$10 Top Down Build SLA. Testing for Bottom Up Build

Here's the place to post pics / video and discussions regarding hardware you've built or are in the process of building.
wirelessguyny
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Re: $10 Top Down Build SLA. Testing for Bottom Up Build

Postby wirelessguyny » Fri Aug 14, 2015 1:01 am


mystamo
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Re: $10 Top Down Build SLA. Testing for Bottom Up Build

Postby mystamo » Thu Aug 20, 2015 9:48 am

Hey Guys,

Almost back from summer madness.

When I'm back I'll get back to my promise of documenting my build more closely.

Regards,

Mo

wirelessguyny
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Re: $10 Top Down Build SLA. Testing for Bottom Up Build

Postby wirelessguyny » Thu Aug 20, 2015 12:12 pm

MYSTAMO! Welcome back. :-)

When you have a chance just go back one page in this thread and download my word doc. As you'll see I've got quite a bit documented. I'm about 95% there I think.

I too have had a busy summer and have yet to finish my build. Everything is together but I'm not 100% sure about my CW setting since that's all new to me.

Have a great summer! (I've got lots of friends up in Thunder Bay at the cottages. While I've never been there in the summer, I get to see all their posts on FB all the time.)

- All the best

wirelessguyny
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Re: $10 Top Down Build SLA. Testing for Bottom Up Build

Postby wirelessguyny » Fri Oct 23, 2015 3:25 pm

I just thought I'd check in with anyone who's been watching this thread.

Has anyone out there had any luck with this build?

I see that the document on page 3 has been downloaded close to 150 times now and I hope that there are some out there who are having success. I've been busy on other porjects and have yet to finish the last mile. I've also yet to hear from Mystamo or the fellow who created the Arduino widewinder code. :(

I'm not highly technical so I've been putting off randomly guessing at parameter values and trying my luck at doing a test build. If I do find some time in the next few weeks I may give it a shot. If I do have any more success I will certainly update the document and let everyone know my own results and then share any details for a larger scale build-out.

All the best,

wirelessguyny
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Re: $10 Top Down Build SLA. Testing for Bottom Up Build

Postby wirelessguyny » Wed Jan 13, 2016 2:36 am

Hello followers.

It's been a bit of a while but I thought I'd revive this thread and share some minor updates. I'm happy to see that more than 260 people have downloaded my DIY document on page 3 of this thread. Sadly, I still haven't heard from any successful DIYers. :(

I finally found a bit of time to do some short testing tonight after assembling everything and had some mixed results. I still think things look promising, just some more debugging required here. I have not heard anything form Mystamo or the developer of the Sidewinder code so I'm still riding solo for now.

After testing out my stepper driver and motor on a breadboard I soldered everything up and mounted it on my platform.
I got the Sidewinder software loaded on to the Arduino and then configured my version of Creation Workshop to speak to it. When I hit go I didn't get much of a response at all so I started to troubleshoot my setup.

I manually moved my stepper to the middle of the platform and sure enough I did see some movement (so I definitely have something inverted in my code even though I did tell CW it was a Top down machine).

The movements were not smooth and I expected to see the platform move down a few steps then up and then return to 1mm below the prior starting point but I got nothing like that. The stepper only seemed to go one way (down). This continued to happen even when I reloaded my test code in to the Arduino board (takig CW out of the mix). I don't know what my issue is yet but one guess is that now that I've soldered and wired everything up my circuit may have a bit more resistance than my original breadboard setup. I do plan on adjusting the trimpot but I'll need to be very careful not to fry anything or its back to the drawing board.

I'll share some quick snapshots of my setup. The projector still needs proper mounting and I need to get the lens aligned but you can see my Mickey Keychain sample in the first photo here:

Image

The second photo is a more full view of the entire setup. Hopefully this gives some of you adventurous folks another push to consider building a budget SLA printer. If all goes well here I'll eventually ramp up to a more legitimate stepper, deeper bath and more serious DLP Projector.

Image

wirelessguyny
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Re: $10 Top Down Build SLA. Testing for Bottom Up Build

Postby wirelessguyny » Thu Aug 11, 2016 6:07 pm


wirelessguyny
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Re: $10 Top Down Build SLA. Testing for Bottom Up Build

Postby wirelessguyny » Fri Sep 30, 2016 12:03 am

I thought I already included this file somehwere in my previous posts but sice I can't find it, here it is again.

