Does anyone on planet Earth, except me, use Bluecast X10 resin on a Prusa SL1?
There's no support, no guides, no experience with it... anywhere!
If any of you guys do use it successfully could you let me know? We're having issues with it!
To give some background, I cast jewellery daily in platinum, gold and silver. I bought the SL1 as a test printer to see if we could move away from the stupidly expensive EnvisionTec's we currently use.
We're having issues with the X10 resin. It prints pretty well, not too many failures and casts very well, even in platinum.
However, the prints themselves have issues.
BlueCast X10 seems very gloopy, like slightly warm honey. When the rings come off of the build plate two things are apparent:
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Back-holes on the sides of the rings are part or completely filled with cured resin (not liquid that be removed)
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The last part of the rings to print (the top), the inside of the ring becomes bumpy where resin has rested and cured again.
I have tried printing the rings at various angles, including 45 degrees, which weirdly made all of these problems even worse. When printing at an angle the back holes are filled with resin at exactly the angle I printed at, kinda proving the "liquid resin staying in the holes and curing during the print" theory.
RE: Does anyone on planet Earth, except me, use Bluecast X10 resin on a Prusa SL1?
Have you engaged Prusa support? It looks like they sell it on their website so they should have experience using it.
RE: Does anyone on planet Earth, except me, use Bluecast X10 resin on a Prusa SL1?
Hey guys, just to update.
I don't think Prusa have any experience with BlueCast so they're unable to assist. I've not stopped testing, and some guys from BlueCast themselves have been helping. BlueCast sell their own printer which apparently does not have the issue, they think it might be a Wait on Lift function that helps - they hold the part out of the resin between layers for a few seconds.
What I can tell you is that Prusa's settings for X10 are definitely wrong, and I'd recommend 6/60 at either 0.025 or 0.05 layer heights.
BlueCast sell a thinner called Hardenizer which can be added to the X10 resin and makes it a bit more flowing. This helps a bit, as does heating the resin to 40C. Nothing really solves the issue though.
I think I just have to accept the the Prusa Sl1 simply can not print in BlueCast perfectly - end of. It's not an unsolveable issue as we can just drill out by hand the holes etc. in the gold-cast piece, but that's labour we shouldn't need to do.
It is frustrating as other machines can do this, but I can't get to the bottom of it.
If anyone wants to get in to casting and using X10, please feel free to get in touch. I am happy to help where I can. I exclusively use the Sl1 for precious metal casting.
RE: Does anyone on planet Earth, except me, use Bluecast X10 resin on a Prusa SL1?
@captain-spank
Hi, im using bluecast too in my sl1, you got any tips about post procesing with alchohol and curing time?, thanks for the help
RE: Does anyone on planet Earth, except me, use Bluecast X10 resin on a Prusa SL1?
Sure
Depending on at what point you are casting you don't actually have to cure at all. Generally, if I'm casting more than a couple of days away I will cure the rings, and if not I'll just go to cast without curing. Honestly, the cure time doesn't really matter. 3-5 minutes is more than enough.
The alcohol is absolutely essential though, you really do need to clean out that resin as it's thick and gloopy and cures very quickly in sunlight. You should consider getting an air blower rather than compressed air. This is expensive but excellent, you can get cheaper versions: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07VRLQW82/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Tips
- Print out an angled build plate holder [ https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/5833-prusa-sl1-platform-drip-adapter/comments ] and leave the orange SL1 cover down. Let it drip out for a while.
- Buy an ultrasonic cleaner. You shouldn't really put Isopropyl Alcohol in an ultrasonic due to it's low flash point, but I've done it on occasion. I've now bought some TPM [ https://www.britishchemicalproducts.co.uk/product.asp?s=qvcn8v2090584&strParents=&CAT_ID=0&P_ID=323&strPageHistory=search&numSearchStartRecord=1 ] to replace the isopropyl. It's not nearly as flammable and is safe in ultrasonics. Formlabs have a great article on TPM here: https://support.formlabs.com/s/article/Washing-prints-with-TPM?language=en_US
I usually leave the prints in the TPM ultrasonic for 10 minutes or so and move them around during. As a rule, don't cheap out, the more powerful the ultrasonic the better job it is going to do getting all that resin out. Once out of the TPM, a wash the in CW1 with distilled water and a tiny drop of dish soap cleans off the TPM nicely (it's oily compared to isopropyl and takes a long time to evaporate).