making money from 3d printing?

[Haswell]

Well I'm buying a printer. I have people lined up who want to buy. Hopefully I can pay this off in 6 months. Should be awesome.

[Steven]

This issue is ironic because it is only a matter of time when something falls into your lap that will change the way you might appreciate your own printer. I was like you, what applications could it serve and I'll take you on a different angle as to it's invaluable possibilities. If you are hung up on it's aesthetic characteristics or visually pleasing aspects then perhaps you could consider a more useful approach. I get the hobbyist likening his/her approach to being along the lines of jewelry, toys, etc. where obviously the cosmetic value plays important roles in a good print, however, in my case and that of jimc above mentioned, they can be practical for parts for a functional purpose. I happened to have a clip that goes on a FORD Truck snap on me. At first I went to the Forums about these model FORD's to see if it was common. Turns out this little bracket breaks all the time and hundreds of threads about this item and how to replace it filled the forum column after column. The cost of a replacement was only a factory item and was almost thirty dollars! They didn't sell the bracket separate, you had to buy the cable, bracket and adjuster dial altogether in one package. So, it gave me the idea to print just the plastic part and perhaps post my contact info on this forum to sell them as needed individually! I have paid for my printer three times over in a short period of time. I was even able to beef up the area that kept snapping by making it more rigid and beefy! Here is a short video and picture for my example. If you find something that is useful as a mechanical support of some sort you too can find a new applicable appreciation for your printer. Happy Printing! ~ StevenSteve's phone 375.jpg

[GOC]

- I do quite a bit of freelance work making miscellaneous gizmos people find on thingiverse and a lot of replacement parts for just about anything. At work and amongst my friends I just had to mention that I can print most anything they have on those 3D Printing sites or any small plastic/rubber pieces needed. Then slowly but surly the work will come; so much so I have had to limit the # of requests per week.

[Des]

I did not read every post here but most of them.

TO OP and those wanting to make money printing and like OP think the quality of the 3D items may not be good enough to sell, Think Creatively!
Look at all the other products that are not so great but people buy anyway and make them as they want them!

People buy plain old plaster figurines, sand them and paint them to make them what they want!
People buy model kits, planes, cars, boats, ships, etc... and they often have to clean up the parts of molding or stamping trash and paint stuff to get the model built!
Working model steam engine kits are often nothing more than a box of metal! Rough casted parts and bar stock with a few screws! All the parts have to be machined allot just to make the parts needed before building the steam engine!

Point being, if you make something people will want, people will buy it and clean it up themselves if needed and make what they want.

I've seen some fancy chess sets cast from pewter, the pieces are nice but rough! Flash is the little thin metal trash around an items seam where the 2 1/2's of a mold meet. Those chess sets figures had lots of that flash on many pieces. People have to clean that stuff off, sand and file the pieces smooth, sometimes even solder parts together like a warrior holding a sword or the night onto the horse etc... Then people spend a great deal of time painting all the pieces just the way they want them painted.
Again, point being if the people want it they will take less than perfect parts and make what they want!
Often that is 1/2 the fun anyway for many things that people do want. People do pay good money for such things also if it's something that is actually worth the money to them! Some of those chest sets that needed lots of work sold for $100's just for the pieces, then you still had to buy the wood board to play on separately, and some sets each figure was supposed to be mounted on fancy wood bases and you had to buy all those extra also if you wanted them! For everything and the paints etc.. might cost around $500 when done!

Now your probably not going to make plastic 3d printed rough figures and a plastic board to play on and get $500 for it. LOL
But the right theme for a game set of good quality pieces for the buyer to clean up a bit and paint might bring some decent money and sell decent if a popular theme.
What is popular? You have to figure that out.

