If you bought a 3D printer for personal use, was it worth it?
I was thinking about this question today as someone used our work printer for some personal stuff.
As for me, I am printing little things that I would say make it worth it. I've printed lens adapters for my camera for example. That's worth a good 14 to 30 bucks per print. My most favorite photo was with an adapted lens that came from a projector. I also printed IEMs and those things are worth it. Listening to music is second to none on those things. Plus I printed the same shell but for ear protection and again the fit is perfect and sure there's post processing to get smooth surfaces but in the end it looks like a professional made it. So I think 3d printers are worth it.
I wouldn't buy a printer to try and be profitable per say, I would buy one for the things you cant/don't want to buy. If you can use some 3d modeling software, you can begin to solve problems for almost no money.
Stuff like a vape holder and extended cup holder for my partners car, or a couple little shelf brackets for our IKEA cubes, or replacement closet rod supports. It takes a few minutes in CAD, a couple hours or printing, and 15¢ of plastic, and saves a trip to the store. Making custom, exactly how you want stuff is really nice.
Knick nacks are fun too, but ultimately your house will fill with things you don't particularly want or use.
My first printer was a self built reprap from parts from aliexpress in college.
I then helped fund peachy on kickstarter and a stupid poured resin counterweighted printer called the Phoenix.
I then had an Geeetech A10M, a Prusa Mk2 and ender 3, as well as one resin printer.
All I have left is the Prusa mk2 that hasn't worked right for over a year and doesn't print anything.
I would buy a new printer in a heartbeat if I could afford it.
I definitely have never made back my money. To many dumb purchases and early generation jank all over the place but it was fun. The first thing I ever did with my first hand built printer was make a lithopane of my deceased dog and eventually my grandfather.
I've made so many stupid things and spent so much time on it as a hobby that it filled my days with activities, reason to communicate with others and frustrating nights all alike. Its not for everyone and its not really a good idea but if you have the means or like a hobby of tinkering and building in the modern world there is very little experience like it.
My first printer was a self built reprap from parts from aliexpress in college.
my first was a hacked inkjet printer with my mom's PVA hotglue gun strapped to the print head. (should have seen my dad's face when he asked if he could have his printer back, so he could print some tax documents. His mistake. he should have known by then to ask what I wanted it for. I'm not sure mom ever figured out what happened to her hotglue gun...)
I also remember the industrial tech/graphics design teacher in highschool being like "Uh. cool. but why?" (and then being like, "HEY can you bring it in for the class? ! that's actually really cool")
I built my own because they were quite expensive, lots of fun but very little real use at all. I'm planning on reviving it because it's lots of fun to tinker with.
Not really. I purchased one with pretty significant maintenance/process requirements, had I gotten one a little more seamless (self leveling/etc) I think I'd use it far more often than I do now.
Tried! Added one of those white barrel self leveling poke tools (can't remember specifically what they're called). It was a huuuuuge pain in the ass and only works about 50% of the time oddly, lol.
My 3D printer does occasionally prove itself useful. I print stuff to help me out in the shop, adapters for shop vacs, tool holders, stuff like that. I could do without it but it is a useful tool to have.
Haven’t made any money from mine nor did I ever intend to. Well, the thought has crossed my mind, but I get more of a thrill out of the looks on peoples’ faces when I gift them something off my machine at no cost to them.
My girlfriend has recently been asking for a lot of customized crochet needle hooks for her collection. They’re not hard at all to design and then send off to the printer. She’s so excited and tells everyone about them and how much she adores them. She’s crocheted me a blanket which I adore too.
I have made a lot of practical things for myself. I don’t know if any of it would ever make up for the amount of money I invested into the 3D printer, monetarily speaking, but the amount of time and energy saved has been worth it when I really needed something custom made and on the fly. The creativity and knowledge built up from using this has also been a plus. Been a nice talent to grow and expand upon and a neat thing to bring up to people.
