I just dried off my new parts made with the latest version of Preform. On the plus side the supports look different and less cumbersome. But for me by far not as good is the rafts are MASSIVE!
REALLY not good!
I don’t think any of my failures have had anything to do with the size of the raft being too small. Lots of “pry up” points have been added. I don’t need them. Lets talk about material consumption that is a waste. I have all but drank my first bottle of castable. I have to order more.
I can’t fit nearly as many items in one print like before.
SAM - get a minimize raft size BUTTON designed ASAP! I really mean it! One step up, 2 big steps back Yikes! For folks that like the big raft it is all yours. I doubt I will ever use it. But the new supports look promising. I will find out in a few minutes when I start removing them.
Other than that, I am having a love fest with the parts coming out.
I wish the base didn’t extend so far outward either, that is frustrating. They probably added all those huge pry-up tabs because some users were using knives and scaring themselves trying to get under the print.
I personally like the larger pry up triangular areas, as they make removal much easier. It was always a bit unnerving to have to really pry the part and have it fly off and get resin all over. One tool that I think would be very helpful, and I can’t remember it’s official name, is one my orthodontist used to seat the metal rings of my braces as a kid. It’s a cross between a flat scredriver and a spring-loaded hammer. You hold the blade against whatever you’re trying to hammer, pull a spring-loaded ring on the handle and let go to impart a quick precision impact to a small spot. This would work well to break the ‘sticktion’ of the base to the platform. If anyone knows the name of that tool, let me know.
I kinda contradicted myself… I can’t complain about the triangles themselves. It’s the fact the base takes up more room on the built platform that is frustrating. It leaves less freedom to avoid clouded areas of the tank floor.
The castable materail comes off very easily. While I am sure FormLabs will not publicly recommend this take your scraper and file/grind more of a single chisel edge to it. That helps pop the parts a lot better.