Changing FEP film on Creality Resin printers - Halot 1 - Halot Sky - LD 002R- LD 002H

Hey folks, Tech Nibbers here. Don't mind the mess behind me. We're doing a little cleanup, but today we're going to be focusing on how to change the FEP of film in your 3D printer. So we are going to be using the Creality Halot 1 over here. The same process also works for all of the Creality MSLA printers, including the LD002R, the LD002H, and the Halot Sky. So if you use your printer regularly, your FEP is going to end up with some wear and tear. I recently had an episode where mine pretty much pulled off the glass and ripped a hole, and I had goo everywhere. So we did a little bit of cleanup, and now I'm going to show you how to properly change the FEP film, get it tight as a drum, and get this printer back up and running. So stick around. But before we get into it, I need you to make sure that you reduce your Z offset on that subscribe button down there, and hit the notification button. Give it a good first layer squish. That way you can be sure you get notified every time we put up a new video. That being said, let's jump right into it. All right. So here we are with my Creality Halot 1. Now this is an amazing printer. I get some really great prints off of this. Of course, before we do anything and touch any of this stuff that might be coated in a little bit of resin, we're going to put on our nitrile gloves. We use nitrile because the nitrile doesn't melt when it comes in contact with the liquid plastic. So watch out for vinyl and other types of gloves. They do not work and can actually be a little bit hazardous. So get yourself some good nitrile ones. They come in all sorts of colors. These are nice, cheap nitrile exam gloves from Walmart, and you can get them at a pretty good price. So let's see here. We have some resin here. This is what we're going to be filling our tank with when we're done with this process. Of course, first, as you can see, our FEP film is pretty tore up, a little bit cloudy. And they're actually, it's hard to see in the camera here, but there are some tiny holes in here from the release mechanism not releasing properly. So what we're going to do is we're going to take this off. We're going to clean the tube of the tub here a little bit because I've got some dried plastic on there. It was in storage for a while. And then we're going to replace this FEP sheet. So in order to do this, you're going to need obviously another piece of FEP film. This is a two-pack right from the Creality website. If you get a new printer, generally they'll include one of these with it. So you have a few spares, but definitely want to make sure that this stuff is up to snuff. And if not, replace it because it is what releases your model from the actual screen. And that's where you get that nice pop when it makes a new layer. So we want to get our Allen wrench. We're also going to need one of these. This should have came in the printer and it is a pretty standard size. I'm not sure the exact millimeters. I guess I can measure it. But like I said, if you have the printer, you have this wrench, it came in the kit. So basically we're going to go around. We're going to loosen up all of these screws here. Okay. That's going to take me just a minute. So let's get set up so we can do this in a faster manner. Okay. Just set it flat. Remove all the screws. This is going to remove the ring that's holding the FEP film into place. All right. So we're going to be removing the last screw here. And one of the easiest ways to turn these is to get your wrench locked in there nice and good on the short end and just kind of give it a spin and that'll get it out. So now that we have all the screws removed, you go ahead and pop this ring out as well as the old FEP. So the ring first, you can see what we're doing. This basically is what holds it down and gets it nice and tight. And the way we're going to do this is we're going to tighten across. We're going to do this screw and then this screw, and we'll go back and do the other corner screws. And then we'll put in the rest. This is what holds the tension on your FEP film and gives it that nice timbre like a drum. It doesn't make that noise when it's not tight. You can see it pushes itself into the shape it needs to be in. And this one is pretty worn out. There is the tear I was talking about right at my thumb. Like I said, it doesn't take much. I know it's hard to see, but it is there. So let's go ahead and get our other sheet of FEP film out. This is a two-pack, so there's two of them in here. We'll be using one today and storing the other for the next time, provided I can get into the container here. So let me use a little razor blade and cut the top here. I just want to be careful. The paper itself, the film, does have a little bit of extra in the corners to make sure that you can properly line it up. So I'm going to be careful not to rip that, not to slice the paper. Once we get the container open, we can slide out a sheet of this. You can see what it looks like brand new here. It's in this nice little styrofoam. And there are two sheets in here. We're only going to need one, so let's make sure that we don't grab them both, shall we? So two sheets. We're going to slide out one sheet. We're going to push the other sheet right back in there, and we'll put that away for storage