3DPrinting
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: [email protected] or [email protected]
There are CAD communities available at: [email protected] or [email protected]
Rules
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No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
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Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
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No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
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No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
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Do not create links to reddit
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If you see an issue please flag it
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No guns
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No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)
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I've had good experience with Brother laser printers. They don't seem to mind being left unused for months at the time. I have a Brother color laser printer and a Brother B&W laser printer-scanner and I like them both a lot.
If you get a printer with a scanner, I recommend using the NAPS2 freeware for your scanning. It works great with a wide variety of scanners, is simple to use but highly configurable, and is a lot less of a nuisance than the proprietary scanning software that comes with most printers. Once your OS has the drivers it needs, you generally won't need the proprietary bloatware that comes with the printer in my experience.
As for leaving resin sitting in a vat for extended periods, I don't recommend it beyond a few days. Sure, you can get away with it like you did, but you can also develop various problems from it. The resin will separate (easily fixed by stirring) but it can also slowly leak out of the vat and make a mess (this happened to me).
I try to make a habit out of emptying my vat (through a filter back into the resin bottle) in order to inspect and/or clean the FEP semi-regularly. I also feel better about not having an open vat just sitting around to potentially get bumped and knocked around. If I am using the 3d printer heavily I don't bother with this, but I know if it's going to sit idle for a week or longer, I go ahead and empty & clean the vat.
I actually have a "resin mixing" gcode file that just raises and lowers the build plate a bunch while I'm warming up the shed my resin machine lives in. That mixes it up really nicely!
As for leaving resin in the vat, thank you for the advice, however I've been printing with this machine since 2020 and never empty the vat unless I'm changing resins or using a water washable (which I moved away from as the detail wasn't as crisp, and it's just as problematic as regular resin). I do run a clean cycle after a print, peel the sheet up, cure it and toss it. Never had to replace the FEP, never had any leakage issues