I was thinking about this question today as someone used our work printer for some personal stuff.
As for me, I am printing little things that I would say make it worth it. I’ve printed lens adapters for my camera for example. That’s worth a good 14 to 30 bucks per print. My most favorite photo was with an adapted lens that came from a projector. I also printed IEMs and those things are worth it. Listening to music is second to none on those things. Plus I printed the same shell but for ear protection and again the fit is perfect and sure there’s post processing to get smooth surfaces but in the end it looks like a professional made it. So I think 3d printers are worth it.
Define “worth it”??
For many, it’s a hobby. For many more, it’s an adjunct to whatever hobby they do have. Hobby’s don’t have to save you money; and I’m militantly opposed to monetizing hobbies as a way to “justify” them.
Personally, I’m mostly 3d printing custom components (that I’ve designed), for R/C aircraft of various sorts. (Like, my cyclogyros, or the flying saucer powered by a 3d printed ducted fan; which is, more or less, a scaled model of the saucer from the OG Day The Earth Stood Still. or the thermal airship using toaster wire that has taken on a lot of different forms, ranging from 20’ star destroyers to whale sharks to a robot named Buoyant Bob that hands out candy on Halloween.)
I also enjoy 3d printing as a hobby, in of itself, too. (and spend waaayyyyy too much tinkering on the printer. its fun.) But it doesn’t have to save me money, and I feel no need to compare it to other forms of hobbies. It’s what I enjoy.
edit: lets put this in perspective. This would be like asking a golfer if they found golf worth it. the only real questions are “Do I enjoy it” and “can I afford it”. not “can it save me a buck”.
100%. I’ve printed some cool stuff and some stupid stuff, as well as a bunch of functional parts that have improved my life around my house. More importantly it’s given me a huge creative outlet to get more and more outlandish with my CAD designs and push my experience limits, which is great because that helps me be a lot more efficient at work.
Financially it was a total waste of money but that doesn’t matter when it’s a hobby. A hobby with practical marketable skills, and also the ability to let me prototype some independent ideas I’ve been brewing for a while to maybe sell for some side cash…
I would put it in the same class as lathes or mills you probably aren’t saving money by buying one but it may open more avenues for you.
I will say though with the price of printers vs mills & etc, a cheap printer will get you much closer to breaking even. You might save more than you spend if you can use an Ender 3 judicially but overall it’s mostly for those odd projects or when a custom part is needed.
Depends on how you define “worth it.” Have I spent less money on the printer than I would have buying things I printed? Probably not. However, it has been a blast and great learning experience. Most recently printed landing skids and a camera shroud for a friend’s dji drone which is pretty cool.
That sounds pretty cool. I would say the same, it’s a expenditure like any other. We get to have fun from it.
We made quite a few plant pots and other stuff. It’s paid for itself.
For me yes definitely, I’ve used it to fix a half a dozen things around the house, people love 3D printed tchotchkes, seasonal decorations, and just yesterday I actually ended up printing some stuff out for my RC rock crawler.
I print warhammer for friends for money. So that plus the money I saved on models for myself, I’d say it’s worth it.
But it’s also a hobby, learning how the things work and how to model is a lot of fun!
I print figurines, busts, and diorama scenery for my son and I to paint. Sure I’ve got my share of functional prints but most my print time is spent so I can spend creative time with my son. So very much worth it for me.
When you say you printed IEMs and ear protection, are you able to elaborate?
In my case I’ve only just gotten into FDM, and I’m having a lot more fun with it than my resin printer, but I might have made enough things for the resin printer that might make that a lot less of a chore.
So far, the FDM has been handy with quite a few functional prints around the house (certainly not yet enough that I can say it’s cheaper than just buying the items outright, but we’re getting close!), and that’s been an enjoyable process.
At home I print SLA. I did the whole ear danger enchilada…go to home Depot, get caulking silicone I tube…I hear you scrolling away…then I tested the quick silicone recipe where you mix flour into the caulking. Once tested and guaranteed to work, I mixed a batch and stuck it in my ears. I used a portion of a foam plug to plug the inner ear shut. Then with a stick in my mouth I waited for 15 minutes. The result were excellent impressions of my ears. Then I used meshlab and my DSLR to do photogrammetry and output an STL. Then to freeCAD to output a STEP file. Next to UGNX to create a surface model of the IEMs. I ended up making one and flipping/mirror to make the other and it worked better than the impression of that one. Did some test prints in gray for fit. Then I bought some cheap earphones and took the armatures out to make the IEMS. I have several sets now. One was a simple cast on places earphones set. The others are using the IEM as a hole to which they just snap into place. And I got another where I bought cheap IEMs and I modeled the inner parts so I could just use them in my IEMs. freeCAD would probably have worked too. The finish of the part doesn’t have to be perfect because you’re going to sand it and polish it or sand it and dip it into resin to then cure with a UV lamp. I’m super satisfied and the thing is that I can pretty much design any other thing that attaches to my ear…as funny as that sounds.
Ahaha that’s real cool. I had ear moulds taken professionally and what you did is pretty dang close. Nice work!
Not really. I purchased one with pretty significant maintenance/process requirements, had I gotten one a little more seamless (self leveling/etc) I think I’d use it far more often than I do now.
It’s almost definitely a pain in the ass, but you can probably add self leveling to your existing printer.
Tried! Added one of those white barrel self leveling poke tools (can’t remember specifically what they’re called). It was a huuuuuge pain in the ass and only works about 50% of the time oddly, lol.
Sounds like you’re talking about a bltouch or a clone, they were in the market super early, I think they were one of the first.
There are more options out there now, but most do work on the same concept.
It’s not like I make or save a lot of money from it, but as a hobby it’s been amazingly fun. Getting into basic 3D modeling has been really cool too, nothing quite hits like making something entirely unique and designed for a specific purpose, then watching your printer just crank it out in a day or two and your imagined thing is all the sudden real.
I’m sure other hobbies can do that too, but for me it was a really awesome feeling :)
It would be worth it if I had an actual decent printer. As it stands now, I feel like I just wasted money because all I can print small, pla objects, after days of trial and error and adjusting settings. Saving up for a prusa, hopefully will make it worth it.
Yep. So much so that we have 3. One cheap resin, one older FDM, and a Bambu FDM. The only regret…sorta…is the resin. Shoulda got a better one. I mean, it works, but it is super fiddly and finicky. I think a better model would have been worth spending on. We print costume parts, but I also design and print all sorts of stuff for things like headset hangers, cup holders, toolbox organizers, parts bins, etc.
Financially yes. I pretty much only print functional things. I probably have saved enough money just in printing chip clips to buy two printers.
financially worth it?
Probably not.
Did it give me brief respites of light against the clawing, ever encroaching abyssal darkness of life and misery?
Yes.
