Hacker News

points by y1n0 1 day ago | 0 comments

OMG $79 more! That ruins everything!

You need to buy a tank anyway, which is $50 or so — that works with their new Alpha resins. The slightly more expensive tank is necessary only for their engineering-grade resins (only a couple are certified for the Studio 1 so far) and 'OMM' (Open Material Mode), which as mentioned above, comes out of the box on the Studio 1.

(Not replying to you directly, but generally to this thread)

[–] zimpenfish 21 hours ago

$79 per consumable tank, yes, which is rated for 75000 layers (according to [0]) which is "approximately 190 prints with an average height of 39 mm at a layer height of 100 µm" - not that long if you're printing regularly.

In contrast, I can get 6 FEP sheets for my Mars 2 Pro for $21 which don't appear to have any official lifetimes but generic internet advice says "40-50 prints" on the low side. That'd be 240 prints for $21 compared with 190 prints for $79.

[0] https://www.igo3d.com/en/formlabs-form-studio-1-resin-tank-p...

[–] 650REDHAIR 1 day ago

$79 per tank.

Along with some issues with the screen and the non-pro resins.

It’s anti-consumer.

They want to be the HP/Bambu of resin printers.

[–] roboror 16 hours ago

You can use any filament with Bambu printers

[–] onion2k 1 day ago

I'm not suggesting Formlabs would do this, but advertising the $79 add-on and then making very few of them available would be a way for a manufacturer to look open while actually not supporting openness.

[–] avianlyric 1 day ago

The $79 addon is also needed to use all of Formlabs existing engineering grade resins, which are more expensive than the Alpha resins. The engineering grade Tough 1500 is already validated on the Studio 1, and requires the $79 tank, plus is a major selling point of this printer.

There no reason for FormLabs to limit supply of the $79 tanks, it would also limit their ability to sell their more expensive resins to Studio 1 customers, and also removes a clear pathway to get people to upgrade to their more expensive machines, capable of working with their even more complex, and expensive, engineering resins.

[–] bb88 1 day ago

Isn't that the Prusa model? IIRC Prusa would release something, and then force you to get on a waitlist.

I'm not saying I hate Prusa here, I'm saying that limited availability is a common practice to drive hype.

[–] geerlingguy 1 day ago

I don't even think they're driving hype, they just have a problem common in the hardware world, they are far too optimistic in their shipping timeline.

Versus a company like Bambu who seems to ramp up production now, in advance of selling the product.