New to printing here -- can anyone tell me why this happened? I have printed a few other things successfully before this one.
imgur.com/a/cZZyukV
imgur.comPosted May 13, 2021, 10:03 AM UTC
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imgur.comYour supports are the first thing I'd suspect here, did you use auto-support by any chance? If not, did you happen to use "light" supports for this?
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I think this is the likely culprit. The light supports are fairly poor when auto generated.
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Auto supports are trash in Chitubox. They should be avoided at all costs, they're only ideal for extremely heavy duty prints - and even then, it's far more effective - both cost effective & practically effective to learn manual supports for those more detailed prints. I cannot for the life of me remember the YouTuber, but there was a guy who actually had a really good process for support placement and finding the ideal range and placements etc.
I'll link it once I find it, it's somewhere in my bookmarks... By god I've got about 3000 links in there... I don't envy me, right now.
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Counterpoint: auto supports are pretty good. I do go back through and add some in areas where I think there might be an issue.
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Counter-counterpoint.
Auto-supports may seem to be helpful but in fact cost more time, more effort and more failures. And while it's good to visually get an idea where things might need support, it's absolutely better to learn to manually place them to speed up your process and get a better workflow.
I am yet to be convinced that any kind of auto-support placement for any printing method (be it for Chitubox, PreForm or any other slicer), is better or equal to manual placement.
I'm not arguing against your point, I view it as a valid criticism of my initial point, I just don't agree with it - that's all.
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add more, check for internal overhangs etc
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You're a god. This is the exact series I believe I was referring to! :-)
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The prints don't look like they popped off the supports. I think it might be a FEP thing. I'd suggest cleaning it out and testing the frequency of the fep. I forgot the values at this moment but maybe someone can fill it in for me.
Next would be to lube the fep itself if it's all good.
I'd also look into the burn in layers. What are your settings on that? Or settings in general.
Is the axle jutting at a certain point when raised? May need to lube that as well.
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Was your printer in direct sunlight? Even with the cover on some gets through and causes a film of cured resin. Just something to check
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This is what it looks like to me too.
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There are a number of things going on here. First off, it looks like you hit a point where the resin began sticking to the FEP film. To fix that issue you should change the FEP film, but buy a name brand like Elegoo or any of them with high ratings on Amazon. There are some extremely cheap (and useless) FEP films on the market. If you insist on cleaning the FEP you have DO NOT use alcohol because it will just cause the same problem to happen again. I found that spraying the tank down with fast drying WD40 and letting it sit before wiping it out with a clean paper towel helps keep it from sticking to your prints. Make sure it is dry completely before putting in clean resin. Use a wet wipe or similar to clean the bottom of the FEP and the glass screen (fingerprints and other smudges can cause things not to stick as well.
Next - don't overload you printer. Stick to about 65% or less of the bed used for multiple figures. Too many and the resin gets forced away from where it needs to be when contact is made. Its best to do one figure at as close to the middle of the bed as possible. You need space between figures as well.
Also, if you use the raft setting, be sure to set the actual items being printed a millimeter or two away from the print bed an go a little heavier on the supports.
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I did just change the FEP for the first time, and followed a guide to tune it and so on. I wiped it with some alcohol before my print and wondered if that was part of the problem. Should I replace the FEP or just lubricate it? I think you are also probably right about over loading the bed, I had a lot on there.
Thanks for the advice!
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You don't need to replace the film yet. Use Quick-drying WD40 or the Silicone based Dry lube that's available on Amazon.
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Were all of these on the same build plate? Have you checked your FEP for any scratches or wrinkles? Other then that its probably issues with supports and print angle. It looks like at some point the supports failed and a layer formed on the FEP film. After a couple of layers failed it seems the flat part got reattachwd and left uwith what you have now. Sometimes if you have too many things on one build plate and too many big flat areas the adherence to the FEP is too strong for the supports to handle. I would say clean put ur vat, check the FEP, and start again, printing a couple less at a time; also maybe angle them in chitubox to avoid large flat layers. Good luck!