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Thread: Can I afford a 3D Printer?
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12-09-2014, 04:08 PM #4
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- Dec 2014
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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.
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,
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.
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,
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.
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.
Qidi X Plus 3 Paper thin first...
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