Build Your Own SLA/SLS

@ SidranaI am planning to use cw, but for now i have created my own software (and firmware) to control the printer(including a custom protocol), To be able to use cw i need to change the protocol to G-code and get to grips with cw. I think you could use firmware comparible to the fdm printers, although i did not investigate that in detail.

@Finhead, The Lathe is awsome (a mill is on my wishlist).

Yes lathe is awesome to have in the garage but your right the mill (RF45) is just as nice, used it to true up all my extrusions last night. Quick and easy.

Back on topic I Look forward to more progress on your build, it looks great.

PRINTING STARTED!!!!

the printer has just finished its first print,





the result is not great yet, but its a start


some tinkering with the parameters required.....

Congratulations, the print looks nice already!

the first frog:


my camera is from the dark ages and the macro setting is not verry good, for reference, the paper is a paper kitchen towel (the cheap one from AH (a well known supermarket) in the netherlands)

where can i find the "stock" items everybody prints when they finish heir first printer?

Prints look great. Are you using any kind of tilt for your vat or just raising the Z to peel?

Clinton

At first i just raised the build area to peel. seems to be sufficient.
Later I removed one of the clamps that hold the glass in place(the black bar on the photo). That allows the glass to bend a bit when lifting the build area. Maybe that helps a bit, (I made just 3 prints before i had to leave).

Furter experimenting required.

My main issues at the moment:
- A thicker layer is cured than needed, ruining overhangs (at 1,5 seconds curing time).
- ruined the sylgard coating, need to build a new vat(I throw the current one away. The glass costs only 2 euro, and 15 min of curring and glueing, so it is not worth salvaging the old one .)
- a weekend away, can not work on the printer this weekend, serious issue

I upgraded my printer with a Flex vat flex foil 0,05mm thick pulled taught at high tension.
some pictures of the resulting prints:

a bit warped, because wrong settings of X and y axis but nevertheless quite nice

the classic eiffel tower 10cm tall in this case:


a picture with lighting conditions to highlite the layers, note the railing:




right the best i could get with pdms, left with flex vat:

Hi Szzer,

checkout the bull we printed ..

also Flex VAT

Cheers,
hp