form1 tear down

I had to take the Form1 apart to clean the lenses on it. They had acquired quite a bit of dust and were overdue for a cleaning. It's interesting how simple the Form 1 really is. It seems well thought out in terms of it's construction and it was cool to crack it open. I need to get some new resin though. My resin must have gone past it's shelf life even though I had bottles of un-opened resin. Wonder if there is a way to "re-vive it".

wedding rings

Eric is designing a ring for someone special, so I told him to send the files to me so I could print it on the Form1. You can see here, how the PreForm software looks. They came out pretty decent for how small these pieces actually are. I even printed the modeled diamond too. It fits in the bezel nicely. I'll send him a set of these and see what he thinks. Might be nice to try and cast in metal from these just to see the results.

I had posted the content above much earlier, but didn't realize that Inna might potential see this, so I had to take it down fast. I think it's probably safe to post now though. I came across the pics of the finished cast ring that Eric sent me, on my phone. 

special rings

form 1 prints

  

I had some time this week to try out the new Form 1 printer. I cued up some files of Bob Roth's new finger design that Ivan Owen had modified for printing on a Makerbot. I figured these would be a good test. I set the resolution at the highest setting in the Formlabs software and generated a support structure for the parts. It's interesting that the supports are very small triangulated icicle like structures with a very small point of contact. I was curious how these would work, but they seem to work quite well. I believe this print took about 9 hours (again at the highest resolution settings). 

I came back the next day to what you see here. I had a small amount of lumpiness right at the first few layers of the build after the supports. I think this might be due to me not cleaning the build surface super well from the last test print that Adream and I had done. We also had left the resin from the last build in the build tray (although had kept the lid closed) and it had been sitting for a few days. Regardless, the supports broke off very easily with an x-acto knife. The resolution is quite amazing. There are no visible lines from the print process. The density of the build was surprising as was the physical weight of the resin parts. The prints are noticeably "heavy". I rinsed these parts with alcohol and I can say that I am not a big fan of the "tacky" feeling of the prints after cleaning them thoroughly. I did notice however that the prints seemed to loose that after they had dried completely, but there is still an odd feeling to the surface of the prints. All in all this is a pretty cool machine if you don't mind waiting for the quality that it provides. I still want to put some prints through a durability test and see what kind of use they can take. I'll keep you posted...

formlabs form 1

Before I left school yesterday, Adream brought a Formlabs Form 1 3D printer into the DCRL so we could hook it up and do a test print. She received it finally and she is expecting a second one. I'm hoping one of the printers may get to live in the DCRL. If you aren't familiar with the Form 1, this is how it works:

Stereolithography (SL). In this photopolymer-based process, a high precision system directs a laser across a tray of liquid resin and causes a thin layer to solidify. The build platform then rises in preparation for the next layer. After thousands of repetitions, your part is complete with exquisite detail.

Adream got a lot of extra resin, build platforms, and resin trays, so there should be plenty of materials to experiment with. I didn't get to see the finished print as I headed off to the doctor, but I'm hoping to see the print soon. Can't wait to try this out on my own. I have some other new additions to the DCRL that I didn't get to photograph but I'll make sure to post about them a few days. New things are happening in the Digital Craft Research Lab!