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Thread
: Figures
MTF - to - HACKS Adapters
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07-11-2019, 09:32 AM
Zap Rowsdower
A Makeupless Clown
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Ohio
Posts: 5,244
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Adventure Fun
Outstanding! Why haven't you purchased one of the $200 HD LCD 3D printers yet? I would guess it would make your iterations so much faster (and cheaper!).
Thanks!
Since you asked, I'll dump a truckload of explanation on you.
I haven't bought a printer yet for a few reasons. First, I don't really know which printers are best and I don't want to be in a buyer's remorse situation or in a situation where I feel like I need to buy a second printer of the same type just because it can do one little thing that the one I bought can't do. If I'm going to buy a filament printer it needs to be a "one and done" purchase. I would want one that can do ABS filament and is able to print fine detail, smooth finish, and relatively large format...all to the extent reasonably possible for a filament printer and all at an economical price. No sweat, right?
Second, if I'm buying printers, sooner or later I know I'm going to be tempted to buy a resin printer and that's going to require a UV curing booth as well. That means more space and more money on printing peripherals...plus I'm not sure if I even want the toxic resin and printing fumes anywhere near my home.
Third, any printing I do at home won't really help with mechanically functional parts that I will list on Shapeways because print tolerances and material properties won't be the same. A VERY large part of the reason I have to do so much versioning is because of the compactibility of the sintered nylon material. That same compaction property also allows flexibility which helps a lot for ball/socket applications so it's not like it's all bad news there. It's just the price I have to pay to work in that material.
Honestly, the reason I don't have revisions pumped out once per week until the product is ready for primetime is mostly due to me not wanting to waste the $5 shipping on single, small-batch prints. It would end up costing me usually a **minimum** of $12 per revision run that way so if I can cut $5 out of that by combining shipping (just spend $19 or so for two batches together instead of $24 to buy them separately) then that's what I tend to do. A lot. That makes a lot of things take months instead of weeks, but it cuts a lot of shipping fees for me. I don't see much business on any of this stuff (adapters, diorama pieces, or reproduction parts) so I'm not motivated to spend more to rush new product out. I tend to pinch pennies on development wherever I can 'cause I don't break even on most of items I develop - not even considering the cost of my time, just the cost of my test prints. Frankly, the adapters have been funding the reproduction parts so far. I'm willing to "donate" the time as long as the prints keep funding themselves. But even adapter sales are in the tank for months now so we'll have to see how much longer I can keep this concept going. Shapeways jacked up their pricing which cuts down my markup since I keep trying to keep the price low and stable. Low sales volume on relatively low-markup items means this operation is running on fumes.
But...
enough crying in my beer. I'll hopefully be testing the Joe leg adapters later today and I'll post the results.
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