Newbie Looking to estimate maintenance and consumable cost of Form2 or Form3

General Discussion
2
  • Yes, the tank is a consumable, and will require changing. How long it lasts depends on the resin you use. Some of the more exotic resins wear the tank out faster. The LT tank is supposed to last a lot longer than the original PDMS tanks, they said up to 10 times longer. The reality is they last about twice, maybe three times as long. So that means about 5-7 litters of standard resin.
  • The build platform will almost never require replacing, unless something goes wrong with it.
  • Yes there are some 3rd party resins that are popular like the ApplyLabWorks, but in the Form2 they require that you use Open Mode to print. The cost is usually less than half the cost of FormLabs. Currently the Form 3 doesn’t have an OpenMode, so you can’t really use 3rd party resins.
  • the IPA is not really re-usable. The uncured resin will mix in with the IPA t the point of the IPA becoming “greasy” and unusable over time.
  • It depends on how large you models are, and also how much support will be needed. I print small figurines (28mm gaming figures like Warhammer 40,000), and I certainly don’t print 24/7, more like 6-8 hours per day 4-5 days a week, and a liter of resin lasts about 3 weeks at most.
  • It depends, on how much you print, but usually 2-3 years under normal use. For someone doing 24/7, I’d say less than 2 years. You will not be able to buy replacement parts like the laser for your printer, because FormLabs doesn’t want to sell them to the end users. They will charge you to repair your printer, assuming they still have the parts.
  • I’m sure maintenance will differ, but consumables are roughly the same price.

If you are concerned about costs, and the models you’re printing are relatively small, and you can’t recover your costs by selling your models, then I can’t recommend a FormLabs.

I own a Form 1+ which I bought used at a time when FormLabs were pretty much the only choice if you wanted a good quality printer and good output. Since then a lot of other companies have jumped on the SLA band wagon with both laser SLA printers (MOAI, XYZ Nobel), and a plethora of MSLA (LCD) printer like the Photon, Elgoo, Sparkmaker, Wanhao, etc). Some of these printers are pretty good. They don’t have all the fancy features the FormLabs do, but they do the job, and do it well.

I recently bought an Anycubic Photon, and have been using it daily for the past 2 months and I love it. The quality of prints is as good as anything I got from my FormLabs printer, and the consumables are less that 25% the cost of FormLabs’s. Additionally, if I need replacement parts, they are easily available, or better yet, just buy another one, as the cost of the Photon printer (<$300) is <1/10th the cost of the FormLabs ($3500)

So my advice is this. If you’re doing this for a business, and can justify the costs of the printer, consumables and repairs, then by all means buy a FormLabs printer . If, on the other hand you’re doing this for a hobby, are not going t make money from your printer on a regular basis, and do not have a lot of money to start with, then printer like the Photon are the better solution.