I'm trying to make a gadget that connects to a garden hose. It has gears inside and the water drives a mechanism. Just think sprinkler. In fact, I've stolen the guts of a sprinkler for the worm gears. Anyway, I started by using PETG with my filament printer, but I've had too many issues trying to make it watertight. Water finds its way through microscopic holes in the FDM layers. So I gave the Photon a shot.
The resin printing eliminates the layer issues and makes truly watertight enclosures. However, I have a different problem. The plastic is weak. My device works fine at lower water pressures, but when I turn the water pressure up, the enclosure literally explodes from the internal pressures. It's quite dramatic. I'll also add that there is a seam, which I close with resin and then cure with a UV light. I do this in layers. I then reinforce it with a couple coat of epoxy. It is not the seam that is failing. The walls just shatter. The plastic, itself, loses its integrity.
Now, I'm not a mechanical engineer, so maybe there are tricks to the mechanical design that would add strength in all the right places. That aside, the plastic is not strong enough. I'm using Nova3D clear. I actually like it better than the Anycubic resin because it is less viscous and the clear makes it possible to see right into the enclosure, so I can see the mechanics at work.
My question is whether anyone can recommend a stronger resin. Or maybe there is an additive I can mix into the resin to make it stronger? Otherwise, I am going to have to go back to the PETG and try coating the interior with epoxy, which is going to be a major headache.
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