I did have a friend that had really fond memories of playing games with his brother and after his brothers death made his own chess set! They had played cowboys and Indians all the time as kids with the cheap plastic sets in a bag and when older played chess all the time.
So my friend went out and found a plastic set of the cowboys and Indians they had played with as kids, then spent about $50 on paints, painted a great set of figures and mounted them on little wood blocks and made a wood chess board. He spent months making it just as he wanted it.
His friend seen the set later and made a comment he wished he had a civil war set made the same way but was no good at painting. My friend said he'd make him one for $100 jokingly, his friend said OK! I figured it was all just joking around while we were having a few beers but about a month later my friend showed me the civil war set he made and then his friend bought it for the $100!
It was just cheap $1 a bag plastic figures mounted on some nice scrap wood and a wood playing board!
$1 for the figures, friend already had the paint from doing his own set, and it was scrap wood used, he just painted up the set while watching TV for the month when he would not have been doing anything else anyway! Back then $100 was allot more money than it is now, figuring inflation etc.. over the years that $100 then would be more like $300 now! But I doubt anyone would pay $300 but who knows.

Back in the late 90's or so we used to do allot of LAN parties, a big group of us friends would gather and network and play computer games all weekend once or twice a month, a camp out on a farm in a large clean barn and we just sleep where ever or set up tents and camp out etc..
One of the guys was into ceramics making and he showed up at a LAN party one time showing off his cool figures he made for himself of some computer game figures from a game we all played allot back then. 1 person popped up and said I want one how much! He said $10 each not painted, before the weekend was over he had like 150 orders for various game figures!
Now think about that! He made himself some cool figures just for him, went to a weekend party and showed them off and he took in $1500 in orders! He was not even trying to sell them! I think he said they cost him about $1 each to make and he could fire a large batch in his kiln at a time so not much cost there, then done! Since he and his wife owned the ceramics store and made all that kinda of stuff going to the party and getting $1500 in sales which I think took him 2-3 days to make the figures sold that was a tidy profit, especially as I recall I think they normally did around $500-$600 a week in store sales!
No reason can't do the same thing with 3d printed items really, just have to find something that sells that people want. Folks had to paint their own porcelain figures, they can paint their own 3D plastic figures!
If that layering/banding lines OP mentions is not seriously bad then a bit of paint should cover most of it nicely and make a decent figure.
Getting rid of the banding lines and such would be the best thing to do of course though.

No-one can really just say hey make this and it will sell and pay for your printer and you'll make lots of money, but the market is out there and finding it is the key!
I have several things I am certain will make a 3d printer pay for itself for me. Of course though I'm not going to post what those ideas are because someone would likely jump into the market ahead of me.

One idea though is make motorcycles! Of course you cannot directly make something and call it by a Brand Name! NO NO that could get you in trouble fast with a certain company! What you can do legally though is make a generic V Twin engine motorcycle and DO NOT name it! There are enough Brands of V twin motorcycles out there that the bikers could buy your model and paint it to be any V Twin they want it to be! In that way you are not violating any companies rights!
If no NAME on the model it's an Oompey Loompey 2016 1900 V twin LOL
You could also cut the model in half down the middle so it could be mounted to a flat surface like a mirror or picture frame, the buyer paints it as they want it.

[squadus]

If you or anyone you know is interested in 3D printing I've written a book to learn how to utilize this emerging and disruptive technology. As an industrial engineer, I've put hundreds of hours into researching and writing this book. The 3DPrintBoard community especially has helped tremendously with learning and in many ways is a contributor to this book. Hopefully I am able to help spark new ideas on ways people can make money with 3D printing.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Money...ds=jeffrey+ito

Feedback is always welcome.

Thanks guys!

[Geoff]

Well I'm buying a printer. I have people lined up who want to buy. Hopefully I can pay this off in 6 months. Should be awesome.

I have had a bit to drink being new years eve, so have not read all the posts.. (des's wall of text just scared me lol..)

personally, I bought my printer for $1100.

It took me a few months of tinkering and figuring out how to get the best quality out of it, once I was happy with that (and it could take much less time, I was just not in any hurry) I started selling things on Ebay.
It took some time to find a good market, for me that was R/C hobby parts (i.e modelling things that don't exist already) and being the only person selling that particular item on ebay - sales are not hard to accumulate when there is little to no competition.

