setting up a small 3D printing shop with a M2?

[sprior]

We bought our M2 a couple of months ago just thinking of it as a hobby thing, but I've been hearing that a 3D printing shop is a hot business idea these days. I'm thinking of a part time thing for a family member. Can you really start a viable shop around an M2 or do you need something more serious? Can you start out offering just printing a model the customer supplies or do you need to offer 3D modeling right away? Do you charge for time on the machine or material cost or some other way?

Any other thoughts would be appreciated, this is just in the initial "should this be something we think more about" stage.

[ednisley]

IMO, Shapeways and their ilk have knocked the stuffing out of any possible home-shop 3D printing biz: they have better production processes, a much wider selection of materials, and nearly the same turnaround time. Staples has been making noises about entering the point-of-sale retail end of the biz, which should scare anybody who can't scale their biz beyond any rational level.

You can certainly beat the Shapeways onesie-twosie price, but I'm not sure you can make any money doing it. Plastic costs about 5 cents/gram, so most tchotchkes will cost a buck or two. I'm printing a bracket right now that uses 27 grams of PLA and takes an hour to print; figure minimum wage for the labor, add $1.35 for the plastic, so my cost is about ten bucks and the bare-bones price might be $20.

Shapeways wants $50 for it in white plastic, but the model isn't optimized for their process; I could probably cut the volume in half to get down around $25-ish. That's not much above the DIY price and they produce a better-looking object.

What I do when asked to print something is use the price from Shapeways, at which point interest generally evaporates. Everybody thinks 3D printing should be free: putting a dollar amount on an object gets rid of casual tire-kickers.

That's particularly true when you point out that a randomly chosen model (from, say, Thingiverse) probably won't print correctly and might require several iterations...

Sooooo, I'd say it's a great hobby and a wonderful way to make complex parts & subassemblies for your own business, but going retail probably doesn't make much sense.

But I'm a confessed cynic, so pay me no attention... [grin]

[sprior]

Wow, someone in my woodturning group asked me to print a setup block. It took me about 10 minutes to draw in Fusion 360 and about $1 worth of plastic. I just uploaded that model to Shapeways and they wanted $50 to print it in white string and flexible! At that price my reaction is "you could've just said no."

[ednisley]

You could probably gut the part to get the volume down. Because Shapeways uses laser-sintered powder, the parts have a solid interior and you get charged for all the plastic you can't see. A fused-filament slicer turns the interior into honeycomb and eliminates a bunch of material; a part designed for one process won't be optimal for the other.

But the question remains: can you make a business from designing and printing $1 woodworking setup blocks?

Actually, I think you can make a business out of the design part. Case in point: I know someone who's doing a roaring biz selling custom cookie cutters, but she hates the production end (she's running a pair of Afinias pretty nearly all her waking hours). Good news for her: she's becoming a designer, with production handled by a major supplier.

What's invaluable for me: being able to iterate a design quickly until it fits / works properly: can't do that by mail order!

[Capt. John]

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right."

Quote by Henry Ford, guru of mass production.

Being in business for 31 years and counting, don't be swayed by others with less vision
and have absolutely no plan B. Plan B means you've already planned for defeat.

[jsc]

If you want to give it a go, try makexyz.com or 3dhubs.com. Both are middleman services to connect people with printers to people without. I have not used either.

If you do try either and have a successful client, give us a review!

[DIY3D]

I agree with Capt. John, there are plenty of opportunities. Your calendar will not immediately overflow assignments. Perhaps you can combine 3D printing-related issues. You might think of giving workshops. Education in schools, perhaps selling parts, design or re-design stuff.

I see several people in my area who deal with this, The goal should not be to try to beat Shapeway or any other organization, but believe in it, share your enthusiasm and everything will be OK

Kind regards,
Marco