Hi everyone,
I just got an Elegoo Saturn 2 and did one successful print and tried another but ran into some issues after it printed.
I’m using a water washable resin for both prints. Also using the Elegoo Mercury wash and cure machine for this.
Once the print finished, I put it into the wash with water and let it spin for 3 minutes. I took out the print and let it dry off on a metal plate. Then I moved it back to the Mercury to cure under the UV lights. Once it seemed cured, I began removing the supports.
This is a fairly big, heavy object that was being printed. This is the object here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2482299
I titled it on its side in the slicer so that the full object could fit on the bed and used the default settings with medium supports.
One issue is that the color turned a cloudish color. To my understanding, this is because I didn’t let it dry enough after the wash before curing. Is that correct or is there another reason for that?
The second issue I had is that there was a few layer shifts in the print. Here’s a picture of the layer shifts https://i.imgur.com/eV5XSxN.jpg https://i.imgur.com/TKAFD1x.jpg I did once knock the printer which I know can cause layer shifts. But I’m seeing more than one layer shift which leads me to believe something else happened. What else could cause layer shifts besides the printer being physically knocked?
The third issue is that the very first layers of the print are coming off. Here’s some pictures of this https://i.imgur.com/CrFdExh.jpg https://i.imgur.com/fKpff9G.jpg my thinking is that maybe this is because I didn’t choose heavy supports since this was a larger object? Could that do it? But what would cause this part to be flat too? It’s supposed to be rounded, but after pulling the supports, this area is flat despite it being elevated from the bed to be held by supports.
Thank you very much! I’ll look into some new settings for the next attempt at this!
Makes sense about removing supports before washing and curing. I don’t want it cured to the print which will cause other issues, I’m sure! Lol
As far as shaking the resin….well, I took the print directly out of the printer and used the scraper to get the print off the build plate and onto a metal tray. Then I immediately dropped the print into the bucket of water that went onto my Mercury wash and cure machine. I set the machine to begin the washing process which moves the water using a magnet underneath the bucket and set that to wash for 3 minutes. Is that shaking the resin or did I likely miss a step here?
You have to shake the resin before you pour it in the printer. The ingredients of the resin can settle in the bottle causing inconsistent print sections. Shake it really well before using it, and when you’re done, pour it through a filter back into the bottle and store it in a cool, dry, location.
Oh yes I did do that! I watched some YouTube videos and followed advice to not shake too much but to shake well up and down and side to side but not as much as I would for a bottle of juice, for example.
Your cleaning procedure should be fine, I do the same but by hand.
I meant shaking the resin while it’s still in the bottle, before you pour it out into the reservoir of the resin printer. The resin can separate into it’s base components, giving bad prints, and might sometimes need a LOT of shaking to properly mix.
One should also clean the bed/reservoir and “reshake” the resin at least every 24 hours if possible.