This discussion is going to center on getting information on how we can ease the high cost of maintenance for the Form 1 or Form 2 printers.
Unlike a lot of the users here, some of us, myself included, are using these printers for personal use, and we don’t derive any income from their use, we basically hobbyists.
As such, the cost of repairing a printer post warranty is very expensive, so I’d like to find out how we can mitigate those cost, by either doing preventive maintenance or repairing whatever is wrong ourselves, without having to pay the $800 flat fee that FormLabs charges.
Obviously we will need to get FormLabs involved, to the extent of them opening up their tight hold on the hardware. Without their willingness to sell us repair parts or providing certain technical instructions this will become a search for aftermarket replacement parts, and a lot of trial and error, but it doesn’t need to be hard if FormLabs chooses to help.
If they are not the kind of company that is strictly for profit, and indeed choose to help rather hinder, then maybe we can build the type of community that exists elsewhere, where users help users, rather than a community where an eleitst attitude prevails. This way, maybe the high cost of SLA printing is brought down to the point where it doesn’t scare potential users away.
So if you’re a do it yourself kind of person, bring your problems here, and let’s see if we can help each other.