Buying a 3d printer and learning CAD is unlocking a super power. You can put something from your brain into the real world. It's great for hyper specific parts.
This is the crazy part for me. Sometimes I’ll just sit there and stare at a part I designed and printed and just be in awe that this was in my brain a few hours ago and now I’m actually holding it in my hands. Well maybe not this exactly, but as close as I could come to what I was thinking of.
The Ender probably wasn't. It was a lot of effort, and mostly not the interesting kind, and fairly little reward. Although when it worked, it was really good. In the end. Sometimes. And it's way too big.
The Kingroon, very much yes. It's cheap, kind of trashy, but compact. Just prints stuff. Parts detach great. Works just about every time. Quiet out of the box. Just kind of annoying to preheat at the start and end of the session to load and unload filament. Very annoying touchscreen. But those are minor things and I'm not tempted to fix it or upgrade anything. I have actual projects to do. Too many actual projects to do.
Oh, and why? Custom parts that are impossible to buy and a lot of work or impossible to machine or fabricate otherwise. Saves a trip to the local library or hackerspace or wherever things could be printed.
95% of my problems went away when I took the thing completely apart (like, further apart than what it comes in the box), and rebuilt it from scratch, making sure every bolt was tight, every moving part was free,corners perfectly cornered, etc.
I think it had just enough factory misalignment and loseness in a few key areas that compounded to cause me tons of headaches.
That, plus a few cheap upgrades (steel bed and better bed springs) really erased almost all the mechanical issues.
Literally use it every day for a year now but It's also an extensions for My other hobby. Also Great way to make presents for people.
Before I got a printer I made a list of things I planned to make for it. I suggest doing the same before buying one. That way is can help figure out the size you want too.
100%. I've printed some cool stuff and some stupid stuff, as well as a bunch of functional parts that have improved my life around my house. More importantly it's given me a huge creative outlet to get more and more outlandish with my CAD designs and push my experience limits, which is great because that helps me be a lot more efficient at work.
Financially it was a total waste of money but that doesn't matter when it's a hobby. A hobby with practical marketable skills, and also the ability to let me prototype some independent ideas I've been brewing for a while to maybe sell for some side cash...
For many, it's a hobby. For many more, it's an adjunct to whatever hobby they do have. Hobby's don't have to save you money; and I'm militantly opposed to monetizing hobbies as a way to "justify" them.
Personally, I'm mostly 3d printing custom components (that I've designed), for R/C aircraft of various sorts. (Like, my cyclogyros, or the flying saucer powered by a 3d printed ducted fan; which is, more or less, a scaled model of the saucer from the OG Day The Earth Stood Still. or the thermal airship using toaster wire that has taken on a lot of different forms, ranging from 20' star destroyers to whale sharks to a robot named Buoyant Bob that hands out candy on Halloween.)
I also enjoy 3d printing as a hobby, in of itself, too. (and spend waaayyyyy too much tinkering on the printer. its fun.) But it doesn't have to save me money, and I feel no need to compare it to other forms of hobbies. It's what I enjoy.
edit: lets put this in perspective. This would be like asking a golfer if they found golf worth it. the only real questions are "Do I enjoy it" and "can I afford it". not "can it save me a buck".
Depends on how you define "worth it." Have I spent less money on the printer than I would have buying things I printed? Probably not. However, it has been a blast and great learning experience. Most recently printed landing skids and a camera shroud for a friend's dji drone which is pretty cool.
Learn to model things in CAD. That's what is limiting me from getting real use out of my printer. It's fun to print models you find online, but the real value is in printing your own designs.
I think you shouldn't forget that we're here at c/3dprinting, where only enthusiasts join together. Of course everyone here is a huge fan of 3D printers, those who got frustrated and sold their device aren't here anymore.
First of all, I'm very happy about having a printer, but more onto that later.
I had two ones yet, and both sucked.
The first was older, shitty and way too big. I wasted many weekends tinkering with that crap, until I accidentally destroyed it and sold it.
