I'm the Operations Director at a nonprofit that provides free services to people with disabilities. In response to repeated cuts to our State funding my boss proposed we start a 3D printing, 3D scanning and 3D design service despite none of us having any experience with 3D printing, scanning or design. His son had run a small business 3D printing in college and acted as a consultant.

I was against the idea from the start because I knew what was going to happen, and it did. I was forced to learn how to run a 3D printer and basically handled all aspects of that part of the business. However, what I did not expect was how much I would enjoy it or how successful it would be.

Fortunately we got a small grant to help fund the purchase of equipment so we bought three Airwolf3D Axioms since they could print ABS and high temp filaments like Nylon and Polycarbonate. Fortunately the Axiom comes ready to print, so we had them up and printing the first day. There's definitely a steep learning curve and if we had bought kits requiring assembly we never would have gotten off the ground, but I picked things up quickly and we've been growing ever since. We now have the three Axioms, 2x Flashforge Dreamers, a Cultivate3D Beast and I'm about to start my first build, a Hypercube Evolution.

The 3D printing community is certainly DIY-focused, if you don't like tinkering with things you will not enjoy working with a 3D printer. However, you don't have to be a mechanical or electrical engineer to learn to operate and troubleshoot a 3D printer - I'm not very mechanically inclined and have no electronics experience but that just makes the learning curve that much steeper. If 3D printing can keep your interest the required knowledge will come with time working with the machine, so be sure to get something that will continue to work and with a good support community, and best of luck on your adventure!

-Joe, Operations Director, Access 3D Services