I am a hobbyist, and my job will probably never require me to design and print anything for work.
I do really enjoy the process of conceptualizing, designing, and printing, and have done so for myself and some close acquaintances.
I’ve spent many hours/days learning the tools of the trade and was wondering if there was an opportunity to make some money as a side gig. Has anyone been successful doing this, and how did you go about it?
Here are a couple of my early designs, I plan to upload more once I clean things up a bit.
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It is illegal to counterfeit money, and my printer is resin, not paper or metal. So… no.
Get off Lemmy dad
Jokes on you. I’m on Kbin.
There’s dozens of us
Canada uses plastic money. Is it illegal to counterfeit another country’s money? 🤔
There’s extradition laws. 🙂🙂
I tried, but we have paper based currency notes in my country and PLA notes were a dead giveaway, no shops accepted them sadly
You see, the pro move is to print a credit card. Plastic all the way!
I’ll be damned!
Print Canadian currency—it actually is plastic these days. 😅
No my printer only eats money.
… and poops out failed prints/spaghetti?
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I never bothered with it but I’m sure you could. I just public domain everything I design since it’s a lot of older automotive stuff and I’d rather it be readily available.
I can respect that. If it’s something I’ve designed and made for my own use I make it freely available, but if someone I know comes to me asking, “hey is it possible to build X” then there should at least be a couple of beers in it
Oh yeah definitely commissions are a whole other ball game they should at least pay for the filament needed to R&D it and ideally do something for your time
I haven’t sold anything but I’ve been seriously considering it after creating some RGB LED lamps. My main reservation is putting myself at risk by selling something that uses electricity to the general public. I’m sure the first moron who jambs a screwdriver into the powered leads and starts a fire will try to sue me.
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If you’re just doing Etsy or eBay, don’t worry. Just put “at your own risk”
It if you’re going to do a whole branding thing, just get an LLC, or whatever the equivalent is if you’re outside of the US.
Wow, yes that’s definitely something to consider. Even if you put language in there like, “DO NOT PUT LEDS IN THIS OR GET IT NEAR ELECTRICITY, ONLY FOR DEMONSTRATION AND TRAINING” there’s no way to prevent someone from suing you for any reason…
“Our hardsuits have kinetic barriers. Your level briefs don’t, and I’m in a hurry.”
When I see prices for 3D printing service it always looks unprofitable to me. People saying filament cost only 10$ means nothing to me. My time and knowledge, electricity, initial machine cost, maintainence, dealing with failures, postprocessing… then I see big printing farms…oh thats why! I just love it as a hobby 😄
3D modeling on the other hand can be super profitable
Because it’s the harder skill, IMO. People find out I can print and start asking for really custom stuff, like all I have to do is picture it in my head and it will print.
I can draw a little in CAD, because that’s part of my day job. But I don’t know how to make a model of Mario dabbing.
I created one product (Frog Case) and people on Reddit were asking me to print it for them. Made a Shopify to make it easier and now I sell dozens of my original designs on there. (Frogcase.store)
Lately I make custom phone cases for the Galaxy Fold series
On average I make $300 a month, but highest sales month was $1k
I have made a total of $100 CAD over the course of… 5 months by selling a $10 plastic tool for strollers on Facebook marketplace. These were printed at my local library before I ever owned my own printer.
Now that I do own my own printer, I’ve just been enjoying printing very long prints that I couldn’t at the library.
All that said, there are niche markets where you can fill a need and you can earn some slush fund money without taking on much stress.
This is exactly what I was thinking. Most of my designs are for very niche markets and hobbies, purely for enjoyment and to help people out.
I don’t want to make it my full time job or anything, but $100 over 5 months would just about cover the cost of filament, so I’d be happy with that ;)
Ive made a little over a grand with my ender 3 making little display signs and stuff for local businesses.
How did you get this going? Were these business you frequented or did you do any marketing?
The two most common ways to make money with a 3D printer: sell your own designs, like you’re currently doing, or mass print trinkets/popular items. I suspect you have greater odds of making money in the second category, but I also suspect some people have made a decent amount of money in the first category.
Having such niche interests like I do is a double edge sword - there are always opportunities for you come up with something new and innovative, but the target market is also very limited.
I’m happy to stay in the first camp and design things that are helpful to these smaller communities, but I need some way to justify these long hours and miles of filament I put into development 😅
I totally hear you. I make things for me and usually just put them on thingiverse. It’s rewarding to see people downloading and commenting on the prints and removes any worry about angry customers. I do wonder about leaving some $$ on the table though…
I think I could do an etsy shop and print video game props for people pretty profitably, but I’m afraid of turning a hobby into a job and sucking the fun out. I might try doing a really low volume just to have the occasional printer upgrade pay for itself.
So I don’t 3D print, and I just happened to come across this thread scrolling all, but on the flipside, is there a good way to commission someone to do smaller jobs? I embroider and the available floss bobbin options are a total suckfest. I would happily pay for some better ones, but I don’t know how to even find someone to give my money to?
Pre-edit: I just realized I never actually answered your question. I honestly don’t know how most people go about finding someone to design and prototype, but judging by some of the responses here I think we’ll get some good advice. Feel free to contact me directly if you want me to look into the draft.
What has been super helpful to me iwhen people come to me with requests is to send me the most detailed diagrams or images of any currently available offerings or a combination of them so I have a good starting point.
As a specific example, someone asked me to design a handheld door lock retainer to practice lockpicking. The overall shape and ergonomic design were up to me, but this image was provided which included very specific measurements for the lock:
Thanks! I found a design on printables, now I just need someone to print me like…200 of them. Hallelujah, no more paying DMC for their crappy product that only kind of works.
If you can source an stl file or similar for what you want printed. For really small batches, there are people on Etsy who do commissions.
Check your local library system. One of mine has a 3d printer for use.
Getting a model printed is pretty straightforward. There are many online services where you can send a 3D model file and they mail you a print of it. The bigger challenge is the design. Paying a professional to design something for you is going to be very expensive. However, many 3D printing enthusiasts design their own models as a hobby and make them available for free. I would suggest looking on sites like printables and thingiverse for something that suits your needs. If you can find it there, then you can just send the file to a printing service and have it made. Other options would be spend time to learn modeling/design yourself, or find a kind person to do you a favor and design something custom for much less money than a professional would charge.
Thank you! I found pretty much exactly what I’m looking for on printables, so at least I have a starting point.
There are ppl on eBay who will print your stl file for you. I’ve had luck asking sellers who does their stuff.
I sew a bit so ik a small bit about bobbins and idk if a 3d printed one would work well or hold up.It’s not sewing thread bobbins, it’s these - they’re just a thin piece of plastic to start with, so I think 3D printing will work fine. They mostly just sit in a box or on a ring if I’m taking a project with me somewhere.
Oh yes those are super easy to design and print
Not making any money with it but the 3D printer is helping us make money.
I’m working with a windows and door manufacturer that has around 80 employees.
The owner got a 3D printer that runs pretty continuously for at least 30% of the time I would say.
We are doing a lot of drill or assembly jigs with it. We are also sometimes doing assembly parts for custom projects.
Like someone really wants to make something’s with weird angles or hardware that are not compatible together then we can throw a 3D printed part in it to make it work.
Not money as such, but being able to talk about printing made it easier to hang out with one of the production engineering teams at work - their Friday drinks are pretty fun, and the manager has a pretty liberal understanding of what “business expense” means
