Formlabs Has a 3D Printer for Normies

Fourteen boxes are piled in front of my desk, stacked around me like a cardboard fort. Inside one is a Form Studio 1, the new, affordable, consumer-focused 3D printer Formlabs just announced.

David Lakatos, chief product officer at the 3D printer manufacturer, assured me that the Form Studio 1 has a very economical size. “It doesn't take a lot of space,” Lakatos said. “If you have a desk, then I think you should be good to go.” I have a desk. It’s covered in boxes sent by his company.

Formlabs is one of the biggest 3D printer producers, with nearly 200,000 printers in service. The company’s customers are primarily professional businesses, like assembly shops or dentists, able to shell out $2,500 or more for a printer. (Its last affordable printer was $2,300.)

But the Form Studio 1 is Formlabs’ first consumer-oriented device. It prints with SLA (stereolithography) resins—a common 3D printing material that hardens into solid plastic when exposed to ultraviolet light—and can use Formlabs-branded products or third-party resins. It costs $699 and is now on sale; individual resin bottles start at $29.

The Studio 1 takes up roughly the same space as a minifridge. You’ll also likely need a wash unit, sold separately for $199 with a similar footprint (it removes uncured liquid resin from the surface of models). Then you’ll need room for all the tools and resin cartridges. Getting all that stuff can pile up. Or at least it did when Formlabs sent more than a dozen boxes to the WIRED office for testing. Your pileage may vary.