3 ms·

>We were having the local college print things for us for $150/pop. Care to expand on this? I've been playing with the idea of buying a couple very nice 3D pri

>We were having the local college print things for us for $150/pop. Care to expand on this? I've been playing with the idea of buying a couple very nice 3D printers and starting a 3D printing company. I think a lot of people have been burned by the consumer-level printers or simply need bigger or higher quality prints. What are you guys printing? Do you feel $150 is a fair price? What is the turn around time? What materials? Does that include delivery? My gut feeling is a local company with local delivery and quick turn-around could be more tempting that going with one of the web-based providers who take days.

bradfa 12y ago
There's already a few established companies in the "cloud" 3d printer market, even 3D Systems (the 3d printer manufacturer) participates with their Quickparts brand (http://www.quickparts.com/LowVolumePrototypes.aspx http://www.quickparts.com/LowVolumePrototypes.aspx). Just go get some quotes and see if you can make a business case doing this type of thing better in some way. Being cheaper isn't going to win you a ton of business, imho. Being faster or better or more personal, or providing unique materials may win you quite a lot of more niche business, though. For instance, for low volume injection molding, Proto Labs are hard to beat as they will do a fully automated quote and give you flow analysis for parts you upload within an hour or two (usually this takes days). Your business would need to separate itself from the other existing 3d printer providers in order to have good success.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
bluedino 12y ago
We actually just print a handle of sorts with a small enclosure for a circuit board. We were sending out prototypes to be printed, and as you see the cost was fairly significant, so engineering decided to buy their own printer and do it in house, which they haven't had any real luck doing so far.
brudgers 12y ago
Starting a 3D printing company might be viable. Buying very nice printers makes it less so unless you have customers lined up who demand it and will sign long term agreements. Buying a fleet of cheap printers [one or two at a time based on demand] makes more sense because the business model is renting and there's a lot more of a market for renting a 3d printer at $5/hour than at $30/hour. More printers means more peak capacity.

bradfa 12y ago

There's already a few established companies in the "cloud" 3d printer market, even 3D Systems (the 3d printer manufacturer) participates with their Quickparts brand (http://www.quickparts.com/LowVolumePrototypes.aspx http://www.quickparts.com/LowVolumePrototypes.aspx). Just go get some quotes and see if you can make a business case doing this type of thing better in some way. Being cheaper isn't going to win you a ton of business, imho. Being faster or better or more personal, or providing unique materials may win you quite a lot of more niche business, though. For instance, for low volume injection molding, Proto Labs are hard to beat as they will do a fully automated quote and give you flow analysis for parts you upload within an hour or two (usually this takes days). Your business would need to separate itself from the other existing 3d printer providers in order to have good success.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

bluedino 12y ago

We actually just print a handle of sorts with a small enclosure for a circuit board. We were sending out prototypes to be printed, and as you see the cost was fairly significant, so engineering decided to buy their own printer and do it in house, which they haven't had any real luck doing so far.

brudgers 12y ago

Starting a 3D printing company might be viable. Buying very nice printers makes it less so unless you have customers lined up who demand it and will sign long term agreements. Buying a fleet of cheap printers [one or two at a time based on demand] makes more sense because the business model is renting and there's a lot more of a market for renting a 3d printer at $5/hour than at $30/hour. More printers means more peak capacity.