Printing and Making money out of it.

[moldovan-marius 1]

Hello, i have a couple of ultimakers2 and im running quite a nice business with them which hopefully will only grow in the future.

Id like to get in contact with some other fellows who have started a business or already have a business and they want to grow more.

I would like to invest and partner up in some manner with someone who has clients and ideas but not enough money for all his demand .

So basically anyonw who wants to talk about his business ,share ideas or is looking for some investments chat me up and lets talk on private.

Thank you.

Hope i can post this here !

 

[skint 62]

The only way I am "trying" to make money is by selling a product that I designed and prototyped on mu UM2 At the moment I am printing the "final hu huh" design before it goes to a manufacturer for a real metal working prototype for testing. Cross fingers

I would love to make a few extra quid with the printer, if only to pay for the filament, but I just am too lazy or cant find the time!

 

[lance-greene 7]

Hey actually I got my Ultimaker 2 about 2 months ago and have put around 350 hours of printing on it and I am absolutely trying to make a business out of this. the main problem is that I started learning to 3D model when i ordered my printer, so the learning process has be slow and I have not for the life of me been able to find people in my city who can 3d model because I've been trying to get the word out that I would pay people to make 3d models of things so I can print them out and sell them. There is no reason enough skilled modelers and printers and you could easily run a store front where people could request something and potentially have it that same day.

I've gone through 2kg of taulman bridge nylon, 2kg of PLA, some bronze, and just starting to print with ninjaflex now. I've talked to a few local businesses as well and I know they would be willing to make a deal with me once I perfect the prints I'd like to show them.

 

[korneel 176]

I think the people that are really making money out of the 3D printing business today are the people that are building and selling printers and selling filament

i'm registered for 3DHubs and that seems to work acceptable. when i calculate the printing work I do for 3Dhubs, after substracting running costs, maintenance and filament, i would say out of every 10 euro's i make 5 euros.. and that is not including "labor". so i would need to sell at least 6000 euros in prints to break even with my printer.. so i don't think 3Dhubs as a business model is very feasible.

dedicated printer shops.. well.. if you just do printing, no selling of equipment or filament i don't think you'll cover your costs.. you have to be either very expensive (shapeways) and that means being extremely good at printing.. or you have to love bleeding money..

i'm very interested in your business model, do you just print or also design?

 

[nick-s 0]

Hi Moldovan Marius.

Where are you located?

 

[skint 62]

There is no reason enough skilled modelers and printers and you could easily run a store front where people could request something and potentially have it that same day.

So... Paying modellers £ + Store costs + Printer costs + Time + Maintenance etc = Selling to customers on the same day. So what if the customer requires a vase which takes 1 hour for the designer to model, 6 hours to print, 1 hour for post cleanup... that`s an 8 hour day done for just 1 customer. Your prices are going to have to be astronomical to cover costs never mind make a profit.

I still cant see ultimakers or any other similar printers at this level being able to offer a good business model based on selling prints alone. Selling filament and printer accessories yes, but the store front seems so out of date now that this " interweb" surrounds us.

Wish you all the best, hopefully you prove us wrong

 

[kepolas 2]

Well, I have two Ultimaker 2's and im also trying to make some money out of it. It is hard and at the moment i don't earn really anything since all I earn I use for other filament and modifications on printer such as 3dSolex and nozzles. For me its specially hard since im situated in Croatia which is kinda crappy place to live atm, with people who have little knowledge of 3d printing. I started a business such as sole trader in england, and i still work regular day job. And its getting me exhausted. 3DHubs are awesome platform for doing business, but since its idea is for local printing i yet have to get more orders. I'm lucky enough to have a small start up company from US who's owner actually have roots from Croatia, so i print a lot of prototypes for his business for him. Otherwise i would be dead buried in dept. For now I manage to pay the loan to the bank i used for purchasing those two printers, and any excess money i invest further in things such as web page, filament and such. So as long as its positive 0 im ok. Im looking to extend this printing business but for now its a slow process specially since i don't have ability to devote myself only tho this (all though i would love and that's the ultimate goal for me). Btw i do not calculate my labor into this at all.

Also i try to 3d model things but this is also going slow for me. Im learning al ot, and i must say special thanks to everyone in this forum for many genius advice's.

