Bad prints out of brand New Form 3

Grey has alway printed better a 100 microns than 50. The problem I have with deep small holes is that the uncured resin doesn’t always clear well. I usually chase these holes with a drill and what comes off the drill is a soft gunk rather than hardened resin.

I`ve seen this too. There is more to the wobbly layer line problem than just vertical surfaces unfortunately. My flat surfaces come out very warped and wrinkly.

Just to follow on, we’ve been running quite a few parts in the FlexV2 material at 100um.

Broadly speaking it’s fair to say that we are not seeing the same sort of ‘crease’ issues in the Flex material that we have seen in the Grey. There is occasional evidence of a little warping but that may be down to orientation in relation to the wiper direction.

vibrations may also cause this , especially in a high traffic area where trucks or continued traffic are in the area of the machine. As I learned working with lazers in my free time, vibrations are the enemy of good prints. make sure where ever the printer is located has very low vibrations to effect it. At least in my own exp/ once these machines are free of outside vibrations quality has improved.

Technically sure. But this printer is in my basement. No traffic, not near any roads. And my Form 2 is on the table IMMEDIATELY adjacent and has NONE of these problems.

My Form 3 went back a few days ago. I’m not sitting on it waiting for improvements.

True point but I doubt it’s very relevant here. I’m on a road up a mountain with zero traffic. My Form 3 and Form 2 are right beside each other, and I’ve done identical prints (simultaneously, and one printer at a time) which come out with creases / ripples on the Form 3, but perfectly on the Form 2.

Did they let you do a return for refund?

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Hi,
I’m printing flat shells on Form3 and I found an effect of parasitic curing of the residual resin which affects the quality of the surface facing towards the build plate.

This week I found another phenomena while printing flat shells - the supports are projected (as camera obscura) over one of the surfaces


with some filtering to highlight the details things look like this

and close to the end of the supports

If you notice the projection of the supports is crystal clear and on focus. My guess is that somehow the beam is curing parasitically the residual resin that stays on the object and it can explain partially some cases of the low quality you witness on Form3.

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…LFS is a kinda neat idea, but it’s still got some engineering work to be right it seems. The camera obscura effect is funky. I’ve got an original f1+ (still in a box since I moved last year). Been in FDM land for quite a while now. Interesting to be back and I see a lot of familiar faces, @Ante_Vukorepa for one. Cheers.

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Are others finding that part quality is getting better with FW updates? My parts have been coming out pretty good (black, clear, durable, tough, flexible) so far, but I did recently swap my machine to fix a different issue.

Some things improve, some get slightly worse.
Overall, i think things are a bit better than they were before.

I’ve switched to clear resin after my first liter of gray, so it’s a bit hard to do comparisons right now, until i swap back to gray. Clear seems to work okay with minimal support (i can get away with noticably less support than with gray), but there’s still banding artifacts described in this thread. Subjectively, i’d say they’re less pronounced than on gray, but are more noticable because of transparency.

Yes - I also notice the banding more on Clear resin. However, it’s usually pretty easy to sand away.

Black prints have been coming out beautifully for me. Durable has been looking pretty good as well. Tough resin seems to pool a bit more on flat support surfaces than others but it’s generally OK.

if FL would maybe allow a few verified forum users access to the FL 3 openFL, I think quicker results may surface…

I really agree with LFS.

Hello Everyone,
I’m new to this forum and my company is scheduled to purchase Form3 by the end of the month.
Our main reason for getting this printer is to help with prototyping small objects with a significant amount of detail.
Unfortunately after seeing warping issues that many of you are experiencing I am getting cold feet with recommending pulling the trigger. This whole warping/shifting error effectively nullifies the very purpose we would want this machine since all of our prints would be made at 25μm.
My questions are:
Has this situation improved recently? Was there a solution or fix for it implemented yet?
Please, let me know.
Thanks

There answer to your questions is simple; no and no. No improvements with any of the recent firmware updates, no solution or fix has been implemented yet as I don’t think they even know why it is happening.

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Although it’s not what I was hoping to hear - thank you for your reply nonetheless.
Seems like my options are:
A) Buy Form3 - pray for a fix
B) Buy Form2 (refurbished) - limited shelf life and support
C) Look elsewhere…

Consider my enthusiasm curbed

BTW, my “uneducated” guess would be that this is a mechanical design flaw.
If the problem could be fixed via a software update it’s more than likely would be in place by now.
Since the mechanical problems are a lot harder to correct and such fix could involve component redesign/replacement - I’m not feeling very optimistic about it anymore.

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There was a firmware update released this week for both the Form 2 and Form 3, which is encouraging. There is a Preform update, too.

I hope to run some test prints on the Form 3 this weekend with standard Gray V4 we recently ordered for that purpose. Hopefully, the new firmware resolves the layer shifting, imprecise opening and surface bulging issues we routinely saw on Form 3 prints. Our models are generally small so we need 50 micron or better.

If not, the Form 2 will remain our workhorse until those issues are resolved. I’m anxious for a resolution since there is much to like about the Form 3 and we need it working.

Here is an example of what we experienced (model of a ship’s bridge printed January 8th). The photos below were sent to FL for review. Hope they help.

Real object:
Gneisenau%20wreck%202%20small

Form 2 print:

Form 3 print (January 8) of the same model:

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Wow larsenstephen, thanks for sharing.
That print comparative analysis is very well done and informative. I’ve noticed in other F3 related posts that there is an overall drop in quality/crispness in 25z and 50z pints produced by F3, besides the primary warping and drooping issues.
Please do tell if you’ll notice any post-update improvements.
I’ll be watching this thread like a hawk - I have 13 more days until my purchase deadline.
I realize that hope is not a strategy, but I really want to give this one a chance.

Hi,
The wrong circular shapes of windows and other opening looks for me as parasitic curing of residual resin. If you notice the distortions are appearing consistently on the down side (during the printing) of the detail. It’s natural on such places the residual resin to stay for longer (especially with not so fluid resin) and hence to be exposed from the parasitic laser light. It’s the same effect described in the conversation below but affecting the holes in the detail.

Also ensure that once you take the detail out from the printer for washing there is no strong daylight around - the residual resin which is already sensibilised can harden in few seconds and you’ll be not able to remove it.

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I’ve seen you respond with this in multiple threads about bad prints from the Form 3. I don’t understand how this is helpful at all. You call this “natural” yet it was not a problem and IS not a problem with the Form 2. Why would it be different with the Form 3? And even if it is “natural” it is in no way, shape, or form acceptable for the Form 3 to have been released in this state.

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