when we're done, so that we can repeat this process in a couple of months or weeks, depending on how heavily you use your printer, as it needs to be replaced. So let me slide this over here so I don't lose it. Put it in my drawer of supplies there. Okay, so now we have our FEP sheet here, okay? It is going to be, as you can see, larger than our build plate, which is good. I just got it a little messy. I'm going to take a rag and wipe this off. What we're going to do before we continue this process is make sure that this part is nice and clean, because as I said, I had this in storage, and I mistakenly thought that I cleaned it out completely, but I had not, and it made quite a mess with the resin on the inside. So as you can see, there's some dry stuff here. I don't recommend scraping at this with your FEP film in there if you have some hardened plastic, because you will put a hole in it. Now that I took the FEP off, I'm going to give it a good scrape and try and get a lot of this stuff out of here. I'm not too particularly concerned with the size of this vat being immaculate, simply because this plastic is hardened, and scraping on it should remove any loose chunks or chunks that are capable of falling off, and filling the vat, it won't have any effect. As long as I don't have any pieces falling off into my new plastic and obstructing my print, I'll be happy. So I think that's about as much of it as we're going to get off there, to be honest. Let's move on to the next part, which is placing the FEP sheet into the vat. Wait a minute, before we go any further, I have to point out that it is now 2023, and there's no better time to start investing than right now. The stock market's been down a little bit lately, and as you know in the game, you like to buy low and sell high. So if you're thinking about making any investments, I definitely encourage you to check out the link to Webull below, because if you sign up now, you and I both get free stocks, and it helps the channel out quite a lot. If you're spending time thinking that this year's the year you might want to actually start making some investments in the stock market, now's the time. Check it out, guys. So at this point, before we start screwing things down, excuse me, we're going to prepare our FEP sheet. And the way that we do that is by removing the two sheets of plastic protective cover. Those are there to prevent scratches and marring and things like that. So basically, you're going to peel a sheet off of both sides. This is the piece we want. It is the middle piece. It is a little bit thicker than the other pieces. So what we're going to do is place it on our build plate, as close to center as we can. We're going to hold it from the bottom so we can let our screws fall down, because we need to push this into it, and we're not going to poke any holes in here. We're going to let the tension of the screws do the job. So we're going to place it into the frame, just like this. Then we're going to hold down the corner, as we said, making sure that we have excess in all directions. Because as I said, this is going to pull this plastic almost like an air form, where it's going to pull it into the shape that we need. So we're going to place a screw here, and we're going to push it down. We're going to push down the other corner slightly, make sure that it's not tightening oddly, and it seems to be okay. So now, we're going to push this one screw down into the corner here, and it'll bite into the hole, and it'll actually punch the hole into the FEP sheet itself. We don't want to tighten it quite all the way quite yet. We want to be able to pull everything nice and tight. Luckily, the screws do most of the work. We're going to go the opposite corner. We're going to put one in here, and we're going to tighten that down a little bit. Basically, we're tightening it just to the lip, this little rim here, and not all the way down quite yet. So now, we're going to again pull on this a little bit and make sure that we're not getting any bubbles in here. A little bowing is okay around the edges, if it's not perfectly even, because as we tighten the rest of these, the tension will do the trick that we need to and pull everything where it needs to go. But sometimes, such as in this corner here, the plastic is starting to fold over on itself, so it becomes a little tricky to get that screw in there. Once it bites into its position, it works fairly well. So we're going to get that edge tight flush with the lip as well. Then we're going to put in our final corner screw, and doing these four properly and not just going around is what's going to give us the proper tension. You'll see after we put it on, we'll give it a little strum, and it has a nice timbre like a drum. This process is much easier when you know your build plate is clean, because the glove tends to stick a little bit to the FEP. So now that we're in there, I still don't want to tighten them all the way down yet, so I want to make sure that these sides don't pull out. So what we're going to do is do the sides in the middle here, and we're going to tighten them to flush. Then we're going to go back around in the same order that we initially tightened them, and we're going to tighten them all the way down. And we're going to throw our wrench on the ground, right? All right, so now we're going