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pen2l 1 days ago [-]
Formlabs uses a proprietary resin cartridge... it's the paper printers situation all over again, the printers themselves are not that expensive but the disposable ink costs an arm and a leg.
Don't go with Formlabs, support any of the open-platform alternatives.
And also, be aware that these printers require some serious development work (you need solvent to wash away uncured resin (if you ask me, this basically necessitates a chemical hood... Formlabs will happily upsell the "Form Wash" for this for another 699). If uncured resin falls on your floor (which has happened to me a little too many times), boy is it a horror cleaning it up even if you have industrial grade solvents; FDM printers are easier and their "ink" is much, much less expensive by comparison.
mhb 1 days ago [-]
It says it includes "Open Material Mode" which let's you "...print with any 405 nm photopolymer resin or 1064 nm powder on Formlabs 3D printers..."
numpad0 19 hours ago [-]
I believe the Open mode in Form printers disable couples of interesting features that don't seem strongly connected to material properties of resin used, like resin recovery to tank and vat stirring wiper.
Form resin vats/tanks/tray/bed/whatever you call it are also not just proprietary, but their equivalent of FEP film is not replaceable. The resin vat usually have what is referred to as FEP film, a thin transparent Teflon sheet at the bottom of about a phone screen protector thickness and durability, stretched and pre-tensioned like a drum. The non-adhesion performance of film affects print quality, and it needs replacement eventually(I believe it is characterized as after x thousand layers printed, internally by printer manufacturers). On most printers, the replacement film can be bought and installed by the user. Formlabs printers use something other than regular FEP, and uses tool-less assembly that cannot be reversed, and therefore the whole proprietary tank needs to be discarded and replaced.
It's like Bambu Lab but the printbed is proprietary too and heated bed turns off for non-Bambu filaments. As if proprietary nozzles was not enough.
torginus 13 hours ago [-]
Yeah, but Bambu parts are extremely cheap considering their quality.
krisoft 14 hours ago [-]
> and vat stirring wiper
The printer model in question doesn’t have that feature.
augment_me 1 days ago [-]
The amount of upselling, extra parts necessary for basic functionality, predatory resin pricing and specific open "modes" that are free to be subjects to amendment by contract makes this seem like a cash grab for investors rather than serious product. Really sour taste in the mouth from this.
Just buy an open source version from China that has the necessary hardware in an open format and let Claude adjust the software if there are concerns.
jdboyd 1 days ago [-]
I'm unclear what the open source version from China of a resin printer is. Creatlity and Elegoo don't appear to be at all it as they lock you to the chitubox ecosystem.
coupdejarnac 1 days ago [-]
I use prusaslicer and uvtools with my Elegoo Saturn. No proprietary lockin. I also own a Prusa, so I don't feel bad using their software with another brand.
Hackbraten 14 hours ago [-]
Same here, PrusaSlicer and a custom uvtools workflow with an Anycubic Mono M7 Pro.
bsder 1 days ago [-]
> Just buy an open source version from China
References and links?
There is currently no open source version of the high resolution monochrome LCDs. The LCDs and their drivers lock you into the Chitu ecosystem.
The problem, as Chitu figured out, is that as soon as you cough up the NRE to make the LCDs and make it publicly available, EVERYBODY will copy you and then there will be no profit left to sink the NRE that you just spent.
Dylan16807 17 hours ago [-]
I don't follow. If you developed a special screen can't you profit just fine off selling the screen? Why would locked drivers be needed?
ssl-3 15 hours ago [-]
Maybe you could be happy with that, or perhaps I could be as well, but you and I aren't ChiTu. And ChiTu is free to do whatever they want (including doing nothing at all).
And that matters because statements like "just buy an open Chinese printer" are non-starters. The machines themselves have the soul of ChiTu inside of them and openness isn't really their jam.
So while the PC software that produces the layer images can be replaced, the printer's brains stays the same.
(This is very different compared to the world of conventional world of FDM printers, wherein: It's just some sensors, motors, heaters, and sensors; a screen, if present, is optional. A person can replace the brainbox of a traditional FDM Cartesian rig with open, off-the-shelf parts and be printing something in an afternoon, and there's a whole industry providing parts to support this kind of thing.
ChiTu isn't that way.)
Dylan16807 7 hours ago [-]
Well I don't understand the paragraph you wrote starting with "The problem, as Chitu figured out". Did they figure out an actual problem or did they hallucinate a problem?
Does their proprietary software affect their profit at all?
ssl-3 6 hours ago [-]
I did not write that paragraph, my friend.
I don't know why ChiTu does whatever they do. All I know is that demonstrate a trend of keeping their source buttoned up instead of open.
Dylan16807 6 hours ago [-]
> I did not write that paragraph, my friend.
My bad.
But that paragraph is what my original question is about.
zimpenfish 1 days ago [-]
* If you buy the "Form Studio 1 Resin Tank Pro" extra at $79 because the included tank "is not compatible with Tough 1500 Resin or materials needing to utilize Open Material Mode"
y1n0 1 days ago [-]
OMG $79 more! That ruins everything!
zimpenfish 13 hours ago [-]
$79 per consumable tank, yes, which is rated for 75000 layers (according to [0]) which is "approximately 190 prints with an average height of 39 mm at a layer height of 100 µm" - not that long if you're printing regularly.
In contrast, I can get 6 FEP sheets for my Mars 2 Pro for $21 which don't appear to have any official lifetimes but generic internet advice says "40-50 prints" on the low side. That'd be 240 prints for $21 compared with 190 prints for $79.
You need to buy a tank anyway, which is $50 or so — that works with their new Alpha resins. The slightly more expensive tank is necessary only for their engineering-grade resins (only a couple are certified for the Studio 1 so far) and 'OMM' (Open Material Mode), which as mentioned above, comes out of the box on the Studio 1.
(Not replying to you directly, but generally to this thread)
650REDHAIR 23 hours ago [-]
$79 per tank.
Along with some issues with the screen and the non-pro resins.
It’s anti-consumer.
They want to be the HP/Bambu of resin printers.
roboror 8 hours ago [-]
You can use any filament with Bambu printers
onion2k 1 days ago [-]
I'm not suggesting Formlabs would do this, but advertising the $79 add-on and then making very few of them available would be a way for a manufacturer to look open while actually not supporting openness.
avianlyric 1 days ago [-]
The $79 addon is also needed to use all of Formlabs existing engineering grade resins, which are more expensive than the Alpha resins. The engineering grade Tough 1500 is already validated on the Studio 1, and requires the $79 tank, plus is a major selling point of this printer.
There no reason for FormLabs to limit supply of the $79 tanks, it would also limit their ability to sell their more expensive resins to Studio 1 customers, and also removes a clear pathway to get people to upgrade to their more expensive machines, capable of working with their even more complex, and expensive, engineering resins.
bb88 22 hours ago [-]
Isn't that the Prusa model? IIRC Prusa would release something, and then force you to get on a waitlist.
I'm not saying I hate Prusa here, I'm saying that limited availability is a common practice to drive hype.
geerlingguy 18 hours ago [-]
I don't even think they're driving hype, they just have a problem common in the hardware world, they are far too optimistic in their shipping timeline.
Versus a company like Bambu who seems to ramp up production now, in advance of selling the product.
doug_life 1 days ago [-]
This printer at least comes with the "Open Material Mode (included)" that lets you print with 3rd party resins. I'm sure the workflow won't be quite as nice as with the Formlabs native resin. That is unless you can somehow refill the old jugs or buy empty ones. Before long I imagine 3rd party compatible containers will show up.
405nm 23 hours ago [-]
@pen2l what are you even talking about…?
