Repair my Form 2 or to buy a new Form 3

Hello everyone!
My Form 2 has a problem (exhausted laser) and I need to decide between buying a new Form 3 and repairing my Form 2.
I need to print models with 0,05 resolution and absolutly without surface defects.
Until 1 year ago I was reading bad comments about Form 3 print quality at 0.025 and 0.05.
The situation today how is it?, the form 3 improved?
Thanks in advance for your feedback

I’d do some research; there’s a lot of new & established SLA companies out there that offer greater interoperability as well as a wider range of materials. However, Formlabs is definitely among the top contenders for overall dimensional accuracy. If you’re printing primarily artistic items or low-precision functional parts, another printer would save you a lot of money, but if you need tolerances of down to 2 thousandths of an inch, my Form 3 will do it.

…But not everyone’s will. There seems to be some quality control issues with the Form 3 (possibly instigated by the rush to get the Fuse 1 out), and the design of the Form 3 seems pretty finicky compared to other systems. I used to be a huge Formlabs advocate but these days my opinion is cooling somewhat, since the high price of consumables and frequent quality control issues with those as well have become pretty tiring.

I had to make the same decision about a year ago. I bought a Form3 (they gave me something for the Form2, which I returned to FL). I agree there are now some strong contenders in the DLP space. If I had to do it again, I would be torn. I started with a Form1+ and I’ve always been very happy with FL support. These newer printers are cheap and they produce good quality when they work. They can be finicky, I’ve read, and support can be “thin”. FL is really pursuing enterprise users and their support organization is structured for that market segment. I’m not an enterprise user, but I appreciate I get supported like I am one.

As it is, I will probably buy a DLP so I can play around with other resins, and so I can spit out parts faster. They are cheap, if I’m not happy I won’t feel too bad about throwing it away. But my Form3 has been working great, not in the least bit finicky (I do wish it would warm up faster, it lives in a cold basement workshop). It produces great prints consistently. The ones I’m doing now have a lot of 1mm wall thicknesses and the only defects I’m getting are the ones I induce removing the supports.

Hi!
Thanks a lot for your kindly replies.
Indeed, I never needed to evaluate any competitors, my Form 2 has always worked very well and I have always been pleased with its work. After 4 years, I would buy back exactly the same Form 2.
It would be stupid not to evaluate the Form 3 but I cannot afford any surprises related to the print quality.
Now, I have selected some of my models with particular characteristics and I have asked for a print test on Form 3…Waiting for the result and hoping it will be positive
Thank you again for your help, goodbye!

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