It’s a perfect time to make money in 3D printingwhile it’s still a relatively new concept for many people. Designing and printing 3D products is not mainstream yet and not everyone has a 3D printer at home, you have an opportunity to use your expertise and printer to make some real money. You can cash in on 3D printing in several ways. Even if you don’t own a 3D printer, you can sell your 3D objects or designs or teach other people how to 3D print. Regardless of where you are in the printing or designing process, it takes only a little digging to see how the money can come in. One of the best ways to make money with a 3D printer doesn’t require that you own a 3D printer. If you have designs for a 3D printer that someone with a printer or with access to a printer wants, they might very well purchase your designs.
Rapid prototyping services
The invention of 3D printing has revolutionized the way that many look at the world of manufacturing, and it has created many new avenues of opportunity for innovative entrepreneurs. With additive manufacturing technology, objects can be produced with a high level of customization and complexity while also bringing down costs. Furthermore, there is now the multitool 3D printers that are even more versatile — some even call them all-in-one machines. Additionally, as a skilled designer, you can make items and sell them. For both approaches, you can find robust marketplace communities that help to facilitate your services. One of the top websites for commercial 3D printing is 3D Hubs. You can list your 3D printer as a service here and then take orders and get paid for the items that you produce. All you need to do is start an account with a valid email address, list some details about your printer and you are basically ready to start taking orders. Beyond 3D Hubs, you also have sites like imaterialise and Shapeways. These services are easy to join and also offer many great opportunities for people that are interested in making money with 3D printing. You can join the one that you feel meets your needs best, or you can join a range of different sites to explore more possibilities. With imaterialise, you have a service that caters for people that need their designs produced. They upload their design, pick materials and other specifics and then the team at imaterialise brings the finished product to life.
Rapid prototyping services
I wanted to share a few so you can begin to utilize your new tool as an investment and the start of your next side business. Become an advocate of the technology and this will allow you to meet like-minded people and build a following around your efforts. The initial move when you get your 3D printer is to go sign up on 3D hubs and MakeXYZ — build an account and promote yourself on social media, to all your friends and families, and even to local businesses — you offer 3D services now and have a potential revenue stream from it. You will naturally begin to get business as you get reviews on these sites, but you want to be active outside the 3Dhubs and Makexyz communities to leverage it the best you can. The key here is to create something unique that people actually want to buy. Use 3D printing as an advantage to create design elements that supersede anything already out in the market. Take Meow3D Store for example: They have created a couple of unique 3D printed items like a cool cat faced planter pot for niche audiences and are doing extremely well! This is the type of thinking you need to have with your Etsy store. Some ideas: Create the coolest 3D printed fins for surfers, create heart inspired pieces for couples- you get the drift. Create a Shapeways shop. If you have the chops to create some cool unique pieces, then you have a chance to have a successful little side business. Here is some pendants and necklaces from other designers to check out. And go ahead, browse other categories to see what the community of designers are creating. Go around and offer local product-based companies the opportunity to print prototypes. You would be surprised that even with companies that have expensive 3D printers already. The need is there — to be able to produce quickly and having a local resource for them doing all the work. Go to a local makerspace and offer to teach a paid 3D printing class there.
Use your 3D expertise to make money
Peter Weijmarshausen runs Shapewaysan innovative manufacturing company that has been around since Shapeways is unique because it uses 3D printing to allow anyone to create a custom-designed product ranging from art, jewelery, iPhone cases, trinkets, toys, cuff links, mugs, and anything else you can imagine.
A custom bottle opener designed by a Shapeways member Shapeways. If you really like your creation, you can use Shapeways to sell it to anyone you like. Think of it as Etsy for people who make their stuff using 3D printers. Shapeways has produced over 1 million 3D printed products and there are currently over 8, Shapeways shops in existence.
It’s surprising that with more than 6 billion product variations that Shapeways’ production process isn’t extremely complicated. In fact, the way Shapeways works is simple, Shapeways sets a production cost, and you can mark it up as much as you want and that sets the final price. Depending on the material, customers will receive their items within business days.
Shapeways even ships your product to customers for you and at the end of the month you get all the profits your item. Shapeways will always charge you the same price if you want to sell your item or not. A custom 3D coin necklace.
There are actually pennies inside. Shapeways Weijmarshausen says that people are unhappy with mass-produced goods and that consumers want to be involved in the design process allowing intimate customization and personalization to the products they buy. Shapeways’ person workforce isn’t trying to simply bring 3D printing capabilities to the mainstream, it is trying to change the way manufacturing works.
The amount of users already taking advantage of Shapeways is a testament to the model working. I do not think that we should talk to much about the technology because in the end what you’re getting is this beautiful item. Do we really care if a gift is 3D printed or not? I do think we should understand that this new type of tech is working. I think that Shapeways is an advancement in personalized gifts.
I am more passionate about the end results. A custom iPhone case made using Shapeways. With Shapeways the concept of starting a business has changed. Entrepreneurs can come up with an idea, model it, test it, start a shop on Shapeways free of charge, and have immediate access to a lot of customers.
We don’t care if you make one, 10, or We see more and more small businesses using Shapeways in this exact way. PW: One of the very important things that we found is materials. We already have over 30 different types of materials from the widest varieties including plastics, stainless steel, silver, ceramics, and more in all kinds of colors and finishes.
In we want to bring even more materials to our customers. We also want to improve the quality of these materials. Next to that, I think our website can always be improved so that we can get users the features they want so it’ll be easier to understand and anybody who wants to get a product they care about can get it.
We also just announced a factory in Long Island City. Shapeways 3D printing brings manufacturing back into the city making it local. Building out this factory for us is very important. It cuts our costs allowing us to share the savings with the community. I don’t believe that we should make stuff on one side of the world and then ship it back. As we grow, we’re going to open more factories and bring things back local using high tech manufacturing. BI: Do you see companies like MakerBot as competition or allies?
PW: Definitely not competition. I think the home printer is an amazing marketing tool lots of people to get into 3D printing just like with the home paper printer.
At home you can print in any color you want but you can’t necessarily get all of the materials you might want to use. A lot of people prototype at home then use Shapeways for higher quality materials. I also think that having a home printer is definitely for the tech savvy. Its not for everyone yet so again people see the home 3D printer and they’re amazing but this is where we come in. That’s why we want to make the use of 3D printers as easy as possible enabling people to make products instead of simply using 3D printers.
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How to make money with a 3D Printer… Realistically. — Part 1 (2019)
Commercial 3D printing and selling items
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