What's in the mailbox? 📬 📦

DeadAirMD said:
1st, and absolutely 1st, make sure your bi-colored LEDs are common ANODE. The V6 doc is old and has better info about those than Barry's newer build docs. The LEDs are Red in Bypass and Green when effects is on (or whatever color combo bi-colored LED you have). I have always just used regular LEDs for his builds. Just make sure you pick the right cathode because if you choose the wrong one, your LED will be on during bypass and off when effects is engaged........not like I would know or anything.
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That's pretty cool actually.
 
steviejr92 said:
Just got in my new powder coating gun!

It has the ability to adjust KV and Microamps! I big big jump in quality over the EastWood System!

I got extra cups and an extra long hose. I didnt realize that I didnt need the yellow hose, since it fits the Eastwood system Ill just use it for that gun instead!
View attachment 56927
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Now you just need to get a UV printer! ;)
 
steviejr92 said:
In all honesty i would love one but sheesh have you seen what they go for? :oops:
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The worst part is once you finally buy one you have to maintain the damn thing. If it sits for more than 1-2 days without printing then you're going to have to flush the printhead with isopropyl to clear out dried ink. You have to constantly grease rails or they start grinding. You have to constantly circulate the white ink or it settles and the pigments separate, resulting in very non-white printing. Other things I've had to do include re-solder the UV lamp, replace the main driver board, replace the water pump, replace the printhead, re-level the bed, and re-balance the printhead. Also, you've seen how much printers cost, have you also seen that it's about $300 to refill your fancy UV curable inks???

BUT

Sometimes when the stars align, and you've made the right sacrifice to the gods of printing, you're blessed with the miracle of a clean print, and for a brief moment, it all feels worth it.

HWUA.jpg


Also $20k is only for the really fancy name-brand ones. If you're a hands-on person that's good at figuring things out, you can get a usable Chinese printer (like mine) for around $3k.
 
vigilante398 said:
The worst part is once you finally buy one you have to maintain the damn thing. If it sits for more than 1-2 days without printing then you're going to have to flush the printhead with isopropyl to clear out dried ink. You have to constantly grease rails or they start grinding. You have to constantly circulate the white ink or it settles and the pigments separate, resulting in very non-white printing. Other things I've had to do include re-solder the UV lamp, replace the main driver board, replace the water pump, replace the printhead, re-level the bed, and re-balance the printhead. Also, you've seen how much printers cost, have you also seen that it's about $300 to refill your fancy UV curable inks???

BUT

Sometimes when the stars align, and you've made the right sacrifice to the gods of printing, you're blessed with the miracle of a clean print, and for a brief moment, it all feels worth it.

View attachment 57019


Also $20k is only for the really fancy name-brand ones. If you're a hands-on person that's good at figuring things out, you can get a usable Chinese printer (like mine) for around $3k.
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That’s a lot of maintenance but the end result looks incredibly worth it. I had no idea those UV pigments can be so finicky and expensive! Before resoldering and doing replacement work on the internals how long did it last?

Beautiful finish on the pedal btw (prismatic universe?) 😍
 
steviejr92 said:
Wow that really is beautiful!

That’s a lot of maintenance but the end result looks incredibly worth it. I had no idea those UV pigments can be so finicky and expensive! Before resoldering and doing replacement work on the internals how long did it last?

Beautiful finish on the pedal btw (prismatic universe?) 😍
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Thanks :) That one is prismatic cosmos, it's become my favorite.

White is really the only finnicky one, and most printers come with some sort of built-in agitation for the white, but on the cheap ($3-5k) ones it doesn't work very well. I bought my printer in October of 2020, and aside from regular maintenance it was relatively issue-free until late last year, that's when the wires to the UV lamp broke off and had to be resoldered. The driver board replacement was in March of this year, followed closely by the printhead replacement (which probably could have been avoided if I had been better about maintenance early on). Water pump went out last month, and the head needed re-balancing a couple weeks ago (screws keeping it in the right position stripped out).

So short answer, more or less problem free for about 2 years. I've thought about getting rid of it every time a new problem comes up, but I'm always able to figure it out and get it going again. Plus I had saved up for too damn long to buy it, there's no way I would be able to replace it if it went down right now.
 
vigilante398 said:
Thanks :) That one is prismatic cosmos, it's become my favorite.

White is really the only finnicky one, and most printers come with some sort of built-in agitation for the white, but on the cheap ($3-5k) ones it doesn't work very well. I bought my printer in October of 2020, and aside from regular maintenance it was relatively issue-free until late last year, that's when the wires to the UV lamp broke off and had to be resoldered. The driver board replacement was in March of this year, followed closely by the printhead replacement (which probably could have been avoided if I had been better about maintenance early on). Water pump went out last month, and the head needed re-balancing a couple weeks ago (screws keeping it in the right position stripped out).

So short answer, more or less problem free for about 2 years. I've thought about getting rid of it every time a new problem comes up, but I'm always able to figure it out and get it going again. Plus I had saved up for too damn long to buy it, there's no way I would be able to replace it if it went down right now.
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All great info. Is it possible to defeat that problem for the white pigment by agitating the cartridge yourself? Is that even possible?

2 years isn’t too bad, over the 2 year period would you say you got what you wanted out of it? Was it under constant use?
 
steviejr92 said:
All great info. Is it possible to defeat that problem for the white pigment by agitating the cartridge yourself? Is that even possible?

2 years isn’t too bad, over the 2 year period would you say you got what you wanted out of it? Was it under constant use?
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Yeah I used to just shake the bottle :p It worked, but eventually I found a system that has a motorized stirrer in the bottle, so throwing money at that problem made it go away. I absolutely got what I wanted out of it, at the time I bought it I was consistently printing 40 pedals a month with it, and it gave consistently good results. It's hard to put a value on what just the artwork part of a pedal is "worth", but I like to think I got my money's worth out of it.

So I won't lie about the maintenance, it can be annoying at times (I buy rubber gloves, cotton swabs, and isopropyl in bulk), but if anyone is seriously thinking about investing in a UV printer for a medium-level production it's not a bad idea. There is a learning curve, but once you're over it, it becomes routine.

Apologies for the derailing as there was nothing in my mailbox, but I like talking about equipment :P
 
vigilante398 said:
Yeah I used to just shake the bottle :p It worked, but eventually I found a system that has a motorized stirrer in the bottle, so throwing money at that problem made it go away. I absolutely got what I wanted out of it, at the time I bought it I was consistently printing 40 pedals a month with it, and it gave consistently good results. It's hard to put a value on what just the artwork part of a pedal is "worth", but I like to think I got my money's worth out of it.

So I won't lie about the maintenance, it can be annoying at times (I buy rubber gloves, cotton swabs, and isopropyl in bulk), but if anyone is seriously thinking about investing in a UV printer for a medium-level production it's not a bad idea. There is a learning curve, but once you're over it, it becomes routine.

Apologies for the derailing as there was nothing in my mailbox, but I like talking about equipment :p
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40 pedals a month! Wow thats more than i can manage right now anyways!

I buy rubber gloves, cotton swabs and ISP in bulk already as it is! Looks like i might be use to the routine already. :ROFLMAO:

Getting things down to a science is what i love to do, Im not worried in that regard. I think the pricing is what is preventing me if im going to be honest. I need to build up to that level production but dang having the ability to just print out a cool perfect design is useful!

No need to apologize man, I love reading information and user experiences!
 
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