36
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
36 points (92.9% liked)
3DPrinting
15606 readers
121 users here now
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: !functionalprint@kbin.social or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
Rules
-
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
-
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
-
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
-
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
-
Do not create links to reddit
-
If you see an issue please flag it
-
No guns
-
No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is 
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
There are print request sites where people will put up a print model and filament requirements and you can agree to provide them by X date for Y dollars.
Sometimes people need one offs and dont want to buy a printer, so they pay $50 for $5 worth of plastic/electricity. Sometimes other folk need 100 of something and pay $5/each for something like a green rectangle. With solar panels or cheap electricity, as long as you are making a profit after buying plastic and have the process tuned in, you basically have machines making $1-3/hr just running 24hr/day.
Fascinating. A whole hidden world.
I think it's likely a very hard niche to break into and keep orders coming.
It also seems like a lot of people find a device or appliance where there are no replacement parts or very expensive ones and they sell printed ones at a nice markup.
It might be that those green squares fix a $300 thing for $20 when the manufacturer wants $80. Print them, toss them up on etsy/amazon and call it a day.
I know years ago I bought a replacment knob for a kitchenaid mixer that I got used. Was something like $10 for likely $0.25 of plastic, but it made sense to buy to solve my one issue instead of buying a whole 3D printer.
A friend of mine Is a good way into repaying his bambu x1c by taking commissions from friends and Facebook marketplace