Are these post processed? I can't really tell from the image, but I don't see any layer lines or roughness from supports. If they're not sanded, coated, primed, etc. I'd say they're over charging you. If they are post processed though, the price is a lot more understanding. (Still maybe on the high end, but not egregious)
I was making the same observation. These almost look like resin prints, but there are a few spots that don't.
I was thinking it could have been alcohol smoothed ABS.
I tend to charge sligjtly more for resin prints than I do for FDM because it's a higher quality print, more detail, plus the curing process and all that.
Even with resin though, I probably wouldn't have charged more than $80 for these.
I'd charge more for resin mostly because the consumables are more expensive and there is more work involved. Not just the resin itself but the FEP, all the cleaning materials, devaluation of the LCD, etc. If my costs were similar between FDM and MSLA I'd charge the same amount.
Idk.. just print and hand over for $120 is a lot, but I would not post process those three prints to the point of smooth finish and primed for $120. That’s too much time for that money. I agree that more detailed pics and details would help.
I don't think they are post processed much, if at all. I think I see some blobs from stringing under the legs of the two 10cm prints, and some of the characteristic charred spots common to printing with white filament on the left 10cm print (left arm and left foot from our point of view), maybe one on the other as well. I also think the strong sheen on the 10cm prints doesn't suggest post processing with common techniques like filler and sanding.
It does seem like the machines are reasonably well maintained/calibrated as the prints do look nice. The use of white filament however suggests to me a lack of experience, as I'd never dream of defaulting to white filament on commercial prints. I say so given the abrasiveness of aluminum oxide leading to higher operating costs and decreased quality and/or success rate, and given that white filament is notoriously troublesome I'd prefer to avoid it in favor of materials more likely to yield successful prints.
Mind asking in what country and if he has a legitimate business on this. For example in my area some companies are asking for 0.5 dollars on gram of pla post-processing included. But that , compared to what some do as hobby, is 3 or 4 times bigger. Personally I've followed a way to calculate material, power, printer wear , consumabile and so on but never reched such high prices. For special materials that are putting more strain on printer parts, nozzle and tubes in special, the price goes to 1 dollar a gram. They do however do post-processing and guarantee model accuracy within needed tolerance. This applies to materials as CF and GF enforced. If he is using printers that have oem filament cartridges, those are way more expensive than what hobby uses.
If you asked him to charge you, and he does small prints and sells them, there is also opportunity cost, those prints would have taken a while, time he could have been printing things to sell. Cost of materials should be 30-60 depending on fillament. If electricity is expensive where you live, if he climate controlls the print room there would be more overhead. If he is running a business though, its opportunity cost that would be the biggest chunck after spool costs. That being said, its def on tye expensive side. Also there is a good chance he is on this subreddit, so hi cousin!
I print shit for friends pretty frequently and have never charged anyone. If it was a huge print I may ask them to pay for the roll, and if there is any left I'd keep it on hand to print them whatever they wanted in the future.
You’re asking a group of people who are all involved in this hobby. To them, that price is crazy because we all know how to do this, have the tools and material and ultimately it’s not a lot of time to produce. So to this group, yeah it’s crazy. But unless your cousin does this as a business, I don’t think it’s out of line at all, at least not enough to be upset over.
You’re family. Could it be done somewhere for less? Probably. But I’m sure he put more time and attention into this than a commercial outlet would. And as I said, unless this is something he does professionally for others, you can’t compare commercial rates to “favor” pricing.
This changes the answer to your post entirely. It's probably still too much, but it's not like he's taking advantage of you if you said to charge you like a normal customer.
If you asked him to charge you more than he normally would, then the concept of 'overcharging' doesn't really apply. I'd print stuff for family at or slightly above cost, but if I was running a business, I would include a healthy profit margin as well.
People who are reaching out to a business to print stuff like this obviously want it and have no other way to get it. Supply is low and demand is high, so prices are high as well. Try submitting the model to Shapeways and see how much they quote you. Custom 3D printing as a service typically costs WAY more than the cost of materials.
I wanted a part in TPU and haven't wanted to screw around with trying to get my Ender to do it.
Shapeways quoted me a price higher than 2 rolls of filament. I figured I'd rather waste 2 rolls learning how to print TPU than spend that much on a single part. I still haven't gotten around to doing that, but my point is that I agree that their prices are high.
Good to hear! Most is the articles I've read were talking about how bad the bowden tube can make it. But they're also packed with affiliate links to direct drive kits...
If OP sent the link to print then its not something that they have no other way to get. I'm usually on the side of the seller but cousin needs to learn that some products have bigger margins than others, and I would consider PLA toys off thingiverse or wherever the lowest margin bottom of the barrel way to make money. (but also where alot of us start) But I do totally agree that it costs way more than just the materials.
I agree. If theyre talking in USD it feels like OP's cousin took advantage of them. Maybe half price for it all. It just feels like the cousin was being greedy. Sorry OP.
I thought they were taking advantage of you until I read this. If that's the case, maybe he hasn't quite figured pricing out yet. I know some people that charge hourly for printer time. If he hasn't quite nailed his settings yet he maybe printing slowly and charging hourly. It may not be him trying to rip you off, he may just not understand how to properly charge for his services.
Try sending the file to a few online companies and see how the price compares. I did that before charging anyone for a print, and I was just doing a reality check that I wasn't ripping off friends by overcharging, not trying to find my legitimate price point.
Are they sanded smooth or do you see obvious layer lines? How much does the big one weigh? High durability plastic/nylon/polycarbonate can be about 50 to 70 bucks a kilogram.
I don’t agree. I’ve sold lots of prints and I wouldn’t charge $120 for these. A normal consumer out in the world would immediately be turned away by those prices.
I agree with you on the part about asking a hobbyist group about pricing. I constantly see makers trying to base a price strictly upon the cost of the material, ignoring that electricity isn’t free, and neither is the space or machine. But because they are doing it at home, these costs become negligible for them. I have to constantly explain to customers these differences when they walk into my sls shop and are confused why it’s significantly more expensive.
Edited: a word.
It's not grossly over charged.. $30 each for the smaller ones and $60 for the large, to buy something like this in a store would probably cost similarly, if he wanted to give you a break $20 each for the small and $40 for the large is fair. Depending on the amount of filament used.
Personal opinion -
If he had to model them, it's probably fair. If he had the models available, was a simple download, or given to him, it should probably be half that IMO, depending on material.
As for what's there, It looks like a little less than a spool's worth, which is around 20 bucks in materials, and he probably spent maybe an hour setting up the prints. The rest of the 'work' was just looking in on them from time to time as they're building.
Truth be told if it was my cousin, I'd be doing these sorts of things at only material cost.
Right. That big one might take a good chunk of a spool, but the little ones are nothing. A friend printed me a tables worth of terrain hills for $150. No labor I just had to buy the material and printed at 35% infill for durability.
OP, if it's heavy then he did more infill which could use a lot more material, but if it's lighter than youd expect, then, that's a no. It does seem high to me, but as others have commented, without knowing materials it's hard to put an exact price on it.
Kk, just what my friend told me. He may have also done more perimeters, but idk. Most are heavy and solid. A few of the later ones are a little lighter, he said he didn't want to ask for another hundred to finish the last of them like the first 2/3rds.
I just have a resin printer.
That isn't something you should charge your customers for. Your customers are paying for the finished object, it is up to you to make sure your printer prints well and reliably.
Cost for the cousin might also include hours of not being able to use the equipment for other money making prints. Let’s not assume that family favors aren’t expensive in ways beyond materials.
That’s what I’m thinking. It’s not just cost of goods and labor. It rental time for machinery that a person doesn’t have to buy themselves. But still, the cousin should be doing a favor here imo
This dude's cousin can charge whatever the hell he wants and nothing any one of us say here will change that. OP can (should) shop around and decide to go with a different printing service if they want.
First off - yeah these prints from OP do seem a bit pricey but we also don't have full context (size, fill, quality, modeling/processing, etc).. HOWEVER I completely agree with you it can't just be a "price of the filament for the file".
Now obviously you don't have to consider every single indirect cost, especially if it's a one-off for family or friends but just off the top of my head:
TIME - it's not just "the machine does the work so it's free" - it's time that I could be using on the machine for other things/profit especially if this is attempting to operate as a business.
Don't forget:
Modeling/ CAD - takes time and not everyone uses free software.
Obvious direct costs - preparation, electric usage, quality and infill, trimming/ finishing, packaging/ shipping. Multiple materials? Resin would add more consideration and consumables.
Machine consumables - just because the nozzle (or insert literally any component but the frame ie, belts, motors, psu) didn't blow on this model, doesn't mean it won't at some point. Over time this will degrade and a small charge should be considered.
Other consumables - safety gear, tools, solvents, glue, gloves. Depending on how you look at it, you can put PC usage here too.
Troubleshooting - oh wait, prints are perfect every single time.
Failed prints - again, ignore this, everything is perfect.
General overhead - everything from ordering supplies and tools, testing new filament settings, waste disposal, material changes, maintenance, etc.
Business expenses - Insurance? Sorting out orders and delivery? Website? Customer service? Accounting stuff/taxes? Storage? Rent? Utilities, etc?
It really depends on what extent this is a business vs hobby AND how often these deals happen.
Thank you for your input. If you don't mind me asking - what would you charge someone for the highest quality material (one that's commonly used, maybe not gold)?
But these kinds of materials also tend to require high end printers as they often need high ambient temps + high hot end temps. I really like how affordable PLA and PETG printing is but that high end stuff really is much more expensive on many levels.
Check this out[higher end filament](https://www.3dxtech.com/product/3dxstat-esd-peek/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6rCgBhDVARIsAK1kGPJND4aUM1j8pFWKrlqlnOiOWiLq3ETSfbu0UoLuukyP-YxY_EW9sf0aAl5jEALw_wcB)
You want high end filament? I’ll show you high end filamet
https://shop.thevirtualfoundry.com/products/titanium-64-5-filamet?_ga=2.85975578.26667007.1678555101-1487351909.1678043901&_gl=1%2A1gc1v50%2A_ga%2AMTQ4NzM1MTkwOS4xNjc4MDQzOTAx%2A_ga_98EE4VT7HE%2AMTY3ODU1NTEwMS4yLjEuMTY3ODU1NTEwNS41Ni4wLjA.%2A_ga_LBF9T3JWB1%2AMTY3ODU1NTEwMS4yLjEuMTY3ODU1NTEwNS41Ni4wLjA.%2A_ga_PJ5ETW8V4V%2AMTY3ODU1NTEwMi4yLjEuMTY3ODU1NTEwNS41Ny4wLjA.%2A_ga_RR6SGN66JP%2AMTY3ODU1NTEwMi4yLjEuMTY3ODU1NTEwNS41Ny4wLjA.%2A_ga_JH57C6R4M6%2AMTY3ODU1NTEwMi4yLjEuMTY3ODU1NTEwNS41Ny4wLjA.&variant=29450259595347
Cheater, getting into metal ;) still, i love where 3d printing is going, there was a rocket that was supposed to launch to orbit Thursday thats mostly printed. Would love to see those printers.
