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Comment by heriC | Hacker News Reader

I disagree. The proprietary resins used in printers like formlabs are expensive. The plastic items produced in this manner often lack structural integrity, and they are always small in the lower printer price ranges. So if you want figurines, formlabs is maybe the way to go, but that's about it.

Most of the fused deposition printers (like the MendelMax, AO-100, reprap Prusa (2 and 3) can print in more materials (ABS, PLA, even Polycarbonate), and produce larger functional parts than things like FormLabs. The main issue is the striping, which is less "pretty."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZwjvZ79iYo

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I don't think striping is the main issue - It's the lack of repeatability. Because of patents on things like heated build chambers, it's hard to get consistent, dimensional parts off hobby machines. If you have access to one of the higher priced Stratasys systems, I agree that FDM is competitive.

Formlabs technology works much better at the low prices. While their resins are proprietary, when you factor in the cost of wasted plastic (and time) due to failed print jobs, it's not bad.

And Formlabs, and stereolithography based systems generally, have many benefits beyond figurines. Consumer electronics shells are much better suited to that format. As are most designs that have undercuts or voided internal geometries. They can also produce parts in a variety of materials, e.g. wax for jewelry castings.

I'm all for the experimentation and low cost machines, but they're far closer to toy than tool.

It depends what you are doing. Agreed, tuning does add work and makes repeatability more of a challenge, but that comes with tradeoffs--the ability to print in more mediums (chocolate!).

I'd be uncomfortable using formlabs type resin parts for anything with load or wear, using them within machines, joints for a table, replacements for dishwasher parts, etc. I can't print anything of size with formlabs type printers. If I want to make a quadcopter body, or a modern-art lamp, I'm SOL. You have valid points--just are valuing use-cases differently than I do.

So Formlabs wouldn't be good for toys then? What's the best alternative for that then? The Replicator 2?

Well, above 1k, and if you don't want a toy, you might be better off with a CNC... Get http://www.amazon.com/Rockler-Click-N-Carve-Carving-Machine-... or something. Current 1.3k is a pretty sick price btw.

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