Success! I fired up my new Elegoo Saturn 2 8K last night. I printed a train station I found an STL file for, then I printed a house and five covered hoppers. So far 100% success, though with a tad bit of warping which I need to figure out. Again, I didn't notice the hair before taking the photo, sorry. So this won't be a glamour shot. You can see a little bit of warping on the bottom, and the ladder on the right is a bit bowed, but at that size I'm not really all that concerned about it. I think the overall detail is good.
So James, this raises the question, what version of CHITUBOX were you using? New or old? I have yet to even try anything with the new version. Not real excited about the clean up due to a print failer.....
I think that's a valid question. I first tried my old copy of Chitubox, but it was too old and the Elegoo Saturn 2 8K wasn't in the printer list. Oh sure, I could have just looked up some settings and added it manually, but after fighting unsuccessfully for the last three days to get my Prusa MK3.9 to finally print I needed a win. I ran Chibubox BASIC, added the printer, changed the layer burn in time from 2.5 seconds to 3.5 seconds as was listed on the bottle of resin I also got from Elegoo, loaded, sliced and printed a small train station with success and then loaded up five covered hoppers and a house, got the print started then went to bed for the evening. I got up this morning to good prints. If you're nervous about using Chitubox BASIC, do a dry run and watch the panel to make sure it's masking properly. One irritation with Chitubox BASIC, I can't find a setting to make supports more or less densely spaced. I wanted more densely spaced supports for the covered hopper because I had no faith that they'd have enough supports. Yes, I could have added more supports manually, but I'm not very good at it. I'm a very happy camper today. I still have resin in the vat, so after work I plan to create a figurine in Hero Forge for a new character I have in D&D and print him mounted on a horse and another with him standing. I'd been putting that off. My buddies and I are getting together on the 13th to play in person rather than online like we usually do and it would be fun to have him printed and painted by then.
So it sounds like you had success with BASIC 2.0. I guess they now call it that.....? If so, that's good news. Yeah, I hate adding supports. Although, doing Z-scale I have some leeway too. But I do most of my prints directly on the plate, and with much success except a wee bit of "elephants foot" from time to time. Nothing that is too unsightly.
I never had good success printing directly to the build plate on my Anycubic Photon, so I'm scared to try it on my Elegoo Saturn 2 8K. I really hate having parts fall into the vat, it's no fun doing a bunch of cleanup when you're in the middle of doing a lot of prints. Like with my Anycubic Photon I bought a couple of magnetic build plates for my Elegoo Saturn 2 8K. Man I love those things. Having two build plates means I can start a new print before rinsing, and peeling off parts from the other build plate. This has sped my print process up a lot. Not to mention that it's easier to get parts off a flexible build plate then I rigid build plate.
I have seen the magnetic flex plates. Thought about them, but have yet to try them. I am using ELEGOO's BASIC resin, which requires alcohol rinsing. I also bought a build plate hanger, which allows me to hang the plate at about a 60* angle and let it drip back into the resin basin. After about 30 mins of dripping, I also come behind that process and clean off as much remaining resin from the build plate using a silicone looking "spatula/flat brush??" tool I bought at HOBBY LOBBY. It's basically just a 1" wide silicone wedge shaped item, attached to a clear handle. I can send pics if you are curious. After that, everything is ran through the ELEGOO curing station - parts still attached to the plate during rinse and cure. But the reason I print directly on the plate, is that I also airbrush some parts on the plate too. When I am printing 50 of a very small item, the build plate makes an excellent holding mechanism. Makes clean up of the plate a bit more laborious, but I also mask off the plate where needed as well. Plus, I remove most of my parts using a new standard razor blade. It's a gentle and slow process, but I have had tremendous success with my prints thus far.
I was using Elegoo water washable resin, for the most part, with my old Anycubic printer. I bought a bottle of Elegoo 8K water washable resin along with my new Elegoo printer. I like being able to just use water in my cleaning station to clean parts. I've not tried non-water washable resins yet. Is three an advantage in doing so? Yeah, post a photo of you cleaning tool.
James, I’m not sure if there’s any benefit to using alcohol cleanup resin or not. I have yet to try water cleanup resin at this point. But I can certainly see the benefits of it. So here are pictures of the spatula I mentioned. It’s not that big probably 7” long and the silicone part is about 1” wide. Available at HOBBY LOBBY near their resin casting supplies I think. This little tool is really handy for scraping off the resin that continues to cling to the plate of the resin that refuses to drip back into the basin. It’s a light film of resin mind you, but still a few drops here and there. Also, sending along some pictures of something that might interest you as well, and that is a grow tent that I bought on Amazon. Reason being is, I live here in South Dakota, and the winters are brutally cold and I felt like the lower room temps were affecting my prints. So now I warm up the room with a space heater, I also warm up my resin, the build plate and I direct the heat into the grow tent before I seal it up while it’s printing. It has a vent fan inside and I run that out side window. Picture note - obviously my printer sits inside the tent, and that is the red cover sitting on the table. I didn’t necessarily put it on the printer. Don’t be confused by what you see. Plus I’m printing in one of our spare bedrooms next to a window so I can run the vent tube out. Just a few tips of the things I’m doing.
