Buying a 3000 euro 3D printer for fun and profit, help...

[YPU]

As the title says, I am seriously considering investing roughly 3000 euro's into a form 1+ and I would greatly appreciate you gentleman’s honest opinion on things.

As you could imagine this is a pretty big investment for somebody who is still studying, I could as well buy a cheap car for that money. I'll bring this back to hobby related but I'm going to give a bit of background.
I am a student goldsmith, and should complete my master training coming summer. In the past years I have noticed that many of my classmates are well aware of the potential of 3d drawing and printing but are simply not very talented or interested when it comes to CAD let alone printing. We got mandatory CAD lessons in school and I have become the go to guy for a lot of people on CAD troubles. The general outlook on shapeways is that it’s too expensive for small parts, and the printing detail is too rough. The only big advantage is the fact they started printing wax which can be used for lost wax casting. (The normal method used by goldsmiths)
Note that Form 1 also offers printable organic materials suited for lost wax casting, starting this month or so. I also live in the same town as the school meaning I could print and deliver the mandatory prints everybody has to do at a quicker rate and cutting the delivery cost.

On the other hand, as my membership on this forum should proof, I am also big into Miniatures and model building, and as everybody knows 3d printing is the next big thing for us as well. The discussion on shapeways print quality will probably rage on for a while, but having first hand seen and handled Form 1 prints I can tell you it is far superior, cleaner and takes paint a heck of a lot better.
It should also be noted that due to my goldsmith education I am well-schooled in metallurgy as well as the specifics and limits of many casting methods, and have first hand experience in multiple of them. In addition I have the aforementioned CAD training as well as being educated in designing from customer specified specs.

Looking at some of the 3d printed work in the market, for instance the Vipers by Rebel miniatures, I am sure I could print those at a better quality.
Or the awesome 15mm bots designed by our own sangennaru, which pitiably shapeways won’t let you print. I’ve been doing the calculations in my head and I feel I should be able to print those for him at the same price, better quality.


Now in all of these cases, profit probably would not be huge, especially the miniature part, which for many of the people running a company still is an overly bloated hobby more than a steady income, and I get that. But even then the 3d design and printing market in both fields, gold and lead so to say, is something I think I could make a job in, but only if I get a move on and start building a network and actual experience.

So please, by all means poke holes in my idea. Am I being stupid and misjudging the miniature part of this completely? Or maybe even missing an opportunity somewhere else?

[former user]

So, I guess You are aware of the facts that:
while printing after 3D designed models works very well,
printing after scanned models doesn't yet
this being the reason why
3D sculpting vehicles is the rage right now,
and sculpting living beings not so much, because very few people have the talent to

as soon as the scanning/printing threshhold will fall (software/hardware/handling, whatever)
we will witness an implosion where IP of sculpting is in the line, and hopefully until then we will have a working arrangement for copyrighting 3D models.

With all this in mind, if You have enough work to pay off the investment, go ahead, buy the machine

[YPU]

While scanning it getting better and better it will indeed be a while before you can "simply" scan a object and then print it out again. And even then you would still need a guy with the right skills to optimize your scan. Not unlike models being re-cast today. Its easy to do so with a simple flat model with no undercuts, but once we start talking complex multi part models making your own mold at home becomes a challenge for most.

Also, thanks for replying, this is a big step for me and any feedback is welcome.

[Dewbakuk]

I wouldn't do it purely for miniatures (although you can certainly make money at that if done right) but if you can rely on the work from Uni and local shops then I'd go for it. Offering the ability to print higher quality parts at Shapeways prices will probably go down well here too

Once you've got the machine up and running and you're happy with the production methods then I'd contact those companies (such as Rebel) using these methods with examples. Not all of them would move, even for better product but some would be bound to try it out.

[OSHIROmodels]

If you want to make money, don't do figures. Go into the product design side of things as that's where the money appears to be and it's a vastly bigger market than wargaming figures.

cheers

James

[YPU]

If you want to make money, don't do figures. Go into the product design side of things as that's where the money appears to be and it's a vastly bigger market than wargaming figures.

cheers

James

I think the miniature part of it is offering less of a financial pay, but I expect that partaking in the hobby in this way will be rather satisfying. Like I said I'm aware that the miniature industry is not a pot of gold. But chances are I won't be printing 24/7 when I start so why not work on models in the off time. I think its a bit like buying a company car that you also use for private stuff.

[Archie]

Can you make enough money to upgrade the machine (ie buy a new one) in two years? If not there is a real chance that you would be outclassed by technology in the near future which would effectively kill your business.

Such a problem used to exist in the printing world (2d).