[SVTong]

Right. A thin coat of Lack3 would also help smooth out the print surface, too.

 

[J-breezy]

Right. A thin coat of Lack3 would also help smooth out the print surface, too.

I've been looking at getting a Form2 as well. I requested a free sample from them and there are indeed print lines but it could be sanded down. I simply put a thin layer of Fotoplast on the inside and outside of the sample and it cleared it up pretty nicely. (I'm sure it would be even better with some sanding as well).

 

[SVTong]

I just requested a sample today. Can you post pictures of your sample with the fotoplast? I've seen that people are able to make functional lenses with the Form2 with relatively little effort, so an IEM shell should be possible.

 

[Genio Croto]

Hello people, greetings from Arg, thanks for accepting me. New in forum, but old in doing iems.

 

[J-breezy]

I just requested a sample today. Can you post pictures of your sample with the fotoplast? I've seen that people are able to make functional lenses with the Form2 with relatively little effort, so an IEM shell should be possible.

Here's a picture of what I did with mine. No sanding or anything. Got the sample and dipped the top half in resin let the excess drip off, uv cure, then put a thin layer of Egger LP/H Lack, uv cure. Obviously there is some loss in detail when it comes to the "interior portion of the sample" but I don't think that would be a problem with an iem shell since there aren't tons of tiny details (unlike this castle that has stairs and a DNA strand in the middle of it lol). And I'm sure this could be done better than what quickly I did. This took every bit of 4-5 minutes tops.
But you can see the print lines on the left side of the photo and they are much less noticeable to me on the right side.

 

[J-breezy]

 

[SVTong]

Yeah, that's pretty good, and I would sand the shells first before coating with fotoplast, so they should get pretty clear.

 

[ForceMajeure]

There is a Dreve resin made for stereolithography.

 

[MuZo2]

All the resins are toxic and come with warnings. You will need some resins which are FDA approved and cure at specific UV wavelength. Its hard to configure them on Form2 or and other printer. Resin cost is 250euro per 500ml. So not something for DIY purpose unless you have lot of money to burn on trial and error and perfecting cure times.

 

[SVTong]

Formlabs has a clear dental train that is non toxic that sells for $400 per liter. It's not cheap, but I don't think it's necessary if the printed shell is coated in Fotoplast after curing.

 

[tranceaddict921]

Does anyone have any experience in 3D printing their shells? I'm thinking of investing in a Form2 SLA printer for an unrelated project, but it seems like a viable option to also use it for printing CIEMs. Thoughts?

I have been doing this for universal IEMs using shapeways but now also using my own FDM printer with ABS filament. See http://imgur.com/a/D7JIU

 

[jbr1971]

There is a Dreve resin made for stereolithography.

From what I have found so far it appears the Dreve SLA resin is not compatible with the Formlabs printers, and possibly only Formlabs dental resins (as mentioned above) are.

I do not know of any other desktop SLA printers of equal or better quality than the Formlabs without going into a much higher price point. Does anyone else? Especially one that matches the wavelengths needed for the Dreve resin?

 

[ForceMajeure]

Here is the all catalog of Egger products. Always good to have.
BTW they also sell 3D printing materials (page 170)

http://www.danaflex.com/11_andre_produkter/pdf/Katalog_en_web.pdf

 

[jbr1971]

Here is the all catalog of Egger products. Always good to have.
BTW they also sell 3D printing materials (page 170)

http://www.danaflex.com/11_andre_produkter/pdf/Katalog_en_web.pdf

I had no idea any of the IEM material makers had their own 3D printers for sale. The Egger Evolupt looks like a great little unit. I just can't find any prices or places that offer it for sale.

https://egger-labor.de/Broschueren/Broschueren Startseite 2014 neu/evolupt_Folder_EN.pdf

 

[piotrus-g]

I had no idea any of the IEM material makers had their own 3D printers for sale. The Egger Evolupt looks like a great little unit. I just can't find any prices or places that offer it for sale.

https://egger-labor.de/Broschueren/Broschueren Startseite 2014 neu/evolupt_Folder_EN.pdf

Around €20k