I had few fail print and was able to scrap the cure resin at the bottom of the tank after. ( support ended up to break especially the one close to the peeling side )…I am currently trying to add some proxy object along the peeling side so it may peel those one 1st and maybe protect the print behind ( currently printing for the 1st time like that)
I did a print with a brand new tank and the object was quite big but it failed and half of it was not building.
I let the print keep going since the other half was looking not too bad and I wanted to check the details on it.
Unfortunately the resin cured and fuse at the bottom of the tank.
So If you have a big print and the laser beam keep passing on the area that are failing maybe better to cancel the print especially if you have multiple hours of print left.
I seems that you are not the only one with that problem …
I will ask the same question than before to formlabs and because you grow your support team i hope i will have an answer.
Do you attempted to give us more control with preform ( control over the peel process and x/y scale, offset, cure time for the calibration ? )
And as international backer that will be better for us to calibrate the printer without having to send back to formlabs and pay horrible shipping cost.
How are you solving thoses issues ( calibration/ peel process ) ? When do you think that will be solved ?
Because it’s seems really hard to print over all the build area, or print a big item… And i’m not talking about bad accuracy or warping …
For me that’s really important, i won’t be able to use my form1 if i can’t have all the build area and a good accuracy !
Thanks for answers
I had a print fail near the end of the job and found one small patch that was fully cured on the silicone layer. I removed the cured layer with a soft silicone spatula and it seems to still print ok. I usually run my Form1 unattended, so I don’t really have the option of shutting it down if a section fails, but I would definitely cancel a job once it starts to fail if I was there to catch it. Leaving it running means you’ll end up with a resin tank full of half-cured blobs, and an overcooked patch stuck to your tank bottom.
I wonder if there is a way that the machine could detect a failure. If the cured resin scatters more (or less) light at a different wavelength than the laser, then the machine could sample the back-scattered light and detect a cured layer stuck to the silicone. I guess that will have to wait for the Form 2 
I will repeat my suggestion that Formlabs should figure out the best technique for removing stuck material off the tank bottom and for cleaning up the tank full of half-cured blobs.
I have recently just received my FormOne and have finally found time to try it out. Unfortunately, my two tries at printing have resulted in failures. Worse, the second time resulted in cured resin being deposited at the bottom of the tank. I will be shopping for a silicone spatula later to attempt to remove the resin as Andy has done.
I second the suggestion that FormLabs should figure out and inform users of the best technique for removing stuck material off the tank bottom and for cleaning up the tank full of half-cured blobs.
I have had that problem where a print failed and fused to the bottom of the silicone. Usually I have been able to remove it without damaging the silicone, but I have also had it take out a chunk of the silicone. (most often in an area that failed early if the laser continued to cure it over and over)
I found that I was able to figure out the area of damage, and continue to use the tray with no issues, as long as I avoid positioning something on that area of the build tray for future prints. For almost all of my prints, even large ones, I’ve been able to position it around my damaged area. (i’ve made a note of the damaged areas based on the grid in preform of areas to avoid) But if I am doing a print that requires that area, I pull out a second tray. So basically I end up using my damaged tray whenever I can until i wear it all the way out, and only use my newer tray when needed for extra big prints. It does mean a bit of juggling to keep track of which trays have damages and where, but I’m determined to get as much use out of each tray as possible!
I now have 2 ruined vats (big part failures tore chunks out of the vat when being removed). I’ve ordered a 500gram kit of Sylgard 184 to see if I can re-coat the vat. At this point I’m not interested in throwing more money away on this thing. If it can’t print a 90ml part, then I’m throwing in the towel.
thanks andy,
I was just gonna ask if anyone has tried yet to recoat their vat with a fresh silicone layer?
if you search on youtube for ‘b9creator vat re-coating’ you’ll find a well explained tutorial of how to do this.
we dont have our form 1 yet, but as soon as it arrives and the first vat is at it’s end of live, we’ll try that.
Andy, let us know how it went
thanks, Etienne
Etienne,
if you look at the blog-post by MadeSolid ( http://blog.madesolid.com/2013/09/changing-pdms-coating-form1-printer-vat/) it seems they have been succesful in recoating the resin vat.
Ard
I have had the same problems. A chunk came out of the silicone this morning. The bottom had been cloudy for awhile. Most of my parts take up must of the bottom so I can’t really move them around enough from print to print to miss the spot…