I’d been working on a write-up for my findings from my first print from last week, and I finally finished it today. It includes findings from a lot of different purpose-made tests built on a single-piece object to stress test various structures I figured the Form 1 may have trouble with. I’ve also covered flexibility of the clear resin to a certain degree, but I’ll cover that more in a later post. I also have pieces ready for impact, crush, and heat resistance testing.
I hope you’ll find it useful and informative. I plan on writing more about my findings on other prints I’ve done since then, all of which were basically me trying to figure out the Form 1’s limitations and capabilities. Please let me know what you think.
Very illuminating and thorough, Tj. Must have taken you hours to do the photography and compile the results - thank you. Will be interested to read more about flexibility of solid cylinders/square sections up to 1mm thick. I’m hoping to be able to flex railway model axle supports slightly to allow me to insert axles between them.
Totally awesome! – Thank you so much for doing this and documenting it so well Tj!!
I was very surprised at how well most of of the pieces turned out. Impressive!! The finer parts and lego style pegs warping was a little worrisome, but as you said, there are other ways to approach those that may yield different results.
It seems like you have plans to iterate on this test model, I hope so because it will be fantastic to see the progression of the tests!!
Thanks again for all the work you did here!
Small typo note:
In the section “Test M and N” the screenshot text overlay and printed text below have the units in cm instead of mm.
Thanks, everyone! I’m really happy you folks liked it.
Paul: I’ll be bending the other print of the part on-camera in a future update. The wall thickness is about 1.5mm thick, though it isn’t quite a square cylinder. I’ll make a note to add square beams to a future revision of the model.
GritCorp.: Thanks! I’d love to print a model of her eventually. That was actually one of the plans I had in mind when I started looking into 3D printing. That’s for a future project, though… after I feel a bit more comfortable with the ins and outs of the printer.
ReadyGo: I do indeed have plans to iterate this model. I don’t know when I’ll get around to finishing it (hopefully soon), but the ultimate plan is to get everything working properly and release it to the public for others to print and play with. Also, big thanks for finding those typos! I’ve fix them and am in the process of uploading the changes now.
If anyone sees any other typos I missed, please let me know and I’ll update the info accordingly.
amazing analysis I do like your point by point approach. You really got an ‘impossible’ torture test here but with some iteration you should be able to redesign all the elements to avoid large failures/snowball effects. I was feeling bad for you imagining the fishing party you must have done to retrieve the small pieces of cured resin in the tank… The fact that the resin is very thick does not help
The only comment I have is it could be interesting to have separate objects for each group of test.
You would be able to test if the orientation of the peeling or the location on the plate has an influence on the quality of each details.
With this comprehensive test assay and your thoughtful analysis you did the form fans a really big favor! This not only because it’s alerting the rest of us of the many aspects to consider in preparing models for printing satisfactory results but it will also help formlabs in their efforts to improve the software and resin characteristics. Many thanks for this great work!
Great writeup. It’s amazing how sophisticated this tech is, and how much further preform will have to develop to be ultra-reliable. PreForm’s in a good place right now, but it’ll be alot more work to make up the 20 year head start that 3D Systems has with software development. I’m sure Formlabs is up to the task.
I finally got around to reading your “First Print” post. Thank you!
I see you got v1.1 to print fully as well - nice job! That lantern looks sa-weeeet!
I’m sure that took you a LONG time! Would you accept a PayPal donation? I really appreciate that you took the time to create that model, print it, thoroughly analyze it, take the photos, write up the report, and continue the testing. Thanks again!
Thanks again, all! I really appreciate the comments and feedback. ^_^)
Damien B.: Iterations to test and perfect the print are definitely in the works. When I designed the part, failure was built into it… I wanted to see where the Form 1 would fail (and hopefully learn why) so I could learn how to set up parts for prints with less failure. I’ve already got 1 successful print out of version 1.1, but only at 0.1mm so far. 0.025mm didn’t quite work out all the way (gonna go into detail on that in a later post). Luckily, there weren’t many little bits to fish out. The failed bits tend to stick to the resin tank bottom, and they were fairly large. I’m finding little bits from other prints, though lol. I’m starting to wonder what hunting for failed bits with the grey resin is going to be like… 0_o)\ Regarding making all the parts separate: they’re actually still separate objects in the file (the source, not the STL) so I they could be printed individually if desired. Maybe when I release the file I could include all the parts as separate individual pieces.
Aaron Haugh: Haha I like that… “printer_torture_chamber.stl” It’s my own designed part.
Derek L: I plan on sharing the part as soon as I’m able to get all the tests working successfully. Version 1.1 printed completely, but only at 0.1mm. Some bits and pieces still aren’t working, like the mechanical bits of the linear drive and the rotating knob on the handle. It’s close, though! So hopefully I can release it soon.
Hirudin: Wow, that’s really awesome of you! To be honest, I never considered anyone would donate to me for this lol. I put a small Paypal donate button on the site now… hopefully it works (I’m still new to this blog stuff, despite having had one for many years). I’ll definitely try to keep publishing my tests and findings. ^_^)
I apologize for the delay in responding. I’ve been busy with some Father’s Day stuff, among others, so I wasn’t able to get back to you all as quickly as I had hoped. More tests are coming… I’ve already printed some of the pieces I’m going to use for the heat and impact resistance tests, and others.
@TJ It’s funny you mentioned fishing for bits in grey resin - I was thinking about how that’d be a terrible user experience for a bunch of us inexperienced SLA users. - I was speculating that Formlabs released the clear resin first for improved “customer experience” knowing that everyone will be newbies at SLA and will be goin’ fishin’ all the time. Perhaps the Grey is secretly ready to be deployed but they’re giving us the “training” material in clear.
Aric Norine: Interesting thought! I wonder if that may have been their intention, or if it could just be a happy side effect. Having to search through the gray resin is certainly going to be more of a challenge. I’m going to give Shane W’s handy strainer a try soon (print’s finished, needs to fully cure now). http://support.formlabs.com/entries/23728866-Handy-resin-tank-strainer
Speaking of which, I’m really looking forward to that grey resin… as much as I like playing with the clear resin, it makes surface details difficult to see, and I think it’s making the prints look a little lower-res than they actually are, what with the light refraction and everything. Hope they are able to release it soon!
Hirudin: Thanks again! ^-^)/ I sent you an email to the address linked to the account, though I’m not sure if got through; if not, I really, really appreciate it.