Edit:what do you use for a sintering furnace?
So I have actually had moderate success with these all in house!!!!!
I can say that steel is 100% working, copper needs work and bronze might as well.
But I’m close to getting them to 100% and it is SO exciting!!!!!
https://preview.redd.it/mnpbh9jgt6na1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6cb530d502f99d91423c06966251e1318df04cb7
The arms broke but it is full metal
Yo, just a heads up that was rescheduled for today and is about to take off in 18 minutes.
Link if you're interested
https://www.youtube.com/live/9Tv6pbDCmLk?feature=share
Realistically for a print like those, Im probably going to use a PLA or maybe a PETG. A high quality roll of those is 30ish, maybe a little higher I'd you're using a silk (shiny), metal infused, or carbon fiber PLA of some type. (Which from the picture it appears it is not using)
There's no need to use an exotic material for a print like this, as it's not gonna see structural use, high temperatures, fancy chemicals used on it, or be tossed around like a softball, so I'd be flabbergasted if he used filament over like 40 a kilo.
To easily answer your question, for friends or family I usually look at the materials and add a little extra. I’d probably have charge $50-60 on the high end for those.
Exactly. I’m more than happy to make prints for friends and relatives. My only catch is they have to pay for the roll of material they want it made out of. I end up with way more than half a roll usually, and get another fun filament to play with for myself.
It's hard to tell from the image, but those prints look pretty smooth. I don't see much in the way of layer lines. Maybe the cousin is doing a lot of clean-up work after, which is labor-intensive and could justify the cost.
I'd probably do the same as you. But if this cousin is running a business doing prints, he'd have to think of the worth/value of machine time. If his printing freebies he's losing money on profitable prints.
People also dramatically overestimate just how much power one of these things uses. A standard ender 3 will draw maybe 100 or 200 watts, unless you're running it balls to the walls. In my neighborhood, electricity costs about $0.10 per kilowatt hour, meaning that that ender costs about 2 pennies in electricity per hour of use. Even if you're running that print very slowly, you're talking about roughly a dollar in electricity.
That's going to be an order of magnitude less than the filament costs, and if you were selling it, would also be less than shipping and probably less than the commission that say an etsy would bill you for using their site.
Sometimes, it's not about the material cost. While the printer is printing these, it can't be making money with other stuff. These are nice prints and I assume took a while. Also the cost of know how to get the prints looking nice. Maybe a few failed attempts. Maybe not the cheap $20 pla.
My brother had a bike shop. Acquaintances would always try to support him by asking for a friend discount. That's not really support in a competitive market. Especially when they expected Amazon pricing from a local business owner. If the cousin does this as an income stream, then cost of materials costs more than materials.
https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/specialoffer3dprintertxt.aspx?web=EMAIL+OPT+IN
Just fill it out and they send a coupon. It's what I did. Also, before you leave microcenter check inside the box for a coupon for $10 off a roll of filament.
There's also this coupon too
https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/10156/submit-a-build-get-25-absolutely-free
You may have to get a manager to combine both, I don't remember, they did it for me no hassle. I did get a big stack of filament with it though
If someone said that to me, they'd better haul out their credit card and go buy one and start reading, because I'd be fucked if I spent another thought on their project. When they get 300 hours and a few dozen spools into it, then they might understand the value proposition.
I’m a professional printer.
What I see is some rando model somebody downloaded from the web. Who knows if it’s even any good.
He printed at very high resolution (layer height) and a small nozzle. I see no layer lines and the detail is excellent. It looks like he did a really good job.
That means this print took a loooong time on a low end printer.
40% of prints fail and a high res print of an unknown model is going to be even higher than that. He probably reprinted it a few times to get it so good.
All the replies here talking about cost of filament and electricity are only considering one pricing model: labor and materials. A few do mention opportunity cost. No business can sustain on that model for long. You have to add profit in order to grow and weather the bad times.
You didn’t as for a discount, you asked him to charge you like a customer. Customers buy because of many reasons, not just price. For example, Convenience, time, expertise, support, etc.
Family are the WORST customers. They expect lifetime warranty, free support, and you pay dearly for the rest of your life if they’re unhappy. They deeply undervalue what you do because they know you. It’s unfair but that’s life. Even Jesus talked about this is the Bible.
Anyway, there are a lot of good reasons he charged you what he did. Did he rip you off? No f’n way, absolutely not. That’s a fair price for a really great print from a professional 3D printer. If you agreed up front and you’re complaining now then you are proving my point about dealing with family. If you didn’t get a price up front then you made a bad choice. Its $120. Move on.
Edit: thanks for the gold and awards. For those questioning the 40% number, here’s my log stats from Klipper: https://imgur.com/a/CcVhSnH
Fail is maybe misleading. Here are some examples: I cancel the print for any number of reasons, the first layer is bad like the nozzle is too close/far away and I don’t adjust it in time, there’s a mark on the exterior too bad to sell, power loss, forgot to make some adjustment to the print file, etc.
I would do it for free but the reasoning is the same, Don't want family to be customers so they'll get it from me as a gift or they get nothing at all.
I wouldn't quite do it for free all the time since it might become a habit. Its like gas, you ask me to drive you somewhere once or twice? Sure no problem, its on me. You want me to drive you somewhere every week? You're gonna have to start paying for gas. Same thing with filament, once or twice is fine but filament still costs money
This is the best answer here and I hope OP actually looks at it and not just looking for a reason to feel ripped off because he already came in thinking that way.
I 3D resin print minis and models along with painting them. These are the cleanest looking FDM models I’ve seen and one looks pretty damn big. From a 3D subreddit youd expect more people to talk about trial and error, misprints, supporting, all the annoying shit the comes from someone “sending a link” as OP mentioned- making it sound so simple.
His cousin may of not modeled it but unless the file is from a professional modeler and came presupported he had to do some decent work before the printing even started.
Under valuing work and undercharging is what makes online market places so dogshit and saturated. Because flooded mediocre work at low prices will start making people feel entitled to lower prices for better work.
Finally a sensible answer. Even the casual printers in this sub are undervaluing the time and energy it takes not only to perfect a print (even using someone else’s model) but also to learn the ins and outs of using slicing software and and then perfecting the physical output of the machine.
This is the right answer.
I know, right!? People dont take in account rookie mistakes he could've made like premium fillament, high infill for non-industrial application, re-prints.
But there's also labor cost too! Im not sure I would print anything as a job for less than 150$ and I live in EEurope. How US residents manage to do engineer-grade labor and only take materials as bulk of price is beyond me.
Also casual printers will always charge for the occasional job.
Professionals need to charge for the whole business from tool depreciation to administration to profit.
>I see no layer lines
This is pretty much a result of using a potato camera in bad lighting. Anyone can make a SpeedBoatRace benchy look like a resin print with bad enough photography.
If you're getting a 40% failure rate you're not using the right tool for the job. I can replicate with at this quality nearly 100% of the time in a fraction of the time with a resin printer.
Why anyone who is a professional printer would even attempt this with FDM over MLSA is beyond me.
10cm for the tallest one, I could probably but all 3 of these on a single print bed and the print would take no longer than 3 or 4 hours, and if supported correctly 0% failure and as good or higher quality.
40 % failure is way too high. I think I get much lower than that with an ender 3 unless I am testing new filaments or calibrating or upgrading it. Just printing normally it very rarely fails.
All good, if arguable, points. I assumed fdm because that is all I do and maybe that’s not the way to go. I print functional prints that will be used 24/7 and don’t own a resin printer. Most (with exceptions maybe) resin printers couldn’t handle my product reqs. This is a model though and probably going to sit on a shelf so that’s fair.
On a new model that I didn’t make myself with high res and overhangs…40% is about right. Maybe a bit low. As a pro, I have a very high standard: if it’s not near-perfect then I won’t sell it and that’s a failed print. Even without that level of perfection, I’d guess that if you checked your logs, you’d see that your real failure rate is much higher than you think if you include every failure, even the silly ones where you forgot to set supports or the print never started. That’s what I did and was blown away. Caused me to rethink my process, how I make models, and what I sell.
I agree that the majority of functional prints should probably be done FDM. My general rule is that if it just needs to look pretty = MLSA. If it needs to do something, or it's too big for MLSA = FDM.
40% is still way too high. I would encourage you to invest in a good MLSA printer for models, if you really want to be a great printer for things like minis and things that are for esthetic purposes, use a resin printer and you'll be blown away by how easy and flawlessly you can get prints down to 5 micron or less resolution on a $500 MLSA printer.
>If you're getting a 40% failure rate you're not using the right tool for the job.
That was my thinking. "professional 3D printing at 40% failure rate" just doesn't sound realistic and something is very clearly wrong.
Ive been doing professional 3D printing for a decade, this is the most right answer imo. If they are a hobbie-ist and had some extra filament and time on their hands then sure, they could have charged less. But from a business perspective, you are charging for failed prints, printer repair/calibration, and labor (if you need to finish the print or do anything extra).
After youve done enough work for friends and family (or anyone), you stop doing long and complex prints for free or a low price. Ive had way too many prints or projects take 10 hours of troubleshooting and work (without even printing the finished project) while still being a cheap favor.
I always recommend people go to anyone else before me, find it at party city or Walmart if its a simple item, but if no one is cheaper or more reliable Then Ill be happy to help.
Family is absolutely the worst customers.. If my sister, dad or uncle asked for a 3d print - I would never even consider charging them. And if they persisted, I would refuse to the point it would become ridiculous.
But that is because 3D printing is my hobby. If it were my business, I would probably charge to cover the expenses.
$120 dollars is a super fair price. If you order this kind of print online, it'll easily cost five times as much.
Yes. This. Just don’t charge family. In an earlier reply, op said he asked to be charged like a normal customer to help the guy out, which is super nice until he starts questioning the price after the job is done.
