It's a lot like making your own circuit boards vs ordering silkscreened boards. You can pay a couple of bucks and hours to get a single working board. Or, you

It's a lot like making your own circuit boards vs ordering silkscreened boards. You can pay a couple of bucks and hours to get a single working board. Or, you can pay pennies per board, but you have to get lots of them. The beauty of a die is you can put it in a big press and stamp out a million of whatever. it's fast too. Seconds per item. With a 3d printer you have to wait, possibly a day, for a single print to complete. I think, in the short term, your die maker should worry about your dad getting a fancy pants cnc machine to make his own dies.