Form 4L costs - Surprise costs. What to expect

General Discussion
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I am looking to get back in to Resin. I have a Form2 and overall it was a good experience. I haven’t used it in years. One reason is I had whole Grey Pro (150 bucks at the time) carts go bad from shelf life. And the tanks are expensive. I just wasn’t doing enough with it.

I am now looking in to a full Form4 setup. It goes without saying that this is an expensive endeavor! I’m looking at the 20k Complete Package. Doing research it looks like a very nice system and people on Youtube are great at this day-one “check this out” + some features to sell me on it but I haven’t been seeing a lot of longer term talk with true costs and hurdles.

I want to hear about anything you know or would have liked to know or think would be good for me to know for the Form4L ecosystem

Here are a few factors that I can think of myself.

  • Swapping resins. What if I’m printing a bunch of parts in a typical resin or a Tough 2000 but then I want to print some Ridgid 10k parts for myself. Perhaps even just a few parts. Then I go back to the Tough 2000.

  • What would be the best solution there? Should I own 2 different tanks, 1 for Tough 2k and 1 for Ridgid 10k? Seal them up and swap them around?

  • Do the tanks go bad in storage? how long?

  • Does the resin go bad in the tank?

  • What costs could I run in to being somebody that would print in different resin types.

  • Form 4L Tank - $250.00!
    I did a quick PreForm test of an Item I would print and it fits 4-up on the plate.
    This is with no hollowing - but these models thin-ish walls to begin with.
    PreForm says (w/ very stock settings) 2300 layers. 1000 mL
    with 75,000 layers I could print this 32 times. 32 x 4up is 128 models.
    $250.00 / 128 is 1 dollar 95 cents. So i’m gonna say 2 bucks a pop.

14 Hr print.

1000ml is 1 Liter at $150.00 per liter = $37.50 per item! oof.

2 + 37.5 = 39.5. With iso and prep and everything can easily say 40 bucks a pop.

Hollowing - I’m not up to date on hollowing. I want these items to be strong hence the Tough 2000. Stock setting is 1.5 but that seems thin?? So I did 2. No raft label.
822ml. Thats $123.30 in resin. /4 is $30.00 per item.

So perhaps these come out to about 32-33 bucks a pop. Not including painting.

If 1.5mm thick walls is ok its more like 29.

Edit - With a Grey V5 @ $80.00/L. 1.5 hollow. Small support tweaks. I can get the cost down to $13.50!! Which would be great - but I think I would need to do stress and damage tests i.e. knock it off a table on to a hardwood floor.

  • Isopropyl alcohol - (I always used Florida Labs 99%) costs. how much of that are people burning through? Is it a cost to be considered? Nightmare to replace?

  • Service Plans - I had the full plan on my Form2 and I used it a lot. I needed help and Formlabs was quite helpful. Over time I didn’t use it so much but early on it was helpful. I believe I would get the 1 year service built in to the 20k but then 500.00 per year after? Can I just keep doing that?

  • What is good to know here? If there is a major issue am I covered? Good tech support?

The Form4L system could do tons for me. I’m super excited about the Ridgid 10K that I saw at Rapid+ TCT this year. (except for the 300.00 tag). And I think this printer could cover many different applications, but the one that involves selling (durable) items online (I.E. Etsy style or locals) I’m wondering if it would be very cost prohibitive
Thanks!

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I am a biased user who regrets spending $65k with this company.
Spend equal time looking into other options.

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Form4 user here. Having used both the Form2 and Form3 previously, the 4 was a big improvement on nearly every front in my opinion. Lots of questions to go through here:
Swapping resins - no go for me, especially swapping into a glass fill material like rigid 10k. I would plan on purchasing separate tanks and mixer arms for each material.
Tanks do fine in storage. They dont have the same limited shelf life’s that were present on the form3 with materials like Grey Pro, Rigid 10lk and tough 2k.
Resin does have any expiry date, but it is a few years. Should be going through resin quick enough if you are considering a large purchase.
Grey v5 has extremely similar material properties to Grey Pro on the Form3, so you can likely stretch your mileage a bit more with that material than grey v4 for example.
Hollowing - you don’t have to use the default settings by any means. It would be up to you to perform your own design optimization and experimentation to see what optimizes strength and cost.
IPA - as a home user it may be worth considering a dedicated rinse solution (which Formlabs offers, or perhaps rhino resin cleaner). Correct management and disposal of the solutions can be a pain for home users unfortunately.
I’ve had great experiences with service in the past and would recommend a plan.

