Disclaimer: use the following instructions at your own risk. I take no responsibility for damage to your equipment or damage to or loss of property. It's working for me, your mileage may vary.
I 've been having all sorts of trouble printing reliably with the Formlabs resins and the Makerjuice SF resins for Form1/1+. For the most part , the Makerjuice SF has been OK, but I got a bad batch recently that wouldn't cure worth beans.
So I thought I'd try an experiment and try some G+ resin in the Form1+. Hey, its only $55USD per liter, so if I could make it work it would be cheaper than printing with anything else. So I ordered a half liter for fun.
For my first experiment, I poured it into an already beat up resin tray that was either getting thrown out or reconditioned. There were still some bits around the periphery that were pretty clear so I figured it would be a fair test with some small parts. The parts printed well, although a bit brittle. The process, however, was fairly hard on the resin vat, causing distinct clouding. As expected, the laser was a bit much for G+. Too bad there wasn't a way in software to adjust the laser intensity. (I played around with the profile files found in the Materials directory, but they seem to be encrypted)
Hmmmm, what to do? My first thought was to add some sort of physical filter to the bottom of the resin vat. Like the ones you would use on a stage light. Like one of these:
http://www.rosco.com/filters/roscolux.cfm#colors
I figured on getting a series of the blue filters, since they would have the most subtle effect on the UV to 440nm range of light. The filters are meant to be used with very HOT stage lights so they shouldn't have any trouble withstanding a little laser light.
So I looked up my local ROSCO rep and dropped by the shop. Salesman was out. Leave your name and number and he'll get back to you. Didn't hear boo. Went again. Salesman was out. Was told to send him an email with the items I wanted. I got prices back but he didn't seem all that interested in taking an order cuz I wasn't one of his $10000 customers. On my third trip, I finally got satisfaction, but not because anyone was there to sell me the gels that I wanted. I snagged one of these sample books for free:
My intention was still to put a big 6x6 swatch on the bottom of the resin vat, but figured I could experiment with these to figure out exactly what filter(s) would be the most appropriate.
Then it dawned on me. It doesn't have to go on the bottom of the tank...
It can go in front of the small stationary mirror...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)
Ya! Just take the book apart and tape a filter to the window between the small and large stationary mirrors. A little scotch tape across the bottom is enough to hold it in place. The best combination I've found so far is using a #3204 Half Blue filter and the Formlabs Grey V1 resin setting.
So far the process has been far more reliable than using the recommended resins, not to mention CHEAPERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So now my Form1 friends, go play!
THE SHORT STORY
Disclaimer: use the following instructions at your own risk. I take no responsibility for damage to your equipment or damage to or loss of property. It's working for me, your mileage may vary.
So you want to use Makerjuice G+ resin in your Form1/1+ without frying your resin vat. Here's how:
1. Go to your ROSCO lighting dealer and get a sample book of ROSCOLUX filters. Its a book of sample swatches of colored plastic about 1" x 3" each. Pretend that you're doing lighting for a high school musical or an indy film if you like. They should be glad to give you one.
2. cut the sucker apart and locate the #3204 Half Blue filter.
3. place it over the window between the small and large stationary mirrors in your Form1/1+. Secure it with a little scotch tape or packing tape across the bottom edge.
4. Fill your vat with $55USD/litre Makerjuice G+ Resin
5. Set your resin type to Grey V1 in the software and print away.
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