DIY 3D Printer UV Curing Station Made for about $20

In this video I show you how I made a UV curing station for SLA resin 3D printing using an old microwave I got for free, and about $20 in parts from Amazon.

[MakoRuu]

If you wanted to upgrade, you could also spray the inside of the Microwave with a reflective coating, or use some aluminum tape. And supplement (or replace) the UV lamp with LED UV strips that stick to the inside, which would flood the chamber. This is a brilliant idea, and I'm researching on DIY UV chambers because I'm getting in to 3D Printing for Dungeons and Dragons.

[ShuaShook]

this is actually genius and i have everything i need already! I've been using the same UV light/turntable set up, and it works well for smaller pieces, but the little turntable is a pain with larger prints. Thanks for the idea and walkthrough, I'll be sure to send the results your way!

[TheZahnputz]

nice idea! i find that postcuring the part submerged in water enables a lot quicker, non-tacky cure! apparrently oxygen contact can inhibit the resin from curing fully at the surface, especially if the ipa is already a little dirty. in addition to some reflective coating on the inside of your chamber you might be done curing in ~5 minuits!

[Sciman]

I ended up building one of these for a friend, following advice from some people in the comments to cover the inside with reflective tape and using UV led strips, thanks for the inspiration!

[StanleyLogistics]

Bro, you are a This is so Thanks for the Invention.

[sinformant]

I use a nail curing station like that sitting on top of a cardboard box lined with aluminum tape, and one of those solar turn tables. Works great for me but I don't usually print anything with enough weight that the turntable wont turn. That microwave is a great idea!

[Divyesh_Sinha]

how about adding acrylic mirrors inside to bounce the light even better

[constantin]

build it my self after watching your video! thank you very much! easy and super useful! great build and nice idea!

[nottelling]

Aluminum is one of the only good reflectors for big chunk of the UV spectrum that you actually want to use, so some aluminum foil or tape on the other walls would probably help cut the curing time down. There's probably some dead zones that prevent you from curing in the whole cylindrical volume above the glass plate, and this would fix those pretty easily. You could even put reflectors down on the bottom. You could also probably make a custom connector to the little rotating bit under the removable glass base have it rotate whatever kind of bed you want pretty easily, which opens up some neat options. A custom parts-curing tree would let you suspend a lot, and the aluminum reflectors would make it much more even in coverage so it could actually work.

[DtEarth]

That's a pretty cool idea. Nice job.
I would probably line the inside of the microwave with reflective material with Aluminium foil or space blancket.

[Furyer]

Further upgrades: A heating system to get the internal area to maybe max 60c, Some speciality resins get thier best properites cured under heat. Another idea might be to combine the wash and curing system, perhaps a bracked on the ceiling of the chamber that holds a pot of IPA and it has magnetic stirring in the bottom moved by the turntable.

[qased]

Great idea, much better than lining a cardboard box with aluminium foil! Ideally you would take an old oven for this, so you can also raise the temperature to about 60 degrees C (but don't use the grill!). Also, you could try to add mirrors to the inside, to spread the light more evenly.
Lastly, allow me to comment on your resin handling; do you realize you touch everything with dirty gloves? The bolt of the printer, the lid of the IPA beaker, the microwave... All would need to be cleaned with IPA. Also, please cure any tissues you used to clean resin spills in your nice microwave before disposing them in the trash!
Keep up the good work!

[richardvansoest]

I did accactly the same but with the uv leds of the nail lamp and my microwave had an analog timer< but i build an nicer version now. I am struggling with the dvr8825 and a nema 17 now to turn the stirrer and the slow rotating of the plate

[trzarector]

Great idea especially if you can get hold of an industrial sized microwave oven!

[grantsr]

Similar to the chassis of microwave would reflect the microwaves around the chamber for even heading, could you line the inside of the microwave with foil to reflect the light around for an even more even cure?

[DetroitMetroRetro]

Thanks i had a microwave and was tempted to buy a small uv light now i know what im doing next weekend lol

[FlintStone-cs]

You can use clear poly-carbonate it blocks UV just like polycarb sunglasses do.

[davidhaykus]

Just an FYI, the purple UV lights are not really harmful to your eyes (think "Halloween stuff"). The UV ones that would be harmful to eyes (and skin) are the ones that have the sort of sky blue color output which are used as germicidal lamps. They are still UV but just a different part of that spectrum. I do like the ideas below of using the UV tape LED's and also the aluminum tape.

[Kevin-oksm]

Which wires are positive and negative for both lamp and microwave?

[TJBasham]

You could line the whole interior with UV LED strips.