We have seen significant price cuts for resin 3D printers in the past few years, which is very exciting because it means that more people can finally use this impressive technology. But the novice may not realize that the cost of the printer itself is only part of your initial investment. Resin printed parts need to be cleaned and cured before they are ready for use. Unless you want to do it all by hand, it means buying a second machine for post-printing processing.
Not sure if he wants to spend money on special machines, [Chris Chimienti] Decided to take an unusual approach Modified one of his filament-based 3D printers to handle cleaning and curing tasks. His clever housing slides over the rather large Z axis of the Anet ET5X printer and includes rows of UV LEDs and fans to circulate the air and speed up the drying process.
The curing part is easy to understand, but how is it washed? All you need to do is place a container with 70% isopropyl alcohol (IPA) on the printer bed, and then place the parts to be cleaned in a basket hanging on the printer extruder. The custom Python software is used to generate the G code, which instructs the printer to immerse the part in alcohol and rinse it back and forth for a good rinse.
After the specified time has elapsed, the printer lifts the part into the housing and lights the LED to start the next stage of the process. The entire system is automated through the OctoPrint plug-in. Although the relatively low printer movement speed means that the “cleaning” cycle may not be as vibrant as we hope, it is definitely a very clever solution.
[Chris] Provides a broad overview of the project The latest video on his YouTube channel, Embrace racingHe explained in it that this concept can of course be applied to printers other than Anet ET5X, but its considerable build volume makes it an ideal candidate for conversion. Of course, the foam board shell can also be used as a curing chamber alone, but you still need to clean the parts in IPA in advance.
This may be one of the most unusual cleaning and curing systems we have seen on Hackaday, but we are grateful for the fact [Chris] The whole thing is based on the idea that there may be an FDM printer near you, otherwise it will be left unused while you are using resin. If this is not the case for you, then assembling a more traditional UV curing chamber is an easy project.