I love your setup. Thank you for the photos. I'll look into snagging that tool, it should come in handy. Good going on the grow tent. South Dakota! Wow, that's cold country for sure. I live in SW Washington and I complain all winter long to those who will listen, and those who don't want to about how cold and wet it is and how much I hate it. My printer and cleaning/curing station is on an ammo reloading table I made years ago. I've so far managed to keep it pretty clean, but it's nothing much to look at. I don't have any ventilation going but I could with my new printer since there's an opening on the side of the lid for such things. My resin printer is in my front bedroom that my friends and I call "The lab" along with retro computers and gaming consoles, manuals, and a heck of a lot of tools and test equipment.
I’d highly suggest you get some ventilation in that room. We’re not really sure what the hazards are of running these machines are yet. They claim they’re safe??? Remember, most of this equipment and chemicals are coming from China - who is less than trustworthy in what they tell us. At a minimum open up a window. That’s why I bought the grow tent - to keep the fumes captured into one area while the machine is working and vent it out the window.
Sadly I can't open my windows, I'm in a wheelchair and can't reach them. That said, I have a friend who'd be happy to install a vent outlet for me.
Friends like that are good to have. I am highly leery of the carcinogenic content in this resin we are working with. Granted a lot of these printers are now coming with charcoal filters, attached, but still I am one that believes in overkill and that means venting whatever you can outside or at a minimum circulating some fresh air through the area. I have Parkinson’s (early stage), but the first thing that goes is your sense of smell. I lost that many years ago. so my wife is my sniffer as she has this big New Jersey Schnauz. She can smell a mosquito fart on the other side of the globe. If she complains, then I know I’m venting out fumes from the printer.
It's important to be concerned, resin is dangerous. A friend tried to talk me into getting into casting resin gaming dice, I did some research and said no. I don't have a garage or outbuilding suitable for that and didn't want to do that kind of work in my lab. Resin printing is bad enough. I went with water washable resin in the hopes of mitigating some of the danger. My print for my D&D figurines just finished a bit ago, they turned out great. I'll cure them tomorrow. I need to dig through Thingiverse to find something else to print so I can use up some of the resin in my tank. I don't know how long you can leave resin in a tank and should probably pour it back in the bottle tomorrow. I could spend time tomorrow night modeling my house in t gauge for my layout. I wouldn't mind modeling the NAPA store at the end of my block while I'm at it. Neither needs tons of detail, it won't be seen.
My disability is hereditary. I have Spinal Muscular Atrophy. Did your loss of smell also include loss of taste? The reason I ask is that my friend who can install the vent for me lost his sense of taste a few years ago, I wonder if that's a pre-cursor to something serious? I'd owned my Anycubic Photon for at least two years and hadn't even run fifty prints through it. I print as needed, if it's something small that needs high detail I print in resin, but most of my printing I do on my filament printers.
I always blamed my loss of smell on being a car restoration nut since I was 14 years old. All those years of building cars and using brake spray to clean parts while I held them in my "ungloved" hands. Not too mention spray paint, etc. So I always blamed my loss of smell on that --- but yes, loss of smell is a precurser to Parkinsons, but it's not the only thing. Just a possible precurser. I'd like to chat with your friend just to give him some things to consider. As a just in case. Send me an IM and I will give you my phone number.
You can also use such an exhaust for an airbrush booth. I've seen a few such setups described elsewhere, and I'm about to build an airbrush booth that connects to the window-mounted fan/duct I put together for the resin cabinet. So IMHO, good idea. I built the cabinet for the resin printer to both corral fumes and to heat the printer. My basement corner is a bit chilly all year-round; in the winter I start a thermostat-controlled heater in the cabinet, let it run for about an hour before I print, works like a treat. Regarding fumes, I tried printing once without exhaust and I got a little light-headed, settled that argument for me. I use a 200 CFM fan in my duct setup, seemed like overkill, but now I appreciate its ability to clear out the room when I turn it to ludicrous speed and open the cabinet door. The existence of long-term effects of resin are not yet known, but what I do immediately consider is a fluid that can permeate skin layers and then harden to a solid under UV light...
I keep my resin in the vat, only pour it back in the bottle when I need to filter out piece-parts from a failed print. I bought two extra vats, they came with nice form-fitting covers. I made a cover for the other one with a piece of Masonite and some self-stick window gasket material. I store the vats in cheap small lunch trays, even made a rack for them that fits in the cabinet. The covers keep the fumes contained and dust off the surface. I've been using my resin this way for a year now, works just fine.
I bought a separate build plate, but it's still in the box, thought I'd try one of those magnetic flex-plates but I've not had a problem removing anything I've printed from the rigid plate. I'm about to start experimenting with various ways to print walls, including flat on the plate, so that body of experience may change...