My second one is the one I still use. It's a device from China, and the company doesn't exist anymore. So, if I want to buy replacement parts, I can just pray generic ones fit. And the customer support has always been shit, and the whole company and products seem very wonky in hindsight.
If I would have to buy another printer, it would definitely be something popular, like a Prusa one. It should be very small, silent and easily repairable. I don't care anymore about fancy features (maybe except auto leveling), it should just not annoy me.
Having a printer is like having a drill or soldering iron. You don't need it daily, but you're glad that you have it when you need it. And my friends are too! I'm printing more for my family, neighbours and friends than for myself.
Having a printer without CAD skills is nonsense. But once you can create your own stuff, you have endless capabilities.
I print all kinds of usefull stuff.
Custom installation panel for after market navigator/media center for my car, upholstery fasteners for the same, custom panels for usb button box, cable organizers for lan cabling, newspaper reading stand, you name it.
Might not be financially feasible, but it's fun.
I started 14ish years ago in 3D printing; it's literally my career now. Though, I didn't buy it...technically. I had recently had a major life experience cause me to reach out to find a way of educating myself - where I found a hackerspace (now they all call themselves makerspaces). They told me all about the RepRap project, and how the idea behind it was 3D printers printing 3D printers.
I was sold. I'll buy the plastic and we can print it on the sells mendel! No dice. Sells mendel was broke. I was given an opportunity -- If I could fix the sells mendel and make it print again, I could use the plastic to print the parts to a Prusa Mendel; Josef Prusa's first contribution to the RepRap project.
So -- I'm a pretty bright guy, I went home, and researched for a week until the next meetup, and eventually built a profile for a program called "Skeinforge" (it's the slicer we used back then) that would run the Sells Mendel really nicely.
So I printed my PLA parts for the Prusa Mendel, bought a bunch of threaded rod, etc from Home Depot, scavenged old office printers for stepper motors, and had a really nice guy named Dave donate a self-etched RAMPS board that had absolutely no solder mask on it whatsoever. Then I learned Arduino, and initially used Sprinter and Teacup firmware, self-teaching electronics basics along the way. Bought my first print head; a Legitimate J-head from hotends.com (they still sell them!) - and started re-printing my Prusa Mendel in Black/Blue themed ABS; on plain glass painted with ABS slurry. Aleph-Objects modifications of the Prusa!...which was the beginning of Lulzbot! Josef Prusa used to hang out on Freenode IRC as just one of the dudes; and I can't thank others in the community enough -- Triffid_Hunter, Nophead, Whosawhatsis, Prusa, Vik, and others I've since forgotten... I got personal help from these guys in a time where information was sparse. They're my heroes in a way. None of them except Whosawhatsis would probably remember me, but I also helped others down the line. Thomas Sanladerer and I were the primary drivers of the G+ 3D printing community (growing it to over 5k daily active users!), and he went on to do his YouTube channel "Made In Layers". Gina Haubage was there too, helping people out. If any of you know Loubie (Aria the dragon, etc), we all caused a major stink when her art was being sold on Ebay, and helped a bunch of other creators as well.
Back when I started -- everything had to be figured out from scratch. The community was just getting started. Sadly nobody even knows what RepRap is any more. I'm kind of pissed off that East Coast RepRap is renaming itself to "3D Printopia"...just a little slap in the face it feels like.
Now, 3D printers have gotten so good that nobody cares about learning about the machine any longer; they just want plastic crap to come out of it -- but it started the path to all of the electromechanical, microcontroller, and programming knowledge I've gained. So yeah; absolutely worth it.
The biggest complaint I have about this new second-generation owner of 3D printers, is that they're all enthusiastic and wanting to help -- but most of the shit I see from this group is all bullshit. It's the same wives-tales that we thought in the beginning, and worked through, and moved past. I see it all resurfacing again.
