Increasing Profit from Designs

[Choog]

Hi All
I could use some advice for my situation;

I have found a somewhat high demand niche of custom models. The problem is that they really can't be sold for more than $15-20. I was amazed to find out that I will be charged about $30 to print them. I have looked into removing as much material as possible.
Are there any other options to get these printed for cheaper....I was hoping to print for less than $10...pipe dream?

Thanks
Choog

[Choog]

Just to clarify, I don't have a printer so I am referencing the larger print companies.

[awerby]

If the demand is for custom models at less than the price they cost to print, I wouldn't call that "high demand". Perhaps if you bought your own printer you could make the prints cheaper, but that doesn't really sound like a very good investment of your money, let alone your time.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[LambdaFF]

I agree with the above with one caveat.

If they are custom models but you make more than a few of each for each customer, then you can try to 3D print moulds for rotocasting. That way you make them fast and cheap but with a larger initial investment.

If you mean to do one-offs continuously... I'm afraid you will hurt yourself if you try to be more competitive than industrial setups like shapeways...

[Choog]

Thanks for the suggestions. The demand is high, however the product cost is low. Even with high demand, you can't increase cost 4x what else is out there just to turn a profit. That's my dilemma. Purchasing a printer would help but I wouldn't get out of the red for a while.
I don't know anything about rotocasting but it sounds promising....could you explain a little bit more.

[LambdaFF]

You could... I don't know... search it ? On this board ?

It is a bit like injection moulding. Only, you don't do it at high temp and you don't do it under pressure. So you use a mould, a low temp setting resin and a jig that rotates the mould to create centrifugal pressure that makes sure the resin is in contact with all parts of the mould.

With experience you can get to make parts that are just thin shells : light and unexpensive in material.

http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...ht=rotocasting

[Choog]

See how much easier that was than searching.
Just kidding. Thanks so much for the info. I'll look into it, but that is probably way over my head.

[Lafras]

If the models are not to big, the cheapest way to produce them would be with desktop injection moulding ( www.many-maker.com ) this will require an initial investment but the payback at a price difference of $10 will only be about 80 models.

[Choog]

Thanks Lafras
I have been looking into that. My original plan was to have everything 3d printed until my product line switched and now it seems I'm dealing with more bulk items-new field for me

[Geoff]

If the models are not to big, the cheapest way to produce them would be with desktop injection moulding ( www.many-maker.com ) this will require an initial investment but the payback at a price difference of $10 will only be about 80 models.

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