FormLabs Form 1+ - More prints and some observations (Page 1 of 3)

This is my first SLA printer, and now that I've had it for about 3 weeks, I can say that if you can afford one, and you like to print highly detailed models, this is the way to go.

Much as I like my FDM printer, and as much as I tweaked it to get good prints, FDM printing just can't hold a candle to an SLA in terms of detail.

To be sure FDM still has some advantages over SLA (more flexible materials, more colors, larger size prints), but not when it comes to detail and resolution.  Mind you, these prints are done at the coarsest resolution (0.1mm), and I can go down to 0.025mm, but I see no reason to do so.  This looks great to my eyes. 

Oh, last but not least, it's substantially faster than my Solidoodle, almost silent operation, and can be left to print overnight without fear of setting the place on fire.

The drawback is the cost of materials.  The Chaos warrior takes about 50ml of material, so I can get about 20 of them printed from a $150 bottle of resin, bringing the cost per model to $7.50.  Then there's the cost of the Resin tank, which is a consumable.  A tank will last about 2 bottles of resin before it needs to be replaced, the cost for a tank is $60, so if you add that to the equation, the cost per print is $9.00

The FDM variant would cost about $0.50-0.75.

wow! the amount of detail is staggering! I would love to get one of these machines (have had several people approach me about doing small items for gaming, but they are simply too small for FDM type printing).

maybe someday...

Form labs Clear Resin will let you print up to .2mm layers

Assuming that by "resolution" you mean surface quality issues, the only place I'm having some issues with is the near flat (horizontal) areas close to the base, or facing down but just above another surface.  If you were to look close at the upper back of the Chaos warrior, you'll see the surface is not as smooth as the rest of the model.  That was the surface it was resting on.

The trick is to orient the model to minimize any surfaces like that.  That's why I printed the Brettonian Knight with the base down, that way, the body comes out really clean.  Alternately you can manually add additional support.

Edit:
One other thing I thought of.  I found that if your walls are too thin, you end up with that type of surface.  Depending on the size of your model, your walls should be any thinner than 1.5mm.  These models have 2mm thick walls (I use MeshMixer Hollow function to hollow out the model).  Larger models should have thicker walls. 

Also when cleaning the model in IPA, don't leave it in there for too long.  I usually put the part in the first tank for about 5-6 minutes and agitate it for 2-3 (close the top and swirl it around), then I put it in the second tank for no more than 10 minutes, again swirl it around a few times, then take it out and blow dry it with compressed air.

yes DLP is what the former ibox Nano cube used. this is a very informative topic and sure to get lots of followers as few sites have such info/reviews on these type 3D printers. Thanks so much for sharing Pirvan!

Check this one out ! 

And yes, that's Quarter it's sitting on, just to give an idea of the scale.

This afternoon I painted the little guy flat black to accentuate the details

Once it's cured, it solid, not tacky or soft.  Although it really depends on the resin you use.  There flexible resins available that will forever remain partially soft/flexible.

When the models comes out of the printer, it's tacky because it still has some uncured resin on it (after all it was inside a vat full of resin.  Then you put in in a bath of IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) to remove the uncured resin as the alcohol dissolves uncured resin, then you let it dry (I sometimes leave it overnight, or I use a compressed air can to do the job. 

At this stage, the model is still relatively flexible (not the whole model, but the thinner parts).  I found that this is the perfect stage to remove the supports.  Once the supports are removed, I post cure it in the sun or the UV oven.  Sun does the best job.

Once cured it, hard and feels a little like glass, so it's here that I clean up the little nubs left behind from the supports.

One way to keep the model partially flexible is to spray it with some opaque paint before it's fully cured.  I'm not sure how log that will preserve the flexibility, but I have a support structure I removed from a model that I painted flat black, that is still flexible 2 weeks later.

The properties of the resin are a result of the chemical formulation.

FormLabs offers standard resins, flexible resins, tough resins and Castable resins, each which it's own properties.

As for LED projectors, technically, they are DLP, not LED, the light source is either a standard DLP lamp, or a white high intensity LED.  The printers don't use standard UV cured resins.  They use a special formulation of resin that is light sensitive.  They are sensitive to the entire light spectrum, not just UV.

The problem with this is that they require a very intense light, and a longer exposure time.  Additionally, this process tends to heat up the resin, which forces the printer to induce a cooling cycle after each exposure, prior to the peel process.

Because of this, some new designs are trying to use UV lamps or LED's, as the light source, and some designs use LCD panels with UV LED backlights.  But this solution has it's drawbacks too:
1.  Typically UV LEDs produce 400-415nm light, which does cure the resin, but slower.   A UV laser (like the one in the FormLabs uses a 365nm laser which cures much faster, and produces less heat.
2.  Another issue is that most LCD panels are susceptible to UV Light damage over a period of time. (fogging/clouding), which would necessitate replacement of the LCD panel.

Congrats.

I think you're going to have some fun with it.  I hope your printer came with the finishing kit, if not, I think you should get one from FormLabs.

While you wait for it, download the software and play with it.  I think that at first, you'll be surprised and maybe a bit disappointed at how few options there are, but once you realize how this works, you'll appreciate the simplicity, yet the amazing power that's works behind the scenes.

In a sense I'm glad I started with the SD3, then moved on to the FormLabs.  Because I learned a lot by doing things "the hard way", rather than getting something that (almost) always works the first time, without much fuss.

Frankly, if I had started with this, then someone would have asked me to print something using the tools we're so used to like Repetier, Slic3r and Cura, I would look at it and think it's primitive, and not worth the trouble.

Anyway, another thing you need to get "un-used to", is how to orient your model for printing.  For FDM we're always striving to have the largest surface flat up against the print bed, and build things as vertical as possible.  With SLA, you'll want to orient everything at roughly 45° to the build platform, so it always presents the smallest cross section.

But anyway, you'll figure it out.

Once again...

Pirvan if I may ask? If you want to print something very precise, how do you allow for shrinkage on the curing resin?