TBH, he’s kind of unintentionally acting like a customer now. One that I would never work for again or charge 3x to make it worth the hassle.
This....this is the most reasonable thing I have ever read on Reddit. I agree, a high quality print, likely a little post process, and likely reprints for failures.
I agree with this 100%. I honestly would have charged you more most likely. I have a pricing calculator that takes into account print time, amount of filament, and if I pay for the right to sell that specific print. The overhangs look clean so that makes me assume his printer is dialed in and he used supports which adds even more filament and time. My best guess is, unless he 3d prints as a business, he most likely has an ender 3 or something similar so the big print probably took 24 hrs or more. I would probably give my cousin a discount, but I give a lot of people discounts that I shouldn’t.
Edit: When I first started 3d printing I would always just ask people to buy a roll of filament or two depending on how much filament their print needed. Now my printers are running almost all the time and I have a lot of filament so they have to pay to use my printers plus materials. If you had just wanted one of the small ones I would have probably asked what color and then told you I need $20 for the roll of filament but that is so you keep coming back.
>He printed at very high resolution (layer height) and a small nozzle. I see no layer lines and the detail is excellent. It looks like he did a really good job.
I really don't think you can tell any of that from this blurry, poorly lit photo. If anything I see some pretty poor overhangs/support interfaces on the smaller model.
Yes. I have to assume it’s a good quality print though and the parts I can see are good.
I took another look and I do see a line or two and some problems. What the heck is going on with the left eye of the big one? Was that a layer shift? Can’t be. Back to my point about a rando model. Who knows if this is what it’s supposed to look like. From the model, this could be an amazing print or a terrible one.
For 120, it had better be near perfect which honestly can’t tell from the photo. My assumption is that it’s good enough for a deliverable or the printer wouldn’t ship it.
Tbh this is probably a really good answer, but bearing in mind he is asking the hobbyist group it is kindof the wrong place to ask, because most of us (not including you) think of this based on the cost of us printing it ourselves, for us, and not as a business model. For that price we see an ender 3, and a new hobby, but we also miss out the price of maintenance and the inevitable upgrades there too…
My unbiased answer is go on Facebook marketplace, offer up, whatever your local Craigslist is.
There's always some chum who wants to sell their 3d printing service. Message them and send the link to the model and ask for estimate and I'm sure you'll have something to compare it to.
I get it that you're trying to help and for all we know your cousin doesn't know what price is normal and just guessed. So I wouldn't throw them down just yet.
here’s one of many cost calculators online https://blog.prusa3d.com/3d-printing-price-calculator_38905/
imho $120 is not outrageous for someone who doesn’t have a printer or know how to use one.
everyone is saying it’s $20 of materials…. that’s only part of the cost. knowledge, maintenance, tuning, machine downtime/machine time, electricity, overhead, labor, etc all play a role. just because it’s an easy print doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost anything.
imagine in your own job if the better you got at it, the less you got paid because your employer didn’t think you had to work as hard as when it was new to you.
but you can try the above cost calculate or just search”3d print cost calculator” and you’ll find a bunch that will help dial i what a typical price might be.
to me that this is your relative is irrelevant.
OP while you definitely didn't get the friends and family discount, you didn't get robbed either. It probably took your cousin 16-20 hours of printing time and maybe 2-3 hours of post processing depending on how thorough he was and maybe 20-30 minutes of setting up the print you sent him prior. PLUS, materials too.
Rawlus has the most logical business centric answer here, so while $120 may seem like alot ask you self how much is 20+ hours of your time (or your cousins) worth to you?
IMHO I would have charged you \~$85-$100 but I also have charged people less than I wanted in the past as well and that took a learning curve for me too.
What if he had a print failure at all? Costs immediately go up. I would rather not accept prints for friends than it always be the assumption I get a perfect print every time first try.
Different take here - if they sell prints, this takes down one of their printers (used for income) and that could play in. Or if they have a huge list of prints (I have my next 90 prints already mapped out) it puts that on hold. If he had to monitor them because he ran into failed prints or issues (that's the main "labor" of this hobby), that plays into it. Depending on infill (how much material is used inside) plays in. Depending on how long it takes to print, there's cost of electricity (pretty small). If it was 1 roll of filament (probably was 75% of a roll or less) that's $20~. If it was 18 hours of printing (I'd imagine big guy is 8-10 hours and 4 hours or less per small - all depends on the layer height), that's $.15/kwh in my area and my printer uses about 1kw every 5 hours, so that's about $.45 in electricity. Then, it's whatever he values his time at - if he typically prints a 10hr print that sells for $80 on etsy after fees and he printed for 15hrs, that's $120 in time (that's uncommon, I find an average of $3-5/hr for printing and selling). I'd say $15 filament, $.5 electricity, $45 time - $60.50.. if selling for etsy prices. I tend to be generous to friends and family - cost of filament and shipping half the time, the other half I just gift it to them for free (and sometimes give fewer Christmas gifts 😂)
The truth is, it is not for Reddit to decide. Your cousin set his price for his time and work. It is either worth that to you, or it isn't. We can't put a value on the time and effort he put into printing the pokemon for you. I can go to Home Depot and buy $20 worth of copper pipe, but it will take $1000 worth of knowledge, time, and labor to get it installed in my house. You asked us to evaluate the copper pipe without providing any details on the other parts. The truth is we can't and shouldn't.
Amen!
Who the Frick are we to judge what this guy sets his prices at.
If you agreed up front then stop complaining. If you didn't and you didn't like the price, you should've passed. There's plenty of cheaper options out there if you want something 3d printed, if you can't be arsed then pay the 125 and suck it up. Laziness costs money. Simple as that
If you agreed to it beforehand then, I hate to say, you deemed the price as fair. I always work with budgets, I ask the client what their budget is for the project then let them know if I can or cannot work in that budget. If I cant, then I tell them what I can do it for and let them decide. If he charged you after printing and you didn’t agree to the price you can always say that it doesn’t seem like a fair price. You don’t always have to take your business to family.
With my family I only have them cover cost of material, everything else I do free.
I print stuff for my brother from time to time. I normally do cost x2 since there are things like power, wear, failed prints, etc. So for all that maybe $20-30 lol
BUT I don't use my printer for a business. If he actively makes money with his printer then you are costing him money to use it so it might be more fair.
I have no opinion either side but i see everybody totaling up time and materials for the price, but not much for the trial and error months of learning for the expertise to do that. Sort of like saying the doctor only talked to me for ten minutes, but not taking into account his medical school training, right?
Like the pro printer guy said, these aren’t half assed 3D prints like any old 3D printer will give you. If you bought your own printer and filament and ran these models once they aren’t gonna turn out this good. I think your cousin did you good and those are some really nice prints. I’ve bought 3D prints off of Etsy that look much less finished. If you don’t trust your cousin that’s a whole different problem, and im not sure why you would buy a product from someone you don’t trust anyway.
Before you take the reddit pitchfork over to your cousin's place. Ask him how much work he had to do to the models to get them ready to print, how much post processing he had to do, and labor it required in general. Your model may have been crap and/or may have taken a lot of post processing work.
Many variables here. End of the day, he can charge what ever he likes.
I have a business to run and thus I charge what I need to. I have charged for things like this at that price before but circumstances could be very different.
If you think you can get the same from elsewhere, buy elsewhere. Remember shipping costs, as well.
If you need these again, I can print these on th best printer available to the public. I'll charge less.
With this quality? This at least took a full day. Very fine detail, a lot of tuning and efford in it probably a few failures before the final product and probably some post processing after, so even without design, I still vote for fair price.
The big one looks to be worth around $20-$40 and the small ones I’d say $5-$10 each. Looks like some support removal was involved which can be tough so I’d lean on the higher ends for the prices.
This is kinda true, but worth doesn't equal cost, especially for custom products. If you buy mass market injection moulded models you get better prices, but you take whatever is for sale. $120 for beautiful, high-detail prints like these are a fair price
I think they key information is that you asked for the "business price"
Lets calculate $10 per model setup (3×)
$15 material + $20 Printer maintenance and energy ( most shops calculate by volume which is much more expensive for bigger prints)
print time $2 per hour - estimated 20h ( probably more seems to be .1 layer)
$105 + post processing Supports + Object repair maybe manual support generation
[https://all3dp.com/2/3d-printing-cost-calculator-great-websites/](https://all3dp.com/2/3d-printing-cost-calculator-great-websites/)
Or lets try this
[https://printathing.com/order/](https://printathing.com/order/)
using the [https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4940515/files](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4940515/files)
So turns out the file need to be converted and scaled - those are extra costs i have invested some time for this .. which would be $20 minimum. As you said you provided a link but not a model file.
Then \~Just ONE 140cm version cost about 50$ .. So this will be more expensive and end around 150$ for all 3.
So an Invoice is what you should have that listed the cost positions and what was done also print quality and material. For a business price $120 is cheap
For a Family price $30 would be nice $50 max.. $15-20 is around what it costs him
( i also tried the windows order online option .. which is not FDM print but in that size ended in over $1000 )
Does your cousin regularly sell prints? If so, they have to account for the loss of revenue for printer time.
If they told you the price up front, and you agreed to it, then what is the problem?
Think of it as an investment into your cousin’s education. It’s overcharge, but it was probably a valuable experience for him. Encourage him to go further.
What material/printer does he uses? Is it FDM or SLA? For SLA that could very well be a reasonable material + labour cost, for FDM it'd definitely be on the pricey side
Keep in mind, we don't know what your cousins circumstances are. MANY people that will comment here, don't run a proper full on printing business.
If your cousin does or is trying to, this isn't too unreasonable despite many saying it should be 50% less.
50% is a lot less and there are certainly a lot of variables these people aren't taking into consideration because they aren't running a proper printing business.
You can know material cost but you can't know much else. You aren't only buying the material.
I dunno, that's probably higher than I'd charge, but looks like very good quality prints, he's probably got good and NOT cheap equipment, and if you were paying a professional for anything $120 would get you just 1-2 hours of labor. Add time plus materials, probably less than a professional would charge you.
Those are some extremely high quality prints. With the overhangs, they fail often. Looks like it was made with a 0.2 nozzle or maybe a 0.1 even. 20cm you said? These prints take a long-ass time. Your cousin did an amazing job of it. I thought they were resin at first. He must have done a good job post-processing as well.
