Build Your Own SLA/SLS

Hi there everyone, started my build of a LittleRP clone a few days ago. First of all I would like to thanks Brad not only for a great design but also for making all the files available. Kudos.

I live in Portugal so sourcing some items was a bit difficult, I could find the aluminium profiles and the linear guides but had to order the nema motor with the threaded rod from Robotdigg and the PCB directly from LittleRP creator, Brad.The rest I printed and laser cuted in my shop. Mechanics are almost finished, I still have to buy some nuts and bolts because I used what I had available.

Next week is the electronics (crossing fingers with my order on LittleRP store, it would be great if arrived next week).

Further on is the VAT, I'm going to machine a FEP one. I want to thanks Nate (nc42) for helping me understand some of the tricks of this kind of 3d printing.

Here are the photos of my progress so far:

Looks great!

Thanks Nate.

I'm doing some sketches for the vat. Can someone tell me how deep is the petri dish used in LittleRP?

I hope you 3d printed the parts in PLA and not ABS.

Yes, parts were printed in PLA, otherwise Snow White would melt

Any clues on the question I made above?

The thermoform dishes are approx .8" from the vat floor to the ridge, and .125" from the vat floor to the bottom, so .925" overall. You can use any vat height so long as it isn't taller than the build plate + arm spacer height ~ 38mm.

Well, time for an update.

Still waiting for the PCB to arrive from the States and the motor from China, both are on the way here so hopefully this week I can progress a little bit further. The online store where I ordered the Acer 1283 messed up my order and sent me a Acer Travel C205 which is a Led projector and will not fit the project. Now I'm waiting for the replacement

Meanwhile I worked on a vat design, since today I was on the mood I decided to grab some iron and a soldering machine and decided to do a metal vat, I will still print a part with PLA (the bottom part in which direction the FEP will tension). I decided to go with Nate's route and it's the upper part of the vat that will press the film to the bottom, this way the film will be approximately at the same height as the petri dish in the original design.

Here is a picture of the progress, still have to sand it:

The PCB is here and the motor to, so mechanics are ready, next week will be electronics. I also finished the vat:

Everything put together, software installed and hardware ready, only the resin is missing!

Unfortunately there's still one issue to adress, I have ghosts on the image projected in the vat. There's the main image an then there's 3 or 4 other images! I bought the mirror at a speciality house, it's a regular glass mirror, is this the problem?