We actually just bought one this morning and are very excited to have a bigger platform with open material capabilities
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Looking forward to see if times are as promised, because while simulating parts with preform times are much longer than those advertised.
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what problems do you have with the pa12gf, and how did you solve them?
It didnât print for the first 6 months after its launch until a firmware update made it possible but even after that Iâve only had really great success printing after I bumped to a 70% refresh rate.
So thereâs my problemâŠspending double the cost on powder and throwing 20% of it in the trash from the sift.
Gotta say, I do appreciate the ââŠit will be very difficult for anyone to consistently make money with Formlabs machines in a competitive service bureau environmentâ sentiment.
Please, please, please heed this warning.
Itâs nice that my $250k/yr service bureau (all Formlabs) will have very little competition.
And this is just our first year.
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@SteamFactoryLLC I hope Iâm reading this incorrectly, but it seems like youâre poking fun at people having issues with their machines they spent thousands of dollars on, which could affect their livelihood all the while seemingly bragging about how much you make and essentially saying âtheir pain, is your gainâ.
If this is what you meant, then thatâs pretty shitty and shame on those such as @MattRForerunner and @jmasterson for liking this kind of post.
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Im just liking his success he is having with using only Formlabs, its a testament to the capabilities and flexibility that you can get out of these machines. Thats is the only thing I am liking. I only skimmed and i can definitely see what you are seeing
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Not poking fun at anyone, just drawing attention to the absolutisms that are casually thrown about here. Things like, âyouâll never be able to run a business with these machinesâ or âyou could never print end-use production parts with this equipmentâ are misguided. I do have some FFF equipment, but I consider those to be used for the low-margin stuff. When my customers are looking for near-IM quality parts but need the flexibility of AM, for the price you cannot beat what can be done with Formlabs. We do it all the time. Can you print ANY part you could ever dream of? No. Can you print tens of thousands of highly controlled components that require incredibly tight tolerances and consistency? No. At least, probably not (we are currently printing 10s of thousands of small disposable medical devices using Formlabs Durable resin). But thatâs hardly ALL parts. In fact, if someone comes to me with a part thatâs not a good fit for 3D printing, I have no problem working with them to DFM for any other process. But, there are a surprising number of âsweet spotâ parts out there and with the introduction of the Form 4 with itâs incredible speed and lower cost of ownership, that number of parts is growing.
Think for a moment how many âpartsâ there are in the world. Itâs unfathomable, right? Walk down the aisles of a dollar store and take a look at the wonderful, injection molded parts you can find there. Youâre going to tell me I canât match that quality (Or in most cases, surpass it)?
Iâve printed 10s of thousands of hours with Formlabs equipment. Iâve seen all the problems. Iâve replaced all the components. I could probably field disassemble/assemble a Form 3L in the dark. While itâs raining. They arenât perfect. But no machine is. I have at least as many hours with some of the bigger names in 3D printing and have seen much worse. Until youâve been in the room when the print bed on a Stratasys 450 (100+ lb) strips out the Z-axis stepper and crashes to the bottom of the machine, you havenât really heard a 3D printer fail. Things like parts warping or blowout or thin walls, etc., etc. are at least half the responsibility of the user.
Take the âreviewsâ that you find here and elsewhere with a grain of salt. Often, you never hear from the people who donât have any issues because they have nothing to say. And that is by far the largest percentage of the user base.
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Exactly. It all depends on how you put the Formlabs ecosystem to good use. Good luck with the business, great youâre making such a good first year!
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I agree with this very much. No machine is perfect, especially at the price point of the Formlabs machines. There will always be limitations that you need to learn to work aroundâŠbut for what the machine costs, the capabilities are amazing.
Weâve similarly grown our business significantly over the years, largely in part thanks to the Formlabs ecosystem.
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