similar properties to SILPURAN, about 450 barrer o2 permeability. silpuran i think is oriented to medical aplications and elastosil is general purpose.
nobody from UK has tested this film?

in another thread, user dragokirov is testing other material with antistick properties, very flexible ( 400 % ), very similar to elastosil ( 450% ).

I think to get rid of silpuran/elastosil high elasticity, we need additional process before tensioning. We need to stretch it horizontally first to x and y axis, and then tension it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_5LNsT ... e=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rsdec9 ... e=youtu.be

this material is being developed by dragokirov, and clearly must be streched before tensioned. the questions is whether applying sufficient tension, the film can get enought rigidity.

anyone here have tried using pdms film/membrane?

There's been some talk of Elastosil, and we may be able to cast our own for testing purposes.
9 tubes of 310ml Elastosil caulking is up on Ebay.


I'd be willing to purchase one and run some tests. I don't have a degasser though so I may run into some problems.


edit:
I work for a large Healthcare GPO so I'm asking around to see if we have any contracts with Wacker. If so I may be able to get some samples for silpuran.

even if they are only 3 or 4 inches squared, that should be enough to see if we can continuously print with it.

Do you know what kind of RTV-1 Elastosil is the right silicone?
I see that there are three kind of RTV-1 : A, E, N

http://www.drawin.de/dasat/index.php?ci ... &sid=dasat