1) form studio can use any material out of the box you just have to design your own print settings for it
2) form studio wash + cure is $200, not $699
3) the new resins are UL certified for low voc/indoor use, as well as score as non-skin irritants (OECD 439), and post-processed parts comply with ISO 10993 for long term skin contact
4) the new resins cost $30-$50ish per L, as opposed to fdm ~$25ish per kg. you also have to buy a tank that eventually wears out but imo when i’m printing a lot with the same material the tank cost doesn’t add much to the overall
5) fdm is great too, i have both in my shop. you should always use the right process and material for the job. if you need higher detail than what fdm can provide, more sophisticated materials, and an order of magnitude higher volumetric print speed, the form studio is a great option.
source: i don’t work at formlabs, but i used to
esperent 16 hours ago [-]
They're talking about this Form Wash V2 which looks to be priced at $699
I have a Phrozen SLA printer, and I would actually appreciate it if they integrated their design with the resin formulation more. Sure, it sounds bad to be locked into some material ecosystem, but resins are just not 'plug and play' by default, as filament is in FDM printing.
I just want it to print and not study chemistry & physics before doing anything. Formlabs seems to be able to deliver that.
geerlingguy 18 hours ago [-]
> Formlabs will happily upsell the "Form Wash" for this for another 699
(A separate aside, since the main ones were addressed: Formlabs also launched a new "Wash+Cure" station that does wash and cure for $199, instead of their standalone (but better, of course) units that cost something like $1000 together.)
mrheosuper 20 hours ago [-]
I love resin printer, but boys the amount of post-processing is really off-putting.
0_____0 19 hours ago [-]
I run two Form 3's and run functional prototypes often. If you don't specifically need prints that are good in the way that SLA prints are good, don't get one. There's also the issue of managing and disposing of uncured resins (hello photoinitiators! we gotta keep you out of the water table!) and waste solvent. All the SLA vendors are real quiet about what you're supposed to do with the waste. "Just do whatever your local regs require."
jdboyd 1 days ago [-]
What are the open-platform alternatives? I was under the impression that the majority of printers used the CHITUBOX hardware platform internally, which was now locked to the CHITUBOX slicer. Has this changed? That would be wonderful news.
I don't think that Formlabs locks you into their wash and cure stations. Some of their printers lock you into their resin, but it looks like the Form Studio 1 discussed above and the Form 3, 3L, 4, and 4L let you use resin of your choice, although the Studio 1 does require you to buy a special $80 tray.
pen2l 1 days ago [-]
> I don't think that Formlabs locks you into their wash and cure stations.
I would posit from the the getgo the average joe shouldn't consider resin printers, they should opt for FDM printers, because with FDM printers when the printer finishes printing a part... that's it! You more or less just pick it up from the printbed and there you have it... with resin printers, you -HAVE- to wash away the surrounding uncured resin. So, sure, it doesn't lock you into the wash and cure station, but doing it manually is an absolute chore any which way and chances of getting gooey resin on your hands, your clothes, your furniture goes way up and it is the most profoundly annoying thing when it does.
Try out a resin printer at your local makerspace to see what they're all about and the work that's required to print a part and develop it with solvents; for yourself get an FDM printer, they're plenty good enough for the average joe.
everforward 1 days ago [-]
Agreed, but it's worth calling out that some niches more or less require resin.
Anything small and aesthetic is going to basically require resin. Warhammer minis and jewelry (tiny filigree) come to mind.
FDMs have gotten better, but you're still not going to get those fine sub-millimeter details like you can with resin.
specproc 1 days ago [-]
Yeah, resin is a must for minis.
I outsource to a guy a know who's a jeweller and has his workflow down. Tried doing it myself and hated it.
mcv 11 hours ago [-]
Is it? I've heard of people getting good results with PLA and a 0.2mm nozzle. I don't doubt resin is better, but PLA seems to be acceptable to a lot of people. And it's far safer and cheaper.
numpad0 19 hours ago [-]
IIRC, ChiTu Systems once tried to use their leverage against the printer brands that rely on their components, and printer brands pushed back by seeking an alternative systems supplier with a new slicer. ChiTu-based printers have gained compatibility for alternative slicers after that.
jumpingpants 22 hours ago [-]
I cannot emphasize enough how much I hate these Formlabs printers. I am dealing with them at work and wish to be working on anything else.
jpk 20 hours ago [-]
Perhaps you can emphasize the reasons you don't like them?
1 days ago [-]
bigwheels 1 days ago [-]
Do you have any specific recomendations?
qwertytyyuu 20 hours ago [-]
One of the main reasons to get the studio one is the UL GREENGUARD Gold Certification right? Their resins are much safer.
TacticalCoder 21 hours ago [-]
> And also, be aware that these printers require some serious development work (you need solvent to wash away uncured resin (if you ask me, this basically necessitates a chemical hood...
As a 3D printer enthusiast (I model stuff in OpenSCAD and print to fix / DIY stuff around the house/car etc.) and seen how easy 3D printing using filament as become, resin 3D printers just seem... Extremely messy to me.
I understand that for people doing stuff like miniatures resin might be more precise (but filament printers with tiny nozzles became extremely precise too) but it just feels like a lot of work compared to... Just 3D print with filament.
I may be wrong though.
m4rtink 11 hours ago [-]
Yeah & as I have said before - I'd rather fix my printer every 5 prints and/or have worse print quality, than to use a printer I can't fix & can't use generic material of my choice on.
dyauspitr 1 days ago [-]
If you’ve ever used resin printers, you know the cartridges are a good thing because the liquid inside is basically carcinogenic if it comes in contact with your skin, so a lot of people just don’t do resin printing for exactly that reason and this gets around that.
1 days ago [-]
pen2l 1 days ago [-]
Except you will have failed prints (for me it's 1 out of every 20 with my form 4 with the kinds of parts I tend to print), which will require taking out the tank to clean obstructions and free-floating debris... and when you're having to filter the resin (like so: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UdX94R3k7YU ), it's exceedingly hard to not get it in contact with your skin.
code_biologist 23 hours ago [-]
I agree that resin cartridges don't handle the resin handling problem.
Nitrile/latex gloves + eye protection + respirator are the absolute minimum for resin printing PPE. A long sleeve shirt wouldn't go amiss for rare flicked resin droplets. If you're not confident in your ability to prevent skin contact with resin, you shouldn't be doing resin printing.
thenthenthen 19 hours ago [-]
Right. Just opening a bottle of this kind of photopolymer instantly sends DANGER signals from my nose to my brain (and my spine) causing my whole body to almost seize up. I cant believe reading some comments where people seem to be handing this stuff with their bare hands?!
dyauspitr 7 hours ago [-]
I think they’ve considered a lot of these problems from the perspective of handling resin when they designed the system. The vapors are carcinogenic too, so they have an inbuilt air filteration system. The whole washing and UV curing stations can be done without ever having to touch the resin. I guess I don’t know what happens in case of a failure and how you have to deal with the pool of resin in the bottom of the plate even after a successful print job.
EDIT: So I looked it up a bit more and it seems like in the case of failed prints. If you want to clean out the resin, it does have a partial solution that helps you print out a cleaning sheet to capture all the debris so you may not have to do filtering also after a successful print, you can just leave the leftover resin in the tray that does not need to be dealt with.
inSumErgoCogito 16 hours ago [-]
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torginus 13 hours ago [-]
I don't care what they say. Having done resin printing, it's toxic and fiddly and you can very very easily ruin your machine. The auxiliary chemicals like isopropyl alcohol are toxic as well, and need to be changed quite regularly if you want to avoid your prints getting an oily sheen.
It also generates copious amount of hazardous waste. Anything that has to do with this degree of material safety hazards should not be a hobby.
Before resin printing, lots of people had a hobby doing resin casts, the forums are full of health-related horror stories, this thing can and will kill you over time.
blablabla123 12 hours ago [-]
I recently did some research for a project related materials to be used in a wet environment. The problem with resin is that it's hormone active. Tangentially, the same is true for standard epoxy from the hardware store. There are scary skin damages some people got that work daily with epoxy
alnwlsn 9 hours ago [-]
Health stuff is always safety first, but I think everyone undersells just how much of a mess and pain it is to work with resin. For a rough magnitude comparison, go to your work area and spray a can of spray paint at nothing in particular for a full minute. Also, imagine you dropped your phone into an open can of paint, and now you have to fish it out and clean it without getting paint everywhere. If your setup can't cope with the fallout of doing that, you are not ready for a resin printer.
