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? 🤔
No my printer only eats money.
… and poops out failed prints/spaghetti?
There are still people not into FDM that could profit from it so there is still a market:
- Run a local business that offers quick turnarounds. e.g. send it before 6 p.m. and production will start before 8 p.m. same day with early morning delivery if possible: The engineer finishes a design in the afternoon and has it the next morning on his desk ready to go. On your end it means once you get home do a little work. Sleep and deliver the order on your way to work.
- The next strength is service. You run it. You know the process. You can guide them and answer any questions they have.
- Offer basic CAD design work. This allows you to catch customers who have ideas but not the required knowledge.
- underpromise, overdeliver
- If you are into CNC milling offer hybrid manufacturing. Gain excellence and you have some very valuable knowledge.
- Don’t take money out of the business at the start. Build up a reserve for the rainy day that will come (!!!) and keep reinvesting in new capabilities or improving your current offering. Once you reach a decent machine park pay yourself. Don’t forget to dedicate some funds for experiments: Keep innovating as otherwise you will fall behind and some new guy that’s hungry will replace you.
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 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.
Grey area would be selling the plastic part and let the customer source a broadly available electronics/LED. The next option is design work and let somebody else figure out what is in demand and how to sell it.
For example, design it with LED strip in mind and have a small storage compartment for the controller and a strain relief in your print for the cable/connector to socket into.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.”
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?
What you are describing is simply being a design engineer. That’s what I do and I take on side projects once in a while. It’s not worth my time to simply 3D print things for people. The printer is simply a tool used for prototyping.
How do you come across those side projects?
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…
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.
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?
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.
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:
I made like €25 (revenue, not profit), does that count? Profit is in the negative.
That counts in my book! I’m sure the learning experience far outweighs any money you out into it
I design, print and sell accessories for filmmaking and Steadicam.
I make money, but I produce entire products that use a 3D printed enclosure along with electronic components and code that I write. Just trying to sell something you printed seems like a terrible business plan.