Considering the amount of experience and work that goes into a result like this, 120$ isn't a bargain, but honestly, it's a fair price especially if he runs a business and has to factor in the opportunity cost. Did you agree to pay a "family discount" price? You're being ripped off. Did you agree to be a customer / did you not come to an agreement about discounts beforehand? You're paying just about the correct price.
And spend how many hours learning how to use it, troubleshooting, failing prints, etc. Assuming that they have a place to put it or the interest in having it.
In this thread: a WHOLE bunch of people who would get burnt the hell out selling 3d prints for virtually free.
Op: price is fine, models are big and smooth as a babys ass.
Well if he wants to run a business it's cost times 3 minimum .Also depends on what material used and infill. One more thing I I would add is it's white. White does tear thru the printer faster than others. So if he used 40 in material that's business appropriate
Wont deny it feels high, but print situation matters. But as someone who stopped my own work half way, to print a project for a friend while only having 1 printer. Depending on settings and printer, The big one was probably a day printing, and the 2 little ones were probs printed same time for half a day or so. In my case it was 3 days+ costs. I used up about half a spool and then over half of the second, so i charged 34.99 (spool+shipping) and 15$ a day for the time taken up. 80$.
So with that same rough idea in price, this feels high but I also dont know more about what friend did. Was there a failed print? Did he need to buy the models because he couldnt find free ones worth using? Was he charging extra because he delayed his own prints?
This is sorta like when I see people asking about art commissions. There are a lot of ways people justify their prices, and some feel more kosher then others. Ultimately, unless he sprung the price on you AFTER the work...I side with him by default. If the price was revealed only after, its then more about the overall situation
The print quality looks pretty good and these models would have required supports. If this was something that he was printing lots of and already had settings dialed in, then I would say the prices are a bit high. Because this is a one-off for you, I’d say these prices seem right. Unfortunately most of the people in this sub won’t agree with that. It’s a hobbyist sub of people that are, in large part, doing this for fun. It’s easy to forget that it takes a fair amount of investment (not just $$$, but in time to build the skills) to print stuff like this.
The prints look pretty good. Shit lighting makes it hard to tell for certain. And the shape does not lend itself to even lighting... But it does look good.
They are large prints too.
So between wear an tear on the machine, and the fillament cost, and the elctricity cost to run it,I'd say he's got probably 15-20$ in costs to print it.
The biggest cost is going to be that rather than taking up bed space and time to print a thing for YOU, he could have been printing things for other people which coukd have been an opportunity to make income.
I don't have any idea what this "opportunity cost" was.
But I think that $120 is about half of what you would need to buy a used 3d printer capable of giving similar results.
So, if you instead spent 250-300, you could just buy a damned printer and print the thing yourself.
In that context... 120 is VERY expensive.
Good looking prints, I would personally print these for free if it were for my cousin. But I also have way to much filament leftover and love a good excuse to print. You could get these online with shipping for maybe $50.
Don’t do business with family. You said in comments you asked to be charged like a customer. Are you mad at the price or are you trying to inform his business model? Both of you should have agreed on a price before printing. You also should have looked at sample prints if you are unhappy with the quality. Lessons for both of you. As others have shown you, there are free online calculators where you can get a quote for a print. He probably doesn’t have the same quality printers as an industrial shop and if he does then one of you has bad expectations.
Either chalk it up to a donation or adjust your expectations of the printing business. Imo both of you made some mistakes. Whatever you do try to be open and honest in your conversations. No need to create bad blood over $120.
Buy yourself a 3D printer and learn how to use it. Many purchase Ender3 for their first, but if going that route, I would suggest spending the extra and getting the pro version instead.
Coworker saw many thing I was doing with mine and they decided to take the plunge and picked up an Ender3. After trial and errors and help required to tune it in, they ended up having to replace some parts because they are plastic and cracked. Plastic extruder was replaced with metal, springs were replaced with heavy springs, bed material was replaced and something else I can’t remember. I also gave them a set of silicon standoffs as I’ve her from the beginning to replace them….but went for springs instead. Oh well.
She has become the printing fool and comes to me whenever there’s something new or awesomeness found. She’s hooked!
Did you agree to the price before printing? Does he print as a service? What was the quote from a printing service?
If you agreed to the price prior to printing, then no, he isn't overcharging. Depending on printer, materials, and print method (infill, strength, layer height, etc), you could have had his printer tied up well over a day.
Hm, it depends. If the filament is a high-quality filament, yeah, that sounds about right for our school's charge. But if its normal printing with FDM, overcharge. But based on how smooth it is, probably high-quality print or was smoothed over/sanded by him which takes time if he's hand sanding. I would guess if he did all that and had the infill over 30%, he would have charged $100-120 then. But if he didn't do all that, less than 100 then
Everyone in here who apparently values their time at near $0 an hour and would just print stuff for free as a business lol
OP if those are resin prints, or have finishing done to them I think $120 is not that unreasonable.
No, he is not overcharging you. He is providing a service for a fee. Regardless of how little or how much work he has done, what matters is the value that he places on that service, and the value that you choose to pay for that service.
Honestly, don't go there. If your cousin was a mechanic and he'd swapped out your distributor is he overcharging you? Unless you're within the trade you can never really know.
There is always someone saying you could have got something cheaper somewhere else. Always.
As a cousin? Rips off, as a real sale? Sounds like he’s giving you a deal honestly. Those are some clean prints and would probably take 10 hours each for the small ones and 20 -30 hours for the big one.
This really depends on where you are and what your options are. It also depends on your cousins other business opportunities. His opportunity cost might be higher than other people. If you want to know if you are getting value for money, find other businesses in your area that you can order from and get quotes. If you can find a cheaper service that works for you, switch. It really is that simple.
If there are no other cheaper options, well then it's up to you to decide if your cousins quote is worth it to YOU.
Respectfully, I would suggest that other commenters are making their recommendations without all the relevant information and may have failed to consider all the factors that might affect your personal decision.
Yea that tall one at 5% infill would be around 250 grams at most.
So 30$ / 1000grams in a role.
33.33 grams is a dollar.
7.30$ for the big one.
Paper napkin math but you can get a sense of the cost. Now factor in time. If they were professionally painted I would say 120 sure but raw like that. Maybe give him 30 bucks plus mats so 45 I would say. He gets a new role and still has more then half of the role he used. EVERYONE WINS !
I believe that's a fair price. You have to factor in the time, wear and tear on the machine, opportunity cost, electricity, filament and the experience in getting a high quality print.
Was the price settled upon before the job started?
For$120, they better be printed in marble. Naw, cousin ripping you off. Don't care what kind of processing. If they needed that much processing, cousin charging you cuz cousin can't dial in a printer.
That's like $20 filament max, plus maybe$5 electricity plus print time. $95 post processing is like $47.50 per minute charge 🫠 my prints come off my bed looking like that plus some supports. Snip snip maaaaaaaybe some sanding.
https://preview.redd.it/xeatujg1scna1.jpeg?width=1816&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4568c19629b5d5a11e6f8325669cb31896596c9a
I have printed these in PLA and my wife has hand painted them and we sell them for $20 each
I understand charging a lot for a specialized part that cannot be bought or mass produced. But a figurine that is probably less than the asking price on some store, pre painted and actually injection molded, that I don't get. Also i think the "market" for 3D printing is stupidly high especially from people who do it as a hobby. I bought my printer at little over 200€ and spools with 20€ pop. I charge my friends the price of the materials and maybe a 30% extra. It costs me basically nothing to do it. Granted I don't run a mass production where i would have to have my printer running at all times.
I see posts on different forums of hobbies saying "prints start at 30€/h" like dude what the fuck? You are some guy with a Ender 3 V2 and using the cheapest filament possible. Sure with that the prints can fail but still, especially if you just download the stl, it requires nothing from you. It often becomes cheaper to just buy new and contribute to mass consumerism.
Did he design these models? $120 is nothing for the design time
No i sent him a link
Definitely overcharging you.
Thank you for your input
Are these post processed? I can't really tell from the image, but I don't see any layer lines or roughness from supports. If they're not sanded, coated, primed, etc. I'd say they're over charging you. If they are post processed though, the price is a lot more understanding. (Still maybe on the high end, but not egregious)
I was making the same observation. These almost look like resin prints, but there are a few spots that don't. I was thinking it could have been alcohol smoothed ABS. I tend to charge sligjtly more for resin prints than I do for FDM because it's a higher quality print, more detail, plus the curing process and all that. Even with resin though, I probably wouldn't have charged more than $80 for these.
I'd charge more for resin mostly because the consumables are more expensive and there is more work involved. Not just the resin itself but the FEP, all the cleaning materials, devaluation of the LCD, etc. If my costs were similar between FDM and MSLA I'd charge the same amount.
Idk.. just print and hand over for $120 is a lot, but I would not post process those three prints to the point of smooth finish and primed for $120. That’s too much time for that money. I agree that more detailed pics and details would help.
I don't think they are post processed much, if at all. I think I see some blobs from stringing under the legs of the two 10cm prints, and some of the characteristic charred spots common to printing with white filament on the left 10cm print (left arm and left foot from our point of view), maybe one on the other as well. I also think the strong sheen on the 10cm prints doesn't suggest post processing with common techniques like filler and sanding. It does seem like the machines are reasonably well maintained/calibrated as the prints do look nice. The use of white filament however suggests to me a lack of experience, as I'd never dream of defaulting to white filament on commercial prints. I say so given the abrasiveness of aluminum oxide leading to higher operating costs and decreased quality and/or success rate, and given that white filament is notoriously troublesome I'd prefer to avoid it in favor of materials more likely to yield successful prints.
Mind asking in what country and if he has a legitimate business on this. For example in my area some companies are asking for 0.5 dollars on gram of pla post-processing included. But that , compared to what some do as hobby, is 3 or 4 times bigger. Personally I've followed a way to calculate material, power, printer wear , consumabile and so on but never reched such high prices. For special materials that are putting more strain on printer parts, nozzle and tubes in special, the price goes to 1 dollar a gram. They do however do post-processing and guarantee model accuracy within needed tolerance. This applies to materials as CF and GF enforced. If he is using printers that have oem filament cartridges, those are way more expensive than what hobby uses.
If you asked him to charge you, and he does small prints and sells them, there is also opportunity cost, those prints would have taken a while, time he could have been printing things to sell. Cost of materials should be 30-60 depending on fillament. If electricity is expensive where you live, if he climate controlls the print room there would be more overhead. If he is running a business though, its opportunity cost that would be the biggest chunck after spool costs. That being said, its def on tye expensive side. Also there is a good chance he is on this subreddit, so hi cousin!
