New to 3D printing

[OOC 2]

Hello all,

 

I am new to 3D printing. I bought a Prusa MK2 i3 last year and have had nothing but trouble with it. I have been researching the UM3extended for the last 2 months. I have a few questions.

 

1) Is the extended worth the extra money?

2) Can you make any decent money 3D printing with this machine or is this more for hobby and have fun? The reason I ask is because I’m trying to get my son involved into something that he can learn, make money at, and to possibly start up a small business with. He currently builds stuff in Blender and loves it.

 

Thank you all very much for your time.

John

[Brulti 177]

Hello and welcome to the UM community!

 

To answer your questions:

 

1) I have my UM3E since July last year, and I think it is worth the extra money for the extra print space. I had quite a lot of fun printing some big stuff, for practical use or just for decoration and such.

2) You won't make money with one printer, given the time needed to prep a file and then the print times, especially when doing a high quality print. If you want to run it as a business and make money, you need to invest on several printers. I ran some quick calculations, and you'd need four or five printers to start making enough money to pay basic wage (I've taken the base wage in France since that's where I live) and have a bit of extra aside to face some problems, like having to buy replacements parts and such. But, one printer is already quite good to learn stuff. If your son is good with Blender, he can then print his creations, and that's always awesome. ^^

[OOC 2]

Hello Brulti,

 

Thank you very much for addressing my questions. I greatly appreciate it.

I think I will have to go with the extended version.