Back in the shop for the first time since before New Years. I removed my old printer and cleaned it up. It works perfectly, but I’m pressed for worktop space. Funny… the touch pad was getting all munged up and looked terrible. Upon closer inspection it appeared to be delaminating. Turns out there was a protective film over it that should be removed. I put the new touch pad cover when I replace the electronics a couple of years ago. There was no instruction about removing any film. Now there’s a pristine touch pad for anyone who buys the machine. Then I looked closer at the new printer, and there was a protective film on its touch pad too. I removed that right away. The film made it hard to remove any errant resin that got on it.
Removing the printer freed up space for the new Ultrasonic cleaner which is much larger.
Like the old cleaner, the first thing I did was cut some aluminum screen wire for the bottom of the parts basket to captivate any smaller parts. The machine comes with a tiny jewelry basket, but the screen is for things a bit larger.
I then installed the second UV curing light in the lid of my enlarged post-curing box. Between hot glue and some scrap pieces and cardboard, I made a semi-secure mount for the light. I added a front door to the box so I really don’t have to fully remove the lid; just tip it back a litte to let the door open. This doubles the lumens in the box and exposes the tops of parts along with the sides. I would still have to invert the parts to ensure the bottoms are cured.
I hadn’t used the printer in a long time and it needed a firmware upgrade before I could load the new files. I modified all the files that were affected by the propeler shaft size changed and will be printing all these parts over the next couple of weeks. My goal is to have the main propulsion parts done in two weeks. While the printer’s working I will be designing the auxiliaries and working on another modern styrene plastic kit, the Trumpeter 1:32 F-35B STOVL. I was planning on 3D printing a 2nd propulsion plant for this plane and attempted to scan an assembled conventional take off engine that would power the F-35A. The scan is not usable as a 3D printing model. I may serve as a guide to modeling it on SketchUp, but I’m not too optimistic. I was planning on having one system out of the model and the other installed.
I had forgotten a quirk of the printer. When it’s in the rest position, the vat is in “down tilt position”. When you fill the vat with resin, you can’t get anywhere near the MAX marking. You really need to fill amost a 1/4" below it. When the printer energizes, the vat moves up to the level position and if you added resin level too close to the max mark, it will cause an “Overfill” alarm and stop the print. I overfilled it today. I lost track of the right spot to fill (note to self: put some kind of marking to show the actual fill line), and had to empty some resin before restarting the print. Emptying resin is always sloppy and can get out of control really fast. I should buy a cheap turkey baster to do this when it happens again. Later tonight the first of the modified parts will come off the machine.