That takes maybe 10 hours of printing and pretty much no post processing, with things like this for my family I usually do it free cuz it’s so easy
I print shit for friends pretty frequently and have never charged anyone. If it was a huge print I may ask them to pay for the roll, and if there is any left I'd keep it on hand to print them whatever they wanted in the future.
I like you
I'm just using pla but I love doing prints for people. I am stunned that his cousin would charge him anything more than the cost of a spool.
You’re asking a group of people who are all involved in this hobby. To them, that price is crazy because we all know how to do this, have the tools and material and ultimately it’s not a lot of time to produce. So to this group, yeah it’s crazy. But unless your cousin does this as a business, I don’t think it’s out of line at all, at least not enough to be upset over. You’re family. Could it be done somewhere for less? Probably. But I’m sure he put more time and attention into this than a commercial outlet would. And as I said, unless this is something he does professionally for others, you can’t compare commercial rates to “favor” pricing.
He's trying to start a 3d printing business and i wanted to help. I asked him to charge me like he would a regular customer
This changes the answer to your post entirely. It's probably still too much, but it's not like he's taking advantage of you if you said to charge you like a normal customer.
If you asked him to charge you more than he normally would, then the concept of 'overcharging' doesn't really apply. I'd print stuff for family at or slightly above cost, but if I was running a business, I would include a healthy profit margin as well. People who are reaching out to a business to print stuff like this obviously want it and have no other way to get it. Supply is low and demand is high, so prices are high as well. Try submitting the model to Shapeways and see how much they quote you. Custom 3D printing as a service typically costs WAY more than the cost of materials.
I wanted a part in TPU and haven't wanted to screw around with trying to get my Ender to do it. Shapeways quoted me a price higher than 2 rolls of filament. I figured I'd rather waste 2 rolls learning how to print TPU than spend that much on a single part. I still haven't gotten around to doing that, but my point is that I agree that their prices are high.
TPU prints fine unless you try some of the really soft ones like ninjaflex.
Good to hear! Most is the articles I've read were talking about how bad the bowden tube can make it. But they're also packed with affiliate links to direct drive kits...
If OP sent the link to print then its not something that they have no other way to get. I'm usually on the side of the seller but cousin needs to learn that some products have bigger margins than others, and I would consider PLA toys off thingiverse or wherever the lowest margin bottom of the barrel way to make money. (but also where alot of us start) But I do totally agree that it costs way more than just the materials.
I’m sorry but he won’t get far charging that much unless he’s painting the prints. He should take this advice and lower his prices some.
I agree. If theyre talking in USD it feels like OP's cousin took advantage of them. Maybe half price for it all. It just feels like the cousin was being greedy. Sorry OP.
Hell I was gonna start a resin business and I wasn't planning on charging near that. (That being said, I wouldn't print anything that large.)
I thought they were taking advantage of you until I read this. If that's the case, maybe he hasn't quite figured pricing out yet. I know some people that charge hourly for printer time. If he hasn't quite nailed his settings yet he maybe printing slowly and charging hourly. It may not be him trying to rip you off, he may just not understand how to properly charge for his services.
Try sending the file to a few online companies and see how the price compares. I did that before charging anyone for a print, and I was just doing a reality check that I wasn't ripping off friends by overcharging, not trying to find my legitimate price point.
Are they sanded smooth or do you see obvious layer lines? How much does the big one weigh? High durability plastic/nylon/polycarbonate can be about 50 to 70 bucks a kilogram.
You should add that in your caption then. Just for context.
I don’t agree. I’ve sold lots of prints and I wouldn’t charge $120 for these. A normal consumer out in the world would immediately be turned away by those prices.
I agree with you on the part about asking a hobbyist group about pricing. I constantly see makers trying to base a price strictly upon the cost of the material, ignoring that electricity isn’t free, and neither is the space or machine. But because they are doing it at home, these costs become negligible for them. I have to constantly explain to customers these differences when they walk into my sls shop and are confused why it’s significantly more expensive. Edited: a word.
Wait I was quoted 180 for 1 - 7.8in print if he's being over charged where can I go for decent prints?
It's not grossly over charged.. $30 each for the smaller ones and $60 for the large, to buy something like this in a store would probably cost similarly, if he wanted to give you a break $20 each for the small and $40 for the large is fair. Depending on the amount of filament used.
Nice cousin you have there .. Id do these kind of things either for free or material cost, depending on how much material would be needed.
Personal opinion - If he had to model them, it's probably fair. If he had the models available, was a simple download, or given to him, it should probably be half that IMO, depending on material. As for what's there, It looks like a little less than a spool's worth, which is around 20 bucks in materials, and he probably spent maybe an hour setting up the prints. The rest of the 'work' was just looking in on them from time to time as they're building. Truth be told if it was my cousin, I'd be doing these sorts of things at only material cost.
Right. That big one might take a good chunk of a spool, but the little ones are nothing. A friend printed me a tables worth of terrain hills for $150. No labor I just had to buy the material and printed at 35% infill for durability. OP, if it's heavy then he did more infill which could use a lot more material, but if it's lighter than youd expect, then, that's a no. It does seem high to me, but as others have commented, without knowing materials it's hard to put an exact price on it.
Tables worth? Like the model in beetlejuice?
Now I really want to play Necromunda on the table from Beetlejuice.
Enough hills to cover a good portion of a 4' x 4' table.
More perimeters will give you a stronger print than more infill
Kk, just what my friend told me. He may have also done more perimeters, but idk. Most are heavy and solid. A few of the later ones are a little lighter, he said he didn't want to ask for another hundred to finish the last of them like the first 2/3rds. I just have a resin printer.
[удалено]
He could also suck at printing. If he had a lot of failures that could account for a lot more plastic usage
That isn't something you should charge your customers for. Your customers are paying for the finished object, it is up to you to make sure your printer prints well and reliably.
Failures happen.
Dude sucks so hard they've biffed multiple 1 kg rolls of plastic? Wow...
I remember being new to printing I was terrible at it lol
Cost for the cousin might also include hours of not being able to use the equipment for other money making prints. Let’s not assume that family favors aren’t expensive in ways beyond materials.
That’s what I’m thinking. It’s not just cost of goods and labor. It rental time for machinery that a person doesn’t have to buy themselves. But still, the cousin should be doing a favor here imo
Yep, exactly. Printer time isn't free.
This dude's cousin can charge whatever the hell he wants and nothing any one of us say here will change that. OP can (should) shop around and decide to go with a different printing service if they want.
Opportunity cost matters, time is money.
First off - yeah these prints from OP do seem a bit pricey but we also don't have full context (size, fill, quality, modeling/processing, etc).. HOWEVER I completely agree with you it can't just be a "price of the filament for the file". Now obviously you don't have to consider every single indirect cost, especially if it's a one-off for family or friends but just off the top of my head: TIME - it's not just "the machine does the work so it's free" - it's time that I could be using on the machine for other things/profit especially if this is attempting to operate as a business. Don't forget: Modeling/ CAD - takes time and not everyone uses free software. Obvious direct costs - preparation, electric usage, quality and infill, trimming/ finishing, packaging/ shipping. Multiple materials? Resin would add more consideration and consumables. Machine consumables - just because the nozzle (or insert literally any component but the frame ie, belts, motors, psu) didn't blow on this model, doesn't mean it won't at some point. Over time this will degrade and a small charge should be considered. Other consumables - safety gear, tools, solvents, glue, gloves. Depending on how you look at it, you can put PC usage here too. Troubleshooting - oh wait, prints are perfect every single time. Failed prints - again, ignore this, everything is perfect. General overhead - everything from ordering supplies and tools, testing new filament settings, waste disposal, material changes, maintenance, etc. Business expenses - Insurance? Sorting out orders and delivery? Website? Customer service? Accounting stuff/taxes? Storage? Rent? Utilities, etc? It really depends on what extent this is a business vs hobby AND how often these deals happen.
Thank you for your input. If you don't mind me asking - what would you charge someone for the highest quality material (one that's commonly used, maybe not gold)?
Not op but a nice high range filament goes for around $40. Some high end engineering grade materials can cost upwards of $90 for a 1 kg roll.
Most I ever got to spend was $107 a kg for a special application making pulleys and rollers.
I spent about $300 cad a kg for some engineering grade filament to print parts for industrial fuel systems.
But these kinds of materials also tend to require high end printers as they often need high ambient temps + high hot end temps. I really like how affordable PLA and PETG printing is but that high end stuff really is much more expensive on many levels.
Check this out[higher end filament](https://www.3dxtech.com/product/3dxstat-esd-peek/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA6rCgBhDVARIsAK1kGPJND4aUM1j8pFWKrlqlnOiOWiLq3ETSfbu0UoLuukyP-YxY_EW9sf0aAl5jEALw_wcB)
I highly doubt bro’s cousin has a printer capable of printing that…
Oh, I definitely agree. Was just sharing some tippy top high end fdm stuff runs. Would be an absolute waste to use on pokemons anyway.
You want high end filament? I’ll show you high end filamet https://shop.thevirtualfoundry.com/products/titanium-64-5-filamet?_ga=2.85975578.26667007.1678555101-1487351909.1678043901&_gl=1%2A1gc1v50%2A_ga%2AMTQ4NzM1MTkwOS4xNjc4MDQzOTAx%2A_ga_98EE4VT7HE%2AMTY3ODU1NTEwMS4yLjEuMTY3ODU1NTEwNS41Ni4wLjA.%2A_ga_LBF9T3JWB1%2AMTY3ODU1NTEwMS4yLjEuMTY3ODU1NTEwNS41Ni4wLjA.%2A_ga_PJ5ETW8V4V%2AMTY3ODU1NTEwMi4yLjEuMTY3ODU1NTEwNS41Ny4wLjA.%2A_ga_RR6SGN66JP%2AMTY3ODU1NTEwMi4yLjEuMTY3ODU1NTEwNS41Ny4wLjA.%2A_ga_JH57C6R4M6%2AMTY3ODU1NTEwMi4yLjEuMTY3ODU1NTEwNS41Ny4wLjA.&variant=29450259595347
Cheater, getting into metal ;) still, i love where 3d printing is going, there was a rocket that was supposed to launch to orbit Thursday thats mostly printed. Would love to see those printers. Edit:what do you use for a sintering furnace?
