First time user: first experiances

Support & Troubleshooting Form 3/3+
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First time user with GreatAccentor here. we just received our 3L and printing with Tough2000, obviously on the beta profile at the moment.

Some findings, in no particular order:

  1. None of the quickstart guides i found mention that you are supposed to squeeze the bite valve a few times to ‘losen it up’ the first time you use it. so filling the 3L tank was very slow

  2. same goes for just pouring your resin from the container into the tank.

  3. the progress bars on the printer and dashboard dont match. the dashboards percentage is the number of layers printed out of the total, the bar on the printer is the time progress. so on a job thats wide at the bottom and thin at the top, i had the printer showing 75% and the dashboard 50%

  4. using the default support settings, but they are very hard to remove. snapping them off by hand is not gonna happen. you will need the cutters to cut up the raft and supports and remove them in small sections, beeing carefull not to cut yourself on the sharp edges

  5. even after washing (ive tried IPA and TPM), and post cure (120 minutes, 80c), the prints remain quite sticky, and even get matt where you touched them. this seems to get better in the next day(s). not sure if thats just a tough2000 thing (it is mentioned in the material info that it can take up to a week!)

  6. oh, when leveling the printer: it was instrucing to turn 1 leg in a certain way, but that leg was already at its limit. so had to turn all the others the other way instead. may be a button to change the instructions ?

  7. print speed: it looks like its doing a VERY slow pulloff, then a fast up for 1cm, fast down 1cm, then a slow down… why the fast bits? the whole procedure takes longer then the printing of the layer

  8. i cant seem to find the remote printing option? may be thats not available on the 3L yet ?

  9. Preform: may be im spoiled with things like Lychee slicer, but having to use only 1 piece of software that can also do hollow, add drain holes etc is convenient :slight_smile:

while i do have some mixed feelings about the 3L in general, i am well aware its a brand new printer and startup issues are to be expected. and i have full confidence that Formlabs will fix most if not all of them in upcomming updates.

1 Like
2

Thank you for the update and feedback. It is very useful for people like me waiting to see the real user feedback.

  1. The Tough 2000 is very sticky indeed even you washed in alcohol. So don’t worry.
  2. You are right. The machine may spend more time on the movement of moving up and down of its platform than the printing. Fully expected.

For big parts cleaning, I would recommend get a bigger tank with more alcohol so the whole piece can submerge into the alcohol. After that, you will need an air compressor to clean the inside of the model. I assume most of parts you will need to print in hollow since the resin consumption to print it in solid is too high.

Let us know more.

3

Im still looking for a program to do the hollowing. for my ‘other’ resin printers, i use Lychee Slicer, which does an awesome hollow, with internal structure to make the part strong, but it cant export that to STL

4

Sounds good to try.

I normally use Meshmixer or Chitu box for things need to be loaded on Formlabs.

For big parts, I use the Magics from Imaterialize.

I do wish the preform has the hollow function.

5

I’ve been printing T2000 exclusively. None of my parts are sticky after post-cure is complete. And I’m using a home-made curing box, nothing fancy.

I find cleaning the parts works better if I agitate the IPA. Just letting the parts soak doesn’t really do it. I sit there for 10 minutes pulling the parts tray up out of the IPA and then plunging it back in, like I’m churning butter. :slight_smile: Then I repeat in the second wash.

for very light parts, I tend to cure them with the supports still attached. The supports are extremely difficult to break away when I do this, but the parts tend to warp less. I usually have to resort to the cutters. For larger parts, I rip the supports off before I put it in the IPA. The supports generally have a lot of resin clinging to them. This keeps the IPA from getting dirtied up too quick. And lastly, for parts that have a lot of “structure” to them, meaning they’re unlikely to get warped or deformed under stress, I reduce the support density and touch point size. 70% density and 0.4mm touch points are a lot easier to separate.