Selling printer parts is very competitive, often you will break even just to beat your competitor, so stick to small things you can print fast and know you can print well. I don't know exactly when I made my money back, but from my $1100 investment, without really trying too hard it's made me back well over $5000, enough to buy/build some more printers to keep up with demand and still not get into the negative.

At the end of the day, I never set out to make a fortune with my 3D printer, I just wanted to make the money back I spent on it so my wife got off my back!!! But, a couple years of selling things on the side has worked out nicely and now allows me to attempt bigger projects as I have a few machines that can be running at the same time. That's my 2cents anyway

[-willy-]

Forgive me for not reading this entire thread. Yet as a business owner myself here are some things you need to ask yourself.

1) Competition : This is the most important question. You need to ask around and see whom out there is doing the same thing or offering something close to the same idea of yours. If you are in a city, competition may be stiff. Fortunately for me, the nearest competitor is a good two hour drive.

2) Cost : How much are you into the printer and all its materials to get going? If you do this you should not plan to finance it and have a income solely based on the ability of others to make money. You will need to save up, make a plan for how it is going to be run.

3) Location : These produce odors. Some good some bad. You will need to think of where it can be located that you can get to to do the job. Also some printers are noisy, so can you endure the noise if it is in your bedroom? Also be aware some users have had these printers go up in flames. So plan on it having flame proof location and a means to encapsulate it so it doesnt burn your house down.

4) Plan : What is your long term objective? Where do you see this company being in 2 years with zero customers? Lets face it, just because you have an idea doesnt mean it will work. Can this venture of yours collect dust if it doesnt get regular customers?

5) have a backup : This is alot of the above stuff. Dont plan on this being the sole industry to pay the bills. Do this on the side. If it takes off then you can decide if this is the job for you. I myself have other things I do. I mow lawns in the summer, I plow driveways in the winter. I have a arc welder and do some fabrication. There is a metal lathe downstairs that can turn out parts if I need. Everything I have makes some money, but it doesnt make me rich. So dont have rosey glasses because some one is posting "you too can make money".

6) Practicality : Are you doing this because of the thread where some one is saying "you can make money from home"? There are alot of people that are out there that have said that all through history. I myself am 55 years old. I remember lots of "stories" of you can be rich if..... Heck back in the 1990's there were companies that said you could make money with a computer and a printer. They made more money just selling a cheap PC with a terrible printer to people whom thought they could make money at home. Your not the first or the last to think this is a way to make ends meet. I bet you have these items right now and can see how much money you are making with them. Get the picture yet? If you have it, doesnt mean money.

7) Goal : What are you going to do with this? Can you start as a hobby and work it? Is your plan to create a print farm? Have you figured all your costs to operate this? Can you plunk down $50 immediately because a job wants a specific color tomorrow and the extruder you have wont be able to make what you need now? Can you do anything immediately on a high demand?

8) Waste : How much of this plan will become stuff in the trash can? Ventures are fun at the beginning. But alot of things may soon end in the trash can. What is going to happen in your life when it all goes south?

I myself am only a small business man. Your welcome to your own views and I respect that. I am not saying you cant do it. I am saying dont expect this to make money just because you have it. Diversity is where it is at. If you see this as something that helps what you do great.

[-willy-]

To StevenC's post above. You may want to incorporate some radiuses in your print. Looks like you have the room for the radi. Radi make the prints stronger. If the old part was breaking from stress, then some anology of the stress with radi enforcement will go along way.

[Des]

I have had a bit to drink being new years eve, so have not read all the posts.. (des's wall of text just scared me lol..)

Yes, at times I can have that effect on people. LOL

[GOC]

- So for an update to this old thread I've come into some good luck. I now produce prototypes and display models on the side for a manufacturing company I work for full time. I'm getting between $75-$300 an order. A tip for those looking to use your printer to make some loot; find a local manufacturing company looking for prints, they will pay well for prints held at a good tolerance.