How trouble-free is the FormLabs 2?

Amen brother! but I dont think any tech as complicated as a 3D printer can be called anything close to 'trouble free' any more than a 3 year old kid ;^P I was looking at the ibox NANO resin type tiny version of form labs also in cost. but seems lots of new worms in those cans and couldnt even get help converting STL files to its file type then inventor seems to have gone AWOL. so the printers are not the only 'flaky' items in 3D printing tech nowadays, so I decided to stick with my SD2 and this forum for its support til things settle down.

You should try a CTC dual head printer.. Mine has run 12 24 hour prints with no issues what so ever.. But it has been modded quite a bit. Make sure it is the all metal and CT'c and not CTC.. Many are selling under the name CTC and those are junk. The real deal is made by CT'c but I would advise dumping the Mightyboard controller right off and adding a more open source controller.

The biggest issue with a Resin based SLA is curing.. The laser only hardens those areas that it actually makes contact with. So unless you print at 100% infill on every print you will have voids that will be filled with liquid Resin. You have to buy or build and additional UV curing oven where you can but the object in and flood it with UV for sever more hours to cure it through out. Also to mu knowledge all of the SLA Resin is translucent or even transparent. I have yet to see an item printed on an SLA Resin based system that was opaque. If that's not an issue then they still have the same movement components that can still have the same issue as an FDM machine as far as the movement goes. There are some based on scanning mirrors but those have even more issues with alignment and other things in the optical path.

SLA resins are available in opaque colors.  A company called MakerJuice, sells resins for most of the common SLA printers on the market, and they come in a variety of colors, and what's really cool, is you can mix different colors to achieve more colors and shades.

If you want a printer with fewer moving part, then you should opt for DLP/SLA printer.  It has no moving print head or laser, or mirrors (unless you count the millions of little mirrors that make up the DLP chip).  It simply projects an image for each layer, and the light cures the resin.  There are still some moving parts, like all SLA/resin printers, it has to have the tilting mechanism that separates the print from the build surface, but that's all.

Incorrect, the SLA printers print the object upside down, while lifting it out of the resin tub, so as each layer is then separated from the build surface (bottom of the tub), the remaining resin simply runs out.

The Peachy is about as far a departure from a proper SLA printer as one can get, so you can't compare how the Peachy functions to a SLA printer.

Proper SLA printers print by projecting a laser or UV light at the bottom of a vat that contains resin, then through a tilting process the cured layer is separated from the vat and lifted up to make room for the next layer.  That's how MOST SLA printers work, and in the context of the original question (referencing FormLabs), that is how the FormLabs work.

Therefore your assessment that:

The biggest issue with a Resin based SLA is curing.. The laser only hardens those areas that it actually makes contact with. So unless you print at 100% infill on every print you will have voids that will be filled with liquid Resin. You have to buy or build and additional UV curing oven where you can but the object in and flood it with UV for sever more hours to cure it through out.

... is off base.

Comparing the Peachy to a FormLabs is like comparing a bicycle to an automobile.  Yes, both will get you from point "A" to point "B", but that's where the comparison stops.

Edit:

So far as I can tell, the Peachy basically takes advantage of the fact the resin floats on top of water, so they use a drip system that can be measured and controlled to fill the container with water to lift the level of the build "surface".  Ingenious idea, even if it's somewhat limited.  The layer thickness can vary, and the surface can have slight ripples enough to make the surface quality suffer dramatically. 

All you need to do is take a loo at the sample, and you can see the quality is pretty mediocre at best.

Neat toy, and I can see the appeal of buying and playing around with a $100 toy, but that about it.

I wasn't referring to ripples from the drip systems, rather than ripples from vibrations around the room.  AS for the quality, all one needs to do is go to their web site and check out the gallery.

http://www.peachyprinter.com/#!gallery/c1q6m

I for one am not impressed.

I have no idea what it is you're looking at, but the Peachy printer page is up to date and in sync with the Indiegogo page.  The only thing that is different is the Indiegogo page updates are numbered, whereas the updates on the website are in the form of a blog.

I've seen all their images and their latest videos and if this is the best it can do, I'm not interested.

Unless of course, you're looking at a totally different gallery than I am...

I thought we were discussing SLA printers, not scanners.

But since you brought it up, I haven't seen the quality of the scanner output, so I can't say whether it's a good deal or not.

Anyway, this is getting way off topic, so let's drop it.

Aren't powder based designs all SLS? I thought SLA was liquid resin, either Laser or DLP.

And, again, I think it's a damn shame Solidator is in purgatory. Surely there is a VC firm out there that would back those guys. The DEO is a Microsoft Mktg exec and the design looks great, well considered.

the new Blue printer is a powder type that uses different light than standard Laser. also some use other heat source and some even use glue and color inks for the powders. there are many variations of each type 3D printer tech now and growing. one even uses solar light in desert sand. search it on youtube. Arabs use it already

not too many years ago only 1 type 3D printing was done now there are many variations of more than 6 base types and expanding rapidly. so confused? yeah whos not LOL