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We have and run 2 form3+, 3L, 4 and 4L.

Form 4
Resin tanks- its easier and less headache to have a separate tank for each resin. We have about 12 sitting with resin in them the oldest being in there since i believe June. We also try to have 3-5 empty tanks on hand for new resin types any failures or if anything else pops up ony down fall you have to buy a mixer with each tank.
They are stronger and better built than the 3 and go by layers printed instead of time w/resin. So i printed the first picture in July 2024 and the second yesterday no change in quality and its the same resin and tank.

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![20250522_161343|690x388]
(upload://m7eO3gCzTDd9w8wm58H5YPUfU0g.jpeg)

We change out our form wash L about every 3 to 4 months and have spary bottles to clean build platforms and tool we usually order 2 55 gallon drums a year and waste gets poured into a empty barrel and have it picked up by a waste removal company

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Thanks for the responses!

CARobertM - Thanks… What others are to research? Any ones you reccomend?
For some things i’ve been looking at Elegoo and Phrozen. But it certainly doesn’t cover what the Formlabs could do for me. I am forgetting one that was recommended to check out but I recall they were quite expensive.
I have the same concerns. That hardcore pros are one story but a prosumer like me would be another story, buried by intense market research that found the exact penny they can get out of a volume print outfit or medical outfit. You got Phrozen etc.. out there like “check out these dragons at 2 dollars a pop on our wacky DIY style printer” and then you got people like Formlabs all suit-n-tie “This major corporation uses us to prototype game controllers.”. Its really hard to see a middle class examples of a dude and his cousin making some money selling some car parts and high end strong items. And if they are its on a Phrozen in the tough or something.

Barreax2 - Thanks! Glad to hear about v5 is like Pro. Its 80 bucks and I could easily test it out on some things.
“Should be going through resin quick enough if you are considering a large purchase.”
Yeah that is where it gets interesing. My Form2 was pure hobby and would go from doing a lot of prints for a while to a whole year of none at all. With this new setup I would be taking on the risk of this being a multi use setup that could potentially result in many prints - but if that end fails then it falls in to an (expensive) hobby machine, where I (if its like Form2 was!) bit the bullet on a Tank + Resins as a new project/hobby i’m passionate about kicks up.
I suppose thats the risk of starting something new, hence the post to try to be careful and make the right decisions.

MattRForerunner - Thanks! Rad to hear the hands on + pictures. That sounds good.

I’ve heard of people having the isopropyl evaporate outside. shrug.

With some of these resins can they be really bad to run the printer inside a home? What about if its by itself in a bedroom? I ran my form2 in a bedroom and even left the door open. I did everything inside the house actually heh. Grey/Grey Pro. may be not the smartest idea.

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I would highly recommend an enclosure and an air purifier (or better, vent it outside) if you are doing it in a somewhat enclosed space such as a bedroom. There are many off the shelf solutions and options already designed you can find online that are cost effective. While Formlabs resins don’t contain ACMO, the barrier to entry on proper PPE is so low that it’s a no brainer to be a bit overkill. Keeps the smell to a minimum as well.

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I can share my perspective on this. I’m not sure if I qualify as a prosumer, but that doesn’t matter to me.

I own an AnyCubic M7 and briefly had a FormLabs Form 3.

My Experience:

The AnyCubic isn’t a bad printer – accessories are quite affordable and their resin is decent. However, you’ll spend considerable time achieving good results if you want perfection.

Calibration becomes your biggest time sink. For optimal prints, you need to test and calibrate every parameter for each resin: layer height, rest times, retract speeds (both 1 and 2), and more. Everything matters.

