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How They're Made

Updated: May 21, 2020

Each of the machines is first designed in Solidworks or Onshape, and then printed on the Formlabs Form 3. Most of the large parts are printed at 50 microns and are not sanded at all. Nothing is painted or colored, and instead things like arrows (or the diamonds and numbers shown in the picture below) are printed very small and carefully inlaid into the main part.


The exception is the nameplates which are printed in two colors using a custom script that pauses the print so I could swap the tank out and continue printing in a different color.


I'll add a disclaimer here that at the time of this writing I work at Formlabs, but I do truly believe I couldn't have done this on any other desktop printer. FDM printers aren't precise enough for many of the fine details, and no other desktop SLA printer could handle the high peel forces of the larger parts, the Form 2 included.


I use many types of resin: Most of what you see is Color Kit, Grey, or White resin. For things like shafts and gears I use Grey Pro. I used all 608 and 623 bearings, and tried to use very few fasteners, shafts, or dowels. I'll add more to this article later detailing more parts of the process.






 

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