I have had it with Formlabs’ quality control

I put a brand new tank in recently, with brand-new resin, and performed one print of some very small parts. Last week I had the cover off to do a photoshoot for my research submission to the Journal of the International Bagpipe Society, and everything was fine.

Today I go to make some reeds, and found this:

Not a good sign. I thought perhaps the bite valve on the resin cartridge failed, but it was the tank. The membrane failed and a tank’s worth of resin is now all over my table and the inside of my printer, especially under the LPU.

Knowing how shit their quality control is, would it have killed them to put a little tray in there, or at least a 1cm lip to protect the fans and LPU? I don’t think you’re meant to remove the cartridge and tank between every print.

I’m just so frustrated with the quality of their consumables. I’ve had underfilled cartridges, tanks with big seams across the window, a tank with improper membrane tension that yanked every part off the build platform before the raft was even done, and more besides. Support was always good about issuing a replacement, but how many times should I have to order something before actually receiving a functional part?

This shit is going to take ages to clean up, and who knows what the actual damage will turn out to be. Without the benefit of a shop and a ton of equipment, 3D printing is the only way I can realistically research and improve historical instruments.

That being said, if I can hypothetically get a grant for a new machine (this one was self-funded), anyone got a printer they like with comparable precision and build volume to the Form 3?

1 Like

I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve been using mine for 6+ months and it’s worked like a champ, and so have the supplies.

Oh wow, your issue bought back the memories of when that exact thing happened to our work printer. This happened 3 or so years ago and yes, it does take a lot of effort, time and a lot of IPA to clean up the mess. Miraculously and amazingly the printer still works fine.

I did wonder if the resin tray could contain 1L none of the overspill & wastage would have happened. There does seem to be some design oversite and lack of risk mitigation in spillage issues like this. There is not much of an attempt to control where the goopy resin flows in an overflow situation.

From the picture it does not look like it went into the fan area?

This topic was automatically closed 182 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.