Giving the Formlabs Plus One printer a test drive.

[JoeD]

One of our employees picked up this beauty and brought it in for us to check out.  We are looking at the technology for some interesting projects moving forward.  Anyway, the printer takes a bit of getting used to, but once Steve Ward became one with the software we started seeing some amazing results.  Note the angle of the part...when flat the resolution was not as good.  There's a second step involving some time under a UV lamp to post cure but am expecting that a light coat of primer and you can have a part that should look pretty amazing. 

Joe
MTL

[Mark5]

Interesting that you need to have it come out at an angle for better resolution.

Thanks for sharing! 

[railnerd]

My friend Robert Bowdidge has a Form1 as well.

He's an HO guy modeling SP in the 1920s-1930s, and here are some of his recent projects from his blog:

http://vasonabranch.blogspot.com/2015/02/printing-freight-car-hart-convertible.html
http://vasonabranch.blogspot.com/2014/09/printing-freight-car-southern-pacific.html

-Dave

[C855B]

That's amazing. Completely lacks the fuzziness that's such a problem with Shapeways' FUD.

I clearly need to start preparing the CFO that one of these or something like it is in our future.

[Jesse6669]

Looking good!  I used to get RP done by a company called Fineline Prototyping and working with their techs we determined to do all my prints at a 45-degree angle like this to avoid "stepping" and smooth out the print. 

[Chris333]

Fineline   $$$$$$   

[JoeD]

Here it is with a coat of paint.  It broke attempting to cut it off the runner...again, we consulted the manual and they note triming the parts before you expose the print to UV light.     Looks great.

Joe

[peteski]

That is very impressive Joe!  What did you use for the print file?  Is it a CAD file of one of your existing trucks?

Does this printer use wax for support of overhanging areas of the printed item, or is this one of the printers which prints in a pool of liquid UV-hardened resin?

Why is there something that looks like a spilled pool of hardened resin at the base of the printed item?

Couldn't the printed supports be made thinner to minimize chances of breakage of the printed part?

[JoeD]

Its a file from one of our trucks we pulled up.  Yes, its a liquid polymer in a tray.  Interesting process, the UV is under the clear tray and it prints a layer and the platen comes down and attaches to the part, pulls it up and then comes back down to have the next layer printed and attached.  This is why you print on an angle, to cut down on surface tention as the layer is picked up.  The tray is only good for processing about  two pints?quarts? of material before it has to be replaced ($150.00) each.  They advise you to put your parts in different locations to extend the life of the tray.     The base depth can be controlled but only about half the thickness we used...and it's of the same material you are printing in.  Once the part is finished you soak it in Alcohol for a bit to clear off the unexposed material and then post cure in UV light.  http://formlabs.com/en/?gclid=CLzK-Mep_sMCFVFhfgodpT8Aow
Interesting, the shape of the base and the supports are an automatic setting you can adujst...ie move around the support points etc.  It's designed so you can pry it off the metal platen without damaging the part or the metal interface.   pretty clever.

[bbussey]

UV light is the same method used to cure PerFactory parts, which also render at a higher resolution than the ProJet3000, and also yield better results when built on an angle.

[peteski]

So, this is different printing technology than what is used for Shapeways FUD process.  Not using any wax for support and having the part printed pretty much in a liquid (or semi-liquid) layers also makes the surface smoother.  Nice!

[JoeD]

I actually brought the piece home to look it over more and compare it to other Rp things we jobbed out and this sinks them all.  Mark4 designs was as good or better in many respects, but for a $3,800 machine, the output is amazing.  Tomorrow I want to give it a go and generate the shell of the Horse Car and see how that works out.  I suspect because of the long smooth surfaces the resolution will become more evident.  If nothing else, being able to generate more detailed patterns for molding makes this process a home run.  I have friends who render military and fantasy figures using these machines and they boasted very little clean up going to mold.  One of the other things I want to try are figures in N scale.  If you ever visit some of the model ship sites that sepcialize in 1/350 stuff you see a number of companies starting to offer flats of figures that look very good considering the scale...I have a few of the 1/144 figs and you can count buttons on the jackets.  I would think going a bit smaller to 1/160 would not degrade the quality of the figures.  May need to purchase that STL file of the Hudson Hornet and try that out 


These are 1/350 scale and poses like this in N scale would make for great industrial area modules. 

Joe

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I think the ability to get more variety in figures easily is one of the things that most excites me about these technologies. They're something that really lend themselves to it, and the figure offerings are really weak (and expensive).

This is great news!

[Dave V]

Absolutely!

And this really opens up possibilities for those of us doing esoteric stuff...  Good luck finding N scale figures and vehicles appropriate for the Edwardian era.  This could change all that!

[JoeD]

I've been talking with a few companies who make these kind of figures and they are willing to consider doing short runs in N scale....simple scaling operation for them. 

Joe