My Form2’s Z-axis is no longer working. During a print, the building platform froze at the bottom and wouldn’t move up. I managed to manually lift the build platform by pulling on it. The Z-axis isn’t stuck because I can rotate the rod and manually raise and lower the build platform.
I contacted Formlabs support, and they advised me to update the firmware, perform a complete reset of the printer, and we checked the components together, all of which were okay. Recently, they sent me a replacement part called a photointerrupter located at the top of the printer. Despite all this, nothing is working, and the Z-axis remains immobile.
Formlabs support has informed me that they are out of solutions and can no longer offer any further assistance. I’m surprised that they can’t do anything when the rest of the printer is working fine. We’ve done less than 250 small prints in 3 years, with a total usage time of only 700 hours!
We were generally satisfied with Formlabs’ service and products, but now I find it scandalous that such an expensive machine stops working after so few printing hours. Have you ever experienced this kind of problem? How did you solve it?
I would try going into the maintenance menu first, mark down the current z-axis so you can go back to what it was and then try to manually adjust the settings to see if you see any movement of the lead screw or hear any noises. If this does something then the motor might be alright, but if there is nothing after this then I’d say your next step is to take it apart and remove the motor. I’m not sure if Formlabs has any hidden documentation to help with this or not.
Thank you for your follow-up. No noises and no movement during Z-axis fine tuning… so motor might be dead…I will check if it is possible to replace this kind of motor
I’ve given up on this printer. It’s gathering dust after only 700 hours of printing.
I bought another brand because the reliability of Formlabs is too low.