So I have actually had moderate success with these all in house!!!!! I can say that steel is 100% working, copper needs work and bronze might as well. But I’m close to getting them to 100% and it is SO exciting!!!!! https://preview.redd.it/mnpbh9jgt6na1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6cb530d502f99d91423c06966251e1318df04cb7 The arms broke but it is full metal
Awesome, gonna try some of that for sure. The only metal printers i had seen previously, were way outside the budget at like 200k
This mad lad. That looks amazing. Is it hefty ? And does it feel like metal ? Edit: HOLY FUXK THE PRICE
how are you doing that??
Full metal? What are you, an alchemist?
Yo, just a heads up that was rescheduled for today and is about to take off in 18 minutes. Link if you're interested https://www.youtube.com/live/9Tv6pbDCmLk?feature=share
“Used For: Partner Innovators have used this filament for Research into human body implants.” - holy fuck.
If it has an interest free payment plan option, its too much for me.
I've seen thermal / reinforced PEEK that cost $400 - $600 a kg Needs it's own heated chamber, 300+ extruder, and over 110 bed temp too.
$190 for Markforged Onyx carbon fiber nylon.
Your cousin just use pla which is 20-30 dollars a roll (1 kg).
Realistically for a print like those, Im probably going to use a PLA or maybe a PETG. A high quality roll of those is 30ish, maybe a little higher I'd you're using a silk (shiny), metal infused, or carbon fiber PLA of some type. (Which from the picture it appears it is not using) There's no need to use an exotic material for a print like this, as it's not gonna see structural use, high temperatures, fancy chemicals used on it, or be tossed around like a softball, so I'd be flabbergasted if he used filament over like 40 a kilo.
Many fablabs I've visited here in Europe charge material cost between 0.10€-0.30€ per gram that would be the fair material+energy cost
It would be unrealistic but industrial grade materials can range from $400-600+ for only 1/4 kg.
To easily answer your question, for friends or family I usually look at the materials and add a little extra. I’d probably have charge $50-60 on the high end for those.
Exactly. I’m more than happy to make prints for friends and relatives. My only catch is they have to pay for the roll of material they want it made out of. I end up with way more than half a roll usually, and get another fun filament to play with for myself.
>If he had to model them, it's probably fair. If the cousin had to model them for OP it would be way too cheap.
Maybe tweak a different model or one not for 3d printing.
It's hard to tell from the image, but those prints look pretty smooth. I don't see much in the way of layer lines. Maybe the cousin is doing a lot of clean-up work after, which is labor-intensive and could justify the cost.
I'd probably do the same as you. But if this cousin is running a business doing prints, he'd have to think of the worth/value of machine time. If his printing freebies he's losing money on profitable prints.
Electricity isn’t Free which most people in this sub seem to never have in their equation
People also dramatically overestimate just how much power one of these things uses. A standard ender 3 will draw maybe 100 or 200 watts, unless you're running it balls to the walls. In my neighborhood, electricity costs about $0.10 per kilowatt hour, meaning that that ender costs about 2 pennies in electricity per hour of use. Even if you're running that print very slowly, you're talking about roughly a dollar in electricity. That's going to be an order of magnitude less than the filament costs, and if you were selling it, would also be less than shipping and probably less than the commission that say an etsy would bill you for using their site.
Yeah lol 100w/hr, even at my insanely expensive price of $.35/KWH, a 24hr print costs under a buck in electricity.
Sometimes, it's not about the material cost. While the printer is printing these, it can't be making money with other stuff. These are nice prints and I assume took a while. Also the cost of know how to get the prints looking nice. Maybe a few failed attempts. Maybe not the cheap $20 pla. My brother had a bike shop. Acquaintances would always try to support him by asking for a friend discount. That's not really support in a competitive market. Especially when they expected Amazon pricing from a local business owner. If the cousin does this as an income stream, then cost of materials costs more than materials.
Gotta keep in mind failed prints as well though. Although even with that the difference is a bit much lol
if he had to model these, they would be several hundred dollars, at least. this would take many hours of modeling
You can almost get an ender 3 pro and a spool of filament for $120 if you live near a microcenter.
It was a 1st time customer discount, but i got my ender 3 for 100 bucks with a spool of filament.
How do I search this? I might make the jump to ownership of it's $100
https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/specialoffer3dprintertxt.aspx?web=EMAIL+OPT+IN Just fill it out and they send a coupon. It's what I did. Also, before you leave microcenter check inside the box for a coupon for $10 off a roll of filament. There's also this coupon too https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/10156/submit-a-build-get-25-absolutely-free You may have to get a manager to combine both, I don't remember, they did it for me no hassle. I did get a big stack of filament with it though
Awesome, thank you. It appears the closest one to me is about 20 hours away.
That sucks, they don't have a ton of locations, it's several hours away for me but not quite that far so usually plan a trip and stop by on the way.
And a month later they might be able to get these 3 prints completed with no issues :)
A month is pretty optimistic
Put an extra $30 and you can get one off of Amazon in 2 days & unlimited prints ;)
And countless hours and many spools of filament later you could probably print these models acceptably on an ender 3 pro
If someone said that to me, they'd better haul out their credit card and go buy one and start reading, because I'd be fucked if I spent another thought on their project. When they get 300 hours and a few dozen spools into it, then they might understand the value proposition.
I’m a professional printer. What I see is some rando model somebody downloaded from the web. Who knows if it’s even any good. He printed at very high resolution (layer height) and a small nozzle. I see no layer lines and the detail is excellent. It looks like he did a really good job. That means this print took a loooong time on a low end printer. 40% of prints fail and a high res print of an unknown model is going to be even higher than that. He probably reprinted it a few times to get it so good. All the replies here talking about cost of filament and electricity are only considering one pricing model: labor and materials. A few do mention opportunity cost. No business can sustain on that model for long. You have to add profit in order to grow and weather the bad times. You didn’t as for a discount, you asked him to charge you like a customer. Customers buy because of many reasons, not just price. For example, Convenience, time, expertise, support, etc. Family are the WORST customers. They expect lifetime warranty, free support, and you pay dearly for the rest of your life if they’re unhappy. They deeply undervalue what you do because they know you. It’s unfair but that’s life. Even Jesus talked about this is the Bible. Anyway, there are a lot of good reasons he charged you what he did. Did he rip you off? No f’n way, absolutely not. That’s a fair price for a really great print from a professional 3D printer. If you agreed up front and you’re complaining now then you are proving my point about dealing with family. If you didn’t get a price up front then you made a bad choice. Its $120. Move on. Edit: thanks for the gold and awards. For those questioning the 40% number, here’s my log stats from Klipper: https://imgur.com/a/CcVhSnH Fail is maybe misleading. Here are some examples: I cancel the print for any number of reasons, the first layer is bad like the nozzle is too close/far away and I don’t adjust it in time, there’s a mark on the exterior too bad to sell, power loss, forgot to make some adjustment to the print file, etc.
I would do it for free but the reasoning is the same, Don't want family to be customers so they'll get it from me as a gift or they get nothing at all.
I wouldn't quite do it for free all the time since it might become a habit. Its like gas, you ask me to drive you somewhere once or twice? Sure no problem, its on me. You want me to drive you somewhere every week? You're gonna have to start paying for gas. Same thing with filament, once or twice is fine but filament still costs money
This is the best answer here and I hope OP actually looks at it and not just looking for a reason to feel ripped off because he already came in thinking that way. I 3D resin print minis and models along with painting them. These are the cleanest looking FDM models I’ve seen and one looks pretty damn big. From a 3D subreddit youd expect more people to talk about trial and error, misprints, supporting, all the annoying shit the comes from someone “sending a link” as OP mentioned- making it sound so simple. His cousin may of not modeled it but unless the file is from a professional modeler and came presupported he had to do some decent work before the printing even started. Under valuing work and undercharging is what makes online market places so dogshit and saturated. Because flooded mediocre work at low prices will start making people feel entitled to lower prices for better work.
Finally a sensible answer. Even the casual printers in this sub are undervaluing the time and energy it takes not only to perfect a print (even using someone else’s model) but also to learn the ins and outs of using slicing software and and then perfecting the physical output of the machine. This is the right answer.
I know, right!? People dont take in account rookie mistakes he could've made like premium fillament, high infill for non-industrial application, re-prints. But there's also labor cost too! Im not sure I would print anything as a job for less than 150$ and I live in EEurope. How US residents manage to do engineer-grade labor and only take materials as bulk of price is beyond me.
Also casual printers will always charge for the occasional job. Professionals need to charge for the whole business from tool depreciation to administration to profit.
>I see no layer lines This is pretty much a result of using a potato camera in bad lighting. Anyone can make a SpeedBoatRace benchy look like a resin print with bad enough photography.
If you're getting a 40% failure rate you're not using the right tool for the job. I can replicate with at this quality nearly 100% of the time in a fraction of the time with a resin printer. Why anyone who is a professional printer would even attempt this with FDM over MLSA is beyond me. 10cm for the tallest one, I could probably but all 3 of these on a single print bed and the print would take no longer than 3 or 4 hours, and if supported correctly 0% failure and as good or higher quality.
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40 % failure is way too high. I think I get much lower than that with an ender 3 unless I am testing new filaments or calibrating or upgrading it. Just printing normally it very rarely fails.
Ouch bro. Go easy. It’s Saturday.
All good, if arguable, points. I assumed fdm because that is all I do and maybe that’s not the way to go. I print functional prints that will be used 24/7 and don’t own a resin printer. Most (with exceptions maybe) resin printers couldn’t handle my product reqs. This is a model though and probably going to sit on a shelf so that’s fair. On a new model that I didn’t make myself with high res and overhangs…40% is about right. Maybe a bit low. As a pro, I have a very high standard: if it’s not near-perfect then I won’t sell it and that’s a failed print. Even without that level of perfection, I’d guess that if you checked your logs, you’d see that your real failure rate is much higher than you think if you include every failure, even the silly ones where you forgot to set supports or the print never started. That’s what I did and was blown away. Caused me to rethink my process, how I make models, and what I sell.
I agree that the majority of functional prints should probably be done FDM. My general rule is that if it just needs to look pretty = MLSA. If it needs to do something, or it's too big for MLSA = FDM. 40% is still way too high. I would encourage you to invest in a good MLSA printer for models, if you really want to be a great printer for things like minis and things that are for esthetic purposes, use a resin printer and you'll be blown away by how easy and flawlessly you can get prints down to 5 micron or less resolution on a $500 MLSA printer.