As an aside, I have found the smell of curing resin to be one of the worst things I have ever smelled; an extremely pungent plastic-y chemical smell which is hard to describe, but at least you get a warning if you don't bother to look at the pictures of dead trees and dead fish on the bottle. I'd much much rather work with hide glue again, which has the consistency of warm snot and smells like vomit.
drzaiusx11 8 hours ago [-]
A organic 3m respirator and lab grade gloves really should be required with these things. The cheap overseas options I expect them to downplay the hazzards, hopefully formlabs manuals etc are better w.r.t. safety (I don't own one.) I love my resin prints for their near flawless finishes compared to filament, but it comes at a pretty steep cost.
CyberDildonics 12 hours ago [-]
You're ruining this advertisement with your negativity.
150g2 10 hours ago [-]
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woodrowbarlow 10 hours ago [-]
i used to own a resin printer and used it maybe... three times? specifically because responsibly disposing of resin waste was too difficult.
now i'll just go to my local public library if i want a print made. i love that maker spaces in libraries have become more common.
IshKebab 12 hours ago [-]
> isopropyl alcohol are toxic as well
As long as you have moderately good ventilation and don't drink it, IPA is completely safe. If the resin is similar I wouldn't worry about it because of this.
But I agree about the waste, and in general it looks like a right hassle. IMO the online MJF printing services are cheap enough that it would take quite a lot for me to bother with owning a resin printer, at least for occasional use.
thereader12 12 hours ago [-]
Resin is not similar, it's very toxic and it accumulates.
xattt 10 hours ago [-]
To speak to safety, huffing isopropyl alcohol wipes is a short-term treatment for nausea with greater efficacy 30 minutes after treatment than the “big guns” (ondansetron).
This thing is all over YouTube, they really backed up the truck to the Influencer Club and started handing out the goods. Lots of people I like and respect have showcased it, like Applied Science, Jeff Geerling, among others.
But although there's a lot of discussion about how large a discount this is from FormLab's 8 billion dollar printers, there is absolutely NO comparison that I can find to other brands! OK, it's a cheaper Bentley - but how does it compare to the Toyota or Honda that we can get down the street? There are loads of options with --on paper-- better specs for half this price or less.
krisoft 14 hours ago [-]
Yes! Exactly.
So much of the content around this printer is adressing what resin printing is, and comparing it to fdm printers. I already know what resin printers are and what their general pros and cons compared to a a fillament based one. But they don’t bother answering why should i choose this resin printer over an other one.
So i will just wait until the hype dies down and people who owned resin printers review it.
There are two reason why i’m cautiously optimistic about this printer though:
- i’m a member of a hackspace. And training new members on our elegoo resin printers is a pain. In particular explaining safe resin handling is a battle. In theory this model from Formlabs would require less contact with the resin. So that sounds great. Of course that promise is only good as long as things go well. But there might be benefit there.
- in my private practice i make jewellery. One of the techniques i use is lost-resin casting. The resins involved are tricky. The designs are intricate Because of that there are many print failures. In theory their printers and slicer should be much better engineered to minimise such failures. Does it work that way in practice? Only a review could tell.
Also, one of the most... colorful reviews. I watch his stuff just because of his style...
dd8601fn 9 hours ago [-]
Adam Savages Tested did like two whole episodes on it.
I’m ok with it. It’s the kind of thing they would look at. But it did stand out.
RantyDave 23 hours ago [-]
I have a resin printer (elegoo mars 2p) and have done a number of small "production" runs of things that don't really matter.
I have to say that it is the biggest pain in the arse thing I even own. While the prints come out "good", I find that dimensional accuracy is often really not good at all; and that the whole rinse in isopropyl, finish in the sun process is just a sticky, irritating, and probably carcinogenic drag.
And I can't imagine why USD700 is regarded as a bargain.
So this has served as a fine reminder - I need to sell this damn thing, it just takes up space.
Joel_Mckay 23 hours ago [-]
Consider water-soluble resin, but always use 99% IPA to wash. First, dab with tissue paper to soak up drips, wash in used/dirty IPA, and then wash again in clean IPA. This will remove most if not all uncured resin. You should be able to hit within 0.1mm repeatability with anti-aliasing turned off.
Finally, the UVA cure chamber must be able to kick off the resin. After 15min on each side, then wash the build with a hand cleaner. Place all PPE like gloves in a clear bag, and leave in the sun on both sides for 1 hour.
"USD700" is almost double what a mid-sized Creality printer costs, and aftermarket 3M flex plate kits are about $30.
Without a garage/outdoor/lab work-space people shouldn't buy stinky resin printers. =3
RantyDave 22 hours ago [-]
Is it "actually carcinogenic" or only if you use it 8 hours a day?
FWIW I run the printer in a downstairs bathroom with its own extractor fan and cure in the sun.
80fj0348i 22 hours ago [-]
It's actually carcinogenic. Also, exposure can cause an allergy to resin (which makes you allergic to all sorts of everyday objects), and a single drop in your eye can cause permanent blindness.
Joel_Mckay 22 hours ago [-]
Resin is fairly inert once fully cured + aged/dried 2 weeks, but in its uncured state PPE should always be used. The uncured resin contact with skin is known to sometimes cause autoimmune sensitivities like allergic reactions. If you ever get blisters or a rash, than you are likely no longer able to work around acrylic resins and paints.
Always protect your skin, eyes, and lungs... even when the SDS/MSDS doesn't explicitly warn of currently known possible exposure hazards.
In general, treat it the same as paint with a booth/tent, exhaust fan, and paper-lined drip pan for when(not if) the membrane perforates. If the object is small, one could also use 100% infill so it may be cleaned properly (coating prints in a automotive UV-resistant clear acrylic spray paint a few weeks later prevents yellowing, and reduces handling risks.)
Around 40% of people will get cancer in their lifetimes, and most will never know. In general, avoiding physical contact with organic solvents is a good idea, and be pleasantly surprised if it turns out to be an overly cautious decision. =3
thenthenthen 19 hours ago [-]
The water soluble resins smell even worse in my option somehow this was counterintuitive for me.
Joel_Mckay 18 hours ago [-]
Depends on the brand, but low-viscosity resins tend to print easier, have less bubbles, and drip clean a little better.
The bad liquid-resin odor people detect is often unrelated to VOC levels, which is why activated-charcoal filters are mostly useless from an exposure standpoint. Exhausting crud outside into some ferns is the best solution for hobby printers. =3
thenthenthen 15 hours ago [-]
Yeah the smell is just insane. I worked a lot with PU resins and they actually smell delicious (prolly same toxicity tho).
regretsresin 18 hours ago [-]
You don't want a resin printer. They are nasty, chemically, they require you to set up a "hot zone", you need ppe, venting is really important. When your print works good, you still have to wash it and then cure it. Changing colors ids like a whole event.
FDM printers are amazing now. Strongly recommend an FDM printer.
dd8601fn 9 hours ago [-]
Isn’t part of the point of these ones that they now have a line of safe resins?
Honestly asking. I’ve never owned one. Just seen some of the tsunami of videos for this one.
alnwlsn 8 hours ago [-]
It does seem to be less toxic resins, but I liken working with resin printers to dipping something in an open can of paint or glue. Even if it's nontoxic, it's still annoying to deal with.
Hackbraten 14 hours ago [-]
On the other hand, once you have everything in place, get used to the process, have made it a habit and stick to it rigorously, it can be extremely rewarding to do resin printing.
madeofpalk 11 hours ago [-]
That's quite a loaded other hand.
regretsresin 9 hours ago [-]
FDM printing is also extremely rewarding. And cheaper. And cleaner. PLA can be composted in some municipalities.
Max out your 3D printing with FDM, and only if you can't achieve your goals, get a resin printer.
vl 1 days ago [-]
This page really needs to explain what is “resin printer” and why would I need it. I have no idea how is it different from my regular 3D printer.
dofm 1 days ago [-]
Your regular printer, like mine, presumably puts down a line of melted plastic material with an extruder, bit by bit, so the print time is guided by complexity as well as size.
Resin printers, basically, are stereolithographic. They:
- dip the build plate (upside down) into a thin tray of resin
- push it all the way onto onto a screen at the bottom of the tray
- blast that screen with UV through a translucent LCD display that contains a mask image of the current "slice" of the whole plate, enough that the thin layer of resin partly cures
- lift the plate out of the resin so it peels off the screen and the resin replenishes below it
- repeat, with the next slice.
