[HN Gopher] I built a 3D printing business and ran it for 8 months
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I built a 3D printing business and ran it for 8 months
Author : wespiser_2018
Score : 60 points
Date : 2026-04-15 13:59 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.wespiser.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.wespiser.com)
| wespiser_2018 wrote:
| I wrote this after running a small 3D printing side business for
| ~8 months. It worked in the sense that I got steady orders and
| revenue, but every part of the process required me (design,
| printing, assembly), so it never really scaled beyond my time.
|
| I'm interested how others think about this boundary, at what
| point does something go from "side project" to "business"? And
| how do you tell if it's worth trying to scale vs just leaving as
| is?
| AndrewKemendo wrote:
| The biggest thing I'm confused about is where the order demand
| was originating
|
| " This 3D printing business started with the help of my dog, at
| the time a puppy, and his desire to see my neighbor's puppy. We
| (the humans) began talking, and as we ran through a
| conversation about dogs, the topic came to his trading card
| business. He'd source cards all over the internet for his daily
| WhatNot auctions with thousands of followers. Impressive--not
| only a home business doing real volume, but a lens into a world
| I had no idea existed.
|
| I eventually noticed he had a 3D printed card stand, and with a
| printer at home, I offered to make him one myself. "Great," he
| said, "I can sell them.""
|
| So a guy selling playing cards started selling the things you
| 3D printed?
|
| Is that the business?
| wespiser_2018 wrote:
| Yes, exactly. It was through a neighbor. He had a functioning
| trading card business to start with, I sold my first order to
| him, then his clients started asking for prints.
|
| I'd argue that's a "business", there were sales, supplies, a
| bottom line, et cetera, it's just the front-end part of the
| business was in collaboration with someone else.
|
| It was pretty random, but there's all sorts of other 3D
| printing businesses like this for D&D supplies, tool
| attachments, et cetera.
| AndrewKemendo wrote:
| Thanks, that's definitely a business, I just had to kind of
| infer it and that's why I asked
| boothby wrote:
| I've been contemplating the nature of the rat race lately. If
| you can do it all, and you're enjoying what you're doing, why
| should it scale? If it's your side business, I presume you want
| it to remain that way until there's enough demand for it to be
| your main business -- and even then I wouldn't want to scale
| beyond demand.
| wespiser_2018 wrote:
| I agree, and a big practical reason I walked away was that I
| was spending my weekends and nights doing this, and there
| were other hobbies/interests I wanted to pursue. After so
| many order, it was also getting pretty boring to print the
| same thing out, over and over, but I could have always raised
| prices and decreased order that way.
|
| I'm still 3D printing, but now focused on problems like dog
| and kids toys where I can give away the results.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| > why should it scale
|
| Because you need your business to be big enough to pay your
| bills, not just theoretically net positive.
|
| I have made some designs that I thought of selling too. For
| something like that to work, you need thousands of customers
| over the time.
|
| It's ok to spend an year or two of weekends working into
| something that can replace some of your main income. It's
| really not ok to do that for something that can't.
| boothby wrote:
| It sounds like you're wanting the the side-project to take
| over and replace your day job. Which is fine, but different
| from what I've been picturing for myself. Nevertheless,
| with that being your target: suppose you've grown big
| enough to pay the bills. Does the business still need to
| scale?
|
| I see that as a bit of a trap, because people pass on what
| (to me) seems to be fulfilling work that could support a
| modest lifestyle and make big-growth choices that either
| crash them out or saddle their business with debt its
| market can't sustain.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| Not replace, but it should free enough time to run it.
| There's a minimum scale for something to actually free
| some time.
|
| > suppose you've grown big enough to pay the bills. Does
| the business still need to scale?
|
| No, that's the acceptable size.
| harshdoesdev wrote:
| i too wanted to purchase 5-6 3D printers and start a business -
| basically my version of goose farming after i leave the software
| dev space for the greater good of mankind :)
| wespiser_2018 wrote:
| I would start with one printer, only print PLA, then talk to
| your neighbors and family about it and focus on printing things
| they want and use.
|
| The card stands were a lot of fun, but most of what I print now
| are dog toys and gifts for my niece and nephew. It's nice to
| roll up to a family holiday, and have something interesting and
| unique you can just hand out.
|
| You could get started doing that for just a couple hundred
| bucks and some desk space!
| dekhn wrote:
| I've got enough equipment and skills already to run an etsy
| shop when I retire, but looking at the economics, I concluded
| that it would just turn an enjoyable hobby into a chore, and I
| didn't want to do that.
| jasobake wrote:
| I wish I could just start a business fixing 3d printers and
| helping people set up really nice plex servers with hardware
| transcoding, but there's this pesky mortgage...
|
| Anyway, these posts always make me think of this
| https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/142eg6r/...
| dylan604 wrote:
| If it was a business, why would it not help with that pesky
| mortgage?
| Our_Benefactors wrote:
| Not enough business, not highly paid enough. No true market
| for such a service.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Then that's not a business, that's a tax write off.
| ghaff wrote:
| And it's not even a tax write-off until you have enough
| income to offset expenses. (Which is nice as far as it
| goes but is small scale where you can write-off a few $K
| in expenses against a few $K in income.)
| dylan604 wrote:
| Coming at it from a different angle
|
| If there's already income paying the pesky mortgage, you
| start up an official business as a side hustle. As long
| as you are showing income even if at a loss, you then get
| to use that loss as a deduction. If it never pans out to
| be profitable to the point the tax man strongly suggests
| the business should close, you close it. In the mean
| time, you've followed a passion, that even as a loss,
| still gives financial benefit helping with the pesky
| mortgage.
| Joel_Mckay wrote:
| Customers may buy a retail functional replacement now for
| <$400.
