Can I afford a 3D Printer?

[Brian_Krassenstein]

Buying a 3D printer is one thing, but calculating how much is costs to actually produce one design or prototype is another, especially considering ongoing output. Jason King at 3D Print Headquarters tabulated just about every imaginable expense and after we translated that into US funds, it looks as if you stand to spend around $10 to produce the average prototype weighing several ounces. Check out the breakdowns in the full article and find out what the real costs of owning a 3D printer is once depreciation, electricity, repair, and other variables are considered. : http://3dprint.com/29396/can-i-afford-3d-printing/

Let us know your thoughts on the breakdown and if you think the numbers are accurate.

[Zhall]

I'd say that for a Replicator 2, your costs are around 40 cents an hour, and as long as you keep it serviced and don't have break downs, that's pretty much it. Electricity use is barely a cent per hour.

[soofle616]

I find it laughable that depreciation is considered a factor in total costs. Sure on a commercial level it's relevant but for anyone doing it as a hobby it's pointless. Other than possible resale if/when someone purchases a new model machine the monetary value of the machine has no bearing on the average maker/hobbyist/consumer/etc. with a printer on their desk. I also wonder about the "several ounces" thing since I'd be willing to bet that the majority of the baubles that seem to get printed are nowhere near that weight.

[Des]

I think more reasonable pricing should be figured as what's stated seems unreasonable to me for the average user.

King used some set variables for his estimations, going on his own purchases and experience, which are appropriate for the average user.

I don't know allot of average people that would pay $2500 for a 3d printer unless they had an actual need for it, certainly not to just wrap up for a child and put under the tree like mentioned. LOL

the would-be 3D printing enthusiasts, as well as parents out there thinking about wrapping up a 3D printer with a bow during the holidays this year,

Also further down depreciation and such is mentioned, but how many people would figure such things on any other type of gift, or a meal out on the town or a vacation across country etc....
It will cost us more to go visit our kid for Christmas for a few weeks than it would cost me to buy a 3D printer, how should I depreciate the cost of the trip? LOL

is busy pumping out prototypes — with a constant need for materials and supplies.

To me prototypes would mean the first 1 or 2 of an object to later be made with some other method, not pumping out like a production run.
Prototypes would therefore be mostly a 1 off print and done, not "pumped out" unless you had many different items to prototype.
Like for me, 1off on a 3d printer for steam engine parts, then use those printed parts to make sand molds for aluminum casting the actual parts to be made in volume.
Building the prototypes in wood or machining metal on a lathe and mill would certainly not be any cheaper than printing them in 3d.
1 off printing of the parts to build a small desktop lathe for portable use for smaller items, then make the molds to cast the real parts in metal.
Now of course if I build the steam engines in ABS to run on compressed air only and sell those maybe I would be pumping them out but that is not prototyping any longer.

Depreciation at about $3.37 per item. This is based on your printer running for five years, so is probably a conservative number,

There is really no way to even try to guess at such a thing. None of us can know or accurately guess how many items someone else is going to be printing over a 5 year period of time. There is a major difference in building 20 huge Eiffel Towers or 20 small hair bows for a little girl. Each one is an ITEM but certainly a hair bow is not going to be a $3.37 depreciation LOL

Repairs at about 32 cents per item. This is a realistic concern, as repairs do tend to play into use of this complex machinery. Upgrades are figured into this as well.

Again, no way to really estimate that that I can see. Certainly if I print 100 large Eiffel Towers there is going to be far more wear and tear on the printer than if print 100 items the size of small hair bows.
A small 3"x4" model row boat is not going to be nearly as hard on the machine as would be an entire 1/24 scale model car or motorcycle with tons of details.
Also repairs may not actually play into use of this complex machinery all that much. Probably about the same as a complex inkjet printer perhaps. Buy a good decent priced unit and run it for years of near steady use with no repairs needed, or buy something else and have to repair or replace it every 6 months or so. I had Cheap HP printers and also an expensive one and a Xerox also and none lasted me more than 6 months I was doing so much printing at the time, a couple only lasted 3 months. Then I bought a Mid priced Canon printer which I used for about 5 years printing more than I had been on those others and it never failed once! It was not the cheapest and not the most expensive I had had but it was the best! It had cost me about 2X what the cheaper HPs were costing me and it lasted far more than 12x's as long as any HP I had!

Over all though the article seems to be well written maybe I think it casts a negative shadow on the 3d printers which may needlessly turn away many folks that may just be starting to look into the idea of 3d printing and get the wrong Idea it's going to be an endless money pit that they may not be able to afford.

Is there any major advantage to that $2500 3d printer mentioned in the article over say a good $600-$1,000 printer? If so what, and is it something the average new user just getting into 3d printing would really need or benefit from? I think that is am important question as all pricing is guessed at based on the cost of the printer for several things.

[richardphat]

I didn't read the whole article, just saying, it does not cost money, but going to cost you time, much time and at the end you're going to lose money if you expect doing a 3D printing busisness with 1-2 printers. You're going to need a lot of printers, to make up for it.

Further, 3D printing involves a lot of troubleshooting, unless you have Stratasys printer... there's no guarentee your print is not going to fail.

[the3dprinterbay]

With alot of time and little money, you can build your own printer. Costs would probably be around $250 but would require lots of troubleshooting just like other 3d printers.

[soofle616]

With alot of time and little money, you can build your own printer. Costs would probably be around $250 but would require lots of troubleshooting just like other 3d printers.

No offense but that statement is just as misleading as the "costs" quoted in the article. Sure you CAN build a 3d printer for 250 bucks. Hell, if you're fortunate/skilled/smart enough you could probably build it for free by scavenging parts off other things. But I would guess that 250 bucks is an exception in the world of building your own machine rather than the rule. Assuming new steppers and control board you'd be halfway to that number just with those parts so once you add frame material, fans, wires, motion guides, etc. the cost is going to top that pretty quick.

[richardphat]

Agree with soofle, and to add, they should add the equivalent cost of the scavenged parts.
Like precision shaft from inkjet scanners, that inkjet probably cost you 30-60$. So at the end you might have invest more money and time rather than just purchase a whole new brand printer, if you were to take every elements and time.

[rvanwaes]

It's good to see a break down classifying all the costs associated with printing. Not sure how accurate all the costs can be considering the array of printers available and the people using them, but the numbers might be fair to the average user. I'm sure the actual cost varies quite a bit per person based on experience with printing/designing, quality of equipment being used, number of printers owned, and expecatations for the quality of the print... and if time was factored into the cost - I doubt any starving artist could afford to get into 3d printing.

[Feign]

and if time was factored into the cost - I doubt any starving artist could afford to get into 3d printing.

Which leads one to wonder, how do starving artists get into art? Good art supplies are expensive, even when compared to printing.

The answer is of course, artists are more resourceful than most of us expect them to be. (that or they got into art before they got into starving, of course.)

Back onto the topic, depreciation is pretty silly for machines under a $1,000. Nobody is going to see a machine below that as an investment and will probably print with it until the whole thing succumbs to the ravages of time (or they get bored, whatevs). Printing lends itself pretty well to the self-sufficient crowd, so most simple repairs and maintenance are probably self-done.

By this time next year, we will probably be seeing the MOD-T, the Micro, and maybe the iBox all in the retail space, possibly even out on brick-and-mortar store shelves. Cost of material and maintenance and such won't matter too much when the initial cost to buy a printer is down in the "impulse buy" range for middle class American households. I hesitate to mention the Peachy Printer which should also be in-stock by then and the Printrbot Simple Maker's Kit which already is. Because even when the price is low, people tend to put more thinking into long-term impact when buying a kit they have to build.