Like drying PLA for example. I've got 5kg roll of some galaxy purple that I bought back when filament didn't even come on rolls; and I print little things here and there with it -- it sits on my garage floor in an open bin, and still prints wonderfully to this day. CHEP - The YouTube channel? He's an actual fucking scumbag; selling a PCB with a button and a light on it for $25 and pawning it off as some sort of tool to help people "level their enders" -- when the real solution is fixing how the machine is built. I repair these things, and dipshits like him are what cause so many to be frustrated and give up. He almost understands it, but he posts things with such confidence, that others follow what he says, and inevitably come to me to fix it. I appreciate that he wants to be helpful, but to truly be helpful you have to be pedantic and succinct in your instructions, and he just isn't.
Hell yes! I make a lot of things and having this ability really expanded on that.
I should point out that anyone interested in anything more than printing trinkets found on the Internet will also have to learn 3d drafting, at least to some extent. Bear that in mind.
Definitely worth it. Sometimes I make little things, like I got a new tool that has a difficult adjustment, but printing a knob made it comfortable to use. I got a new phone last week and couldn't find a rubberized case I liked, so I designed and printed one this weekend which fits snugly and provides a much better grip. I've made cases for other projects, even built a weather station. The biggest project I've done is a star tracker (OpenAstroTech) which holds my camera, most recently used during the eclipse in April. Sometimes my printer may sit idle for almost a year, sometimes it prints constantly for several weeks, but it is a very useful tool worthy of a permanent location on my workbench.
It's probably made up its worth in repairs, which is one of the main reasons I bought it. Haven't had to buy new things or overpriced repair parts. Also making fun presents for family, friends, teachers, or kids. For the relatively cheap price I got mine for, totally worth it.
My first 3d printer was a xmas gift from my partner and its been a blast to tinker with, I have found it useful for printing parts, toys, parts, all sorts of stuff. I purchased a much larger one so I can do larger and faster prints, and while I think the build has been worth it, I would NOT recommend buying the FYSETC kit I did.
I print figurines, busts, and diorama scenery for my son and I to paint. Sure I've got my share of functional prints but most my print time is spent so I can spend creative time with my son. So very much worth it for me.
I got an Ender 3v2 and for two years was trying to just get it to work properly, repairing it, and learning about printing. After all of that I've enjoyed having an okay printer, but I'm a bit jealous of everyone starting out now that won't have to deal with all of the garbage I did. And I'm sure people who started years before me felt the same when the Enders came out. If not for those annoyances, yes it's been worth it.
I'm in the same situation - started with the same printer, put money and parts into it to get it to be reliable, and now I can just login to Octoprint and send something with 99% of prints just working. I wipe the build plate down, blast it with a few squeezes of canned air, and it just works.
But now these kids and their Bambus and multi-color print abilities...get off my lawn. Seriously, kids, you're in my light and I'm trying to get this hotend adjusted....
LOL we got an ender at work too. That thing is so going to be dragged down the freeway one day. It's gathering dust these days. Yup they keep on coming up with more interest stuff. Like the only reason I got into it was because they came up with water soluble resins. Like no way I'm keeping gallons of alcohol at home.
It's not like I make or save a lot of money from it, but as a hobby it's been amazingly fun. Getting into basic 3D modeling has been really cool too, nothing quite hits like making something entirely unique and designed for a specific purpose, then watching your printer just crank it out in a day or two and your imagined thing is all the sudden real.
I'm sure other hobbies can do that too, but for me it was a really awesome feeling :)
Yes absolutely. I'm sure the hobby hasn't paid for itself, but I never expected it to. It has been worth it because of the amount of happiness I have spread with personalized gifts and a feeling of satisfaction when I make a print to fix something around the house or make life a little easier or more convenient. The little toys and doo-dads are great and the kids love them too.
I say to people : if you're interested in 3D printing, you need two hobbies. 3D printing and anything else. The second hobby can be repairing things, a sport (spearfishing for me), board games, electronics, etc.
I started with a 100€ very small 3D printer for years (Tina2) and that was so worth it. Now I have a Bambulab with AMS and it's night and day.