You can check my hub here: https://www.3dhubs.com/zagreb/hubs/arca-somni

And my web page (still in development by me and im not programmer so its also slow as i lean along the way): www.arcasomni.com

So, hard road ahead...but I have many ideas and someday i hope this pays out.

 

 

[moldovan-marius 1]

Well , I have 1 printer ultimaker2, ii started looking it up in mid january and by the start of february i already had my ultimaker bough and by mid february i was already selling prints and taking orders worth 100 for small ones, even a big one for more than 1000euro for some personalised keychains (which i didnt do cuz it was to much for me at first).

So basically after 1 month now in march im confident this month i will make a profit of 500 pounds, although i hope for more.

So yes i think you can make loads of money with it, im just surprised you guys dont think so. im not on any site, i just made some advertising .

I do want to talk to other people who make money out of it so we can grow together.

Im in uk now.

Im not a designer , im the same as lance i trying to learn it but for now i just make stl's brought to me by customers, and i do work with a designer rarely.

Lance im curios in your designs , what kind of designs made the shops interested if i may ask?

 

[yellowshark 153]

Hi guys, you need to consider what your business/financial model is and whether you can compete in the market(s) you are targeting. As a general statement, setting up a store front and selling to the public is difficult because of what you are competing against, i.e. quality of surface finish in the consumer market and mass production from the far east. Yes you may be able to produce something in 24 hours but hey I can get it delivered from Amazon tomorrow.

Think about 3D printing strengths which include - zero capital cost for prototypes and production because there is no tooling; JIT manufacture giving no "minimum quantity" production and no need for the customer to invest working capital for stock holdings. During product development the ability to rapidly modify the design and produce an updated prototype immediately. Example…

A new customer came to us to see if we could help. They had a product which was an assembly with all the parts being injection moulded. They wanted one of the parts to be redesigned but faced the problem (for them) of costs of circa £400(not including design) for one prototype and a tooling cost for production of circa £4,000 when the quantity required was a maximum of 300 units.

With 3D printing we were able to provide design and a prototype, within about 48 hours, for circa £50 and a production cost for 300 units of circa £2,500. Thankfully we got the business and then further business.

As others have mentioned it is not just printing, you need to be able to do sophisticated 3D design, or pay someone else to that for you. Fortunately for us we have very good Solidworks expertise so that is not a problem.

 

[lance-greene 7]

all of the 3d modelling work ive done so far have been involving things im personally interested in, RC cars, bicycles, and others. as such i have a good coneection with the bike shops in town and i know there are quite a few 3d printeable things out there that shops would love to sell, one being personalized bicycle grips. i have some ninjaflex right now and am working on printing some bike grips with it and seeing how they hold up under real world conditions. you can take a look online of the wide variety of 3d printable things for bicycles that are being made now. the RC car from Traxxas called the Slash is where most of my work has gone, it is super popular and a lot of people in town run it, ive modelled about 10 or 12 different components of it and have them being tested right now by some friends, most of them are ready to sell but im waiting till i have a big variety ready and produced to sell to the local rc community. I've had my printer for about 2 months now and have made $300 or so off of it. I also have a potential deal with a custom motorcycle shop doing some projects for them but i need to get better attuned to the printer as well as modelling first. ive definitely got a lot of opportunity right now though. I also plan to put myself on 3dhubs and sites like that but right now my printer is running 24 hours a day anyway and its still not enough, i would have to get another printer if i wanted to do that.

 

[luke 0]

I am going to be opening up a business within a month or two and we are going to get the Ultimaker 2 Extended. I would love to make a new contact my so if you want you can email me if you'd like and we can talk ideas together - I also have something you might want to add in to your business - I can tell you some of my secrets since your iin the UK and I'm in Ontario so let's chat! Pm ya in a sec.

This will be my new home on the forum = one of!!

Ttys

 

[jetten3d 2]

Hi where are you located im in Ontario and im planning on opening up my own 3-D printing business. Currently im doing the research and making some money to buy a U2+. What is your opinion on a 3-D printing business. So far im making my own 3-D printable RC car and next a drone. Hopefully i will be able to sell them. What are your thoughts on that and what is working for you so far?

Thanks for the tips.