Justifying Printer Purchase

Greetings,

I was hoping to get some feedback from you guys to help turn my “want” to build a 3d printer into a “need” to build one. I have been wanting to build one for a long time and mainly could not due to both money and space constraints. These have both recently been remedied and now I’m faced with justifying the purchase.

What I am still having trouble getting over the fact that I can’t come up with many valid reasons to spend $500+ on one. I am the kind of guy that has tons of unstarted or half finished projects lying around and having a printer would most likely help a bit, but those aren’t necessarily things that I can use to offset the cost of a printer. I’ve looked into online printing places but they just seem too expensive to have something made and then find out I need to modify it after waiting 2 weeks to receive it.

I guess mainly what I’m looking for is what do you guys print on a regular basis? Have you printed anything that has actually saved you costs vs buying it in the store?

Also, before anybody references that article about the 20 things you can print to make the printer pay for itself, it turns out I don’t actually need many of those items…

Thanks

Hi,
Print this page vase for family and friends and Christmas is covered, just the other day I needed some hinges looked all over the house for some,, then the penny dropped just print them.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2013 02:31PM by jinx.

I think it would be difficult to say that my printer is going to pay for itself. But then again, neither does a new television. And most homes get one of those. :-) For me, it is a hobby. You mentioned that you have lots of unfinished projects around the house. Any chance that a 3d printer will become just one more of those discarded projects?

I'm still setting up my printer, but I plan to print parts for robots that you cannot actually get at a store. At my research we use a 3D printer for rapid prototyping, and the printer has very easily paid for itself (Replicator 2X). We actually wouldn't be able to do some of the projects that we have going without the ability to change a design into a live representation on the same day. (We also print some parts with curved internal structures that no other non-industrial tool could make in the same amount of time as a printer.)

However, I'm in the camp that thinks in the current state a 3D printer cannot "pay for itself" for household use - at least the average household where I live. As you mentioned, the "stuff" that can be 3D printed you don't need, and a lot of times it's better to just buy whatever you need if it's standardized. For instance, I'll won't print plastic cups or utensils because you can't justify the filament and electricity, plus printed stuff needs finishing before it can be used to handle food. Also a lot of those articles assume the time you spend loading filament, configuring the slicing program, clearing jams, etc. is free. In the amount of time it takes to fix whatever made a print fail, you could likely run/bus/drive to the store and get whatever plastic piece you need.

I wasn't quite able to turn my "want" into a "need", but I asked my wife to chip in to my 3D printer purchase as father's day gift. Yes, just to chip in.. not buying me one.

Of course I also did a little bit of sales work telling her what kind of practical things I could print, like a small broken plastic piece of something I can print a replacement part of, and things like that. But, now I kinda regret I did that. I think I set her expectation a little too high.

I ordered my printer kit around the father's day (I had to shop around), which took a couple of weeks to get here, then I got too busy to put it together because of the vacation and 4th of July (funny how vacations and holidays are no longer vacations and holidays for me - those are actually busiest time when I cannot do anything for myself.. LOL), so I was only able to really get into this 3D printing business about 5 weeks ago.

So far I have used up a whole 1kg (2.2.lb) spool of black ABS filament, and a few more feet of other color/type of filament. Over 90% of the plastic was wasted with failed print attempt or calibration test piece. Among the 10% of "successful" prints, the great majority of them are for my 3D printer/printing; i.e. extruder with a different design, replacement extruder gears, fan mount, filament holder, and etc. The only thing I have printed for household use is... we have a security bar for the patio door, of which end cap got torn out (after 20 years of use), and I printed that little end cap.

Yeah, from my wife's point of view, her husband has spent $$$ to get a 3D printer, goes down to his basement cave whenever he has time, and practically lives down there. And, after 5 weeks, so far he has produced a small plastic end cap for the patio security bar to show for, and that's it. No wonder she thinks it's the dumbest hobby of all. The upside is, she may not hate me playing golf any more. LOL

Oh by the way, I think we could've used some plastic bottle cap of a right size for our security bar end cap...

I get what you guys are trying to say, it’s not something I should think of as paying itself back but an investment in a hobby. I think it’s just the overall price tag that’s holding me back. Honestly, I’ve probably “invested” that amount or more in other hobbies over the years the only difference is many small purchases.

Most likely I will still end up buying one, will it collect dust if/when I do get it working? No idea, but if I don’t it will most likely just keep nagging at me especially since it would be so helpful in all my other projects I want to eventually try to work on.

What kind of project do you make ?
If it's electronics like I do myself, a 3D printed is very useful to print custom cases :



Don't think about the money you can save by printing stuff you can buy, but think about the custom stuff you can print and that you can't find in a store.

Spend the $1000-1500 on a nice kit, focus on building it start to finish and consider it an education.

The source all the printer parts yourself, instead of buying a kit, and by each piece slowly over time.

clplax Wrote:
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...
> Honestly, I’ve probably “invested” that
> amount or more in other hobbies over the years the
> only difference is many small purchases.
...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/2013 08:18PM by appdev007.