to do this other middle corner here. As you can see, I have a few of the screws going around the outside, and you're just going to keep going in this pattern where you're not doing in a row. You want to kind of do the opposite. So now I'm going to do up here. I'm going to push it in, pop the plastic. Basically, the brace holds the plastic in place, and then when you tighten the brace down, it creates that form that pulls it super tight. So pretty interesting setup. Now we're going to put in the two ends. We're going to do one here and one here, and then we will do all in order after that because it won't really matter. It can't pull too hard on any one place. At the end of this process, you are also probably going to need a razor blade. Scissors will work, but a razor is a lot cleaner for cleaning up this edge and getting the excess plastic off because we don't want that getting in the way when we put our vat down and creating problems with leveling and things like that. So push this one in, and we are almost there. I'm going to tighten up a few more screws, and then we will tighten the whole thing down and show you the end of the process. Okay. So as you can see, we now have all of our screws in place here, and it is pretty much flush with the rim of the vat. Now we're going to do our tightening, but before we do that, we want to make sure that we've properly installed it to this point and make sure that there's a nice good drum sound. You get a nice, what they call, timbre. That's what's going to determine your pluck. Now that's going to get a lot more pronounced as we tighten this down because it does actually go into that recess quite a bit. We're going to tighten these in the same manner where we start with one corner, and you can just see it stretching the plastic into the corner there. So we're going to tighten that up and throw our wrench again. We're going to tighten that up as far as it'll go this time. Maybe not tight, tight. We'll come around and give them another quarter turn at the very, very end. Then we're going to go to the opposite corner again, and we're going to work that one all the way down. We're going to go back to the corner next to the initial corner. We're going to work that one all the way down, and we're going to go to the final corner, and we're going to tighten that one. Now it's being held in place by the screws on the sides, and the corners are completely tightened. As you can see, all the other screws are now sticking up. It doesn't really matter what order I tighten those in now because the tension on the FEP film is there, and it's not really going to move. The screws themselves puncture holes once it becomes tight, so the FEP is not really going to slide. That's one of the reasons there's so many screws is to kind of anchor it as you're tightening it down and ensure that nice tight fit. So now you get a lot more of that nice timbre noise. So you're going to throw your wrench again. This should be the throwing your wrench video. I'm going to go around. I'm going to tighten the rest of these up, and then we have one more step before we can install it back on the machine. All right, so that is the last one. We're going to go around and check a couple of them to make sure they're nice and tight. That corner could use a little more, and the corners, as I said, are the most necessary to have fully tight in order to keep that tension. That is what creates that pluck noise when it pulls the build plate off of the bed and what actually releases your model. Otherwise, it would stick to the screen and not the metal build plate. So now that we've done that, we need to take a razor blade or scissors or whatever, and you can generally get, if you got a sharp one, this one's too dull, you can generally just run right along the side and get a nice piece up like that there. It doesn't matter if it's perfectly flush because it'll compress it with these screws a little bit. You just want to make sure that it's as even as you can get it. So we're just going to go all the way around here very carefully with the razor blade. We obviously don't want to poke the FEP film that we just placed in the center there. It does happen, so be careful. Scissors work too if you can get close enough to the lip. So I like the razor blade because it does look a little cleaner on the build plate when you're done. Be very careful and just zip it right off there. This last corner here will be pretty well good to go. Like I said, it doesn't have to be perfect. You just want to make sure that when you put the build plate on, it will stay in place. Now, the last thing you're going to want to do before placing this is make sure that it's clean, there isn't any dust or debris, and maybe a little rubbing alcohol wipe would help quite a bit because clarity is a big deal. So now we are all set, bangs like a drum, and we're ready to go. Only, however, before we start printing, we're going to want to go ahead and level our build plate because you always want to level the build plate when your vat is off. So I'll show you how to do that in the next video, and then we'll get to printing. Make sure if you like this video, you leave a like and you stick around because we have lots of cool things to do with this machine, and we're going to get to printing real shortly. Thanks for stopping by, guys. Technivorous out.