Dear people,
I have the oportunity to set back to life an older Form 1+
This machine had been left over a shelf during few years at around 15-20°C, and is in pretty mint condition. It was working well in the past and gave pretty good results.
So, we can expect the hardware to still be fine.
I know this is a pretty old machine , but it was well designed and i hate to waste things that are still usable
The machine came with 2 buildplates with clean surfaces, and unfortunately no VAT neither bottle of resin.
Since this machine is not maintained anymore, I am open to hacked or DIY solutions.
Thus said, I made some research and so I have few questions as follow:
1) VAT:
I came across this project of @X3msnake who uses MOAI FEP VAT:
This is interesting since i think it coud be easier to clean and manipulate than with the PDMS layer.
Have some any of you guys tried this ? With good results ?
2) RESIN:
I read through that using FEP VAT might allow to use LCD/DLP resin, wich can be a good alternative in terms of cost and variety of references (thinking of water cleaning resin, etc).
Again, has anybody tried this ? With good results ?
Also looking for alternative SLA resins compatible with This Form 1+ machine, found this:
Would this be compatible with FEP VAT ? Or this absolutely needs a PDMS VAT ?
I have an old Form 1+ which doesn’t seem to work. I haven’t use it for a while.
Got a SD Card FAT error I can’t resolve.
So unless I find a way to make it work, I still have a bunch of brand new resin bottles and resin tanks if anyone is interested.
Hi @Stereoleap glad you keep the old Form 1+ around, I myself just bought one too just recently. I got 3 vats came with it but unfortunately the PDMS worn out pretty fast especially with print using the whole build plate, so I did opt for the Moai one.
I would say the Moai vat is one of those very over engineered and very well built, just be careful not to scratch the bottom acrylic piece and also watch out when you fill the resin, don’t go over the line or else everything will overflow and splash everywhere. Personally, setting the vat offset to be 0.40mm higher in Preform works for me.
For resins, well the exposure settings still follow Form labs presets so you have to try out which resin will work with Form labs settings. I did try Siraya Tech Form which should work with Form labs grey V4 settings but the resin itself is flaw it will separate when not printing so you have to mix it every time preprinting. And the smell is very bad, if you have experience with their Blu resin, it is similar to that.
How did this work out? I was just gifted the same machine, seems to be in good shape but as it is not supported anymore I’m not sure it’s worth trying to resuscitate.
I would say just keep it since you were gifted, and it is a nice piece of history to keep around. For the support you can still download Preform 2.20 and it will work with the machine and can even do a firmware update. For the Form 1+'s age I think a bit of cleaning mirrors and the galvo will make the machine works just fine. Zvat for aftermarket glass back vat and Applyworkslab for resin are the ones I would suggest if you decided to use it.
I just bought an old, used form 1+ too, it seems to be all working but the resin was left in the vat for so long that it has started forming some sort of booger-like layer at the bottom. It was also Elegoo resin, and from what I hear MSLA resin isn’t compatible, or at least not recommended for SLA machines.
While I was able to clean it, it’s still nasty and isn’t the cleanest. So I’ve been looking into purchasing another VAT and stumbled onto this Printables
I have multiple other FDM and MSLA machines so I figured I’d give printing it a try, if I can find the aproppriate glass. Alternatively I might try to remove the glass from the current vat I have.
, but it was well designed and i hate to waste things that are still usable 
