Whats the best angle? (Part 2)

Still very curious to find the best angle for printing, I printed the same pendant at a 45' angle.

 

this is the turnout

 

 

As you can probably deduce for yourself from these images, doing a flat print is the better print option of the two.  

 

After this failed print, I noticed pieces floating in the resin whilst still in the printer. Trying to remove the cartridge I saw that the corner of the film was about to open and a tiny spout of resin was already leaking out. Afraid of what happened the last time I quickly removed the cartridge and contacted the reseller. I was told that there was probably a problem with that batch of cartridges and he will try and source some new cartridges of the FTX cast resin. The problem now is that I am stuck without any of the FTX cast resin so I am forced to now use the FTX green resin. Lets see if I can make this work....

 

Whats the best angle? (Part 1)

After a very time consuming, thorough cleaning of the printer, I was finally ready to start printing again curious to see the outcome I decided to do two prints, one completely flat and the other at a 45' angle. The first print that was done was printed completely flat.

 

The print was almost perfect apart from just one of the claws on the a setting not printing.

Maybe the 45'angle print would be better?  

Removing the cartridge

So whilst trying to remove the cartridge after my failed print, I noticed that some resin had been spilt in the machine. Upon further investigation and removal of the cartridge I saw that the cartridge film had opened up on the corner and the resin was slowly seeping out.

 

The images are of the cartridge after all the resin had leaked out...

 

 

 

After contacting the reseller, I was told that it could have been a defective cartridge which will be replaced, all that I had to do was remove certain parts and do a thorough clean as the resin would harden and damage the machine.

Pendant Print Retake (FTX Cast)

After the casting for the first pendant didn't work out, I was asked to see if I could print the pendant in sections so that it is easier for cleaning and assembling thereafter. This didn't seem like a difficult task at the time so I even got sprew's included in the print so that the print would be definitely cast properly.

 

All the elements for the pendant wouldn't fit on the build plate if seated flat so I printed 2 parts upright and the other flat....this is the outcome....

 

 

Certain parts of  the pendant did not print so after some technical assistance from the authorized reseller I was advised to print the parts  either at 45' angle or flat against the bed. I was advised to print so that there isn't as so much of empty spaces as the machine will need to create extra supports and will be even more difficult to clean later. I was also advised to remove the resin cartridge and make sure that there is no built pieces that have fallen into the resin as this would affect the next print.

 

Printing with the FTX Cast resin

For my first print using the FTX Cast resin I've decided to do two pairs of earrings which I've done previously using the FTX green resin. I thought it would be interesting to see the differences between the two resins.

 

The first difference that I've noticed even before seeing the final print was that the time for a complete print  was almost double that of the initial FTX green resin. The other differences were that the supports as well as the completed pieces were significantly larger than the other resin. This was due to the machine automatically taking casting shrinkage into account and increasing the articles size by a specific percentage so that it would be the exact  size when cast. (so I was told by the authorized reseller, still waiting to cast and see for myself)

FTX cast resin

The VisiJet Ftx cast resin has just arrived, cant wait to start printing!

 

 

Pendant Cast (fail)

After having a successful print, it moved onto the next step of production which was investing and then casting. The piece was invested with the R&R investment powder (advised) and cast at normal casting temperatures for 18ct Yellow gold. The casting  was a fail as parts did not cast properly and the finish was horrible, however this was the ftx green resin and the casting that worked previously was the ftx cast resin as it was a more wax based resin. I am currently awaiting the ftx cast resin so that I can start production for Vijay Shah Jewellers as well as my own B-tech work.

Pendant Print (auto support)

After having a failed print of the pendant using manual supports,  I redid the print with the auto support function. It was a perfect print.

Importance of supports when printing

Whilst Geomagics (software for the ProJet) has an automatic support function, I've decided to play a little and see what happens when I remove some of the auto supports on my print file, below are images of the build.

 

The entire pendant did not print, only the parts that had supports printed therefore making it vital that the piece being printed has adequate supports in order for the print to work

Chanic Brake Ring

Whilst browsing GrabCAD I stumbled upon a Industrial Design student by the name of Délé. He posted a rendering of a ring that he designed. His ring was inspired by car brakes and dubs it 'the Chanic collection.'

https://grabcad.com/library/chanic-brake-ring-1 

 

Délé has offered other people part of the GrabCAD community to design their very own car brake inspired ring. I think this would be a really cool project to work on towards my B-tech.

GrabCAD

Last week, whilst my printer was being set up I was advised to have a look at a site called GrabCAD. This site contains literally everything under the sun which is able to be downloaded and printed. The problem with these downloads are that the formats are usually stl. These stl files do not allow you to work on the file like you usually would when saving on rhino. So you can literally just scale up or down and that's about it. However this is a really cool site to see the design skills of others designing using CAD.

The website for GrabCAD is https://grabcad.com/home 

First Test Print (ProJet)

I decided to do a test print literally right after the technician left the workshop. I am really pleased with the outcome as well as the speed of the printer....these 2 rings took just 100 min to print which is really fast compared to the Envisontec and the solidscape printers

Arrival of the ProJet

After a good few weeks, I have finally taken delivery of my 3D printer. I can't wait to start printing!