Delivery No.1 - Build blog of the first V1.0 Peachy Printer in the Wild

[Builder1]

PRINT SUCCESSFUL !! Sort of...

I have TONS of info and pics to post. It might take a couple days to get it all posted. I'm a bit time squished.
Epic fails, dripper triumps, chemistry curiosities.... It's coming !!

Get the sneak peak here:
http://postimage.org/gallery/1v2m10jn8/

[Builder1]

The full report !!

Calibrating
I performed all of the calibration sequences including using the grid (I made itmyself!!)
Once the Peachy is plugged in, the software allows you to see all of the options. Click on Settings. Now click on Laser Calibration. At the top of the screen is a row of buttons for calibration. Just go through them one by one from left to right.
I’ll do some screen shots of these screens once I get a chance.

Slicing with Cura
-I downloaded Cura(v15.04.6) on my MacBook Pro and read through the instructions for setting it up for the Peachy. This was all very straight forward. I then downloaded the Rook from Thingiverse and sliced it. I saved the .gcode file and looked forward to using it as my first test print.
http://peachyprinter.ipbhost.com/ind...-printer-cura/

Standard Setup
I decided to made a standard Peachy setup for testing (Pop bottles: 1L reservoir, 2Lprint container). My larger setup needs a few more parts as the printer sits VERY precariously on its top (you can see it in the pictures). Not practical at all.

Where’s theSalt
Not using enough salt = EPIC RESIN FAIL!!!
Add LOTS of salt to the water until it starts to collect on the bottom. Use warm water (to help dissolve salt). I’m not sure how the resin behaves with heat. My water was definitely on the warm side but not hot.

@Rylan
Are the resins temperature sensitive?

***Get your salt water ready in advance of starting a print***
If you get all setup and then decide to fill your reservoir, you will find yourself yanking your setup all over the place as everything is interconnected with hoses and dripper wires (drip switch to PCB) and a light/empty print container.
I had a box of table salt that had a metal spout. This really helped to keep the mixing process clean and tidy.
Mix up the saltwater in a container not required by the printer.
Fill the reservoir (leave some space at the top).
Add salt water to the print container up to “start” level (a bit below the printbase).
Once those things are done you can begin doing the rest of the setup. This will save you a lot of aggravation and time ;-)

Adding the Resin
I mixed up some salt water in my reservoir and my print container and added some resin into it. FAIL!!! You can see in the picture that most of it sunk to the bottom. I didn’t know what to think!!! Had the resin gone bad!?! I know these resins have a 6 month self life but I didn’t know how old mine was. I set that one aside by pouring it into an old slurpie cup. I really didn’t know what to do with this stuff. I can’t dump it down the sink or flush it down the toilet!! What do I do with this stuff???? It was late at night and no good idea’s came to me so I just put it aside.

Let’s try this again.
Rylan gave me two partial (roughly 1/8th full) bottles of resin to get started with(THANK YOU!!!). So with my first fail with green, and suspecting it might be “bad”, I grabbed the red resin and tried again. Same result!!! Crap! What going on!?! I went back to the green cup and dumped A LOT more salt into it and stirred it up with a wood skewer stick (Very useful tool with the Peachy!!).
SUCCESS!! I then added more salt to the print container with the red resin. Success again!!
Ok, time to get the rest setup and try printing!!

Dripper Fun
The plastic dripper part only has one “arm” that holds it to the print container. This causes it to tip to the side a lot. The weight of the hoses pulls on it too. Using the dripper when it’s at an angle will cause missed/unsensed drips because the drop falls too far to the side and does not touch the bottom wire.
I found a great and simple solution that decisively solved the problem.
I wedged the drip tube in front of the print base (you can see it in the pictures).That tube has no chance of moving anywhere now!! Worked like a charm!!

