Ok, following up on this thread again because I’ve been doing so much with SLA printing recently.
I when ahead and purchased the Form 3 along with the Wash station and Cure station. I also purchased 20L of 99% IPA and two different Form Labs resins (clear and black) with dedicated tanks.
Overall, I have to say that you can’t even begin to compare equivalence of Form 3 to Photon S, they are not the same… I’ve now gotten Form 3 to the point where I have the same print quality as Shapeways and Xometry. The particular resins that I’m using have different hardnesses, etc but the quality is quite amazing.
In the beginning I wasn’t 100% on board but the keys are:
- You need to transfer the print to the wash station as fast as possible: cannot leave a print sit for a few hours with liquid resin on it. Reason is that the resin turns to a gel and gums up the surfaces of the print
- highly recommended to pitch any flat surfaces with the supports, this prevents excess resin from collecting on the surfaces
- Even though it uses more resin, use the full raft, it is vastly, significantly, easier to remove from the build plate.
- wash is super critical, cannot be skipped
- Curing is still optional but I like it because it removes all residues from the parts, both IPA and Resin, makes hadeling the parts afterward more enjoyable
The smell with Form 3 resins is also very tolerable. I have them in my office with normal HVAC and don’t notice the smell at all.
This is all to say I’m pretty happy with the Form 3 purchase and won’t be using the Photon any more.