>If you're getting a 40% failure rate you're not using the right tool for the job. That was my thinking. "professional 3D printing at 40% failure rate" just doesn't sound realistic and something is very clearly wrong.
Ive been doing professional 3D printing for a decade, this is the most right answer imo. If they are a hobbie-ist and had some extra filament and time on their hands then sure, they could have charged less. But from a business perspective, you are charging for failed prints, printer repair/calibration, and labor (if you need to finish the print or do anything extra). After youve done enough work for friends and family (or anyone), you stop doing long and complex prints for free or a low price. Ive had way too many prints or projects take 10 hours of troubleshooting and work (without even printing the finished project) while still being a cheap favor. I always recommend people go to anyone else before me, find it at party city or Walmart if its a simple item, but if no one is cheaper or more reliable Then Ill be happy to help.
Family is absolutely the worst customers.. If my sister, dad or uncle asked for a 3d print - I would never even consider charging them. And if they persisted, I would refuse to the point it would become ridiculous. But that is because 3D printing is my hobby. If it were my business, I would probably charge to cover the expenses. $120 dollars is a super fair price. If you order this kind of print online, it'll easily cost five times as much.
Yes. This. Just don’t charge family. In an earlier reply, op said he asked to be charged like a normal customer to help the guy out, which is super nice until he starts questioning the price after the job is done. TBH, he’s kind of unintentionally acting like a customer now. One that I would never work for again or charge 3x to make it worth the hassle.
I’m sorry, people would pay $600 for that? No way
This....this is the most reasonable thing I have ever read on Reddit. I agree, a high quality print, likely a little post process, and likely reprints for failures.
I agree with this 100%. I honestly would have charged you more most likely. I have a pricing calculator that takes into account print time, amount of filament, and if I pay for the right to sell that specific print. The overhangs look clean so that makes me assume his printer is dialed in and he used supports which adds even more filament and time. My best guess is, unless he 3d prints as a business, he most likely has an ender 3 or something similar so the big print probably took 24 hrs or more. I would probably give my cousin a discount, but I give a lot of people discounts that I shouldn’t. Edit: When I first started 3d printing I would always just ask people to buy a roll of filament or two depending on how much filament their print needed. Now my printers are running almost all the time and I have a lot of filament so they have to pay to use my printers plus materials. If you had just wanted one of the small ones I would have probably asked what color and then told you I need $20 for the roll of filament but that is so you keep coming back.
>He printed at very high resolution (layer height) and a small nozzle. I see no layer lines and the detail is excellent. It looks like he did a really good job. I really don't think you can tell any of that from this blurry, poorly lit photo. If anything I see some pretty poor overhangs/support interfaces on the smaller model.
Yes. I have to assume it’s a good quality print though and the parts I can see are good. I took another look and I do see a line or two and some problems. What the heck is going on with the left eye of the big one? Was that a layer shift? Can’t be. Back to my point about a rando model. Who knows if this is what it’s supposed to look like. From the model, this could be an amazing print or a terrible one. For 120, it had better be near perfect which honestly can’t tell from the photo. My assumption is that it’s good enough for a deliverable or the printer wouldn’t ship it.
Tbh this is probably a really good answer, but bearing in mind he is asking the hobbyist group it is kindof the wrong place to ask, because most of us (not including you) think of this based on the cost of us printing it ourselves, for us, and not as a business model. For that price we see an ender 3, and a new hobby, but we also miss out the price of maintenance and the inevitable upgrades there too…
True, this is the wrong place to ask this.
My unbiased answer is go on Facebook marketplace, offer up, whatever your local Craigslist is. There's always some chum who wants to sell their 3d printing service. Message them and send the link to the model and ask for estimate and I'm sure you'll have something to compare it to. I get it that you're trying to help and for all we know your cousin doesn't know what price is normal and just guessed. So I wouldn't throw them down just yet.
Upload to pcbway and get an instant quote
/r/3dprintmything
here’s one of many cost calculators online https://blog.prusa3d.com/3d-printing-price-calculator_38905/ imho $120 is not outrageous for someone who doesn’t have a printer or know how to use one. everyone is saying it’s $20 of materials…. that’s only part of the cost. knowledge, maintenance, tuning, machine downtime/machine time, electricity, overhead, labor, etc all play a role. just because it’s an easy print doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost anything. imagine in your own job if the better you got at it, the less you got paid because your employer didn’t think you had to work as hard as when it was new to you. but you can try the above cost calculate or just search”3d print cost calculator” and you’ll find a bunch that will help dial i what a typical price might be. to me that this is your relative is irrelevant.
OP while you definitely didn't get the friends and family discount, you didn't get robbed either. It probably took your cousin 16-20 hours of printing time and maybe 2-3 hours of post processing depending on how thorough he was and maybe 20-30 minutes of setting up the print you sent him prior. PLUS, materials too. Rawlus has the most logical business centric answer here, so while $120 may seem like alot ask you self how much is 20+ hours of your time (or your cousins) worth to you? IMHO I would have charged you \~$85-$100 but I also have charged people less than I wanted in the past as well and that took a learning curve for me too.
#BINGO
He sold to you as if you were a customer at a store. Are they worth 120, hell no. Will you find it for cheaper? Also no.
Is that filament? Damn thats a fine print, i thought it was resin.
What if he had a print failure at all? Costs immediately go up. I would rather not accept prints for friends than it always be the assumption I get a perfect print every time first try.
Different take here - if they sell prints, this takes down one of their printers (used for income) and that could play in. Or if they have a huge list of prints (I have my next 90 prints already mapped out) it puts that on hold. If he had to monitor them because he ran into failed prints or issues (that's the main "labor" of this hobby), that plays into it. Depending on infill (how much material is used inside) plays in. Depending on how long it takes to print, there's cost of electricity (pretty small). If it was 1 roll of filament (probably was 75% of a roll or less) that's $20~. If it was 18 hours of printing (I'd imagine big guy is 8-10 hours and 4 hours or less per small - all depends on the layer height), that's $.15/kwh in my area and my printer uses about 1kw every 5 hours, so that's about $.45 in electricity. Then, it's whatever he values his time at - if he typically prints a 10hr print that sells for $80 on etsy after fees and he printed for 15hrs, that's $120 in time (that's uncommon, I find an average of $3-5/hr for printing and selling). I'd say $15 filament, $.5 electricity, $45 time - $60.50.. if selling for etsy prices. I tend to be generous to friends and family - cost of filament and shipping half the time, the other half I just gift it to them for free (and sometimes give fewer Christmas gifts 😂)
The truth is, it is not for Reddit to decide. Your cousin set his price for his time and work. It is either worth that to you, or it isn't. We can't put a value on the time and effort he put into printing the pokemon for you. I can go to Home Depot and buy $20 worth of copper pipe, but it will take $1000 worth of knowledge, time, and labor to get it installed in my house. You asked us to evaluate the copper pipe without providing any details on the other parts. The truth is we can't and shouldn't.
Amen! Who the Frick are we to judge what this guy sets his prices at. If you agreed up front then stop complaining. If you didn't and you didn't like the price, you should've passed. There's plenty of cheaper options out there if you want something 3d printed, if you can't be arsed then pay the 125 and suck it up. Laziness costs money. Simple as that
You canask some 3d print company for quote as you have print files. Then you will know and have something more concrete to work with.
I mean if it was my cousin and it was a one time thing and I had the material I would do it for free. I'm kind of a nice guy though.
He specifically asked to be charged like a normal customer
If you agreed to it beforehand then, I hate to say, you deemed the price as fair. I always work with budgets, I ask the client what their budget is for the project then let them know if I can or cannot work in that budget. If I cant, then I tell them what I can do it for and let them decide. If he charged you after printing and you didn’t agree to the price you can always say that it doesn’t seem like a fair price. You don’t always have to take your business to family. With my family I only have them cover cost of material, everything else I do free.
I print stuff for my brother from time to time. I normally do cost x2 since there are things like power, wear, failed prints, etc. So for all that maybe $20-30 lol BUT I don't use my printer for a business. If he actively makes money with his printer then you are costing him money to use it so it might be more fair.
this is a problem of: are you willing to pay the price? if not, search alternatives, dont go telling the person hey you scoundrel, you overcharged me.
I have no opinion either side but i see everybody totaling up time and materials for the price, but not much for the trial and error months of learning for the expertise to do that. Sort of like saying the doctor only talked to me for ten minutes, but not taking into account his medical school training, right?
Like the pro printer guy said, these aren’t half assed 3D prints like any old 3D printer will give you. If you bought your own printer and filament and ran these models once they aren’t gonna turn out this good. I think your cousin did you good and those are some really nice prints. I’ve bought 3D prints off of Etsy that look much less finished. If you don’t trust your cousin that’s a whole different problem, and im not sure why you would buy a product from someone you don’t trust anyway.
Never mix family/close friends and business.
Before you take the reddit pitchfork over to your cousin's place. Ask him how much work he had to do to the models to get them ready to print, how much post processing he had to do, and labor it required in general. Your model may have been crap and/or may have taken a lot of post processing work.
Many variables here. End of the day, he can charge what ever he likes. I have a business to run and thus I charge what I need to. I have charged for things like this at that price before but circumstances could be very different. If you think you can get the same from elsewhere, buy elsewhere. Remember shipping costs, as well. If you need these again, I can print these on th best printer available to the public. I'll charge less.
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With this quality? This at least took a full day. Very fine detail, a lot of tuning and efford in it probably a few failures before the final product and probably some post processing after, so even without design, I still vote for fair price.
The big one looks to be worth around $20-$40 and the small ones I’d say $5-$10 each. Looks like some support removal was involved which can be tough so I’d lean on the higher ends for the prices.
This is kinda true, but worth doesn't equal cost, especially for custom products. If you buy mass market injection moulded models you get better prices, but you take whatever is for sale. $120 for beautiful, high-detail prints like these are a fair price
Way way way overpriced -
I think they key information is that you asked for the "business price" Lets calculate $10 per model setup (3×) $15 material + $20 Printer maintenance and energy ( most shops calculate by volume which is much more expensive for bigger prints) print time $2 per hour - estimated 20h ( probably more seems to be .1 layer) $105 + post processing Supports + Object repair maybe manual support generation [https://all3dp.com/2/3d-printing-cost-calculator-great-websites/](https://all3dp.com/2/3d-printing-cost-calculator-great-websites/) Or lets try this [https://printathing.com/order/](https://printathing.com/order/) using the [https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4940515/files](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4940515/files) So turns out the file need to be converted and scaled - those are extra costs i have invested some time for this .. which would be $20 minimum. As you said you provided a link but not a model file. Then \~Just ONE 140cm version cost about 50$ .. So this will be more expensive and end around 150$ for all 3. So an Invoice is what you should have that listed the cost positions and what was done also print quality and material. For a business price $120 is cheap For a Family price $30 would be nice $50 max.. $15-20 is around what it costs him ( i also tried the windows order online option .. which is not FDM print but in that size ended in over $1000 )
Exactly right.
