Quote Originally Posted by curious aardvark View Post
'fuel' - filament is relatively cheap, or really expensive if you look at it another way.

Going by what I oay in the uk, you're looking at around $15-$25 a KG for pla (poly-lactic acid). The most widely used type of plastic and the most versatile.
Now initially that sounds really expensive. But the thing about 3d printers is that you can make the interior of a model of any density you like.
It can be a hollow shell on up to totally solid. So weights for 3d printed items tend to be much lower than for an injection moulded model - while maintaining strength and integrity.

There's one common example that you can print several hundred chess pieces from one roll of filament.

Hence, yes it's expensive for 'raw' plastic - but actual 3d printed things tend to be pretty cheap as they don't use much material :-)
how sturdy is it though? like if i printed a hallow plastic statue, would it be able to break easily?