Formlab Form 1+

[AlexVermeer]

Dear members,

I am new to this community and I am planning on buying a 3d printer in the very near future and I’m hoping some of you could advise me in the purchase of a printer.

Charles Fried, one of the designers of the 3d Hubs team, has been kind enough to help me on my way by answering a few of my questions. He kindly told me to start a thread in the ‘talk’ section if I needed any more information.
I was originally planning on buying an Ultimaker 2, which seems to a be a very popular choice in the 3d printing world, however, Charles made the choice a little harder when I asked him for a possible substitute printer which I could consider since I’m still doing my research. He informed me of the Formlab Form 1+ which, unlike the Ultimaker 2, uses a special type of resin instead of ABS or PLA. This intrigued me, and I started doing some more research on this unusual 3d printer, and it has become a definite contender together with the Ultimaker 2.

Obviously there are notable differences concerning:

- Build volume.
- Resin(SLA) compared to ABS/PLA.
- Price of resin compared to the price of ABS/PLA.
- Different type of technology.
- Difference in details (Form 1+ being able to print much more detailed than the Ultimaker 2).

I, however am looking for members who already own a Formlab Form 1(+) who can tell me exactly what the pros and cons are based on their own experience. Furthermore, I can imagine that there would be a shift in demand between the two printers. The Ultimaker 2 focusing more towards the consumer side and the Form 1+ focusing more towards business who would probably need a little more detail in their models. Is this correct?

Perhaps you are able to show me simple things as price comparisation per 3d model (SLA vs ABS), SLA being more expensive per liter/unit. Any extra information would be more than welcome to help me make my final decision.

I’m looking forward to your replies.

Best regards,

Alex Vermeer

[James_2]

Hi Alex

They are fairly chalk and cheese - what do you want to print?

As a quick example, if you want to print colour then Form is a no go.

Where are you going to print? - A UM2 can sit in an office, a Form 1 can - but the clean up is fumey!

But what you want to print would normally guide the thought as they are VERY different.

Nearest to a UM2 is a Lulzbot

James

I am a UM1 owner - and love the machines!, but also happy to give an unbiassed(ish) view

[AlexVermeer]

Hello James,

Thanks for your reply!

I have a few people who are working with enamel. And they are very interested in printing very fine rasters which they can use to distribute the enamel powder. For myself I’d like to experiment a little with what is possible. However, I tend to lean more towards printing for companies rather than art-projects.
I know there aren’t a lot of colors available for the Form1+ (yet). For me, this isn’t an issue as I’d like to focus more on function and design rather than using different colors.

I will be printing at home, not necessarily in my livingroom, so the fumes shouldn’t be a direct issue. However, could you explain a little more about the clean up being fumey? I thought an FDM printer produced more fumes due to the melting of plastic compared to an immersion printer.

I do have a concern cleaning up the resin, as I’d like to know if it is reusable. If i’m printing a smaller 3d object and have to discard the whole basin of resin for that, it’s going to be very costly.

As for the UM1 or 2, I am of course interested in your unbiassed view of these printers. You might have one of the crucial reasons to consider it or not.

Thanks again.

Alex

[James_2]

Alex,

I don’t have a form 1 but I understand that you take the formed part and wash it in alcohol to get rid of the resin, and then I think you UV expose it to fully cure it and then take off the support materials.

So you have the waste alcohol to get rid of - which I guess just gets chucked down the drain, and the cleaning station to keep clean.

I think that the resin bath is good for a few exposures - the colour of the vat is designed to keep the resin from curing, but I understand that the separation layer on the vat degrades and has to be replaced every X prints and therefore that is a consumable.

BUT - the quality of some of the prints that Ihave seen from them is superb they can, IMO, print things that an fdm cannot.

FDM is completely different - okish at small scale models and really fine surface detail - good where there is not too much retraction and you can smoothly accelerate, not so good at highly complex models - bear in mind you are squishing a 0.4mm (mostly) tube of molten plastoc and pushing it around with a nozzle tip - so even if you are printing in crazy small layer heights (why!) yoy are still smushing round a small thing of toothpaste - but BOY can you make functional working prototypes - I hang of stuff that i have printed and make functional parts like the e-nable hand that can take a huge amount of force and do not break. There are heaps of materials to use and i have had moderate success with most of them. The machine is robust - I have taken both my UMs home every weekend for months and tighten screws occasionally and then drill out nozzles for different sizes, swap bed plates - print upgrades to the printer etc.

So within the limitations of the nozzle smudging around plastic they are incredibly robust - with a 0.6mm nozzle I can print out a full bed pate archietectural model - then swap the nozzle to 0.4mm and print one 1.3rd the size in the same 3 hours but higher quality - and then one in rubber if I want.

Clients through 3d hubs have ordered functioning buckles, clips and parts that perform everyday tasks.

So I really see FDM as for bigger stuff than the Form 1 and Form 1 for more dinky, jewelery like products - completely different.

In the FDM world there is open and closed source - and I am a fan of open - so rate UM and Lulzbot at the moment.

But the real choice is what you are trying to print!

Choose your typical model and go to 3dhubs and have one printed on a Form 1 and one on a UM and you will be able to see the difference in your hands!

James

[AlexVermeer]

Thanks for all your explanation, James.

I will compare two models from a Form1 and UM printed by someone nearby, and assess the difference myself.

hopefully based on those model I can make my final decision.

Alex

[RobertPaul]

I agree, with FDM you can print in so many types of materials, especially if you have an all-metal hotend with no teflon tube in it. Some of those materials are really awesome like the translucent PLA (wow), glow in the dark, etc. With FDM you can print in ABS and then give your parts an acetone bath so you get a smooth and shiny peice that looks like it was primered, painted, clear-coated, and buffed, without ever having to do that, however I only print in PLA as I haven’t built an exhaust yet. I would recommend the Makergear M2, I have heard only good things about it.