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.
We have a UV cure cube, but often I just cure under a $20 amazon desktop UV light.
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
Also the bath is covered with a lid.
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.
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.
Stick with a good FDM printer.
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.
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.
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.
(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.
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...
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.
This isn't an unsolvable problem. It takes probably less than $100K (and probably less than $50K) in NRE to make a truly open-source monochrome LCD and driver chip. This is on the order of a plastic injection mold.
But everybody simply whines rather than banding together, coughing up the CASH, and actually FIXING the problem once and for all.
Sadly, this seems to be standard operating procedure in the world of open source.
Even now, there is nothing stopping you from going to the upstream LCD manufacturer and saying "Hi, Mr. LCD manufacturer. Here is a different driver chip, could you please take that nice LCD and use it with it?"
It all just takes cash. And not even a lot by manufacturing standards.
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.
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.
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.
If you've got any pics?
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
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.
(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 $1000 together.)
I just want it to print and not study chemistry & physics before doing anything. Formlabs seems to be able to deliver that.
My gut would say economically/technologically prohibitive but a low throughput table top recycler seems like a great way to reduce my recyclable garbage.
From a professional perspective, this gives you access to a bunch of different materials that open up all kinds of options for prototyping.
You can even prototype your designs at home with FDM and send the final file to a company to do the resin prints.
How many months before it develops, on average?
LOL!
You actually would probably want the wash/cure and VOC extractor upgrades so it's more like 1200$ 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.
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. :)
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.
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.
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.
Pretty cool.
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2026/formlabs-form-studio-...
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 $30.
Without a garage/outdoor/lab work-space people shouldn't buy stinky resin printers. =3
FWIW I run the printer in a downstairs bathroom with its own extractor fan and cure in the sun.
Always protect your skin, eyes, and lungs... even when the SDS/MSDS doesn't explicitly warn of currently known possible exposure hazards.
In general, treat it the same as paint with a booth/tent, exhaust fan, and paper-lined drip pan for when(not if) the membrane perforates. If the object is small, one could also use 100% infill so it may be cleaned properly (coating prints in a automotive UV-resistant clear acrylic spray paint a few weeks later prevents yellowing, and reduces handling risks.)
Around 40% of people will get cancer in their lifetimes, and most will never know. In general, avoiding physical contact with organic solvents is a good idea, and be pleasantly surprised if it turns out to be an overly cautious decision. =3
The bad liquid-resin odor people detect is often unrelated to VOC levels, which is why activated-charcoal filters are mostly useless from an exposure standpoint. Exhausting crud outside into some ferns is the best solution for hobby printers. =3
For instance, I wanted to buy a smart device to control my mini-split and it was 160$ 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.
Desktop CNCs are getting very capable and cheap. It’s hard to beat the tolerances and finish quality of a machined part.
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.
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.
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.
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.
That's exactly it. That's why the entire influencer campaign exist and almost every influencer is saying the same thing.
FDM printers are amazing now. Strongly recommend an FDM printer.
So “[y]ou don't want a resin printer” may be true for you, or for most users, but certainly not true for everyone. It’s a question of personal preference.
It's fine to prefer resin. Go enjoy it. But the idea that it's comparable to fdm printing in convenience is just not true.
Max out your 3D printing with FDM, and only if you can't achieve your goals, get a resin printer.
Not everyone has the luxury of affording space for multiple ecosystems. Not everyone owns a house. Some live in small urban apartments and have to count every m² of shelf space. Printers, supplies and spare parts all add up. So the decision may be between one printer or nothing, and I can see why one might choose to go SLA first if they know exactly what they want up front.
It's also way more expensive. My advice stands for nearly every case. I'm sure there's a handful of people out there who have a small apt and they want to dedicate a lot of space to their resin setup. I just don't think there are very many at all.
Honestly asking. I’ve never owned one. Just seen some of the tsunami of videos for this one.
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 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.
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 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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doZ5e4YVdEs
[EDIT] coverage of the printer starts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doZ5e4YVdEs&t=708s
Doesn’t mean they’re not nice machines, I guess.