Print and Make Money

[Eaglezsoar]

Heh, I put a profile up, to see if I could find an excuse to buy a second printer.

Unfortunately, there are alot of other printers in Southern California.

That being said, I've gotten 4 requests in the past 4 weeks:

- #1, request for quote for onsite printing, 10, 10 hours days. some type of fair or conference or something, I declined.
- #2, request for quote for someone's high school project. The model could not be sliced. too many issues with the STL that I couldn't correct.
- #3, request for quote for some type of doo-hicky. never responded to my quote.
- #4, request for quote for a printed handgun receiver. Hoping it was just a question. I provided a quote as requested, then declined the job.

That being said, would any of you accept a job to print these stupid gun parts?

I would never accept a request to print gun parts for the obvious reasons.
The one I consider most obvious is the possibility of going to prison if the finished gun is used in an illegal manner and the part is traced back to you.

[geneb]

[citation needed]

g.

[Eaglezsoar]

[citation needed]

g.

Sometimes you are very cryptic, did you major in cryptology?

[printer999]

Ive been on the site for over 2 weeks and No questions or anything.

[Print_This]

Ive been on the site for over 2 weeks and No questions or anything.

lol ye me too.

[gestalt73]

I posted my profile a couple of months ago (my god, was that 5 months ago already?), and noticed that there were alot of other printers in my area already. It was quiet for a month or two, then things seemed to have picked up.

Now I get a steady stream of inquiries and print jobs. Nothing that I can retire on, but it's fun to challenge myself and the machine in new ways.

Just recently I opened up a craigslist ad pointing back to my makexyz profile to see if I can drum up some business that way as well.

I originally did it to save up for a second machine. By dollars, I'm more than two thirds of the way there already. ymmv.

Alan

[Print_This]

I posted my profile a couple of months ago (my god, was that 5 months ago already?), and noticed that there were alot of other printers in my area already. It was quiet for a month or two, then things seemed to have picked up.

Now I get a steady stream of inquiries and print jobs. Nothing that I can retire on, but it's fun to challenge myself and the machine in new ways.

Just recently I opened up a craigslist ad pointing back to my makexyz profile to see if I can drum up some business that way as well.

I originally did it to save up for a second machine. By dollars, I'm more than two thirds of the way there already. ymmv.

Alan

cool maybe i will get some replies, i also posted a craigslist ad the same way but was spammed 3 times in a row i suspect maybe competition, so i gave up.

[JohnStack]

Good luck! I got some tire kickers but that's about it.

[carter]

the site seems too expensive. As a beginner I am not comfortable estimating the price, and knowing that they were charging 15% on top of that - and you can't get their phone number until they pay an invoice. I get about 1 inquery /week from them, and 1 job / week with interesting people from CL. If there is ever an Ebay.com of printing with name recognition it may be worth it, but it's not like they're better than craigslist. so far every CL customer (3) has met in person and provided interesting conversation about their cool project on top of the $. Each job I'm creeping my price up a bit. I'm now charging 4x materials (assuming a .2 layer) and they pay for fails if I warn them it is difficult.

It's fun/challenging, but don't expect to pay off your printer.

just got a phone call about a slingshot arrow launcher. cool.

[geneb]

Keep in mind that YOU don't pay the fee, the customer does. None of my customers have complained about it.

I use KissSlicer to quote the job cost. I use $5/hr for the machine and $0.25 per cubic centimeter for the material. It's always given me prices that both myself and the customer like.

g.

[gestalt73]

A few notes now that I've been doing the makexyz thing for 5 months...

• Assuming an 80% net to gross, I've recently recouped the cost of my printer. I'm actually in the process of designing a rostock sized kossel. I'm booked out about 5 days with print jobs, and I think I'm losing business because of the backlog. Time for printer #2!

• I've never had anyone complain about the fee, which reimburses the site for connecting customers to printers. When I accept an invoice, I always explain that makexyz will hold their funds in escrow for 11 days until the print job is completed and delivered.

• That being said, I have several clients that I now work with directly via paypal after the first transaction was completed, based on their and my own comfort level with the client. But even paypal charges a fee, and iirc, that fee is paid by me.

• The going rate in my area for FDM prints is 25 cents per cm3 of material. Assuming that 1cm3 is about 1gram (it's close), one spool is about $40 shipped, the materials cost is about 4 cents a cm3. for large prints, that's what I'll charge unless it's a complex print.

• For smaller prints, or complex prints, I charge between $5 to $20 to recoup the additional costs of setup and delivery. My first dozen jobs or so I just charged .25 per cm3, and I try to keep it reasonable to the complexity and type of part.

• As I get more involved, I've seen other printers charge by the hour, or charge a minimum cost per part. At the end of the day, you can only charge "what the market will bear", but you also need to make sure it's worth your time to do it.

• I don't charge my clients for failed prints. I do my best to print them, and learn a little something every time. I get many requests that just aren't printable, and I'm careful to only accept print jobs I feel I can complete. Most of the time this still works in my favor. But every once in a while it doesn't. I won't release a part that I'm not happy with. Worst case scenario, I'd just have to refund the money to the client, and eat the cost of printing. (I haven't had to do that yet)

• 5 star reviews are your friend, and definitely help to drive new business to you. Communicate, under promise, over deliver, and make sure your client knows that it's important that they are satisfied with the results.

[geneb]

My policy is to not even generate an invoice until I've got a part that's acceptable to the customer. I'll run the part and if it passes my QA, I'll send the customer photos - if they like it, I invoice. I've never had a customer reject a part. (If I part I print isn't good enough to go into one of my crazy projects, it sure as hell ain't good enough to go into a paying customers!)

g.

[artexmg]

Well, in case you had not noticed, there is another: 3D hubs (http://www.3dhubs.com/) this site is more professional than MakeXYZ and, I believe, was the original one from where MakeXYZ guy got the inspiration from.

Among the earnings from both of them, I am close enough to buy 3 more Rostocks

Nothing like to retire from my day job, but good enough to maintain the hobby even more now that DropLit is almost here, will need money for this new baby!

My policy of "I don't want your money unless you are completely happy" had giving me only 5 stars reviews

And yes, you need to educate them in the use of a 3D printer, as most people think it is magic (well, IT IS magic, I do agree).

cheers!

[teoman]

Here a professional place charges .47 to .94 usd per gram.

Pretty expensive in my opinion.

[geneb]

Their material cost is probably higher if they're using a proprietary machine.

g.

[teoman]

They use an up. None of the filament I saw at the shop was proprietary.