ship date 12/2017 i thought it was October
sorry September
Where did you see that they were pushing the date back? On the site it still says shipping 9/17?
The wording on our store was ambiguous and might have made it seem that the ship date was being pushed back so I want to clear that up. The original ship date for those who pre-ordered Form Wash and Form Cure has not changed. We’ll be sure to educate any who have pre-ordered Form Wash and Cure if there are changes to the fulfillment date.
The 20 week lead time that you’re seeing on the store is the amount of time that those who order Form Wash and Cure today can expect. Users who pre-ordered the units earlier are first in the queue.
1 Like
Ok, it is September now. As a software eng for 30 years just giving a month means the very last day of the month. How about a more exact date when the wash and cure stations will start to ship ?
1 Like
I’d like to know as well.
I too preordered.
Any idea on the ship date?
If you look at the pictures of the Formwash, the time says 09:22 . Maybe it is a secret tell that 9-22 is the ship date! 
I preordered as well. I’ve called sales twice and sent an email. The answers I’ve gotten amount to, “We don’t know”. I would have hoped for better communication.
I have no idea how many preordered.
But I did. And I think FL needs to be more receptive if they ever want my pre-money again.
Formlabs preorders always turn into a nightmare of silence and waiting.
Apart from not buying their products there’s not much you can do about it.
Frew, any official word on ETA?
FREW seems to have gone missing on this topic. hmmm…
I’ve returned! Balancing customer expectations and remaining realistic about fulfillment dates is a top priority for us which is why we’ve been tentative to give concrete shipping dates. Launching a new product tends to be a multifaceted effort and concrete dates haven’t proven realistic given the number of parameters involved. Giving an approximate date is more honest for customers.
We are still expecting shipping to begin by the end of September and your specific fulfillment date will depend on your location in the pre-order queue. All customers will receive an email update a few weeks before their unit is expected to ship.
We’ll continue working to improve our strategies for launching new products as to maximize our ability to provide accurate fulfillment dates for customers within realistic time ranges.
If they are to begin shipping end of September, that’s just a couple of weeks from now. Have the emails been sent out with expected ship dates for those that pre ordered in May?
Frew
That’s the best-est message I have ever read. Thank you, I will look forward to the email.
I keep forgetting that FormLabs is still essentially a start-up and not Microsoft or Ford Motors.
Is there any advantage or disadvantage to using warm or cold IPA? I am using an Ultrasonic cleaner to wash printed parts. The cleaner has a heater built into it. I usually set it to about 45 C but I don’t know if it will help or hurt my printed parts.
I would also like a little feeback on my cleaning process. Many of you that purchase the Form Clean may end up doing something similar.
I take the parts off the supports and dump them into the first IPA tank. I use the basket to move them around for a few seconds. Then set the basket to let them drip for a few more seconds. This is the first wash that gets a lot of loose resin off. Then I move the parts into my ultrasonic cleaner. Set the temp to 45 C if it isn’t already warm and set the timer to 19 minutes. I use that time to remove the supports from the print bed.
Here is where I want feedback the most. When the time is up I move the parts into the Second tank on my cleaning station. This one I keep full of warm water. This washes the last of the IPA off so it doesn’t pool up during the UV Post curing. Before I started the warm water wash the parts would remain tacky anywhere the IPA managed to pool up or drip to. Usually the bottom. That hasn’t happened since I started the warm water rinse. I am worried the warm water bath could cause some potential problems. For starters my parts get really soft, milky white and a little bent out of shape after being in the water for a few seconds. This happens really fast but I can see the parts act like they are swelling or something because the straight edges are warped a little. I don’t think it causes permanent damage though since the parts seem to be near perfect after a heated UV cure. Again I am open to feedback on the water rinse and the heated IPA cleaning.
Last step is to UV cure the parts. I pre-ordered the Form Cure. My current process involves using another 3D printer bed for a heat source with a home made UV curing box on it. I can’t wait for the Form Cure because I can’t seem to get the right amount of UV exposure. Too many of my final products seem to have a “Sun burn”
We’re expecting shipping to begin in the final week of September. Emails haven’t yet been sent out to those that are first in the pre-order queue.
1 Like
Best-est is a pretty high bar to live up to but I’ll do my best 
As we continue to grow, we’re focusing especially on developing scalable processes that can be iteratively improved upon.
Heating the IPA will increase it’s saturation point and may slightly expedite part cleaning. I might recommend against it as both heat and IPA tend to weaken parts and the effects compounded together could cause issue.
How hot is the water you’re using in the second bucket? For some resins, the Heat Deflection Temperature is near 40C and what you might be noticing is the water softening the parts and causing them to warp. You might ensure that the water is below the HDT of the material you’re using.