- then the whole model is taken out by hand, washed off, blasted with UV light to completely cure it, and the (more or less inevitable) supports snipped off.
So instead of printing line by line, the entire plate prints layer by layer — a small print takes (approximately) the same time as a full plate.
There are several big differences, notably that it is single-colour, much higher resolution, the various peel/adhesion forces are managed differently, larger parts need to be hollow with a vent so uncured resin drains out, most resin prints are quite brittle, and the whole process is traditionally really rather cytotoxic.
There are eco resins, tough resins, and printers that do a better job of not being chemically evil; this is one.
I've stayed away from it, because it's not the kind of printing I need (for all except one part that I might end up subcontracting) and because it is chemically nastier than b/w darkroom printing, which until now has been about my limit of risk.
The above is a bit of an oversimplification but it covers the main differences I think (happy to have corrections/additional comments)
Just to add to this post, the resin isn't great to handle, but crucially for the end user, you need to post process the part quite a bit before its "usable"
The part needs to be washed, and then stuck in a UV bath to do a final curing.
Having said that, you get higher precision parts and can print in optically transparent materials.
dofm 5 hours ago [-]
Optically transparent materials is a very good point, and it hints at something else that I should have included in my roundup, which is that resin prints are much, much closer to isotropic than FDM prints. There are layer lines in resin prints but they are hard to see, and the nature of layer bonding at exposure means there are few layer-to-layer weaknesses.
Jtsummers 1 days ago [-]
It prints by curing a resin instead of heating and forming plastic. They've been around in industry for decades.
unintelligibled 24 hours ago [-]
And they started being available to consumers some ten years ago or something, I recall them blowing up in popularity like crazy a couple of years later. For someone to have a 3D printer and not know what resin printers are seems very unusual.
solyin 1 days ago [-]
[flagged]
Eji1700 1 days ago [-]
I've always found the best approach to a commercial product for the masses it to belittle them first and only appeal to the enthusiasts...
seabird 1 days ago [-]
The commenter you're replying to doesn't represent the company and they are 100% correct. The company sells expensive products to educated commercial customers pretty much exclusively. A five second Google search for "what is a resin 3D printer" gives you a very good idea of what's being talked about. Clarifying every single obvious details in the comments doesn't improve the conversation being had here.
80fj0348i 19 hours ago [-]
This is not a product for the masses, it's a niche manufacturing device that can cause severe health issues if not installed safely (exhaust ventilation, spill pad, etc.) and must be used with personal protective equipment.
flaunf221 23 hours ago [-]
It's a resin 3d printer. It uses toxic resin, you really don't want it working near humans without proper ventilation setup, you need to wear gloves, will need alcohol for cleaning prints.
And then unless you plan only on printing already prepared models you will need to learn how to user slicer software and maybe learn to model things yourself.
It is a product for enthusiasts by nature of how it works.
bethekidyouwant 1 days ago [-]
I also buy $900 things without googling them to see what they even are
jborichevskiy 1 days ago [-]
Jeff Geerling has a great video about this printer that got me up to speed on resin printing as well - coming from the 3d printing world I'm stoked to see the price dropping but it also seems like a lot more hassle to me at this stage
He got one for free in exchange for making a video that glosses over the fact that it uses proprietary resin cartridges.
russelg 16 hours ago [-]
He does not gloss over that at all. He mentions the Open Material support, and the extra cost for the containers for said support.
drzaiusx11 8 hours ago [-]
My anycube costs a fraction of this and I don't need to shell out for any proprietary nonsense like cartridges. I use all open source tooling as well. For $700 I got a resin printer, several diverse resin types, a fume extraction hood/enclosure, a infrared curing box and automatic washer tank.
0xb0565e486 21 hours ago [-]
I have a big interest in this; I have been making a lot of electronics as of late due to LLMs being so capable!
For instance, I wanted to buy a smart device to control my mini-split and it was 160$ on amazon for 1. Well I built 5 for 80$ in a weekend (excluding the 7 days shipping from China).
I'm very much looking for someone convince me not to buy this? Seems like people don't enjoy resin because it's a tad messy and it has a ~10-30 curing process.
Yet all parts from my FDM printer feels cheap and looks like nothing I'd be happy to buy unless I spend HOURS sanding and painting.
regularfry 13 hours ago [-]
"A tad messy" really undersells it. You need a solid process to manage the (sticky, carcinogenic, smelly) liquid resin both as an input and waste product, along with having to dispose of (carcinogenic, smelly, flammable) cleaning solvent.
The problem isn't so much the process of a successful print as how you deal with a failed one. At that point you've got a vat full of resin with some solid parts stuck to the bottom, so you need to filter and clean the damn thing which means taking it out of whatever containment you've got. And that step you can't use the usual solvent for because it damages the sheet. But you'll have ample time to figure all this out because you'll get loads of failed prints as you figure out how slicing and supporting for resin works: it's different to FDM, some knowledge carries over but not that much.
Focusing on the 10-30 minute curing process ignores the part prep step: SLA is much more reliant on supports than FDM in general, so there will be either rough surfaces hopefully out of sight, or (if it's not a model that orients well) scraping/sanding/filling. And you want to do support separation and get that as clean as possible before curing, while the resin is still a bit soft, but that means it's only partially cured and you need to be PPE'd up.
When I'm doing anything with my resin printer I don't even go into the room without a breathing filter, don't touch anything without gloves. It really is a very different experience to FDM.
0xb0565e486 11 hours ago [-]
Thanks! Some details in there I didn’t hear before like dealing with failed prints.
KaiserPro 15 hours ago [-]
Resin is much more precise, but its still plastic.
The stepup to CNC will allow aluminium and brass parts, but depth will be a challenge. Making anything deeper than a few cm on a desktop CNC is possible but has limitations.
deckar01 19 hours ago [-]
The finish of SLA regularly failed to meet my expectations. You either have warping and elephant foot at the build plate or you have a hundred support contacts to clip and sand.
Desktop CNCs are getting very capable and cheap. It’s hard to beat the tolerances and finish quality of a machined part.
lp92 9 hours ago [-]
Use a Matte filament, proper print settings, and low layer heights and you really won't be able to see the layer lines easily.
What FDM printer are you using?
0xb0565e486 8 hours ago [-]
Ender v3 plus on matte PLA filament and 0.12 layer heights seems to be what have yielded the best result for me, but layer lines are definitely still visible.
The feel to the touch and the sound it makes (ex: sliding parts) is definitively another gripe I have.
lp92 5 hours ago [-]
Yeah you will still feel the layer lines. You could try Nylon if you're looking for a smoother feel. But the layer lines will still feel rough. Resin would be a bit better in that regard depending on the resin you use. Just keep in mind many of the resins are very brittle. So depending on your application, resin may not be suitable.
0xb0565e486 2 hours ago [-]
Thanks, appreciate the ideas here! Didn't know resin would/could be brittle. Will look into that :)
nikkwong 18 hours ago [-]
I'm in the market for a new resin printer (I have a bunch of old ones) and no idea why I would buy this/why this is an improvement off my current printer based on what is presented on the marketing pages. Pass. I didn't buy the prusa resin printer but at least they were really good at communicating what the actual value was for folk who already have resin printers. This just seems like it's aimed at SLA novices
lp92 4 hours ago [-]
>This just seems like it's aimed at SLA novices
That's exactly it. That's why the entire influencer campaign exist and almost every influencer is saying the same thing.
orwin 1 days ago [-]
How stiff can you make the resin with those 3d printers ? Probably not as much as carbon fiber, but how does it hold against aluminium or fiberglass? Also, can you do composite fibreglass/resin with 3d printers ?
pyottdes 23 hours ago [-]
Surprisingly complicated question. Most hobbyist grade machines are low powered and can only cure resin with pretty poor mechanical properties. Industrial resin printers can actually make incredibly strong parts.
The studio 1 can apparently print in Formlabs Tough 1500 which is a decent strength resin. It’s noticeably better than the average “ABS like”.
