Desktop 3D printer

[RAILCAT]

This 3D printer seems as though it may be a move
towards doing the printing at home. It uses a much different
method of printing than Shapeways use.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/formlabs/form-1-an-affordable-professional-3d-printer

[Lemosteam]

RAILCAT, Thanks for the heads up!

Innovative way to get funds for a startup!!

Nice machine too.  $2750 gets you one, VERY impressive.  This is just like the large vat stereolithogarphy machines, only the printing is inverted.  No safety spec sheet on the material...  .001" layer capability, pretty good resolution. 

These tools, no matter how small the resolution, will always pixellate curved surfaces.  (EDIT- BTW I'm NOT bashing the STL process, just staiing the facts and I would LOVE to have one of these in my basement!)

4.9"L x 4.9"W x 6.5"H capability, not quite long enough for some long boilers...

The secret is to print all curves in the horizontal plane (except complex surface curvature of course).  The surface quality might be OK if one were to print a shell with the boiler (hood) axis vertical and leaving off as much detail as posiible to be superdetailed with separate bits...

Suggest a visit to their site too... http://formlabs.com/

[RAILCAT]

Does not require the wax type support structure that Shapeways have.
Supports are made from same material as the finished article so clean
up for finishing is minimal.

[Scottl]

It looks very interesting, thanks for the link.

[Day One]

Looks like a cool tool to have in the shop.

I'm not too familiar with the different processes and their resolution. Anyone know how this compares to a FUD part from shapeways?

[Mark W]

I think FUD still has the upper hand in detail.  Nonetheless, I'll be following this with great interest.

For comparison:
From the Form1 Website- The "Smooth" curves are pretty good on some areas, but in most they seem comparable to the rough edge around the quarter.  Especially on the left cage.


CG N Scale Stagecoach (FUD)- See how there's virtually no stepping around the wheels, which are much less diameter than the bird cage.


And the newly released Dry Bulk Trailer (FUD)- Just for show

[C855B]

I think FUD still has the upper hand in detail. ...

Yes. While this new machine is a tremendous stride forward in price/performance, especially versus the extruders like Makerbot, it still doesn't have quite the resolution we need. Formlabs doesn't specify a "voxel" (volume pixel) like the big boys do, which is a misleading way to have everybody assume that the "0.001 layer" is the resolution - it's not. The nearest spec is "minimum feature size", which they say is 0.012". I will extrapolate that to guess that the voxel is ~0.006". By comparison, FUD is 0.004", and pro machines like the Objet30 are good for 0.0015".

To their credit, with the Formlabs offering, we are SO CLOSE. I really like what I see, and I'll bet their next generation machine will break the barrier.