Thanks for all the detective work and documentation presented above. It sounds eerily familiar to when the Form 3 first released.
I owned the Form 1, 1+, 2, 3 and 3L, and was an early-adopter for most of them. The 3 was released prematurely, and the first 6 months I owned that printer I produced very few successful production parts, but many hundreds of test prints in an effort to characterize issues with accuracy and print quality, and to explore how to work around them. Ultimately I’d say it took at least 2 years before they dialed in the print settings - and provided the needed adjustment knobs - to the point where I was content with the product.
I was preparing to pull the trigger on a Form 4L, but am going to hold off for the moment. If anyone from Formlabs is reading this, the warping issues eaglechen described - namely at the corners of prints, and the photos showing how straight edges aren’t straight - are a red flag for me.
I hope your engineers are working aggressively to make improvements. I really would like to upgrade, as in many respects the Form 4 seems like it’s engineered to be a solid platform and it closes the gap on some of the annoyances that make me love my Form 2 more than the 3 (like more leak-resistant tanks).
In the meantime, has anyone come across other posts from Form 4/4L users with alternative feedback, analysis or in-depth accounts of their experience?
@eaglechen, have you tried some of those prints on a Form 3 (or Form 2)? If so, I’d be curious as to how the results compare. (When the Form 3 first came out I did a whole series of comparison tests).
I’m wondering to what extent the warping phenomenon is exacerbated in the new process, or if it’s similar to the earlier generation printers I’m already familiar with. I’ve often been able to mitigate by adding supports (sometimes even chunky custom structures), printing direct-on-base where geometry allows, reducing post-cure temperature or curing in liquid, etc. but it sounds like you’ve tried all that.