I can repair/fix/improve/create many stuff around the house with my 3D printer, for just the cost of plastic filament and some design time (or thingiverse search time)

Examples of useful things I've actually made, for myself or other people (forgive my misnaming things, I know little of everyday objects english names) :

- broken clothes pins : just keeping the metal spring.
- broken light switch cover : instead of buying a full switch, just printed a new cover.
- replacing parts for a wardrobe.
- done some coat hangers.
- replaced a button for a camping gaz cooker
- you can print a graduated ruler for your kids that are about to get back to school (also helps verifying printer dimensional accuracy).
- replacing a missing pen cap.
- print some boxes the exact size/shape you need to keep your drawers well organized.


etc...

---

Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.

Customizable Object Holder
Table leg clamp
Replacement drip coffee maker valve
Parametric Remote Control Holder
Parametric Holder
Parametric Chair/Table Foot

To name a few...

---

Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

And don't forget this one: MakerLove

Well, In my case, I am an industrial controls electrician. The ability to produce custom brackets and stuff would be very handy.

Also I have some projects in mind for around the house, and for my Photography hobby.

A bracket to hold 4x5 negatives in a nikor developing tank is one of my aims.

A remote activated blinds controller, perhaps some more stuff.

I could always sell printed printer parts on the bay......

It is better than hanging at the bar and drinking all day... huh.

It's hard to get into the mindset of a 3D printer I find.

I bought a kit from reprappro, spent 2 weeks building it perfectly, and had good prints from day one because of that.
(spent a few hours getting my frame exact). EXCELLENT prints from day 4. (once I'd read the richrap "how to tune" blog, which took me a couple of hours)

While waiting for delivery of said printer, I watched every sketchup tutorial I could find. Sketchup is infact very powerful if you learn how to use it.
But it's a 3D tool,.. it's not intuitive, but it is EASY once you know how.

I printed a spool holder first,.. it wasn't quite right, so I modified it with a bit of wood I had lying around.

THEN I REALISED, change the design (published by someone else), and reprint it !

It's the "one offness" and "made exactly to spec" that you cannot get your head round.
I measure things with calipers, draw what I want on a bit of paper, then convert to sketchup with exact sizes. My printer prints to within 0.1mm, so I get exactly what I drew in sketchup.
(that takes you a bit of time to learn, it's not a picture.. its a 3D model, you will get exactly what you ask for, at first what you ask for, is not what you wanted, so you try and modify it by filing it, or cutting it, then you see yourself in a mirror, think "how stupid am I?", then change the design and press "print" again)

I got one because I am involved in an electronics startup, custom cases is where it's at for me, and 5 iterations of a design in a day. Rapid isn't the word ! (well actually it is) Then my nephew asked for some flashing lights to go in his halloween costume, so I printed a case, complete with battery holder and switch hole, and a place for the board, a hole for the wires to come out for the remote LED's, bespoke product basically.

You won't save money over what you can buy in the shops, you'll be richer because you'll have stuff you cannot buy in the shops !
(need a bracket for something, a very specific size? print it. Feet for your laptop. Print them)

thingiverse has lots of "fun" stuff.. but the REAL benefit, is when you design stuff yourself, it's hard to get into the mindset of "print to exact specification" rather than "can I buy something close to what I wanted"

Printing a whistle with a pea already inside it with a name on, that's fun. Printing bearings is fun.

Printing feet that clip onto your laptop so that you can leave it on the bed without it overheating, printing that annoying bit of guttering joiner for the shed, that you can't buy. Printing the little card holders for the greenhouse, Printing LED holders for the fishtank.

It takes ages to stop thinking in a "what I can buy is what I can have" mentality. So people invent stuff they need, (which they don't) to justify the printer.

If you get one, you'll go "Why did I buy this??" after about 2 weeks of printing fun stuff. Then.. a few weeks later, you'll need something that you can print, and you'll go "that's clever".
Takes a while to get into "If I can design it, I can print it", rather than "If someone makes it, I can buy it"

hope that helps,

cheers

Dave

Hear! Hear!

DaveS Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's hard to get into the mindset of a 3D printer
> I find.
>
> ...
>
> It takes ages to stop thinking in a "what I can
> buy is what I can have" mentality. So people
> invent stuff they need, (which they don't) to
> justify the printer.
>
> If you get one, you'll go "Why did I buy this??"
> after about 2 weeks of printing fun stuff. Then..
> a few weeks later, you'll need something that you
> can print, and you'll go "that's clever".
> Takes a while to get into "If I can design it, I
> can print it", rather than "If someone makes it, I
> can buy it"
>
> hope that helps,
>
> cheers
>
> Dave

That was expertly put sir. I now cant wait to get my newly finished printer tuned and printing every little thing i could ever design.

To be useful, you need to be able to "drive" the printer. Downloading stuff other people have done is pretty limited. If you can't generate CAD files the printer will wind up gathering dust. If you are not already familiar with CAD, you are also committing to learning how to use a fairly complex piece of software. Before you buy the printer, It's not an impossible task, high school kids learn it in their spare time with very limited support (I have a *lot* of data on that). Understand that without the investment in CAD, it's going to be tough to justify the printer.

The parts these printers generate are not perfect. The surface finish out of a CNC is way better than what you get out of an extruder. If you have expectations / needs for perfect parts your printer will not get much use. You should consider a laser driven machine for the price of a new car if you want CNC level surface finish. Mirror smooth on all surfaces is not what these little printers are good at. Printing functional #4 machine screws - not going to happen on these. Go into the deal with reasonable expectations and you will be happy.