So I have been using the Form 1+ for a bit now and would say that this far I’ve had about a 20% successful print rate, which is pretty frustrating considering the cost of the resin. Some of it was user error and figuring out what works best with this printer, but then some of it was just a plain mystery. Last week I started printing a figure and had my usual trouble, so I decided to make a new grey tank because I thought the other one might be getting old and maybe that’s why it can’t seem to print anything anymore (even though I’ve only used 1 liter of resin through it). So brand new tank, brand new resin, should print like a champ right? WRONG. Every single print with the new set up has failed miserably, tried everything, twice. At least 10 prints 8 different ways with 0 success. I’ve concluded the problem is either a defective tank, defective resin, or defective printer… haven’t had a chance to try other colors (I have them all except the bendy stuff) because I needed that one part but when I get home tonight I’ll post some pics… I’ve already read through the forums and tried the usual fix’s but any suggestions would be welcome…
WIthout pictures we’re dead in the water before we even start. I’m not here to say there are not Form 1+'s with issues - just that a lot of issues are support and orientation related.
Mostly, I responded so that I would be notified once you posted pictures.
if the laser has lost power over the time you can try to print any resin at the black setting and at 0.025. This way you can see if there is an improvement. Thats just what I would try.
Need details.
It sounds a bit like my issues seemed okay in the beginning but slowly gets worse and worse. It might just be that you need to clean your mirrors. Back when I was having my issues I was getting maybe a 50% success rate and it was slowly getting worse eventually I had to contact formlabs and after a couple back and forth conversations with them it was asked of me to clean my galvo mirrors. After cleaning all the mirrors in my machine I have had more like a 98% success rate. Hopefully it is something as simple as that. I burned though 5 trays and 2L of resin before I realized that was all that needed to be done.
Good Luck
Tom
Been a real busy week at work, and had a long weekend so I didn’t get a lot of time to devote to this. I can’t remember which order they were printed in, I’ll try to keep them grouped together in like prints. 
This was one of the first ones I printed in the new tank with new resin…
On this one I tried changing the orientation completely but it didn’t even make it to the model before something happened…
This one made it to the model, also keep in mind I have drain holes to drain, and counter the suction effect…
I have at least 4 or 5 more prints that have all failed in the same way but I haven’t had a chance to document them yet, since these I have made the print even smaller ( which is a pain, because I’m estimating about a 1/8 or the print bed being utilized, and more pieces to glue together) still same failures. I did have a successful small print in the white over the weekend but I think I might have just got lucky, plus it was pretty small. Still not 1 single successful print with the new tank and new resin. I actually think the new tank is in pretty bad shape after however many failures it’s had so far, when I get a chance I’m going to try the old tank again but could be a minute. I work long hours so I usually only get to try a print when I’m home, so that means about 1 print a day so what you are looking at is almost 2 weeks of waste…
Be vary careful with any sort of fingerprints on the underside of the tank. it also looks like its having a hard time peeling it of the tank bed. you can try reducing the size so just print each leg separate. Also 0.25 and 0.5 might be an issue as it requires the print to peel more times. Try a print at 1.0.
I had rotten luck with the grey at first. But now seems to work fine. Make sure there are no cured bits stuck at the bottom of tray. Also try mixing the resin thoroughly with a rubber spachalor and leaving for an hour of so until the bubbles are all gone before printing.
Thanks Edward, good suggestions but I have tried all of them. Except I haven’t printed anything at .25, just .50 and 1. It seems to me that I would just have to wait longer for a failed print. Weird thing, I had another successful (small) print with the white. I’m beginning to think I need to clean the mirrors but I’ll be done with the show I’m working on next week and will have more time to put into this.
Also, it’s hard to tell on the pictures but 90% of the failures failed at the support level so the orientation of my model wouldn’t have made a difference. I had good luck at first with grey but it’s slowly deteriorated to 0 successful prints…
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