Resin prints are also isotopic (unlike composites and fdm prints) which has a lot of advantages for mechanical parts.
Asking if resin prints are strong is a bit like asking if metal parts are strong; it really depends on the metal or resin being used
lp92 4 hours ago [-]
Resin is generally very stiff but also very brittle. They are not as tough as composites (depending on resin used).
unsnap_biceps 1 days ago [-]
My experience is the resin is very stiff but very brittle, but I haven't kept up with the latest resins.
helsinkiandrew 10 hours ago [-]
Ben Krasnow/Applied Science, built a "3D-printed, alcohol-powered, Einstein-Szilard absorption refrigerator" using one:
Resin printing has its place but it's terribly messy and the FDM printers are getting so good these days it's basically trivial to print even complex multi part prints.
tonyhb 1 days ago [-]
I used to use an older, more expensive version from FormLabs in my last company to print our (more accurate) version of Invisalign negatives, and we'd thermoform the aligners over the top of the cured resin (with a barrier).
The accuracy was great. They'd hold up. Printing took a while, but generally pretty solid as we scaled from in-house to full lab setup. They're great as resin printers go.
Hasz 6 hours ago [-]
What I really want to know is.. Where is that cheap Micronics SLS printer that Formlabs bought 2 years ago?
lp92 9 hours ago [-]
Man, so many influences shilling this printer. And every single one of them says strikingly similar statements, almost as if they are following a script from FormLabs.
dd8601fn 8 hours ago [-]
I’ve now seen two that were also flown to FormLabs to talk to their materials science teams. They sure went all out on influencers.
Doesn’t mean they’re not nice machines, I guess.
lp92 4 hours ago [-]
I think this is one of those products they just release to get consumers innto their ecosystem before slowly starting to lock people in again.
karlfrohlich 18 hours ago [-]
Man how the prices have fallen from the early days. I recall the one my lab had in college was >10k (>20k even?)
mkw5053 1 days ago [-]
Honest question, what would I do if this is my first 3D printer and I don't have the ability to wash and cure? Or do I and I just don't know it, ha
shitloadofbooks 1 days ago [-]
Please, please do NOT buy a resin printer as your first printer; IF you want to print intricate details (where resin excels) at least start with an FDM printer anda 0.2mm nozzle. Lots of information can be found here at r/fdmminiatures.
Resin is extremely toxic and requires a dedicated area and handling and care.
syntaxing 1 days ago [-]
Ive been 3D printing for over a decade, SLA printers are just not worth it IMO. There useful for certain applications, especially industry but for home hobbyist, FDM + 0.2mm nozzle would go further as a first 3D printer
doug_life 1 days ago [-]
Agreed, unless you need to print intricate 3D figurines or high resolution engineering widgets, get a FDM printer and avoid the mess of SLA.
fhn 1 days ago [-]
$699 is an incredible price
doug_life 1 days ago [-]
You can wash manually with some isopropyl alcohol in a wash basin and then cure in the sun. It will be a pain to do, and somewhat inconsistent, but its possible. You can also get a cheaper wash and cure station for other 3D printers that would likely work well enough with some tuning.
krisoft 13 hours ago [-]
> what would I do if this is my first 3D printer
Resin printers are very special type of printers. They are great at some things (tiny intricate details, surface quality). They are absolutely the worst in other ways (soo much faff with post curing). If you need their pros you can’t do much else but suffer the cons. But you should really think through what you want to print before getting one.
Your question is a bit like: “what if my first shovel were an excavator?” Having an excavator is great when you need one. But if you don’t need one it is a complete nightmare compared to other shoveling solutions.
> I don't have the ability to wash and cure
I don’t know what you mean by lacking the ability?
If it is not knowing how, then the simple answer is to buy the wash+cure formlabs sells with the printer and follow the instructions. Best if you watch a video tutorial first before you even buy the printer so you can decide if you have the space, want to bother with resin printing.
twelfthnight 1 days ago [-]
My first printer was resin without a dedicated wash/cure set up and it was difficult enough that I sold the printer and got an FDM. Currently I'm using an Snapmaker U1 and it's really awesome and much easier. It also prints in multicolor seamlessly.
That said, if you do spend the extra for this along with the wash/cure and the voc extractor, the demos are really impressive. It seems like this printer is blazing fast, for single color prints it will print basically anything at better resolution than an FDM in <2 hours, whereas FDM could take anywhere from 4-12+ for a similar part with bigger layer lines.
virtualritz 1 days ago [-]
You can wash the print in an ultrasonic bath [1] in isopropyl alcohol (IPA).
Then cure using a UV LED strip (5m w USB plug ~2 EUR) inside an empty can (another 2-5 EUR) and a solar-powered rotating base [2].
The light from the LEDs is cures as well as powers the base. All four will set you back less than 50 EUR.
Putting IPA in an ultrasonic bath where it can get hot/vaporize is not a great idea.
KaiserPro 15 hours ago [-]
wait, IPA in an ultrasonic bath? isn't that asking for fire? normally ultrasonic baths are warmed, so you are heating a liquid and causing cavitation in something that has a flashpoint of 11c.
lp92 9 hours ago [-]
Don't get a resin printer unless you can get it ventilated properly and have a proper work area for wash and cure.
Stick with a good FDM printer.
pedalpete 1 days ago [-]
We don't have a wash here at our office, we just use a small container with IPA.
We have a UV cure cube, but often I just cure under a $20 amazon desktop UV light.
1 days ago [-]
alnwlsn 9 hours ago [-]
Return the printer immediately. Not kidding.
pclark 1 days ago [-]
Honestly a Bambu printer is so insanely easy to use you'd be making printing ^25 harder with this.
mhb 1 days ago [-]
For another $250, you can get another box that washes and cures.
iLoveOncall 1 days ago [-]
Just don't. Resin printers are a pain. Get an FDM (filament) printer first.
user- 1 days ago [-]
How did the preorder form for this product endup #2 here on HN in 10 minutes with no comments?
Theres no new blog or video or news, preorders opened 2 weeks ago
fishgoesblub 1 days ago [-]
If I had to guess, the latest Applied Science video on YouTube which somewhat showcased it.
jordanb 22 hours ago [-]
I felt like the applied science video was an ad. He said they sent him the printer to do the project so he at least got the printer free. I didn't hear any other disclosures but the entire back half of the video was talking about the printer
mhb 10 hours ago [-]
The implication of your comment is that the description/review/opinions expressed by Ben in that video were inaccurate due to having received the printer for free. Is that what you're suggesting?
jordanb 9 hours ago [-]
Why would it imply that it's inaccurate?
It being an ad does not imply that it's a lie.
In fact historically lieing in an ad could get you lawsuits or FTC complaints. I know creatives at agencies who would have to go through legal review to ensure every factual claim they made was true.
mhb 8 hours ago [-]
Generally an ad represents a product in its most flattering light rather than an even-handed evaluation of its features pro and con. That's why.
dang 21 hours ago [-]
The upvotes look genuine to me. I guess people are just excited?
mitxela 1 days ago [-]
[flagged]
dang 21 hours ago [-]
You broke the site guidelines with this comment.
"Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data."
The odds that a Hacker News user who has been here literally 19 years and submitted over 4,000 links is some sort of marketing shill seem rather negligible. You could have figured that out yourself based just on the public data.
mitxela 10 hours ago [-]
It doesn't matter who they paid to post it. It's still an advert.
dang 6 hours ago [-]
I might not have made the points clearly enough. They are:
(1) You don't know that anyone was paid to post. This is entirely an assumption, one that internet users are far too quick to make.
(3) Even when an article can justly be called an advert, it doesn't automatically follow that it's off-topic for HN. Most adverts are off topic, of course, because they aren't intellectually interesting. Intellectual interest a.k.a. curiosity is the only criterion for what's on topic here—again, please see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
mhb 1 days ago [-]
I'm not a marketing agency. I just saw it on Applied Science and was impressed that mainstream resin printers were available for that price.
I have a noob "reverse" resin creation question. The product page says it has low VOC emissions. Could certain recyclables(e.g. 4,5 HDPE types) create the resin from my stuff at home with low VoC that I could use/sell etc?