Printing
I was looking forward to printing that Rook! Print tests be Damned!!!
I pointed the Peachy software at the Rook’s .gcode file I made with Cura but there wasan error! I can’t remember what the message was but it wasn’t helpful for me to troubleshoot. I tried again with the same result. I have no idea why the software did not like my file and I did not have the patience to slice it again.
So I decided to print an item from the bundled “Library” of objects in the Peachy software. These are test files that are already in gcode format so setting up the software for a test print is quick and easy. (Why do I always miss the “quick and easy” ?!?)
Choosing the test file opened a Print Settings window. I made a couple changes to the defaults. I increased the speed from 80mm/s to 120mm/s. I thought, since there were no corners, I could speed up the laser without degrading the shape of the print. Seamed reasonable.
Next I changed the height of the print job. This was an accident. I misinterpreted this value to be the height of the print container. I t was actually for the height of the print! I had measured the container from the start level to the top to be 14 cm so I entered 140mm in as the value. Calk that one up to a late night. I “should” have put 20 or 30mm so that I could get a small and quick test print.


The Blob
In my first attempt I had set the water level too high and the print did not attach to the base. So as the resin level rose, the laser just kept drawing on a floating blob of cured resin.
I used my handy skewer stick to push the blob over to the side (without knocking my galvos out of alignment) and started a second attempt.
For the second print, I set the print base slightly above the resin so that it was not touching the resin. I started the print then got the dripper started.
Rylan shared with me on my visit that the drip speed should be about 6 drips per second (there is a drip counter in the software. See software pics). When I started the dripper (reservoir full) it was running at about 9 drips per second. To slow this down I would need to sit the reservoir lower. I didn’t have another box or other “thing” to sit it onthat would work so I just let it go.


Curing
-Hmmmm… Sudden realization. I don’t have a UV light source. There wasn’t much I could do about that in a pinch so I put everything aside. In the morning I put it all outside in the sun. Plenty of curing time while I’m getting ready for work (about 45min).

@Rylan
How long does curing really need?

Cleaning up
-Getting the unused resin back in the container was interesting. Pouring it back only worked for about half of the resin. When the resin is thin enough, the salt water goes under the resin and pours in the container.
Solution: (wish Ithought if it that night ;-)
***Use the cut off top of the 2L bottle with the cap on. Poke a small hole in the cap and use it as a funnel (I didn’t want to ruin my kitchen funnels). Pour the print container contents into the funnel with the hole plugged. Let the water/resin resettle to separate layers then open the hole and pour off the water. Once it’s down to the resin, just pour that into the resin container.***

The Print
The print job has a definitive odor. Strangely, it smells more that the entire bottle of resin. Even after several days, it still feels wet the touch and has an odor. It's not too intense but easily noticeable. I even tried putting it on the dash of my car over my lunch hour. 4 days later I can still faintly smell it in my car and it didn’t even make a difference!

@Rylan
Any thoughts on thesmell and wet surface!?!

The print is hard but flexible. It flexes when squishing it and bounces back when I let go. Kind of like squeezing a plastic pop bottle.

Summary of PrintQuality Fails
-Set the height ofthe print waaaaay too high in the print settings
___-Stretched the print, took too long.

-Set the laser speedtoo fast
___-The print was not cured enough to stand up on it’s own.
___-It fell over while the water was being drained

-Drips were too fastat the start (started at over 9 and ended at less than 4)
___-Stretched the print (possibly made the top a bit heavier than the bottom)

-Bubbling and imperfections on surface
___-Not sure. Maybe something with how I mixed the salt water or how I poured them together???
___-I added salt after the resin was in the container then stirred the hell out of it. Bubbles could be caused by trapped air (er...bubbles I guess) and/or possibly undissolved salt particles.

-Print Leaning forward
___-I think my vertical galvo was sliding slightly. This made the top part that broke off have a rippled surface. Other parts were straightup and quite smooth. I’m gluing that *@%$er.

-Improper curing after finish
___-Time to buy a UVlamp ;-)