Build Your Own SLA/SLS

Yeah, No luck finding any Teflon AF sheets. Im a little leary trying out Silpuran as its very strechy stuff, I have a large vat area so im sure it would sag quite a bit in the middle.

Ive been reading on how to make our own film from the raw Teflon AF, seems like its not too difficult. Might buy some raw stuff and try it out.

Heat- or UV-curable acrylic resins; coatings; films; biocompatible, water-swelling, oxygen-permeable contact lenses



Patent US5010141 - Heat- or UV-curable acrylic resins; coatings; films; biocompatible, water ... - Google Patents


Publication number US5010141 A
Publication type Grant
Application number US 07/510,504
Publication date Apr 23, 1991
Filing date Apr 18, 1990
Priority date Oct 25, 1989
Fee status Paid
Also published as CA2028359A1, 5 More »
Inventors Karl F. Mueller
Original Assignee Ciba-Geigy Corporation
Export Citation BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
Patent Citations (20), Referenced by (172), Classifications (14),Legal Events (4)
External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet

Well he just started trying it out, and the rook print he's produced later has much better finish.

Hi

Thank you for mentioning my website and the video

The speed printing post I did before with the 3 test items where done more to test my override manager than the speed for a company in New Zealand that is testing a Roland 3D printer. I did the speed test part for someone else that wanted to know if dipping is important or not. I did this test probably a month ago or so, but redid my blog pages so that it looked a bit better.

The rook I did in October last year when I was testing high resolution printing. High resolution is actually very easy. Use industrial blend and keep on adding pigment until you get it right
https://plus.google.com/116019898771881 ... uYEMM7VqFe

Big flat surfaces is the problem. I remember Yoda when I say this. Big surfaces causes heat, heat causes curling, curling causes sadness

I think the continues printing method has a couple limits. I am now trying to print a ring of Paul Braddock (https://instagram.com/paulbraddock/) using continues printing. Currently the machine is configured to print at 78 micron X/Y. I will reconfigure it to 35 micron and see how it goes. The big flat surfaces is causing a bit of smoke so it is overcuring alot. I need to upgrade the code so that it is possible to go between continues and standard printing per layer. When or if I am able to get the ring to print perfectly using continues printing I will post a video of that. Nice thing is the print only takes a couple minutes each time to test.

@vinto
I am using the H6510BD projector from Acer. I am talking them to get the H6520BD next month that has more lumens. I also have something special built into the machine that I need to patent before I can talk about it helping with the speed. I wouldn't be surprised if the beta machines can double the speed.

@Zenon
Yes the resin is Fun To Do. The tank is a 4L tank. There is probably 2L of Industrial blend in there and 2L of standard blend. I was printing the car engine and it started to get expensive to use industrial so I changed over to standard. For what I am doing standard is fine. Industrial is great for printing strong parts and really fine parts

What if you dithered the image? Instead of printing 1 large flat area all at once, send two images, say a checkboard, where the black squares in one image are the white squares in the next and vice versa. So each layer shoot two images. Then your max cure area at any one time is the size of the checker square. You could also go with hexagons and honeycomb or some other alternating pattern.

I read the article, quite interesting guys:

“I believe the continues printing method that Carbon 3D is using, and what I am using, can really only be used on thin walls,” he tells us. “As the thin wall dips into the resin, the top is small enough that the resin flows over the wall quickly enough. I will upgrade my software so that the user can use the ‘Override Manager’ to go seemlessly between standard printing and continuous printing. Think of a box. You might print the front against the build plate. That would be your big flat surface. For that you would use standard printing with a wiper. When you get to the 1mm of 2mm thick walls you will tell the ‘Override Manager’ to use continuous printing and it will just fly through the print.”

so the conclussion for emulating Carbon3D is:
1-tweak software for continuous printing(all we are waiting Steve!!!!
2-locate the most affordable Teflon or compound with high level or barrers
3-using a resin who cures rapidly, like makerjuice or funtodo
4-preparing the piece to be hollow.

Using top down systems for continues printing is indeed limited to thin walls, as others mentioned it, when a big surface is cured then dipped slowly, the viscosity and surface tension of the resin will prevent it from filling the entire dipped surface.
However, on bottom up systems, raising the model causes a suction that immediately fills the resin under the raised model. When using a flexible vat base though, this process should be slow enough so the base will stay flat and not pulled up with the model's motion.