Here is one of my latest designs / prints. Its a electric tea light holder and was pretty easy to print. Its one of my first home prints not done in black or white. I think the colour looks pretty good.
Any feedback?
What 3-d printer do you use?
Super cute… love it!
@Paul_Gross - thanks Paul. I think I’ll print another one to keep him company.
@Ben_Martin - a Kossel delta.
Has your design been uploaded somewhere for others to print? My wife would really love this.
Man that print is spot on @Craig_Walker looks amazing
I love it!
@Craig_Walker Nice, my school has like 12 3-d printers, one of them is a Makerbot.
Omg it’s an octocandle! I so need to print this. Seconding the request for files 
Pretty neat. Excellent
Thanks for the positive comments everyone!
@Anthony_Webb @foosel - The model is available here Download STL file Octopus Tea Light • 3D printable design ・ Cults. Normally I post all my models for free but I’m curious if people are willing to pay small fees for designs. This would motivate me to spend more of my free time designing these sorts of things.
@Paul_Gross - I meant to tag you on the comment above regarding availability.
@Nathan_Walkner - yes I suspect you’re right. any thoughts as to why?
For one thing people can’t trust the creator to know the model is of good enough quality to actually be printable by the average user. Naturally some are more obvious than others.
There’s also the fact that there’s so many free alternatives it doesn’t really make sense to pay for a model when you could find something near identical elsewhere.
Finally it comes down to the complexity of the design. A very intricate and detailed design might be worth paying a buck or so for if you had good reason to believe that the model is printable and you have a purpose for printing it.
Something simple though isn’t really worth paying money for. It depends on how long you think the creator spent making it. For something like what you made I could whip up something similar in solidworks in like 15 minutes. I wouldn’t pay 1.50 for something I could remake and share for free. Maybe .25-50 cents but only if it was easy to pay
Then there’s that, digital copyright is a very fuzzy thing and most users just don’t have the resources to try and prevent and stop infringement. What’s to stop someone from getting the STL files and sharing it on free sites after they buy it? Sure you get their money but never get it again.
What if we just released the g-code then? Well it’s possible to generate STL files from g-code so even that is pointless.
If you could have a closed source file format like x3g the maybe it would be worth selling models since then you know you have some protection. But this community especially hates anything closed source, so good luck there.
Moral of the story? You’re better off adding designs to your portfolio and not worry about nickel and diming fellow hobbyists. If you insist on selling, consider all the variables I discussed
I think that for most people, their printer just isnt capable of creating something of enough quality (like this print is, wow) that would be suitable for gift/display. Its more a hobby/challenge to see if you can print a model with as good of results as the next guy. There are some things that fall more in the utilitarian category which might be exceptions for me, but “cutesie” stuff has never been so “cute” out of my machine! Hopefully @Alex_Lee will change that for me
@Mike_Kelly_Mike_Make Thanks for responding. Some good points to think about there.
The first thing that I found insightful in your reply was the idea of the hobbyist. Those that own a printer are most likely in it for fun. Or like @Anthony_Webb said - the challenge of getting a good print and mastering your printer.
By asking for money I am testing the assumption that most people who own printers are not able to custom design things to print. And that these people are in the market for unique items for there homes / office / etc.
The second interesting thing was the ease of payment. Who wants to spend time signing up to an unknown vendor site to pay $1.50 when there are many free things that are only a click away. True - very true.
What software did you use to create this design?
@Craig_Walker , I feel your pain.
I for one would like to say “THANK YOU!” for the creativity that you mustered to create this cute octopus. Even my daughter thought it was adorable. So I bought one.
Again, Thank you.
There is a space for 3d print designers but truth be told, I think that most of the 3d printer folks are spoiled by services like Thingiverse where they expect to just go and download the latest toy and print it out and tweek it and not give a second thought to the person that spent time designing it.
Someone above mentioned they could bang one out in about 15 minutes, so I put the timer on the clock and went into TinkerCad with my daughter and we banged one out in about 15 minutes for the folks that want the free one. You can find it here:
Just so you know, MINE on Thingiverse is NOT Craigs’. But if you want a FREE version, there it is, you get what you pay for after all.
Maybe Shapeways has it right. At least there you are paying to have it printed, not the 3d model. The artist/designer is bound to get something if it is liked, and you cant really steal the physical thing they sell you unless you scan it in and reproduce it and then it isn’t exectly the same anyways.
Just my two cents… I see lots of folks talk about opensource, etc… etc… but the truth comes down to a man has to eat and feed his family. So you can either help or hinder that.
BTW, as for ease of payment, it is through PayPal. No different than when I spend .99 on an app for my phone.
Excuse are like armpits and crotches…