Well, I’m never printing in FDM again…
My Form 2 arrived yesterday and the first print off the bed was this - the Adalina Dragon. This is just 70mm high (the coin is a UK pound), so this thing is tiny and the detail is simply incredible. Parts of the wings are paper thin, the horns razor sharp, the tail is beautifully detailed with scales, even though it’s only 2mm or so wide, and you can clearly see the toenails on the claws and, of course, the whole thing is completely smooth.
OK, FDM is still useful for certain applications, but I’m honestly shocked at how good this print is and it’s going to be very difficult to look at my FDM machines in the same light from now on.
Because of Formlabs cool online dashboard, I can tell you exactly how long it took - 3 hrs 37 minutes. Not that I think it would have made much difference, but it’s worth noting that this was actually at its highest layer height - 100 microns.
The software (PreForm) and the online dashboard are also excellent. The dash shows you the live status of each printer, tracks resin use precisely (great for working out popularity of colours/materials) and stores each print along with its times, resin use and a little picture, it’s all very very nice. missing/deleted image from Google+
I’m curious, are items generated this way stronger, the same strength, weaker than their equivalent in ABS, PLA at some fixed infill? Can one say something printed here that is intended to be put to work is the equivalent of the same part printed with xx% infill in ABS? That would help me quantify the investment potential for me.
It’s definitely hard to match the surface finish of SLA, making it one of the better technologies for custom figures. I had a Form 1 but sold it because I didn’t like the consumable costs or the cleanup.
Remember that if you are printing bigger hollow models that you have to put the escape holes facing the platform and not the basement. (This is due to the vacuum forces)
@Samer_Najia even the toughest photopolymer resin is not as tough as PLA with respect to tensile strength. However, photopolymer resins can have much better temperature resistance
@Kyle_Smaagard I have a Prusa Mk2 and I agree it’s fantastic value for money; it’s one of the reasons I find it hard to justify the cost of the UM3. Sure, there are good reasons why it costs more, but that much more?
@Jeff_DeMaagd since my Form 2 is only for customer orders, the consumable costs are passed on, so there’s no problem them. Although I’ve not done much printing yet, as far as clean up goes I’ve found it no worse than removing complex supports from FDM - better in fact, since it’s a much easier process.