Below you will find my official guide to the V1.0 release of my printer.
Yes, it cost $10 in parts [and I used a $40 DLP projector acquired on eBay. Not too shabby!!! ]

This will be the last post for this thread as I begin the process of working on V2.0 ;)

The next go around I will be replacing the DVDROM stepper with an official NEMA 17 motor and some other hardware typically used to build 3D printers.
At present I think my new cost is about $25 so far. As I expend the overall functionality just a bit the cost may rise some more.

As some of you way be aware, Creation Workshop is growing up and becoming a retail produt, so I'm not quite sure what that means for us tinkerers. Perhaps Pacmanfan can give us an update and let us know if there will in fact be a version that continues to be available for those who are not presently making any money off the hobby.

All the best.
Attachments
10Buck_3D_SLA_DIY_HOWTO_WG_1_0.doc
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redpanda
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Re: $10 Top Down Build SLA. Testing for Bottom Up Build

Postby redpanda » Thu Nov 03, 2016 1:23 pm


wirelessguyny
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Re: $10 Top Down Build SLA. Testing for Bottom Up Build

Postby wirelessguyny » Sun Dec 04, 2016 11:39 pm

For anyone still following along here, I figured I'd include another quick post with some more details and observations.

#1 - With a setup such as this one you will obviously be in for a lot of guesswork and trial-and-error. What I can relay is that I have been using Makerjuice SF. My initial prints such as the mickey mouse above were done with short layer cure timings of about 4 to 7 seconds. The prints do not seem to dry so I have begun adding to the cure time per layer significantly.

My current settings are about 21 seconds per layer with bottom layers at 23 seconds. Prints did seem much harder. I do not have any current photographs to share just yet. In part this is because of observation #2.

# 2- The choice of having everything as a separate component allows for more flexibility but also causes trouble for me to align everything each time. I have moved from the original test rig to a V2.0 which is much smaller and portable. Unfortunately, the Z-Axis is one item. There is a stand for the Vat, which is two and then my projector is item three, mounted on a tripod. Since all can be adjusted individually it proves challenging for me to set it all up and take it apart each time. Unfortunately I am a bit tight on space and can not set everything up once and leave it there. :(

Aligning the projector so there is no keystoning has been challenging. I would suggest that if you attempt any of this you should try and create a single structure instead of doing what I have done.

# 3 - UV lighting.

I have never seen any metrics out there which would allow people to compare what the strength of their projectors are. Something like that would actually be very useful to us all. Anyhow, I decided to purchase my own UV light meter. It is a model YK-34UV. In my tests it barely registered anything under normal room light conditions but did show about a 2.6 (on a 20mW/cm2 scale) when about 2.5 inches form my projector, where the build plate normally sits. My projector had been unmodified.

I have now removed the UV filter from within my projector. I tried testing once again and I believe the new numbers are somewhere between 3.x and 4.5 or so. My projector was on for about 15-16 minutes before it began to overheat and auto-shutdown (something I knew was a possibility but did not do anything about). I have purchased a small 12V PC fan which outputs 30cfm and hope that I can mount it to extract some added heat so the projector stays on without issue.

I will not have time to test this week but I will try to post once again once I have another opportunity.

Anyone who is interested may contact me and I can share some details about the direction I may be heading. I'm currently looking to switch to a more robust Arduino script and may also be considering new slicing and display software. I have also recently heard of some new options for light sources which may make life easier for the DIY users out there. More to come soon.

wirelessguyny
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Re: $10 Top Down Build SLA. Testing for Bottom Up Build

Postby wirelessguyny » Thu Dec 22, 2016 4:43 pm

So here's a quick update about my educational process here.

My V2 printer is certainly giving some better results than V1 did and I'm learning a lot about Creation Workshop as well. (somewhat wish the documentation was better actually).

The following was done with a 100 micron resolution and Makerjuice SF (somewhere around 3 seconds per layer).
[Note: I needed to stop the print early to go somewhere which is why it is not complete. I also cracked off two feet when removing from my build plate]. Size, as-is is 34.5mm tall



I learned somethings along the way.
a) the config screen asks for your build size and that's the total X/Y that your projector casts on the platform, not your vat size or build plate size.
b) my print above way not square. I actually needed to flop the X and Y entries I input and then also needed to rotate my print again to get things to line up. I'm not sure why that was the case (seemed like I'd be back when I started but I guess not). Anyhow, future prints will all be square now.

Once finished with the print I place in Isopropyl alcohol for 15 min and then let dry overnight under a UV bulb.

A bit better view of the result:


Next time I will likely bring down the cure time slightly as I may be over-curing. I seem to get good adhesion so that doesn't seem to be an issue here.


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