3rd time isnt a charm

My 3rd Form 2 (2nd replacement machine) is another dud.

My 1st machine had a dead laser. My 2nd machine had junk bearings that finally failed after less than a year of infrequent printing. So I returned the machine to Formlabs. They sent me “my machine” back with replaced bearings. (it wasnt actually my machine) Im assuming it was a refurbished unit.

This new unit is throwing resin sensing errors after finishing the first layer. The printer cant resume so I have to abort which causes some crazy suction force between the build platform and tank. This is only my 3rd print on the replacement machine.

Wiping the back inner wall down of the tank seemed to fix the issue. I didnt have to wipe the tank wall ever before. Under normal operation is it common to have to wipe the inner tank walls clean after every print? The wiper arm does seem to create a wave of resin that splashes up along the inner walls.

I don’t think it is, at least on the 2 machines I use at work we never do this. We also don’t have resin sensing issues (we had a dozen of “no tank” and cartridge detection issues in the past few months (the printers both run almost every day) but nothing as major as others have reported.

Yeah my last machine constantly had cartridge and tank errors. The last machine did throw resin sensing errors but it would always resume on its own. Now I have to babysit the new machine. Its happened 2 times out of the 3 prints I have done. Both times have been remedied by an abort print then a quick wipe down with a clean cloth on that inner tank wall. Which as I said barely had a film on it. Certainly nothing abnormal for a standard print. Perhaps the sensor on this new printer is already failing or a dud sensor? Wish we could just dismiss sensor errors all together. This is one of those errors that really is doing nothing to protect the machine from damage or failure. Its just an annoyance and delaying my output.

Welcome to the club. Resin sensing, tank detection, cartridge detection, low resin warning, empty cartridge detection… Most of the automation in the Form 2 is sound in principle, but has awful reliability and no way to bypass it. All of that would be solved by an “advanced user” mode (or a proper “open mode” with all locked features available).

1 Like

it’s a common problem. Unscrew the grounding screws that are under the tank and above the optical windows and screw then back in. Lo located at the rear underneath where the train sensor is. I had this exact issue with my brand new form2.

Is there a guide? Your description is a bit confusing.

I would love an Advanced User mode but I think they fear losing business to 3rd party resin manufacturers and thats why we dont have more control over the system. I cant blame them for that aspect but it does suck for us.

Also just got a Motors Jammed error. That was an issue I had with the last machine which eventually led to me figuring out that the bearings failing was the cause. The bearings are great on this new unit and Im now getting the Motors Jammed Error so perhaps the bearings werent completely at fault before?

Send you a private message

1 Like

I found the pdf file that might be able to help you.

LevelSense Grounding Screws, Reseating the LevelSense Grounding Screws.pdf (543.3 KB)

1 Like

Three bad replacements! scary.

This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.