Help Diagnosing Failed print cause

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OpedHead
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Help Diagnosing Failed print cause

Postby OpedHead » Tue Aug 06, 2019 6:23 am

Hi Everyone, can anyone help me figure out why I am getting these fails all of a sudden?
Out of curiosity does most of everyone print on 80x45 rather than 48x27?

I was printing really well on 80x45 by finding a system of correcting the exposure settings by a method of: If the item is unformed - raise the exposure... if it gets flashing - reduce it. This served me well and I was printing at about 90% success.
There is a 'brighter' side of the table which you can notice when projecting white after a print, which was the more successful side of the table, so I thought I would change to 48x27 to reduce this.

After changing to 48x27 I haven't had a successful print and my method of correcting the problems has failed me as I get unformed prints with lots of flashing.
Is my method completely off or should I continue to keep trial and erroring different exposures?
Here is a few pics of what I mean.

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Messerbr
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Re: Help Diagnosing Failed print cause

Postby Messerbr » Tue Aug 06, 2019 1:27 pm

How old is your projector bulb? Also, look for smudges on your projector lens and the window on the solus that the light shines through. I try to clean these every week or so just to make sure there is nothing to mess with the light projection.
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Jewelermdt
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Re: Help Diagnosing Failed print cause

Postby Jewelermdt » Wed Aug 07, 2019 2:55 am

Bulb life? Also what version of Contour are you using? Might want to check for updates. Did you calibrate everything after change the setup size? Did you move the printer to the closer position? Using the correct profile? Play with the tension of the vat against the table?
OpedHead
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Location:Melbourne, Australia

Re: Help Diagnosing Failed print cause

Postby OpedHead » Thu Aug 29, 2019 3:11 am

Sorry for the slow reply, I wanted to try a few things first.

I had a sample bottle of MJ Wax Cast which I had never used lying around, so I setup my second VAT and trialed it..... it worked great on default profile and with some fine tuning printed perfectly.

I also bought a bottle of Resin Works, East Cast HD (brown) and again, works great! With some finetuning of lifting the exposure time and lowering the light intensity I can finally say I am getting perfect prints everytime!!

In conclusion I think the root to ALL of my problems with this printer over the last 2 years was Resin itself!!! The reason I say this is because I had tried everything and was getting constant and consistent fails and a fluke OK print every now and then.
The printer came with a bottle of B9 Emerald and I later acquired another bottle, both garbage. I later acquired a sample bottle of Emerald to tie me over until the reseller got more resin in stock and that was the most success I had with Emerald.
Every other resin has also worked really well without problems which weren't easily fixed.
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Jewelermdt
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Re: Help Diagnosing Failed print cause

Postby Jewelermdt » Fri Aug 30, 2019 3:20 am

glad to hear you got it going. The emerald green need to be mixed- shaken very very well. The pigment separated and would stick to the bottom of the bottle. Hard to get it to mix well. That's why many of us put stainless nuts in our resin to help mix it well.

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