Formlabs Form 3 3D printer available, potentially cheap

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#1

Hi All,

Haven’t been down to the space in a very long time…planning to come down soon!

The startup I’ve been working for near Kings Cross has gone into administration this week and we’ve all been made redundant…

Potential silver lining for someone is that they had a Formlabs Form 3 + accessories which the administrators are taking offers on. It was regularly used but is in good nick.

I have no idea if any other parties are interested in it, but the rest of the offered equipment is all science lab equipment so the printer might go unnoticed on the list. I thought the space (or somebody?) might be interested in making a low-ball offer for it? They may accept any offer!

Bids need to be in by this coming Weds 3rd May at 5 pm. Let me know if any interest and I can get you more info on how to bid.

Cheers,

Barry
p.s Thought there was a discourse section for this type of thing - sorry if I’ve posted in the wrong place…

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#2

Morning Barry, sorry to here about the redundancy but thanks for posting this.

We are in the midsts of setting up our resin printer at the moment and there might be enough room to squeeze a second unit in the space. Can you send over any more details of the accessories there is with it? Is it all being bundled together for the bid I’m guessing or could we pick af few off the bits and pieces? It would be good to have extra resin for instance if the self life is ok on it.

#3

Hi Sam,

Thank you.

All that is listed on the auction pdf doc is:

  • Form Labs 3 industrial-quality resin 3D printer
  • Form Labs Form 3 Resin Tank V2.1

However, there is a wash station and a cure station, and a cupboard with several of recently purchased resin. There were also several resin tanks as we had been using a tank per material type. I don’t know if these are bundled or not.

I can send you the email address of the guy dealing with it on a private message, as not sure I should post on this thread.

Thanks,

Barry

#4

If anyone else is interested, let me know!

#5

Ok that sounds good @directors @3dtechs. Is there a guide for the upper limit we could bid on this? Due to the short notice this might need to get approved pretty quickly and will be over the monthly spend of the area.

#6

Whoa, I might be interested in this for myself. You got some more details as to how to bid on the auction?

#7

@Calin u wanna do a pledge quickly I’ll drop in 50£ for it if we get it for the space maybe other people are interested.

#8

Hey people, Formlabs printer are not cheap to run, if you don’t use to make money they don’t really worth it in my opinion, consumables are expesive, resin is expensive, software is very limiting…

#9

I’m going to phone the people running the auction tomorrow morning, to see if I can get clarity on what’s included, and whether it’s a single bid that they accept or whether they tell you if someone has outbid you.

@father @Calin can you let me know if you are going to do a pledge? I would be happy to add to this if it’s for the space.

@directors @3dtechs @scday94 Is this something that the space wants?

#10

Sounds like mixed reviews! I Would need to hear more from @3dtechs about it and costs…

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#11

So just had a look at this a bit closer. It would be very expensive to run, approx £120 per litre compared to £20-25 for the printer we have for proprietary resin. There are 3rd party resins you can use but I don’t know what the success rates and prices for these are. It is also slow compared to the one we have, it uses a laser in a similar way to a FDM printer tracing the entire shape rather than exposing a whole layer all at once. This can give better surface quality and accuracy though so its not strictly worse. Given that we still have yet to set up the first resin printer we may have to give this a miss.

All being said its a really cool printer. They have resins for making jewellery casting moulds and other specialist uses. If we low ball and get it, the other accessories alone might be worth the money we pay.

#12

And the vat are expensive too, there is a reason why so many end up on the used market…

#13

It’s a different kind of machine. It’s definitely a step up in consumables but there’s a reason its often the go to choice for businesses. A buddy of mine uses it in the medical device field to print ceramics.

I would happily chip in 50 quid for the fund drive.

#14

Hi again,

I managed to speak with the auction people this afternoon. It’s a "Best & Final offer " auction, so you just send them one bid and they accept the highest offer.

I’ve spoken to a former colleague just now who is going to place a bid for (I think) £500+, so not going to be a super low cost to get it, regardless of ongoing costs.
.
@asander1 s @scday94 sounds like this might be a “no” for the space ?

@calin @father @Kyle any further interest in it at that price do you think?

#15

I was a bit too biased to say it’s not good for the space but good for me, but I agree it would be quite the hassle for the markespace because of the proprietary resins and expensive repairs/replacements.

I can’t outbid your colleague (and wouldn’t really want to). I was hoping to get it for the price of the photon (350 GBP) if by some miracle no one else bids :smiley:

#16

ok, cool. If no one at all bids I will probably be able to find out, and at that point it may still be available. Will keep you posted!

#17

As I understand your feelings we have to remember that we are acting on the behalf of the community, £200 might not be much for some and for others it’s their entire monthly salary. It’s important, in my opinion, to enable especially this members making sure we have tools that are cheap to run as well as useful.

#18

Yeah, that’s why I was reluctant to suggest this for the space. The resins are the real cost driver on this. The Anycubic Photon can use 25£ per litre resins but formlabs is more like 150£ per litre.

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