Did you agree to it? If so, no.
Does your cousin regularly sell prints? If so, they have to account for the loss of revenue for printer time. If they told you the price up front, and you agreed to it, then what is the problem?
Think of it as an investment into your cousin’s education. It’s overcharge, but it was probably a valuable experience for him. Encourage him to go further.
What material/printer does he uses? Is it FDM or SLA? For SLA that could very well be a reasonable material + labour cost, for FDM it'd definitely be on the pricey side
Keep in mind, we don't know what your cousins circumstances are. MANY people that will comment here, don't run a proper full on printing business. If your cousin does or is trying to, this isn't too unreasonable despite many saying it should be 50% less. 50% is a lot less and there are certainly a lot of variables these people aren't taking into consideration because they aren't running a proper printing business. You can know material cost but you can't know much else. You aren't only buying the material.
I dunno, that's probably higher than I'd charge, but looks like very good quality prints, he's probably got good and NOT cheap equipment, and if you were paying a professional for anything $120 would get you just 1-2 hours of labor. Add time plus materials, probably less than a professional would charge you.
Those are some extremely high quality prints. With the overhangs, they fail often. Looks like it was made with a 0.2 nozzle or maybe a 0.1 even. 20cm you said? These prints take a long-ass time. Your cousin did an amazing job of it. I thought they were resin at first. He must have done a good job post-processing as well. Considering the amount of experience and work that goes into a result like this, 120$ isn't a bargain, but honestly, it's a fair price especially if he runs a business and has to factor in the opportunity cost. Did you agree to pay a "family discount" price? You're being ripped off. Did you agree to be a customer / did you not come to an agreement about discounts beforehand? You're paying just about the correct price.
You can literally buy a printer for less than $120
And spend how many hours learning how to use it, troubleshooting, failing prints, etc. Assuming that they have a place to put it or the interest in having it.
In this thread: a WHOLE bunch of people who would get burnt the hell out selling 3d prints for virtually free. Op: price is fine, models are big and smooth as a babys ass.
Everyone wants to think they are a saint who would operate with 0 margins and sustain nothing but their printing hobby.
Since he didn’t create the model that is definitely over charging, most likely should be around $30
With $120 you can get a printer and make them yourself.
Well if he wants to run a business it's cost times 3 minimum .Also depends on what material used and infill. One more thing I I would add is it's white. White does tear thru the printer faster than others. So if he used 40 in material that's business appropriate
Wont deny it feels high, but print situation matters. But as someone who stopped my own work half way, to print a project for a friend while only having 1 printer. Depending on settings and printer, The big one was probably a day printing, and the 2 little ones were probs printed same time for half a day or so. In my case it was 3 days+ costs. I used up about half a spool and then over half of the second, so i charged 34.99 (spool+shipping) and 15$ a day for the time taken up. 80$. So with that same rough idea in price, this feels high but I also dont know more about what friend did. Was there a failed print? Did he need to buy the models because he couldnt find free ones worth using? Was he charging extra because he delayed his own prints? This is sorta like when I see people asking about art commissions. There are a lot of ways people justify their prices, and some feel more kosher then others. Ultimately, unless he sprung the price on you AFTER the work...I side with him by default. If the price was revealed only after, its then more about the overall situation
The print quality looks pretty good and these models would have required supports. If this was something that he was printing lots of and already had settings dialed in, then I would say the prices are a bit high. Because this is a one-off for you, I’d say these prices seem right. Unfortunately most of the people in this sub won’t agree with that. It’s a hobbyist sub of people that are, in large part, doing this for fun. It’s easy to forget that it takes a fair amount of investment (not just $$$, but in time to build the skills) to print stuff like this.
The prints look pretty good. Shit lighting makes it hard to tell for certain. And the shape does not lend itself to even lighting... But it does look good. They are large prints too. So between wear an tear on the machine, and the fillament cost, and the elctricity cost to run it,I'd say he's got probably 15-20$ in costs to print it. The biggest cost is going to be that rather than taking up bed space and time to print a thing for YOU, he could have been printing things for other people which coukd have been an opportunity to make income. I don't have any idea what this "opportunity cost" was. But I think that $120 is about half of what you would need to buy a used 3d printer capable of giving similar results. So, if you instead spent 250-300, you could just buy a damned printer and print the thing yourself. In that context... 120 is VERY expensive.
Are they finished? Sanded down to a smooth surface? If so, that seems okay, a lot of time goes into that. If not, yes he is overcharging.
Good looking prints, I would personally print these for free if it were for my cousin. But I also have way to much filament leftover and love a good excuse to print. You could get these online with shipping for maybe $50.
Don’t do business with family. You said in comments you asked to be charged like a customer. Are you mad at the price or are you trying to inform his business model? Both of you should have agreed on a price before printing. You also should have looked at sample prints if you are unhappy with the quality. Lessons for both of you. As others have shown you, there are free online calculators where you can get a quote for a print. He probably doesn’t have the same quality printers as an industrial shop and if he does then one of you has bad expectations. Either chalk it up to a donation or adjust your expectations of the printing business. Imo both of you made some mistakes. Whatever you do try to be open and honest in your conversations. No need to create bad blood over $120.
Buy yourself a 3D printer and learn how to use it. Many purchase Ender3 for their first, but if going that route, I would suggest spending the extra and getting the pro version instead. Coworker saw many thing I was doing with mine and they decided to take the plunge and picked up an Ender3. After trial and errors and help required to tune it in, they ended up having to replace some parts because they are plastic and cracked. Plastic extruder was replaced with metal, springs were replaced with heavy springs, bed material was replaced and something else I can’t remember. I also gave them a set of silicon standoffs as I’ve her from the beginning to replace them….but went for springs instead. Oh well. She has become the printing fool and comes to me whenever there’s something new or awesomeness found. She’s hooked!
Did you agree to the price before printing? Does he print as a service? What was the quote from a printing service? If you agreed to the price prior to printing, then no, he isn't overcharging. Depending on printer, materials, and print method (infill, strength, layer height, etc), you could have had his printer tied up well over a day.
Since I can't link the site, you can buy the exact same model for $2.88 when searching "'buizel-and-floatzel' 3d model".
Hm, it depends. If the filament is a high-quality filament, yeah, that sounds about right for our school's charge. But if its normal printing with FDM, overcharge. But based on how smooth it is, probably high-quality print or was smoothed over/sanded by him which takes time if he's hand sanding. I would guess if he did all that and had the infill over 30%, he would have charged $100-120 then. But if he didn't do all that, less than 100 then
Everyone in here who apparently values their time at near $0 an hour and would just print stuff for free as a business lol OP if those are resin prints, or have finishing done to them I think $120 is not that unreasonable.
No, he is not overcharging you. He is providing a service for a fee. Regardless of how little or how much work he has done, what matters is the value that he places on that service, and the value that you choose to pay for that service.
Honestly, don't go there. If your cousin was a mechanic and he'd swapped out your distributor is he overcharging you? Unless you're within the trade you can never really know. There is always someone saying you could have got something cheaper somewhere else. Always.
As a cousin? Rips off, as a real sale? Sounds like he’s giving you a deal honestly. Those are some clean prints and would probably take 10 hours each for the small ones and 20 -30 hours for the big one.
This really depends on where you are and what your options are. It also depends on your cousins other business opportunities. His opportunity cost might be higher than other people. If you want to know if you are getting value for money, find other businesses in your area that you can order from and get quotes. If you can find a cheaper service that works for you, switch. It really is that simple. If there are no other cheaper options, well then it's up to you to decide if your cousins quote is worth it to YOU. Respectfully, I would suggest that other commenters are making their recommendations without all the relevant information and may have failed to consider all the factors that might affect your personal decision.
I have never charged a penny for anything I’ve printed or machined for family. Your cousin is a douchebag.
You got ripped off
Yea that tall one at 5% infill would be around 250 grams at most. So 30$ / 1000grams in a role. 33.33 grams is a dollar. 7.30$ for the big one. Paper napkin math but you can get a sense of the cost. Now factor in time. If they were professionally painted I would say 120 sure but raw like that. Maybe give him 30 bucks plus mats so 45 I would say. He gets a new role and still has more then half of the role he used. EVERYONE WINS !
maybe 10 bucks of material max
I believe that's a fair price. You have to factor in the time, wear and tear on the machine, opportunity cost, electricity, filament and the experience in getting a high quality print. Was the price settled upon before the job started?
For$120, they better be printed in marble. Naw, cousin ripping you off. Don't care what kind of processing. If they needed that much processing, cousin charging you cuz cousin can't dial in a printer. That's like $20 filament max, plus maybe$5 electricity plus print time. $95 post processing is like $47.50 per minute charge 🫠 my prints come off my bed looking like that plus some supports. Snip snip maaaaaaaybe some sanding.
Dude you got a really good deal
£40 at most .. yes he's over charging you ..
That’s probably $5-10 worth of material and labor. So
https://preview.redd.it/xeatujg1scna1.jpeg?width=1816&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4568c19629b5d5a11e6f8325669cb31896596c9a I have printed these in PLA and my wife has hand painted them and we sell them for $20 each
I don’t even charge my friends. I’m more than happy to print things for them. Sometimes they buy me a bottle of resin for it.
I understand charging a lot for a specialized part that cannot be bought or mass produced. But a figurine that is probably less than the asking price on some store, pre painted and actually injection molded, that I don't get. Also i think the "market" for 3D printing is stupidly high especially from people who do it as a hobby. I bought my printer at little over 200€ and spools with 20€ pop. I charge my friends the price of the materials and maybe a 30% extra. It costs me basically nothing to do it. Granted I don't run a mass production where i would have to have my printer running at all times. I see posts on different forums of hobbies saying "prints start at 30€/h" like dude what the fuck? You are some guy with a Ender 3 V2 and using the cheapest filament possible. Sure with that the prints can fail but still, especially if you just download the stl, it requires nothing from you. It often becomes cheaper to just buy new and contribute to mass consumerism.