What do you think about this business model for a makerfarm / printer farm. The idea is to collaborate with hobbyists and designers such as many of you, and print your designs for selling the way they should be. In other words this isn’t a 3dhub but a much more personalized and professional process. Only designs that meet specific requirements and are tested to work well will be available. Some will be complicated designs with post processing and even customized.
Since we will first work with the designer we will know the product well and how to make it work for the customer.
My thinking is that many of you designers don’t have the time and resources to make copies to sell and would rather a mini factory take care of it but also want a nice commission and want your stuff produced properly the way it was made to be.
I don’t know much about shapeways but I don’t think I’m presenting the same business model here. Also their machines seem very high end and that really isn’t the idea here.
Lwt me know what you guys think?
If you want to make a large scalable business you should a) not limit yourself to a smaller subset of a market - what you have said is “not all prints but only some prints”, and b) not create more work for yourself/ require a staff just to keep the basic principle alive (you have to find these designers, vet them, and have human interaction with them.) Now let’s say you don’t want a large business. Maybe you want to start with 10 or 20 phenomenal prints you find and you want to sell these on your web store. Let’s say you manage to reach the designers and convince them of your merits and you agree on a royalty deal. You said ‘not shapeways’. Your own printers had better be top notch then. Why would a great designer agree to someone selling mediocre quality printouts of their amazing work? @Louise_Driggers may have some additional input for you.
Globally distributed additive manufacturing or 3D printing , is the way forward . Limitless replication of production machines , would uplift all people , and eliminate poverty everywhere , a noble ideal . A makerfarm/printer farm is a good idea .
@raykholo thanks for responding. when I say some I’m referring to those that created designs that are of high quality and at the same time want to work with us. The operation could be large but there will be a focus on each design. There will also be lots of finishing that people with home 3d printers are not capable of.
I don’t know that much about shapeways but from what I’ve seen they invest in real expensive machines for all types of materials while this operation is more like a typical 3d printer. I honestly don’t really get what shapeways business model is. I can’t believe expensive machines make excellent prints all by themselves.
Well, you pay more than a house for one of these machines so that they will make excellent prints without you having to screw around with them. You should really take whatever steps necessary to understand your competitors’ model completely if you want to get into business.
@raykholo I agree. Maybe some people here have a better idea of what shapeways does.
Injection molding is way faster than 3d printing… if you can make a mold of an exceptional print it is way faster and cheaper to produce… 2-5cents for the resin And a 30 sec to a minute to produce
Yeah but 2k-48k tooling cost per print
@Alex_Krause these are limited quantities. Maybe 50 orders a year for one specific model. I don’t think injection molding is an option for that.
@Aric_Norine I would really like to see a review of what shapeways can and cannot do. How much time to they spend on each item and how much do they know about the model they are printing.
@Aric_Norine thanks for responding. Firstly it’s strange for consumers to know about 3dhubs and not shapeways. My thinking was they are looking to pay less. Anyhow I hear what your saying but im not convinced there is no middle ground. I don’t know the machines that shapeways uses to figure out their business model but something tells me it’s not as simple as push button. And at that cost it’s possible they can’t even make profit. Compare to a printer farm of fdm printers that cost close to nothing to build.