Formlabs Resin Transfer Tube

thingiverse

Cheaper Formlabs resin costs $160 per liter. I wanted a way to be sure I was saving all the leftover resin in old containers. I measured the threads on the container and duplicated them using Solidworks. The thread pitch was 3.5 mm. I drew a 45 degree pipe bend. The threads worked out well in that they bottom out at just the right place. Note that if you add resin to an existing container in use, the machine keeps track of used resin and warns you when it thinks it will run out. That is based on the original volume of resin. The machine does not know that you added any. You can continue the print even if you get this warning. Just watch to make sure when it says "adding resin" that resin is actually coming out of the tank. Also, if the tank is out of resin, you can still complete a print if the volume is less than 50 ml. If you override the resin warning, it will just print until it runs out. I FDM printed this first, but then I thought, if you want this part, you have a Formlabs printer, so you can SLA print it! Either way works. Of course the SLA print is nicer. I made the walls thick enough that it is strong enough to work. For the Formlabs print I make the raft 10 mm tall. I reduce the support density to 0.5 and use Touchpoint Size 0.35 even though the program complains. I find these steps make breaking off the supports much easier. For the Flash Forge Creator Pro FDM print, I am using Flash Print 5. I use branching supports (not pillars). I use overhang 35 degrees. I use post diameter 3 mm, base diameter 6 mm, base height 6 mm. I let the program automatically draw the supports. I found that pillars did not work well at all. The outside of the print was really bumpy.