Hey all, I am thinking of purchasing a Form 2. Always wanted one, though a few things have scared me like tanks over-filling and not being covered by warranty (I’ve seen this happen quite a few times now) though my main concern is I now work from home and will have to use it in my apartment
Now the issue with my apartment is it is an old building and not very sound-proof. So I can hear downstairs cough and muffled talk. My main worry is if I have the printer on all day is the sound going to be loud enough to irritate the hell out of the neighbors? Just wondering if anyone else has this experience?
Maybe a clean sound file of the Form 2 printing (no background noise) would be nice to test if Formlabs released one.
Another idea would be some sort of sound-proof padded cover to muffle the noise? Does that sound like it could work?
no need to worry about sound. It’s as loud as a microwave warming up your dinner. Not that consistent noise due to different stages of building your parts but similar in the volume. I live in a loft and my bed is like 10m away from the printer. Even if I run a print through the night, it’s easy for me to fall asleep
Ok thanks Merlin. I can still hear the microwave next door, my flat is really bad at keeping in sound. Hopefully no one will have a problem with it during the day. Though I think I would need to see one in action to get a good idea.
Don’t worry about noise, my printer is in the other room and don’t hear it from my bedroom with the door closed.
As far as the tray overfilling-don’t worry about that, it’s very uncommon and is covered under warranty as long as you are using Formlabs resins. They support if something faulty happens with the resin cartridge that can cause that.
I drain my tank and store the resin in another container when I’m not printing, then store the empty tank in the box. In the process of transferring resin, a tiny bit is left in the container. So occasionally when I reinstall the tank, it tells me that it needs to be filled.
It seems to be sensing the level of the resin, and not going by the amount released into the tank. I’ve always heard that the reason that Canon printer cartridges can’t be filled is that there is a mechanism to measure how much ink is dispensed, so I assumed that the Form had some similar setup.
I was terrified when I first tried Open Mode where you have to add resin manually, but it’s been no big deal. I print mostly jewelry, so they are smaller pieces.
As far as the noise, there’s a little bit, but it’s definitely not loud. I’ll try to record it on my phone on the next print job, but my studio has a tile floor and is very echoey. I don’t think I’d put in within a few feet of my bed, but I don’t think it would be noticeable through a wall.
At night it is very loud, are you going to print at night. I think daytime printing it is ok. Much better than most FDM printer. I found some video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAlGAHGHgkE
Maybe you should worry about the smell.
To solve the night printing problem, i bought a big thick wooden cupboard, drill a hole behind it. put my 3d printer inside.
katkramer: I was wondering if the cartridge is not used for a while can it be taken out and stored or will that mess up the level reading somehow when put back in again? Also what is ‘Open mode’? If that means being able to manually pour in the resin that would be great!
sloh: Thanks for the link. Yeah I was also thinking of putting it in a sound proof container. Maybe some sort of big box padded inside to dim the sound down.
My studio space is about 16 X 20 feet and my printer is about 12 feet from my desk - occasionally I take afternoon naps ( privilege of age and self employment) and even as a light sleeper, I never notice it. Someone said, the slight odor might be noticed, but I’m sure there is a lot more noise from the neighbors than from the printer. I had a resin spill a couple weeks ago that fortunately only damaged the hood, but it was caused by a large print and a print try that should have been replaced - my bad, but service were great folks to deal with, “Fluffy Manatee” (they name the printers at Formlabs) is doing great again!
I have been a prototype sculptor for most of the past 30 years and my Form 2 is the single most amazing tool I have ever owned, you will not regret your purchase!
Either my Form 2 has mechanical issues, or lots of people here are stone deaf !
This thing makes loud whirring noises, and unless you are completely drunk, you can’t fall asleep next to it.
Even in another room, it can be heard.
If I wake up at night to pee (yeah, I have reached that age), then I notice it and it makes falling back asleep real hard.
I guess I’m going to try to muffle it with a wooden cupboard like sloh.
I always have to plan a long print for the morning as it’s too loud to print at night being in a flat. Not too bad working in the same room as I have headphones though the smell can be a bit too much.
A sound-proof and smell-proof cabinet solution would be the ideal thing.
