Cost estimate on the use of ABS

This is more a hopeful confirmation.

At my school, printing with ABS costs about 4.00$ per cubic inch.

I believe I was told that, at the Maker Faire, the cost can be as low as 0.10$ per cubic inch.

Does this sound accurate? Or from experience hwo much would you say it costs per cubic inch of actual use? (as in models don't come out right etc. etc.)

Just more in my head, trying to rationalize cost currently as savings in the long run if I intend to use the school's 3D printers (which I'd really like to do).

Thank you.

Michael

ABS's density is 0.0376 pounds per cubic inch. (per google)

My cost delivered was $7.35/lb

So a solid 1" cube would be .0376 * 7.35 = $0.28 + electricity, deprecation, and labor. (Right?)

Except the infill does not have to be 100%, and a granule extruder would lower cost down to around a fifth as the filament, (I think). But we're not there yet.

I'm sure someone who actually can extrude may want to chime in.

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My blog's Reprap feed: [blog.markbova.com]
I'm currently working on a stock Mendel build with a Seeeduino Mega and four Pololu A4983 stepper controllers.

Yes that's about right for a solid cube but I usually print with 25% infill, which would probably make it about 1/3 of the plastic, so back to MB's figure.

The cost of the electricity is negligible compared to the plastic.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

Cost to print a 1" reprap cube for me is around $0.30 (US)
I'm sure there is a supplier out there may be cheaper, but I'm too lazy to spend hours searching to
save a penny or two.

Cost to print a 1" cube from my university's Vflash plastic printer is around $4.25(US) for the material.
Not including power and labor; that's just how much the material costs from the manufacturer.
Obviously, the manufacturer has a huge profit margin on their material.
This seems to be the case with most commercial plastic printers. They are taking the inkjet printer
approach - we'll give you the printer for free, but the ink is going to cost you an arm and a leg.

Depending on how many models you have to make, a reprap may be cheaper. I can definitely tell
you that the knowledge you obtain from building a reprap will be priceless.