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.
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First off, remove supports while washing, and before curing.
Regarding the cloudiness, you did properly shake the resin before usage, right? And yes, letting it dry entirely is rather important, so don’t skip on that part! ;)
Regarding the layer shifts: your print settings are most likely sub optimal for your setup, you’ll need to readjust them, this can be very tedious, but if you are using a popular brand of resin in a popular brand of printer, then you should be able to find settings which worked for others.
Regarding the layers: correct, it’s support failure! That, and perhaps a mix of bad settings for the chosen resin. Make sure that you have at least 1 heavy support for each large freehanging extremity, and finish it off with a LOT of smaller supports in the area. Especially if it’s a larger flat area!
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.
I started resin printing a couple months ago. I had some of those layer problems too. I found that I need way more supports than I thought I needed at the beginning. This is a pretty good guide on supoorts. Alternately Ive been using lychee slicer’s auto supports. They seem to work well for the most part.
I also just recently did some exposure tests. It takes a while because each test is about 20 minutes but it turns out I was under exposing my prints so things are better now.
Lastly I replaced the usb stick the printer came with. I highly recommend doing this right away, a bad stick can do weird things. I got two 64gb Kingston data travellers for $10 Canadian. It’s well worth it.
Haven’t had the layer issues since I did these things and, fingers crossed, I haven’t had a failed print since either.
Thanks for the recommendations!
A new USB is definitely on my list of things to get…I honestly forgot about that recommendation how it can cause weird issues, but that’s a good point to rule out.
I tried adding some new supports on another attempt last night but had some issues with the print seemingly not printing at all, or maybe it was and I was impatient. Going to try again tonight after watching this video, thank you for the tips!
Any time!
If it didn’t print at all I’d be looking at that USB right away. I had many half printed things and corrupted files before I clued in.
I’m unsure as it said it was 73% done but I saw supports and not enough actually printing under the supports…it was weird. But when I went to clean everything, there was a huge circular piece of plastic in the bottom of the vat. So I’m so confused lol
But you’re right! I’m starting from scratch today with deep cleaning on everything and recalibrating. A new USB would be perfect to match!
Good call on a deep clean. I’m sure you’ll figure it out. I think it’s a lot of trial and error for most people at the beginning.
That piece on the FEP sheet is where it let go from the supports when the build plate lifted. More support will probably fix that.
I always think about what’s happening when I’m doing supports. The resin gets cured on the FEP then the build plate moves up and pulls that layer off the FEP. The part is being pulled by forces in opposite directions so we need to make sure that the part hanging on to the build plate is sufficiently anchored so it’ll pop off the FEP and not off the build plate.
True, the sticking can be quite the hassle. I personally (carefully) sanded down the metal print plate, as to make it more rough and therefore more sticky, and then bought some new film from fepshop.com which should be less sticky than the original on my Elegoo Mars Pro 1.
That worked really well, minimizing layer shifts quite a bit and allowing me to use less supports without the print going haywire.
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