"Printing help needed - My ships always warp!" Topic

This excludes age of sail ships. I have no problems with those. I am talking about 1/600, 1/700, 1/1200 WWi, WWII and modern.

I have an Elegoo Saturn 3…. great printer BTW. No matter what I do my ships eventually warp – curling up like a banana, though not so bad. I have tried:

- Curing them in the sun with a weight at each end all day
- once curled, doing the same but leaving them like that all day
- Curing them in the sun with the supports still attached
- Curing them in the sun with supports and all still on the build plate
- re-warping them with boiling water and weights
- throwing them across the room and cursing them

Sometimes the warping process takes a day, but it happens.

Any clues or ideas?

What resin are you using?
Are the prints dry or do they still feel tacky?

Phrozen washable and dry.

Uneven curing or uneven curing rate? The sun hitting the top more than the sides or bottom.

I rotate them every so often. I have a curing machine with a rotating table – same result.

Same problem. I use water washable resin, and have some alcohol washable resin to try, but havent tried the new resin yet.

I've had a fair number of my WTJ 1/2400 battleships warp (both pre-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts), but ironically, none of the 1/1250 late ironclads have warped. I don't get it.

I vaguely wondered if it has to do with thin layers (decks and hull sides) over a hollow center. The 1/2400 ships have thinner plastic layers than the 1/1250 ships. Can you add a honeycomb to the inside to reinforce the model?

How do you orient them and do you use a raft/supports?

This is not a new issue.

Its been around since TOS.

Picard found that saying "engage" just prior to an expected warp helped.

While Kirk simply tore his shirt and tried to look heroic in an attempt to lessen the effects.

YA, they are solid hull.

Zagloba, anywhere from 38 to 45%, stern closest to the plate.

Do you use clear resin? In theory it cures better.

Other things I can think of are make sure where you print is warm enough for your resin, make sure the resin is mixed well, and check the date on the bottle to make sure it's not expired.

After that I'd try a more standard resin, I'm not 100% sure I believe in the water washable stuff.

- re-warping them with boiling water and weights

Forget the weights. Plunge the model in hot water (doesn't need to be boiling) until the resin softens and you can bend by hand. Immediately after bending back into shape, plunge the model in cold water to 'set' it. I find this works well. Sometimes I over-correct the warping a bit to allow for it springing back slightly before the cold water sets it completely. Works for me.
BTW if you use boiling water you're going to need asbestos fingers!

Try curing your parts while in a bowl of cold water. Really helps in the process and keeping parts straight. It also does away with the sticky feeling that some times happens and it speeds up the amount of time needed.

Some good suggestions I will try.

I have been using washable for a year and have turned out a lot of awesome stuff in a lot of scales. Post-sailing age ships are the only thing giving me trouble. Right now I have a batch that seems to be doing OK. May have solved it, but will still try some of the above suggestions.

Thanks!

May have solved it

What worked? I have the same issue.

Another idea may be to simply remove the dilitheum crystal entirely.

Not while any warp is occurring, of course.

Diverting power to other areas may prevent warping also.

Try pressing impulse, instead of warp, as this may be the issue.

Plenty of ideas there.

Have not solved it. Tried everything above. No go.