SLA 3D Resin Printer #2

I have nearly gathered all the necessary equipment. Only a UV chamber left to obtain and that is on order. 

Apart from obtaining the necessary extra equipment there is some important preparation to do. First was read/watch as many tutorials that I could find. 

One of these revealed the importance of levelling the machine. I had to make some standoffs for the two rear feet due to a sloping floor. 

Another was to print a calibration model to check optimised settings. Several .stl models are available free of charge from the web for this purpose. I selected 'RESIN XPT VALIDATION' as it is low profile for quick printing.

I had previously tested the two main slicer applications Chitubox and Lychee and decided on Lychee since it fully supported both my printer model and resin (Anycubic water washable resin +) and I liked its automatic support creation feature. However, I did not need supports for this calibration model since it is flat. Having configured the default, optimised printer and resin parameters I imported the .stl file and output the printer file. 

I needed to make a heater stand (see inset picture) to accomodate the heater's power cable that sticks out the bottom of the heater. This was made using my FDM printer. The cable was then bought out of the machine via the gap between machine and its cover.

The heater does not have temperature control, just an overload cutout so,  a separate temperature controller is needed to switch power on and off to it. There is a small access hole at the back of the printer through which a thermocouple probe could pass. The probe was taped down in the gap between cover and vat near the front.

Whilst waiting for the UV chamber to arrive I decided to print the calibration model since it does not really need UV curing. The working temperature of the resin is 20 degrees C +. The chamber ambient was 12 degrees and the resin 15 degrees so heating was needed. The heater raised the resin temperature to about 22 degrees in 1 hour at which point the print was started (by the way I used a temperature measuring gun aimed at the resin for accuracy). 20 minutes later the model emerged. 

To find out whether the result was adequate I watched another tutorial about it. The model details confirmed an adequate parametric configuration, even though most of the holes were covered. I think this may be due to being printed flat to the build plate.

This is the heater I am using that fits the available space in the Creality Halot Mage printer. It is an unbranded Chinese product available from many UK suppliers.

To Part 1.

Read about my experience printing my first model here. (4mm scale Matisa Ballast Cleaning Machine & Generator Wagon).