Table of Contents

Afinia H800 3D Printer

Printing Procedure (for AtSc 535)

Materials
Preparing the printer
  1. Clean glass plate.
    1. Scrape off excess material gently (avoid damaging/scratching the glass)
    2. Use glass cleaner to clean both sides of the glass plate.
  2. Put bowl upside down in the fume hood. Put glass plate centered on top of the bowl.
  3. Prepare acetone solution: (Use a ratio of ~100 ml of acetone to ~100 inches of material)
    1. Get solution jar, stir rod, acetone, printing material (e.g., ABS filament), and tape measure.
    2. Use tape measure to measure out appropriate amount of material. Roll/Curl up material and tie it so it can fit in the jar.
    3. Turn on the fume hood fan and light.
    4. In the fume hood: Fill jar with up to 100 ml of acetone (until it reaches the black line on jar). Add the material into the jar and make sure it is entirely covered by acetone. You can press it down with the stir rod.
    5. Turn off fume hood fan and light.
    6. Wait until all material is dissolved (it will turn very milky). Stir to make sure it is completely dissolved and no chunks left on the bottom (this make take up to 30 minutes).
  4. Once solution is ready:
    1. Turn on fume hood fan and leave it on.
    2. Stir the solution well. Generously coat the glass with the acetone solution and let stand for a few minutes with the fan going. Make sure the majority of the plate is covered with solution, mainly the regions that will contain the printer parts. You can use the stir rod to help spread the solution but try not to thin the solution out too much. Make sure to apply more solution to the plate when you spread it. You can tip the glass plate so the solution spreads further (The jar has a little notch in it on one side).
    3. Wait until the solution is dry, this will take some time (45 min+).
  5. Once the solution is dry:
    1. Turn off fume food fan and light. Store all the materials in their proper place.
    2. Place the glass plate into the printer.
    3. Apply binder clips onto the glass plate and printing platform to hold them in place, as depicted in the image below:

  1. Latch one clip almost at the end of the glass plate on the right side.
  2. Latch one clip between 1/4th and 1/3rd of the length of the glass plate (from the left side). Latch this clip only about halfway onto the glass, so there is still space between the clip and the glass.
  3. Keep the clips open (i.e., do not latch the metal bindings over the glass plate).
Printer Software and Printing
  1. On the computer, select the blueprints for printing within the “3D PAWS” folder on the Desktop. Drag and drop the blueprints onto the 3D printer software and wait for the software to automatically organize them.
  2. Delete/sort parts until you are able to fit them on the plate. Be generous with empty space between the parts and near the edges (especially the side facing the front of the printer/binder clips).
  3. Select “Initialize Printer” (Icon on the left hand-side of the software pane).
    1. Wait until the printer finishing initialization.
  4. Select “Print” (Icon on the left hand-side of the software pane).
    1. Select desired quality of print (typically, “Normal” is fine).
    2. Select fill/density of print. This depends on the part. For example, the funnel for the rain gauge should have the highest fill since there will be water pouring down the funnel.
    3. Disable rafting or support if not needed.
    4. Hit “Print”.
  5. Wait for printer to heat up and start printing (it will beep at you). May take up to 20 minutes. Wait until the first few layers are done printing properly to make sure it is printing correctly.
  6. Once completed and cooled (temperature < 40 deg C):
    1. Open the printer and take out the glass plate. Pull off the hardened acetone solution “sheet” and parts from the glass.
    2. Clean both sides of the glass plate and put it back into the printer.
    3. Break the parts off from the hardened acetone solution sheet.
    4. Use tools to clean the parts from excess material and any supports made.

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