I have had it with the Form1, I have had this piece of crap machine since early 2015, and I have had NOTHING but headaches!! I have gone through 5 resign trays, due to cracking and resin staining.
I have wasted SO much of my own money on resin. I have dozens of prints I can’t even use. I have revised my 3d models multiple times to better fit and function with this so called amazing machine. My only hope now is to sell this piece of crap on Craigslist in the hopes of trying to get back some of my money. I have wasted so much of my time, which I can never get back. I have had it with this machine, it is a money pit!!!
Hi Chris
I have had no problem with my models using Form1+.
Usually setting up the model to print has alot to do with the results.
Have you contacted Formlabs staff? They can help you out on setting up the models so you will not have issues.
Thank you for your reply, and advice I have been in contact with the customer service staff, multiple times. I have taken their advice and made changes to the position of the models on the software. But to be honest I don’t think the issues are the models themselves. One problem is how undependable the quality is with the prints. For example one model will print fine, but the next two prints of the same model will print deformed. But my main issue is the quality of the resin trays. I can’t believe Formlabs would sell such low quality trays. Formlabs keeps sending me replacement trays, which doesn’t seem to fix the problem. Plus I sent the printer into Formlabs to be cleaned and checked.
Thank you for the advice, and taking the time to reply to my posting. I personally would like a brand new machine all together, or sell the Form1 printer and buy a different 3D printer from another company? But I don’t know at the moment.
Yes, It would be nice if there was some product on the market that would work better than PDMS.
I personaly have been testing many things to see if I can came up with something that will work better than PDMS.
After many tests for the past weeks I got something that looks promising. My preliminary results are good.
If me or anybody comes up with something, it will be the Holy Grail.
I hope to be the one.
For a simple fix I put a couple of layers of clear packing tape on the outside sides. So far I don’t have any cracking or signs of cracking. I also disbanded the pigmented resins and went to the clear resin because it does not have the settling problems. When I first started I had lots of failures and was about to give up.
When orientating the model I make sure no long surfaces are 90 degrees to the pdms, or tank, easiest side to clean up with supports and lastly the longest supports to the hinge side.
Chris, I’m really sorry to hear about all the trouble you’ve had with your unit. I can certainly understand your frustration and know I would feel the same if I couldn’t get the printer to perform well.
I see you’ve been working with our support staff and have a ticket that you submitted Saturday. We will do everything we can to help resolve any issues you are experiencing.
Please note that the Form 1+ is a resin based machine that uses tanks coated with silicone (as I’m sure you are aware), so it requires special care during operation.
I think I will not buy a device. This is not the first issue i read about troubles. If you are not pleased, just send the device back. I am sure you will get your money back.
Thanks for the advice I will have to try the clear tape idea, that is if I decided to keep the printer.
I have used the 90 degree position for my models, sometimes I find it works and others don’t seem to work.
Dust on any of the mirrors can cause frequent print failures. Trays usually are only reliable for about 1/2 liter of resin before they need to be replaced.
I have owned 6 printers including the Form1+. I use my Zortrax M200 10:1 over the Form1 because it is more accurate and print failures are under 5% and you don’t have to be an expert to get print settings right. It also costs about 20% as much to use compared to the Form1+. I’m printing 200 parts for a customer on my Zortrax, 50 at a time. The prints run for 56 hours start to finish and I never worry that they might fail. The Zortrax is what I hoped 3D printing would be in the first place.
That said, the Form1 does have better resolution for organic shapes and it can print somewhat clear parts so, for some uses, it makes sense. I rarely use mine anymore though. The Zortrax is just so much easier and more reliable.
Having any major angle 90° to the build platform has been risky for me. I have had great success keeping all angles between 15° (lesser surfaces) - 45° (major surfaces).
As far as the Zortrax is looks like a nice fdm machine but I can’t see it having the feature size of an sla printer or dlp. Zortrax is in the same category as Makerbots. Those machines make great working prototypes but lack detail and surface quality. Depends on the type of models your printing and their purpose.
For myself I had a choice of Solidscape, Polyjet and Formlabs and took the Formlabs over the others because of quality and price. The parts I produce I can make molds from and do my castings without the need of investment casting. IMO the detail and surface quality of the Form1+ parts are better than Polyjet/Objet printers.
Back to the tape, only tape the outside frame. There is no need to tape the front. The regular packing tape from the Post Office worked perfect here. I suppose you could use the fiberglass reinforced tape if you like or a metal tape but might be just overkill.
The main reason I started taping tanks is my first tank cracked after 2 prints and I started to get shards in with the resin. To keep the pieces from falling in and prevent a leak I taped it. Taping a fresh tank as preventative measure turned out to prevent cracking here.
I must have been lucky with the resin tanks. I have never had one break and I can get 1 1/2 to 2 liters of resin before I have to change them due to the PDMS layer clouding. I have a Form 1+ now and I will say that it is much more reliable than the Form 1. I try and move the prints around as much as I can so that the exact same spot is not printed on every time. I also try to keep the prints as close to the hinge side as possible. I have had to clean the mirrors after prints started going down hill and that cleared up those problems.
I have been in contact with the customer service staff, multiple times. I have taken their advice and made changes to the position of the models on the software. But to be honest I don’t think the issues are the models themselves. One problem is how undependable the quality is with the prints. For example one model will print fine, but the next two prints of the same model will print deformed. But my main issue is the quality of the resin trays. I can’t believe Formlabs would sell such low quality trays. Formlabs keeps sending me replacement trays, which doesn’t seem to fix the problem. Plus I sent the printer into Formlabs to be cleaned and checked.