3 ms·

No one ever mentions price in these articles. I just tried to have a tablet case 3d printed from ponoko, but the quote was ~$800. 3d printing today is basical

by learc83 15y ago

No one ever mentions price in these articles. I just tried to have a tablet case 3d printed from ponoko, but the quote was ~$800. 3d printing today is basically useless for anything larger than jewelry for the average hacker/maker. Hopefully that changes soon.

forrestthewoods 15y ago
"3d printing today is basically useless for anything larger than jewelry" That's not true at all. A single print is expensive, but costs go way day when you mass produce (defined as ~1000). My company sells 9 inch statues for $70 that are 3d printed. https://store.uberent.com/images/products/assassin.jpg https://store.uberent.com/images/products/assassin.jpg https://store.uberent.com/images/products/pit_girl.jpg https://store.uberent.com/images/products/pit_girl.jpg https://store.uberent.com/images/products/assault.jpg https://store.uberent.com/images/products/assault.jpg And here's another statue by the same company (Ownage) I found randomly. http://paulnelson.cghub.com/files/Image/037001-038000/37397/332_stream.jpg http://paulnelson.cghub.com/files/Image/037001-038000/37397/...
- learc83 15y ago
  > for the average hacker/maker Sure there are use cases, but most of us don't need to print 1000 of something. I run a retail automation business and I was thinking of using 3d printing for the tablet enclosure. My business is really too specialized to need 1000 printed (then entire US market is around 10,000), so we decided to go with laser cut acrylic and using a strip heater to bend it into shape. Total cost about $20 per enclosure. I was shocked when I saw the price tag, Ponoko seems to advertise direct to the diy consumer, so I was thinking much cheaper. I just can't see how many people are going to spend $500+ to get something 3d printed. Btw those statues are awesome!
  - forrestthewoods 15y ago
    The company I believe will do individual statues as cheap as $200 these days. The price keeps dropping. World of Wacraft characters can be printed by FigurePrints for $130 full body or $70 bust. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw82KSzvkAs&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw82KSzvkAs&feature=playe... Quality is much lower, but it's still cool as hell.
simcop2387 15y ago
Places like that do tend to over price things for what some people want because of the cost of first setting up some of the runs they do. Depending on your resolution requirements doing it with a reprap style plastic printer could cost you as little as a few dollars for the plastic for an iPad case. Alone that'll be not very smooth but an acetone brushing/bath can smooth it out fairly well.
- learc83 15y ago
  Any companies you can recommend? Or where you thinking more DIY build/buy the printer yourself?
  - simcop2387 15y ago
    Shapeways doesn't seem to be too bad for most things, and have a wide range of materials. But i was mostly talking about the DIY reprap style printers. Makerbot[1] and Ultimaker[2] are great places to start there if you can't or don't want to source all the parts yourself to build a reprap/repstrap. Eventually when the kickstarter prizes are all taken care of brook drum will be selling Printrbot kits which from what he's said will be much more affordable but also a much simpler looking printer. I haven't been able to play with one to see the quality that they'll do but I'm very hopeful for when mine comes in from the kickstarter he did. [1] http://www.makerbot.com/ http://www.makerbot.com/ [2] http://blog.ultimaker.com/ http://blog.ultimaker.com/ [3] http://printrbot.com/ http://printrbot.com/

by learc83 15y ago

forrestthewoods 15y ago

"3d printing today is basically useless for anything larger than jewelry" That's not true at all. A single print is expensive, but costs go way day when you mass produce (defined as ~1000). My company sells 9 inch statues for $70 that are 3d printed. https://store.uberent.com/images/products/assassin.jpg https://store.uberent.com/images/products/assassin.jpg https://store.uberent.com/images/products/pit_girl.jpg https://store.uberent.com/images/products/pit_girl.jpg https://store.uberent.com/images/products/assault.jpg https://store.uberent.com/images/products/assault.jpg And here's another statue by the same company (Ownage) I found randomly. http://paulnelson.cghub.com/files/Image/037001-038000/37397/332_stream.jpg http://paulnelson.cghub.com/files/Image/037001-038000/37397/...

learc83 15y ago
> for the average hacker/maker Sure there are use cases, but most of us don't need to print 1000 of something. I run a retail automation business and I was thinking of using 3d printing for the tablet enclosure. My business is really too specialized to need 1000 printed (then entire US market is around 10,000), so we decided to go with laser cut acrylic and using a strip heater to bend it into shape. Total cost about $20 per enclosure. I was shocked when I saw the price tag, Ponoko seems to advertise direct to the diy consumer, so I was thinking much cheaper. I just can't see how many people are going to spend $500+ to get something 3d printed. Btw those statues are awesome!
- forrestthewoods 15y ago
  The company I believe will do individual statues as cheap as $200 these days. The price keeps dropping. World of Wacraft characters can be printed by FigurePrints for $130 full body or $70 bust. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw82KSzvkAs&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw82KSzvkAs&feature=playe... Quality is much lower, but it's still cool as hell.

simcop2387 15y ago

Places like that do tend to over price things for what some people want because of the cost of first setting up some of the runs they do. Depending on your resolution requirements doing it with a reprap style plastic printer could cost you as little as a few dollars for the plastic for an iPad case. Alone that'll be not very smooth but an acetone brushing/bath can smooth it out fairly well.

learc83 15y ago
Any companies you can recommend? Or where you thinking more DIY build/buy the printer yourself?
- simcop2387 15y ago
  Shapeways doesn't seem to be too bad for most things, and have a wide range of materials. But i was mostly talking about the DIY reprap style printers. Makerbot[1] and Ultimaker[2] are great places to start there if you can't or don't want to source all the parts yourself to build a reprap/repstrap. Eventually when the kickstarter prizes are all taken care of brook drum will be selling Printrbot kits which from what he's said will be much more affordable but also a much simpler looking printer. I haven't been able to play with one to see the quality that they'll do but I'm very hopeful for when mine comes in from the kickstarter he did. [1] http://www.makerbot.com/ http://www.makerbot.com/ [2] http://blog.ultimaker.com/ http://blog.ultimaker.com/ [3] http://printrbot.com/ http://printrbot.com/