Hi all,
1st post here- I moved over from the FSL3d google groups because I'm just tired of the heavy handed moderation there, and was looking for a forum that we can speak more freely of the pros & cons of this particular printer. I have this now, and I've sent it back, lived through the PDMS vat days, constructed my own custom PDMS vat, and a custom "supervat" (which wasn't all that super for me). That said, at this point with the new diode, their most recent super vat, and minor mods, my machine is cranking out pretty reliable, high res parts. It still has shortcoming with filling in some holes and making vertical cylinders into an elliptical (rather than round) profile, and I share the opinion of some other users here that it ended up being a beta for their other smaller-envelope machines, which I expect are improved. I bought this partly due to the large build platform, but find that it still struggles a bit with accuracy at that scale. I also think that FSL has essentially given up development or support at this point, so I'm happy to see some others picking up the ball. Hopefully it will turn into something.
In fairness to FSL, the improvements since I bought it (and invested in upgrades that arguably could have been "recalls" from FSL instead of "upgrades" to bring it to acceptable performance). have been significant- at this point I've gotten my money's worth, but because of the censorship and bias (and lack of activity for that matter) at the company group, I find myself over here relieved to be speaking much more freely. Some good news: The tree supports work well and though you regularly have to customize the system and know what you're doing- they are pretty advanced form a software standpoint. I only wish they would adapt to the scale & details of the geometry a bit better. The supervat has been working great for me. If I could adjust my Z I could make it print even faster- and it's pretty fast.
I haven't tried to print anything particularly huge lately, but it does a pretty good job on the small stuff- except that it fills in holes. If you're printing round things, arrange them so their axis is perpendicular to the build plate if you want to keep them round.
Finally, I'm actually pretty happy that I can reliably print wall thicknesses of .02" and have them come out looking pretty good! I'm using their low-shrink red resin now, but eager to try out some water soluable. Anyway, Looks like this is where I'll be getting my support moving forward, so hope to see more of everyone around here.
Thanks!
-k