It’s much simpler when vendors provide proper data sheets for specific resin-printer combinations, but don’t expect this from Chinese manufacturers. For example, with the M7 and their resins, I’ve seen at least three different parameter tables with completely different exposure times (ranging from 1.8 to 2.2 seconds) and varying rest times (0.5 to 2 seconds).

Third-party resins make things worse. Everyone markets “minimal shrinkage,” but their data sheets show 3-7% – and they rarely specify whether that’s linear or volumetric shrinkage.

The Hidden Variables:

  • Resin temperature affects everything (and temperature increases during curing)
  • LED degradation over time requires recalibration
  • You’ll end up building accessories (resin mixers, tank covers for multiple resin storage, etc.)

Real Costs - When you factor in your time costs, resin waste from testing, power consumption, and LCD replacement, FormLabs’ premium pricing becomes more reasonable.

Don’t forget software costs – while stock software is usually adequate, advanced features often require $10-50/month subscriptions.

FormLabs Advantage IMO: If you just want to print, buy FormLabs. Your prints come pre-calibrated – simply import your file, choose your resin, set layer height, and print. That’s it.

I bought a heavily used Form 3B that needed maintenance, but the experience has been quite good with smaller prints. I’m having some issues with larger prints, likely due to the printer’s previous heavy use. (one big disadvantage of form 3 is printing time)

BR,
Sebastian

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barreaxe2 - Thanks! I will have to figure that out. I like things to be very close to me so I can check on it and work with it. I modified my house to be very open so lots of holes in walls now. I do have a bedroom i can close up. I have a loft that is pretty open to the whole house. Perhaps I could figure out enclosures and venting to a window for a 4L. And like you said, a filter that runs sometimes in the room. If I do the bedroom it limits my options but perhaps would be healthier.

I have an enclosure (which has a filter) for my Prusa XL now. But mostly I just run my 2 Prusa up on the balcony open air. mostly PETG (and PLA).

I ran my Form2 / wash / cure in a bedroom for ages just sitting on a table but I also didn’t do a lot of printing. The Grey Pro def had a smell to it! I tell people its like pine tree sap.

strojano - Yeah Prosumer is a strange name.
Thanks for your perspective! I’ve heard about Phrozen and Elegoo needing a lot more time for tweaking and also failed prints. And I value my time.
I appriciate all the things you are bringing up. The other little costs to think of.

P.S. My experience with the Form 2 has largely been positive. The printer actually started to have this odd thing now where about once a print or two it will whap the side of the plate with the mixer. That halts the print. Continue always finishes a quality print. How fast you catch this results in either no line in the print or a noticable thicker layer at that spot. Otherwise it is and was rad. Now the printer just sits there. I probably havent used it for about 2 years. It was 100% personal hobby prints. For instance the last print I did is a Grey Pro shifter for my classic car that is fitted to my hand.

I say that to also say this - My friends with Form 2’s (some of them using them to cast for selling items) had a good experience. But some of them went to Form 3 right when it came out. I passed. And they had a bad experience with Form 3. One friend will never go back to Formlabs and wont even talk about them. That can make me a bit skiddish. But I believe the 4’s are much better from what I’m hearing. I’m more positive on the idea, but good to be cautious at the price point I’m looking at.

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I’ve been a formlabs user since the 1+ over a decade ago now. I have run a 1+, 2, 3 and 3L. I now have two 3s and the 3L. I haven’t bothered going up to a 4 simply because whenever I was first in line to take on the new machine it would have that many issues that it wasn’t worth it. I’m going to run these machines until they no longer run. My 3s are now 5 years old with thousands of hours on them and are still ticking over fine. The 3L was bought second hand. It had around 30 hours of printing on it and cost me around £1000 off ebay. I have seen a number of 3Ls come and go on ebay (seems like the size of machine you are after). It seems that there are quite a few folk that bought in but then don’t actually have a use for the large volume so they gather dust.

I would honestly consider looking for a used machine. The savings you can make can hugely offset any upfront or ongoing costs. My 3L has already paid itself off a dozen times over at this point.

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