Yes, being able to design something and have it in my hands it a few hours definitely makes it worth it. With 3D printing services it takes days or weeks and they get expensive fast.
For the first 3 years I had fun designing things in CAD. I fixed up or enhanced loads of the things around the house, designed some doodads and widgets, and published the ones that I though other people might have use for. And I had fun earning Prusa meters, participating in forums, and all that kind of stuff.
Then one day, I just ran out of things to fix and inspiration for new doohickeys. That was about a year ago. I tried to print a replacement keyboard food a week ago and found my printers not working anymore. I haven't found the motivation to do anything about it yet.
I didn't ultimately get around to completing the two projects that I initially had in mind, and the amount of tweaking and troubleshooting required for basic functionality was pretty substantial.
On the other hand, I did enjoy learning about the state of the technology, even if it wasn't very productive.
I find mine worth it. So many things I've had to replace entirely just because some random plastic part would break, but I can just replace the broken plastic part now. Custom light switch and electrical outlet covers, custom keyboard key caps, case shells for various things (like phones and controllers), not to mention all the unique things others have engineered specifically for 3D printing like the Lego-like organizing containers that are infinitely scalable.
I'd say definitely. The first useful thing I printed was during the pandemic where all the paper towels you could get were those z fold ones you see in office building bathrooms. Suffice to say, most people don't have a container at home for those types of paper towels, so I mocked one up that was like a home tissue box and printed it out. Saved myself 80+$ on making one instead of buying one on Amazon (also they're all wall mounted and I didn't want to do that)
Since then I've printed toilet paper roll holders, plant pots, catch all bowls, insulated drink holders, tie racks, jewelry racks and boxes, all manner of things I use almost every day, and I've learned about 3d modeling as a result (not really good yet but still) so win win.
Edit: I'd say at this point I've definitely printed more than how much the printer costed in terms of things I use. Printing mini figures and scenery for tabletop games alone has exceeded the cost it would have been to buy that stuff.
Yes I have an fdm and a resin printer, but they've both got a lot of good use and yes absolutely worth it.
When you say you printed IEMs and ear protection, are you able to elaborate?
In my case I've only just gotten into FDM, and I'm having a lot more fun with it than my resin printer, but I might have made enough things for the resin printer that might make that a lot less of a chore.
So far, the FDM has been handy with quite a few functional prints around the house (certainly not yet enough that I can say it's cheaper than just buying the items outright, but we're getting close!), and that's been an enjoyable process.
At home I print SLA. I did the whole ear danger enchilada....go to home Depot, get caulking silicone I tube.....I hear you scrolling away....then I tested the quick silicone recipe where you mix flour into the caulking. Once tested and guaranteed to work, I mixed a batch and stuck it in my ears. I used a portion of a foam plug to plug the inner ear shut. Then with a stick in my mouth I waited for 15 minutes. The result were excellent impressions of my ears. Then I used meshlab and my DSLR to do photogrammetry and output an STL. Then to freeCAD to output a STEP file. Next to UGNX to create a surface model of the IEMs. I ended up making one and flipping/mirror to make the other and it worked better than the impression of that one. Did some test prints in gray for fit. Then I bought some cheap earphones and took the armatures out to make the IEMS. I have several sets now. One was a simple cast on places earphones set. The others are using the IEM as a hole to which they just snap into place. And I got another where I bought cheap IEMs and I modeled the inner parts so I could just use them in my IEMs. freeCAD would probably have worked too. The finish of the part doesn't have to be perfect because you're going to sand it and polish it or sand it and dip it into resin to then cure with a UV lamp. I'm super satisfied and the thing is that I can pretty much design any other thing that attaches to my ear...as funny as that sounds.
It would be worth it if I had an actual decent printer. As it stands now, I feel like I just wasted money because all I can print small, pla objects, after days of trial and error and adjusting settings. Saving up for a prusa, hopefully will make it worth it.