My gut would say economically/technologically prohibitive but a low throughput table top recycler seems like a great way to reduce my recyclable garbage.
panzagl 20 hours ago [-]
There is nothing like that currently available, or likely to be created (resin curing is a chemical process, not a melting/solidifying).
fhn 1 days ago [-]
there are products where you can re-melt and create filament for 3d printers or push it into a mold. Can probably build your own for $500 + a $500 3d printer.
lp92 4 hours ago [-]
That's for FDM. This is resin.
ur-whale 14 hours ago [-]
Is HN an advertizing site now?
5 hours ago [-]
gavmor 1 days ago [-]
Seems to be sharper, faster, and larger in volume than their previous offerings—and for < half the price, too!
Pretty cool.
syntaxing 1 days ago [-]
Wow this price is interesting. I guess the Chinese competition is really driving prices down. I do miss the first generation (I think second was too) where they were "true" SLA but they got sued into oblivion by 3D Systems.
mhb 1 days ago [-]
> "true" SLA
What is that? Why is it better?
Brian_K_White 1 days ago [-]
Stereo lithography using lasers, vs "sla" now has nothing stereo about it nor lasers, just an lcd screen that exposes a 2d slice.
Why it's better is a little complicated and maybe not all one-way.
Definitely there are a lot of difficulties inherent in the way the lcd type has to move the part for every layer and fight a lot of suction every time, damaging a film that needs to stay optically perfect, frothing up the resin with bubbles yet another source of optical defects.
Maybe the laser machines have their own problems but not having to move the part (or move it much less and in a different less violent way) and not having to physically abuse an optical part has to make some difference.
fancyfredbot 1 days ago [-]
Why is it showing me $749 excluding tax? Did the price increase by $50 since this was posted?
phoghed 22 hours ago [-]
John Formlab here, I check the referrer and charge extra to people coming from wealthy people websites
amelius 1 days ago [-]
Does it produce toxic fumes?
ehnto 23 hours ago [-]
In general yes, resin and FDM printers both produce toxic VOCs.
But FormLabs for this printer and resin have focused on safetey and acquired a certification on their Alpha resins which show low VOCs that should be safe to print in an indoor room with low ventilation.
I still wouldn't, I would add ventilation and wear PPE, it's still going to be releasing some VOCs even if it comes under a tolerable limit. But I do appreciate what seems to be the first ever initiative in 3D printing to address the elephant in the room of VOCs directly at the material level.
passive 1 days ago [-]
As someone who got into FDM printing about a year ago, and still finds it very exciting, this is a really compelling resin printer. It's priced very well for the capabilities, especially in terms of providing everything a beginner might need to be comfortable with resin printing.
That said, I just noticed Costco online has some FDM stuff, which I think is a pretty exciting development, so if I have any money to spend on 3d printing stuff in the near future, I'll probably spend it there. :)
singularity2001 1 days ago [-]
I have the sensational $200 bamboo lab printer what would the $700 thing give me more?
twelfthnight 1 days ago [-]
Wrote this elsewhere, but this printer prints a full volume in 2 hours. In many scenarios it's 10x faster than FDM with better resolution and compatibility with advanced materials, like food grade / skin contact, ultra strength and rubber-like consistency.
You actually would probably want the wash/cure and VOC extractor upgrades so it's more like 1200$ before it's useful, but if you have the clean room space and ability to handle the toxic resin, functionally resin printing is typically better than fdm for single color prints.
hingler36 1 days ago [-]
From the hobbyist perspective, the main thing this gets you is much more precise and detailed prints, so they're very popular in the model making community.
From a professional perspective, this gives you access to a bunch of different materials that open up all kinds of options for prototyping.
SchemaLoad 1 days ago [-]
The slight increase in fine detail is just not worth the toxicity imo. Put a 0.2mm nozzle on your FDM printer and you'll get good enough quality. Leave resin to businesses that can set up a proper warehouse with fume extraction and PPE.
You can even prototype your designs at home with FDM and send the final file to a company to do the resin prints.
hingler36 1 days ago [-]
I agree that for most people it's not worth it, but for people who need it it's absolutely necessary. The biggest hurdle is making sure new hobbyists don't just assume it's like FDM with minimal post-processing.
Balvarez 1 days ago [-]
Amazing detail, a resin allergy, and cancer
singularity2001 2 hours ago [-]
since dang doesn't check late comments for irrelevant trophe:
LOL!
echelon 1 days ago [-]
> a resin allergy
How many months before it develops, on average?
1 days ago [-]
system2 23 hours ago [-]
7.9 x 4.9 x 9.3 in build volume is small. Since it is resin, does it really make a difference to make the build area bigger without upgrading the hardware, just by increasing the frame size?
szabadkai 13 hours ago [-]
If you imply making it taller, I think tall parts are increasingly more wobbly, there must be a limit there.
deadbabe 12 hours ago [-]
After discovering SendCutSend, I put away these childish 3D printer fantasies and just have my parts made from pure metal and delivered quick and easy. Enough with plastics and resins, use REAL materials.
lp92 4 hours ago [-]
SendCutSend has CNC machining but the costs are no where comparable. And they don't have metal 3D printing available either. Surr you can laser cutter some things out of metal, but that's not really comparable to 3D parts.
lanmu 16 hours ago [-]
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excannuk 10 hours ago [-]
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thrw999kjdh 14 hours ago [-]
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mitxela 1 days ago [-]
[flagged]
altairprime 1 days ago [-]
Another front page post today is to a new MacBook’s store checkout page, so I’m not sure this logic holds for the site as a whole. Consider emailing the mods; if they support your viewpoint they can kill the post without waiting for user flags.
paaloeye 1 days ago [-]
Does it come with MCP integration for Claude/Antigravity CLI?
Don't go with Formlabs, support any of the open-platform alternatives.
And also, be aware that these printers require some serious development work (you need solvent to wash away uncured resin (if you ask me, this basically necessitates a chemical hood... Formlabs will happily upsell the "Form Wash" for this for another 699). If uncured resin falls on your floor (which has happened to me a little too many times), boy is it a horror cleaning it up even if you have industrial grade solvents; FDM printers are easier and their "ink" is much, much less expensive by comparison.
Form resin vats/tanks/tray/bed/whatever you call it are also not just proprietary, but their equivalent of FEP film is not replaceable. The resin vat usually have what is referred to as FEP film, a thin transparent Teflon sheet at the bottom of about a phone screen protector thickness and durability, stretched and pre-tensioned like a drum. The non-adhesion performance of film affects print quality, and it needs replacement eventually(I believe it is characterized as after x thousand layers printed, internally by printer manufacturers). On most printers, the replacement film can be bought and installed by the user. Formlabs printers use something other than regular FEP, and uses tool-less assembly that cannot be reversed, and therefore the whole proprietary tank needs to be discarded and replaced.
It's like Bambu Lab but the printbed is proprietary too and heated bed turns off for non-Bambu filaments. As if proprietary nozzles was not enough.
The printer model in question doesn’t have that feature.
Just buy an open source version from China that has the necessary hardware in an open format and let Claude adjust the software if there are concerns.
References and links?
There is currently no open source version of the high resolution monochrome LCDs. The LCDs and their drivers lock you into the Chitu ecosystem.
The problem, as Chitu figured out, is that as soon as you cough up the NRE to make the LCDs and make it publicly available, EVERYBODY will copy you and then there will be no profit left to sink the NRE that you just spent.
And that matters because statements like "just buy an open Chinese printer" are non-starters. The machines themselves have the soul of ChiTu inside of them and openness isn't really their jam.
So while the PC software that produces the layer images can be replaced, the printer's brains stays the same.
(This is very different compared to the world of conventional world of FDM printers, wherein: It's just some sensors, motors, heaters, and sensors; a screen, if present, is optional. A person can replace the brainbox of a traditional FDM Cartesian rig with open, off-the-shelf parts and be printing something in an afternoon, and there's a whole industry providing parts to support this kind of thing.
ChiTu isn't that way.)
Does their proprietary software affect their profit at all?
I don't know why ChiTu does whatever they do. All I know is that demonstrate a trend of keeping their source buttoned up instead of open.
My bad.
