Smell from resin when idle or while printing on Form 3?

Hello all,

After having had many ups and downs with the Form 2 I am waiting on my Form 3 to arrive and following the forums here to see how everyone is feeling about it. I just read a mention that printing with the Form 3 SMELLS a lot more than with Form 2 , and was wondering if those of you that have a Form 3 in a “home office” environment (or just in an apartment or something) could chime in.

I have had the Form 2 in a small room next to a desktop computer and working while it is printing has been no issue. One of the reasons I’ve stuck with using Formlabs’ stuff (especially the resins) has been the almost-nonexistent smell.

But the report of the added fan, and much increased smell, of the Form 3 has me a bit worried, as I don’t have a “spare room” to place it in.

Thoughts?

I don’t want to sit next to it all day. We had it in a small office, but every time you entered and left you’d notice a horrible smell.

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Have you had a chance to compare with a Form 2? (Printing with standard resins and Grey Pro on the Form 2, there is virtually no smell, even while printing. Flexible, however, does give off a very slight odor during printing.)

Form 2 has a smell as well, but definitely less strong.

I smells more than a Form 2 because of fan.
Form 2 did not has this fan.
Heating up in another way.
Btw do anyone knows if there will be a filter upfront of BOTH fans (Bottom of Form3 and Light unit)?

the Form3 is a stinker while it works. I think it’s because it heats the whole volume, not just the resin tank. It’s led to scheduling issues.

Yeah, you’re not the only one to notice it. I think @Ante_Vukorepa first raised the issue here, and theorized it’s due to the fan ejecting volatiles. Personally I find it smellier, but not as bad as I expected from having read the complaints in advance. I put my machine in a small closet, which helps a bit.

The fan sucks the air in, it ejects through whichever openings it can. Also, the heater fan blows directly over the resin, contributing to it a lot.

Thanks to everyone for chiming in. Looks like I have to try and find an alternate place to keep the printer if I am to be able to use it.

Yeah mine smells as well. I have it in my large den (20’ by 20’). I will try to do my prints starting in the late evening and run while I am at work… unless I can find a way to put a low speed fan to blow the smelliness out into the even larger family room??

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My suggestion would be to find a room where it can print unattended. Print there while you work in a different room. When it’s done, pull a trash bag over it and open the doors / windows - i doesn’t take long to air out. Put your Wash and Cure (or the wash buckets) in the same room, because you’ll get IPA in the air from that anyways, and will need to air the room either way.

It seems completely counter-intuitive, but i keep both Form 2 and Form 3 in my bedroom, not my office. The idea being that it stinks up the room while i’m not there. Won’t work if you plan on printing overnight, of course, but if you only ever print while you’re awake, works out fine.