Just finished the print at 25 microns. It finished in 6.5 hours by the way. That’s much faster with the Form1+ than the old Form1. Used to take the same print close to 8 hours.
I haven’t taken photos yet, but from looking at it, the 25 microns using the black resin gives you much smoother surfaces and curvatures, however it seems like it overcures a little, blending some of the details. Not as sharp as the 50 microns.
Hopefully formlabs can adjust that in software and make it sharper.
That’s sort of what I was afraid might happen. They always seem to have some issues with the early 25 micron calibrations (remember how long we had to print the clear material as “Grey” at 25 just to get the print to work?). I’m sure the 25 micron is just lower on the priority list for tweaking, I’m still very encouraged by the quality of the 50 and 100 micron prints so far. Formlabs don’t forget to work on this for a future update.
Here are the photos of the 25 micron prints. Again, they look much much better in person. There is very slight overcuring going on vs the 50 micron print, however if you want smoother curvatures, the 25 micron setting helps. I wonder if printing using the Grey setting on 25 might yield better results. That will have to wait for a later date.
Here is a new ring I’m working on and I just wanted to post these pictures so you can see the insanely small prongs and how well they came out. All those people on other forums dissing the form1 for only having a 300 micron feature size… do you really need prongs smaller and sharper than this? I think not!
This one is printed at the 50 micron setting
and this one on 25 microns. You can see some of the details are not as sharp (top of the prongs is more rounded, some prongs even fused together), however the surface quality is better.
The 25 micron setting should definetly be re-calibrated for the black resin.
@Monger_Designs, Forgive my dumb question because I don’t do jewelry, but what is desirable about casting from a 3D print over using a wax milling machine? More freedom of design? Or something else.
@JoshK, Mills can certainly get you high quality detail and surfaces. I have no experience with milling machines, other than trying to sources a few jobs to multiple milling experts and them telling me that it cant be done. That’s where 3d printing comes in. For things that can’t be done any other way.
@Monger_Designs, I see. I just searched the internet to see how it was done now and thought the mill i saw seemed capable, but i suppose there are limits because you need a straight shot to fit the bit into places.
Hi Monger_Designs thanx a lot for this work!! is amazing!!! congratulation! for sure i’m going to buy one! Do you know how long does the laser last before have to be replace and if is some other supply that have to be change over the time?
@luis_lomazzi, Thanks Luis. As far as I know, the laser in the Form1+ is NOT a consumable. Meaning, it should last for a really long time. A few people had laser trouble with the old form1 and now with the form1+ that problem has been solved (different more powerful laser).
You will replace the resin tank after a few bottle of resin, and those are the only consumables.
If your laser doesn’t last long, then there is something wrong with the machine, and formlabs should be able to take care of it for you.
Hello Monger_Designs. Thank you very much for all the work. I am new to 3D printer. You said this Resin is not castable, so how do you cast your jewelry into metal like gold or platinum?
For now I make vulcanized resin molds from the prints and inject them with wax and then cast those. There is some loss of details, but for some stuff it works nicely.
Thank you for the prompt response. I heard of that method before. Do you know any other way? Like any kind of oven that can handle this kind of Resin? Have you tried putting this resin in the oven?
Not all the supports. Mostly for rings and also for parts that I want total control over where the supports touch. The new manual support system in Preform is great for that. I also use the b9 software because it has greater control of support types, angles and thicknesses.
I checked out the b9 software - you’re right, highly customizable, maybe too much at this point for me. I am expecting my Form 1+ to arrive today!! Can’t wait to get some prints under my belt. Thanks again for your posts.
Very nice print and model. It reminds me of The Paper Fox.
I am waiting for my Form1+ which should be here by wednesday !! I ordered it with grey resin prior to reading the resin descriptions and realizing that each resin is for different objects.
It would be great if you shared your fox with the community.