But that paragraph is what my original question is about.
In contrast, I can get 6 FEP sheets for my Mars 2 Pro for $21 which don't appear to have any official lifetimes but generic internet advice says "40-50 prints" on the low side. That'd be 240 prints for $21 compared with 190 prints for $79.
[0] https://www.igo3d.com/en/formlabs-form-studio-1-resin-tank-p...
(Not replying to you directly, but generally to this thread)
Along with some issues with the screen and the non-pro resins.
It’s anti-consumer.
They want to be the HP/Bambu of resin printers.
There no reason for FormLabs to limit supply of the $79 tanks, it would also limit their ability to sell their more expensive resins to Studio 1 customers, and also removes a clear pathway to get people to upgrade to their more expensive machines, capable of working with their even more complex, and expensive, engineering resins.
I'm not saying I hate Prusa here, I'm saying that limited availability is a common practice to drive hype.
Versus a company like Bambu who seems to ramp up production now, in advance of selling the product.
1) form studio can use any material out of the box you just have to design your own print settings for it
2) form studio wash + cure is $200, not $699
3) the new resins are UL certified for low voc/indoor use, as well as score as non-skin irritants (OECD 439), and post-processed parts comply with ISO 10993 for long term skin contact
4) the new resins cost $30-$50ish per L, as opposed to fdm ~$25ish per kg. you also have to buy a tank that eventually wears out but imo when i’m printing a lot with the same material the tank cost doesn’t add much to the overall
5) fdm is great too, i have both in my shop. you should always use the right process and material for the job. if you need higher detail than what fdm can provide, more sophisticated materials, and an order of magnitude higher volumetric print speed, the form studio is a great option.
source: i don’t work at formlabs, but i used to
https://formlabs.com/global/products/form-wash/
I just want it to print and not study chemistry & physics before doing anything. Formlabs seems to be able to deliver that.
(A separate aside, since the main ones were addressed: Formlabs also launched a new "Wash+Cure" station that does wash and cure for $199, instead of their standalone (but better, of course) units that cost something like $1000 together.)
I don't think that Formlabs locks you into their wash and cure stations. Some of their printers lock you into their resin, but it looks like the Form Studio 1 discussed above and the Form 3, 3L, 4, and 4L let you use resin of your choice, although the Studio 1 does require you to buy a special $80 tray.
I would posit from the the getgo the average joe shouldn't consider resin printers, they should opt for FDM printers, because with FDM printers when the printer finishes printing a part... that's it! You more or less just pick it up from the printbed and there you have it... with resin printers, you -HAVE- to wash away the surrounding uncured resin. So, sure, it doesn't lock you into the wash and cure station, but doing it manually is an absolute chore any which way and chances of getting gooey resin on your hands, your clothes, your furniture goes way up and it is the most profoundly annoying thing when it does.
Try out a resin printer at your local makerspace to see what they're all about and the work that's required to print a part and develop it with solvents; for yourself get an FDM printer, they're plenty good enough for the average joe.
Anything small and aesthetic is going to basically require resin. Warhammer minis and jewelry (tiny filigree) come to mind.
FDMs have gotten better, but you're still not going to get those fine sub-millimeter details like you can with resin.
I outsource to a guy a know who's a jeweller and has his workflow down. Tried doing it myself and hated it.
As a 3D printer enthusiast (I model stuff in OpenSCAD and print to fix / DIY stuff around the house/car etc.) and seen how easy 3D printing using filament as become, resin 3D printers just seem... Extremely messy to me.
I understand that for people doing stuff like miniatures resin might be more precise (but filament printers with tiny nozzles became extremely precise too) but it just feels like a lot of work compared to... Just 3D print with filament.
I may be wrong though.
Nitrile/latex gloves + eye protection + respirator are the absolute minimum for resin printing PPE. A long sleeve shirt wouldn't go amiss for rare flicked resin droplets. If you're not confident in your ability to prevent skin contact with resin, you shouldn't be doing resin printing.
EDIT: So I looked it up a bit more and it seems like in the case of failed prints. If you want to clean out the resin, it does have a partial solution that helps you print out a cleaning sheet to capture all the debris so you may not have to do filtering also after a successful print, you can just leave the leftover resin in the tray that does not need to be dealt with.
It also generates copious amount of hazardous waste. Anything that has to do with this degree of material safety hazards should not be a hobby.
Before resin printing, lots of people had a hobby doing resin casts, the forums are full of health-related horror stories, this thing can and will kill you over time.
As an aside, I have found the smell of curing resin to be one of the worst things I have ever smelled; an extremely pungent plastic-y chemical smell which is hard to describe, but at least you get a warning if you don't bother to look at the pictures of dead trees and dead fish on the bottle. I'd much much rather work with hide glue again, which has the consistency of warm snot and smells like vomit.
now i'll just go to my local public library if i want a print made. i love that maker spaces in libraries have become more common.
As long as you have moderately good ventilation and don't drink it, IPA is completely safe. If the resin is similar I wouldn't worry about it because of this.
But I agree about the waste, and in general it looks like a right hassle. IMO the online MJF printing services are cheap enough that it would take quite a lot for me to bother with owning a resin printer, at least for occasional use.
(1) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6189884/
But although there's a lot of discussion about how large a discount this is from FormLab's 8 billion dollar printers, there is absolutely NO comparison that I can find to other brands! OK, it's a cheaper Bentley - but how does it compare to the Toyota or Honda that we can get down the street? There are loads of options with --on paper-- better specs for half this price or less.
So much of the content around this printer is adressing what resin printing is, and comparing it to fdm printers. I already know what resin printers are and what their general pros and cons compared to a a fillament based one. But they don’t bother answering why should i choose this resin printer over an other one.
So i will just wait until the hype dies down and people who owned resin printers review it.
There are two reason why i’m cautiously optimistic about this printer though:
- i’m a member of a hackspace. And training new members on our elegoo resin printers is a pain. In particular explaining safe resin handling is a battle. In theory this model from Formlabs would require less contact with the resin. So that sounds great. Of course that promise is only good as long as things go well. But there might be benefit there.
- in my private practice i make jewellery. One of the techniques i use is lost-resin casting. The resins involved are tricky. The designs are intricate Because of that there are many print failures. In theory their printers and slicer should be much better engineered to minimise such failures. Does it work that way in practice? Only a review could tell.
I’m ok with it. It’s the kind of thing they would look at. But it did stand out.
I have to say that it is the biggest pain in the arse thing I even own. While the prints come out "good", I find that dimensional accuracy is often really not good at all; and that the whole rinse in isopropyl, finish in the sun process is just a sticky, irritating, and probably carcinogenic drag.
And I can't imagine why USD700 is regarded as a bargain.
So this has served as a fine reminder - I need to sell this damn thing, it just takes up space.
Finally, the UVA cure chamber must be able to kick off the resin. After 15min on each side, then wash the build with a hand cleaner. Place all PPE like gloves in a clear bag, and leave in the sun on both sides for 1 hour.
"USD700" is almost double what a mid-sized Creality printer costs, and aftermarket 3M flex plate kits are about $30.
Without a garage/outdoor/lab work-space people shouldn't buy stinky resin printers. =3
FWIW I run the printer in a downstairs bathroom with its own extractor fan and cure in the sun.
Always protect your skin, eyes, and lungs... even when the SDS/MSDS doesn't explicitly warn of currently known possible exposure hazards.
In general, treat it the same as paint with a booth/tent, exhaust fan, and paper-lined drip pan for when(not if) the membrane perforates. If the object is small, one could also use 100% infill so it may be cleaned properly (coating prints in a automotive UV-resistant clear acrylic spray paint a few weeks later prevents yellowing, and reduces handling risks.)
Around 40% of people will get cancer in their lifetimes, and most will never know. In general, avoiding physical contact with organic solvents is a good idea, and be pleasantly surprised if it turns out to be an overly cautious decision. =3
The bad liquid-resin odor people detect is often unrelated to VOC levels, which is why activated-charcoal filters are mostly useless from an exposure standpoint. Exhausting crud outside into some ferns is the best solution for hobby printers. =3
FDM printers are amazing now. Strongly recommend an FDM printer.
