It is illegal to counterfeit money, and my printer is resin, not paper or metal. So... no.

I tried, but we have paper based currency notes in my country and PLA notes were a dead giveaway, no shops accepted them sadly

No my printer only eats money.

There are still people not into FDM that could profit from it so there is still a market:

1. Run a local business that offers quick turnarounds. e.g. send it before 6 p.m. and production will start before 8 p.m. same day with early morning delivery if possible: The engineer finishes a design in the afternoon and has it the next morning on his desk ready to go. On your end it means once you get home do a little work. Sleep and deliver the order on your way to work.
2. The next strength is service. You run it. You know the process. You can guide them and answer any questions they have.
3. Offer basic CAD design work. This allows you to catch customers who have ideas but not the required knowledge.
4. underpromise, overdeliver
5. If you are into CNC milling offer hybrid manufacturing. Gain excellence and you have some very valuable knowledge.
6. Don't take money out of the business at the start. Build up a reserve for the rainy day that will come (!!!) and keep reinvesting in new capabilities or improving your current offering. Once you reach a decent machine park pay yourself. Don't forget to dedicate some funds for experiments: Keep innovating as otherwise you will fall behind and some new guy that's hungry will replace you.

I never bothered with it but I'm sure you could. I just public domain everything I design since it's a lot of older automotive stuff and I'd rather it be readily available.

I created one product (Frog Case) and people on Reddit were asking me to print it for them. Made a Shopify to make it easier and now I sell dozens of my original designs on there. (Frogcase.store)

Lately I make custom phone cases for the Galaxy Fold series

On average I make $300 a month, but highest sales month was $1k

When I see prices for 3D printing service it always looks unprofitable to me. People saying filament cost only 10$ means nothing to me. My time and knowledge, electricity, initial machine cost, maintainence, dealing with failures, postprocessing... then I see big printing farms...oh thats why! I just love it as a hobby 😄

3D modeling on the other hand can be super profitable

I haven't sold anything but I've been seriously considering it after creating some RGB LED lamps. My main reservation is putting myself at risk by selling something that uses electricity to the general public. I'm sure the first moron who jambs a screwdriver into the powered leads and starts a fire will try to sue me.

I have made a total of $100 CAD over the course of... 5 months by selling a $10 plastic tool for strollers on Facebook marketplace. These were printed at my local library before I ever owned my own printer.

Now that I do own my own printer, I've just been enjoying printing very long prints that I couldn't at the library.

All that said, there are niche markets where you can fill a need and you can earn some slush fund money without taking on much stress.

What you are describing is simply being a design engineer. That's what I do and I take on side projects once in a while. It's not worth my time to simply 3D print things for people. The printer is simply a tool used for prototyping.

Yes, I make some money but barely enough to be worth it.

I sell some specially fixturing to my work. Sell them $30-50 each. Sold a dozen or so over the last 7 years and 3 printers.

Started selling on Etsy about a year ago and Xmas I made a decent amount very fast(about $500 in a month). After the new year it dropped to near nothing until recently I’m getting some sells. Everything I sold was my own designs, but it’s a race to the bottom on there. Far to many people stealing from Thingiverse and selling at a near loss. After Etsy takes its cut which can be a decent chunk your left with near nothing after materials and shipping. Expect $2 to $3 a hour of print time. I am barely in profit to be honest selling there.

Ive made a little over a grand with my ender 3 making little display signs and stuff for local businesses.

I think I could do an etsy shop and print video game props for people pretty profitably, but I'm afraid of turning a hobby into a job and sucking the fun out. I might try doing a really low volume just to have the occasional printer upgrade pay for itself.

Not making any money with it but the 3D printer is helping us make money.

I'm working with a windows and door manufacturer that has around 80 employees.

The owner got a 3D printer that runs pretty continuously for at least 30% of the time I would say.

We are doing a lot of drill or assembly jigs with it. We are also sometimes doing assembly parts for custom projects.

Like someone really wants to make something's with weird angles or hardware that are not compatible together then we can throw a 3D printed part in it to make it work.

The two most common ways to make money with a 3D printer: sell your own designs, like you're currently doing, or mass print trinkets/popular items. I suspect you have greater odds of making money in the second category, but I also suspect some people have made a decent amount of money in the first category.

I printed some stuff that I thought was cool and just put it up on Etsy early this year at a price that would be worthwhile for me. I was shocked when the first order came in as I never thought anyone would buy it. Then the orders kept coming in and I’ve grossed about 6k so far on Etsy. It’s nice that all of my hobby equipment and filaments are paid for and that’s all I’m looking for.

I continue to randomly list stuff that I think is cool. Sometimes they sell and sometimes they don’t and that’s fine. I don’t do SEO or research keywords or advertise. If I get bored of selling prints one day then I’ll just stop.

And printing is the least time consuming part of the process. It’s the packing and taking it to the post office that takes up the most time.

Not money as such, but being able to talk about printing made it easier to hang out with one of the production engineering teams at work - their Friday drinks are pretty fun, and the manager has a pretty liberal understanding of what "business expense" means

So I don't 3D print, and I just happened to come across this thread scrolling all, but on the flipside, is there a good way to commission someone to do smaller jobs? I embroider and the available floss bobbin options are a total suckfest. I would happily pay for some better ones, but I don't know how to even find someone to give my money to?

I make money, but I produce entire products that use a 3D printed enclosure along with electronic components and code that I write. Just trying to sell something you printed seems like a terrible business plan.

I design, print and sell accessories for filmmaking and Steadicam.

I made like €25 (revenue, not profit), does that count? Profit is in the negative.