@rkagerer , thanks for your kind comments!
Regarding test in gray and white resin, I’m not able to test with black or white as those are resins (and tanks) I do not have. I would like to see how the model prints in black since Roy’s posts above indicate black is presently printing better than gray.
@monk2002uk 's models in gray look better than what is coming out of my printer. Hope remains!
@lmlloyd , I paid $4319 USD, including service pack, taxes and shipping, for my Form 3.
We have 4 Form 2’s that have been operating very well. We ordered a Form 3 to meet an increase in product demand, but it is having some serious issues similar to what you all are sharing. I have contacted support and they are sending us a Resin Tank V2 to see if it will help. Are your prints done with the Resin Tank V1 as this is what the Form 3 ships with? Do you know what the difference between V1 and V2 tanks are? Maybe this is a tank issue?
This is our 4th print on a machine purchased less then a month ago.
As you can see, areas around the supports do not look good. Other prints have been so warped around supports that they are unusable to us.
Well, there is already a bit of a stealth recall, but it isn’t fixing all the problems. They completely swapped out my printer, because “some early printers had a known issue with layer separation.” I will honestly never know if the Form 4 ends up being fix for this, because there is no way I would buy another printer from them if this doesn’t ever get completely fixed. I had nothing but good experiences with the Form 2, and so didn’t think twice about ordering the 3. That didn’t work out too well so far.
I’m using a V1 tank. Very interested to see if V2 results in improved print quality. Interested to hear from those who have had both whether or not getting a V2 will help.
I have wondered about this, but I haven’t wanted to throw more money down the hole chasing a possible untested solution. I have asked before, but so far no one has said they are getting better quality prints from the V2 tanks.
Ouch! I got mine with the pre-order discount, a bare printer, without a wash station or build platform (because I already had them) and base support.
I was wrong, it was $4319 with taxes and shipping. I’d really like to get the Form 3 working with gray V4 at 50 microns.
@lmlloyd Well if it the tank won’t fix it Formlabs said they would consider a replacement LPU!
Other problems I have had is that the previous prints took 6% and 30% longer then estimated print times. When I printed the part in the picture, it took 11 1/2hrs. It was estimated to be only 4 1/2hrs! Midway through the print the layer print times began to slow down, taking almost 10 minutes per layer. The printer rebooted at some point and eventually finished it. Good thing formlabs put that easter egg game “form fly” on the form 3’s so I can pass some time waiting for the prints to finish…
One of the things that drives me the most nuts is this whole “it’s been tuned for black” thing. Years ago I used a lot of black resin, and Formlabs told me in person at an event, that for detailed prints I should use clear whenever possible, grey if I had to, and black as a last resort. Now, it would seem black is the preferred color.
As a side note, I think them getting the problem under control first in black, really does seem to indicate it is a light control issue, as there will be less light spill and over-curing in black.
@larsenstephen if you’re comfortable sending me a Form file I’d be happy to run one in Black v4 on both my Form 2 and Form 3 and send you some comparison photos. I have v1 tanks.
PM sent. Thanks!!
I should have read through the sarcasm 
I don’t mind trying to print something small in black with V2 tank if you want to send it to me.
I’d like to thank everyone for continuing to keep this thread alive. Like others, I have yet to produce a print on my Form 3 that I would consider acceptable, despite great results with my Form 2 that I unfortunately sold due to the expectation that the Form 3 would be a better machine. I’m hoping Formlabs will be more transparent about the existence of this issue (no pun intended!) and how they’re planning to address it.
Thanks, Roy. PM coming your way.
I can also print something in black or clear on my machine. I usually print larger objects and haven’t had any issues…although I do notice parts are slightly softer than my form 2 and I also see the misshapen hole problem (though also saw that on the form 2 sometimes depending on orientation).
Also should say that I had a couple of issues in the past with weird vertical line artifacts that probably were from dust inside the LPU. Haven’t had that problem since we RMA’ed my machine though.
I’m curious if the clear is more like the recent black results, or soft like the grey results.
Latest print - a German Stug IIIB self-propelled artillery piece printed with Gray V4 at 25 microns using a V1 tray. Photo hasn’t done justice (my inability as a photographer) to the level of detail on the model:
I don’t plan to upload any more examples but the quality is consistent across multiple batches - so far.
Robert
HI
Can you post a screenshot of the 3d-File in Preform.