Honestly asking. I’ve never owned one. Just seen some of the tsunami of videos for this one.
Max out your 3D printing with FDM, and only if you can't achieve your goals, get a resin printer.
Resin printers, basically, are stereolithographic. They:
- dip the build plate (upside down) into a thin tray of resin
- push it all the way onto onto a screen at the bottom of the tray
- blast that screen with UV through a translucent LCD display that contains a mask image of the current "slice" of the whole plate, enough that the thin layer of resin partly cures
- lift the plate out of the resin so it peels off the screen and the resin replenishes below it
- repeat, with the next slice.
- then the whole model is taken out by hand, washed off, blasted with UV light to completely cure it, and the (more or less inevitable) supports snipped off.
So instead of printing line by line, the entire plate prints layer by layer — a small print takes (approximately) the same time as a full plate.
There are several big differences, notably that it is single-colour, much higher resolution, the various peel/adhesion forces are managed differently, larger parts need to be hollow with a vent so uncured resin drains out, most resin prints are quite brittle, and the whole process is traditionally really rather cytotoxic.
There are eco resins, tough resins, and printers that do a better job of not being chemically evil; this is one.
I've stayed away from it, because it's not the kind of printing I need (for all except one part that I might end up subcontracting) and because it is chemically nastier than b/w darkroom printing, which until now has been about my limit of risk.
The above is a bit of an oversimplification but it covers the main differences I think (happy to have corrections/additional comments)
https://formlabs.com/uk/blog/ultimate-guide-to-stereolithogr...
The part needs to be washed, and then stuck in a UV bath to do a final curing.
Having said that, you get higher precision parts and can print in optically transparent materials.
And then unless you plan only on printing already prepared models you will need to learn how to user slicer software and maybe learn to model things yourself.
It is a product for enthusiasts by nature of how it works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l9xU3_36Xs
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2026/formlabs-form-studio-...
For instance, I wanted to buy a smart device to control my mini-split and it was 160$ on amazon for 1. Well I built 5 for 80$ in a weekend (excluding the 7 days shipping from China).
I'm very much looking for someone convince me not to buy this? Seems like people don't enjoy resin because it's a tad messy and it has a ~10-30 curing process.
Yet all parts from my FDM printer feels cheap and looks like nothing I'd be happy to buy unless I spend HOURS sanding and painting.
The problem isn't so much the process of a successful print as how you deal with a failed one. At that point you've got a vat full of resin with some solid parts stuck to the bottom, so you need to filter and clean the damn thing which means taking it out of whatever containment you've got. And that step you can't use the usual solvent for because it damages the sheet. But you'll have ample time to figure all this out because you'll get loads of failed prints as you figure out how slicing and supporting for resin works: it's different to FDM, some knowledge carries over but not that much.
Focusing on the 10-30 minute curing process ignores the part prep step: SLA is much more reliant on supports than FDM in general, so there will be either rough surfaces hopefully out of sight, or (if it's not a model that orients well) scraping/sanding/filling. And you want to do support separation and get that as clean as possible before curing, while the resin is still a bit soft, but that means it's only partially cured and you need to be PPE'd up.
When I'm doing anything with my resin printer I don't even go into the room without a breathing filter, don't touch anything without gloves. It really is a very different experience to FDM.
The stepup to CNC will allow aluminium and brass parts, but depth will be a challenge. Making anything deeper than a few cm on a desktop CNC is possible but has limitations.
Desktop CNCs are getting very capable and cheap. It’s hard to beat the tolerances and finish quality of a machined part.
What FDM printer are you using?
The feel to the touch and the sound it makes (ex: sliding parts) is definitively another gripe I have.
That's exactly it. That's why the entire influencer campaign exist and almost every influencer is saying the same thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doZ5e4YVdEs
[EDIT] coverage of the printer starts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doZ5e4YVdEs&t=708s
The accuracy was great. They'd hold up. Printing took a while, but generally pretty solid as we scaled from in-house to full lab setup. They're great as resin printers go.
Doesn’t mean they’re not nice machines, I guess.
Resin is extremely toxic and requires a dedicated area and handling and care.
Resin printers are very special type of printers. They are great at some things (tiny intricate details, surface quality). They are absolutely the worst in other ways (soo much faff with post curing). If you need their pros you can’t do much else but suffer the cons. But you should really think through what you want to print before getting one.
Your question is a bit like: “what if my first shovel were an excavator?” Having an excavator is great when you need one. But if you don’t need one it is a complete nightmare compared to other shoveling solutions.
> I don't have the ability to wash and cure
I don’t know what you mean by lacking the ability?
If it is not knowing how, then the simple answer is to buy the wash+cure formlabs sells with the printer and follow the instructions. Best if you watch a video tutorial first before you even buy the printer so you can decide if you have the space, want to bother with resin printing.
That said, if you do spend the extra for this along with the wash/cure and the voc extractor, the demos are really impressive. It seems like this printer is blazing fast, for single color prints it will print basically anything at better resolution than an FDM in <2 hours, whereas FDM could take anywhere from 4-12+ for a similar part with bigger layer lines.
Then cure using a UV LED strip (5m w USB plug ~2 EUR) inside an empty can (another 2-5 EUR) and a solar-powered rotating base [2].
The light from the LEDs is cures as well as powers the base. All four will set you back less than 50 EUR.
[1] https://aliexpress.com/item/1005010131053964.html [2] https://aliexpress.com/item/1005012796313088.html
Stick with a good FDM printer.
We have a UV cure cube, but often I just cure under a $20 amazon desktop UV light.
Theres no new blog or video or news, preorders opened 2 weeks ago
It being an ad does not imply that it's a lie.
In fact historically lieing in an ad could get you lawsuits or FTC complaints. I know creatives at agencies who would have to go through legal review to ensure every factual claim they made was true.
"Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data."
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
The odds that a Hacker News user who has been here literally 19 years and submitted over 4,000 links is some sort of marketing shill seem rather negligible. You could have figured that out yourself based just on the public data.
(1) You don't know that anyone was paid to post. This is entirely an assumption, one that internet users are far too quick to make.
(2) Therefore, it's against HN's rules to make such insinuations in comments. Please review the rules and stick to them: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
(3) Even when an article can justly be called an advert, it doesn't automatically follow that it's off-topic for HN. Most adverts are off topic, of course, because they aren't intellectually interesting. Intellectual interest a.k.a. curiosity is the only criterion for what's on topic here—again, please see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
3D-printed, alcohol-powered, Einstein-Szilard absorption refrigerator https://youtu.be/doZ5e4YVdEs?si=WNiw0_R7efE6M_jM
My gut would say economically/technologically prohibitive but a low throughput table top recycler seems like a great way to reduce my recyclable garbage.
Pretty cool.
What is that? Why is it better?
Why it's better is a little complicated and maybe not all one-way.
Definitely there are a lot of difficulties inherent in the way the lcd type has to move the part for every layer and fight a lot of suction every time, damaging a film that needs to stay optically perfect, frothing up the resin with bubbles yet another source of optical defects.
Maybe the laser machines have their own problems but not having to move the part (or move it much less and in a different less violent way) and not having to physically abuse an optical part has to make some difference.
But FormLabs for this printer and resin have focused on safetey and acquired a certification on their Alpha resins which show low VOCs that should be safe to print in an indoor room with low ventilation.
I still wouldn't, I would add ventilation and wear PPE, it's still going to be releasing some VOCs even if it comes under a tolerable limit. But I do appreciate what seems to be the first ever initiative in 3D printing to address the elephant in the room of VOCs directly at the material level.
That said, I just noticed Costco online has some FDM stuff, which I think is a pretty exciting development, so if I have any money to spend on 3d printing stuff in the near future, I'll probably spend it there. :)
You actually would probably want the wash/cure and VOC extractor upgrades so it's more like 1200$ before it's useful, but if you have the clean room space and ability to handle the toxic resin, functionally resin printing is typically better than fdm for single color prints.
From a professional perspective, this gives you access to a bunch of different materials that open up all kinds of options for prototyping.
You can even prototype your designs at home with FDM and send the final file to a company to do the resin prints.
LOL!
How many months before it develops, on average?