|
| It is called the Shoemakers paradox, where the shoemakers
| kids go barefoot.
|
| Also, the same reason why CNC Milling factories don't tend to
| produce paperclips. =3
|
| Rule #23: Don't compete to be at the bottom, as you just
| might actually win.
| Gigachad wrote:
| No one would pay to have a 3D printer fixed. Or at least not
| pay enough for it to be a viable business. A brand new
| printer can be purchased for the equivalent of a couple hours
| labor, and that's before replacement parts.
| bdcravens wrote:
| If you want to scratch the itch, you could fix up broken 3d
| printers to donate to schools.
| 6510 wrote:
| I love the refined personality of the sour dressing guy. Would
| love to shake his hand and make him a salad.
|
| I see some light from a door down a narrow alley from the main
| shopping street, I knew this building was empty for a decade
| and the store front was still covered in wood planks. Curious I
| walk into the alley to check out what was going on.
|
| I see a guy jumping around as if dancing with the largest
| bouquet of flowers I have ever seen. Around him 5-7 similar
| giant vases with layered compositions. Each with enormous
| exotic flowers in the center.
|
| _Woah, what is that?_ I asked. He looked up and said loudly
| _this is me!_
|
| I said it looked stunning and asked how long he was doing this.
| He said, _I will only do this for 2 weeks and ill be happy when
| it is over!_ I asked, _is there no money in it?_
|
| He said, _I charge an ungodly amount of money for these. You
| cant buy anything like it anywhere._
|
| _Then why only 2 weeks?_ _I 'm not going to trap myself! 2
| weeks, a vacation, then ill do something else entirely._
|
| While talking his hands moved at lightning speed adding and
| removing different flowers.
|
| He ended the conversation with: _I have to get these finished
| then I have to deliver them as fast as possible as fresh as
| possible. I didn 't sleep for days! Cant wait for it to be
| over!_
|
| My slacker life style allowed me to think about this strange
| encounter for a few days. I decided he was still doing it wrong
| but it looked absolutely beautiful. I'm happy he doesn't get
| it.
| mym1990 wrote:
| "On the economics, things worked."
|
| I would argue that they didn't. 25$ per hour for custom design
| work seems very low, I understand maybe trying to get a customer
| base but at that rate you are just going to get repeat customers
| who want the same low cost labor. Where 3d printing is great is
| if you can create truly custom things, not knick knacks that can
| be copied and mass produced by someone else. Selling the plastic
| itself is a no go, you have to go mixed materials, mixed
| colorways, things that take time to assemble, and then charge out
| the wazoo for custom work because the people that _really_ want
| the custom stuff, will find a way to pay for it.
| wespiser_2018 wrote:
| That's the same conclusion I ran into, and why I stopped.
| $25/hour could probably be increased, but my market was really
| niche: people selling trading cards via online auctions who
| wanted custom branded card stands.
|
| In terms of plastic, yes, it does come across as lower value,
| but if you can put someones logo on it you can make something
| unique that they love.
| Novosell wrote:
| This is so ai-written it is hard to take serious. You figured out
| the _trick_ to making tall skinny things stable? Weight or a wide
| base?
| wespiser_2018 wrote:
| I did not write this with AI.
|
| The "trick" was finding a weight that would work, which needed
| to be purchased for cheap and installed easily.
| randlet wrote:
| I assumed it was AI too
|
| "All of this happened over text--not an organized workflow
| system, but good enough to handle a weekend's worth of work,
| one weekend at a time. For a moment, the business worked. In
| reality, this was the easy part."
|
| And
|
| "The logo was the Boston Celtics logo. The problem? It's not
| a minimal, modern logo; it's a detailed, hand-drawn image
| from 1946."
|
| have a pretty AI like cadence.
|
| edit: No shade to OP....I'm glad it's not AI, but I'm sad my
| default is assuming AI now :/
| wespiser_2018 wrote:
| Thanks for the feedback!
| BeetleB wrote:
| Please don't change your writing style just because
| random humbugs on the Internet associate it with an LLM.
| ButlerianJihad wrote:
| It may be a compliment on cogent points combined with
| impeccable grammar and spelling
| lozenge wrote:
| What is writing if not a way to be perceived by others.
| Ideally not perceived as an LLM!
|
| I saw it too and OP has likely picked up these idioms
| from the sheer amount of AI-assisted or generated writing
| out there.
| BeetleB wrote:
| > I saw it too and OP has likely picked up these idioms
| from the sheer amount of AI-assisted or generated writing
| out there.
|
| I think that's a convenient post hoc justification. I
| could as easily say the LLM wrote it that way because
| that's how people actually write.
| keybored wrote:
| This is the home of the writing luminaries that can't
| imagine outputting em-dashes by hand.
| ssl-3 wrote:
| People have been writing comparative statements with
| punctuation for as long as we've had things to compare and
| written language to punctuate.
|
| Your bot detector is broken.
| comrade1234 wrote:
| I'm in Europe and ordered some dungeons and dragons figurines
| from ironshieldarmy based in Poland. They print them to order,
| optionally do the required assembly and base layer of paint.
|
| I had the impression that they're busy full-time but I have no
| idea really. They have some nice designs though.
|
| I'm surprised they're completely focused on DnD though. Hopefully
| they have another business doing war hammer, etc. (although maybe
| everything in war hammer is copyrighted?)
| starkparker wrote:
| Warhammer IP is a fucking nightmare. They will bring all kinds
| of hammers down on anyone trying to make money on anything
| Warhammer-compatible or resembling Warhammer.
|
| Examples of what they pull when someone tries to do that:
|
| https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2024/01/24/printed-minis-and...
|
| https://freelancerpress.com/arts/2025/06/04/games-workshop-i...
| hamdingers wrote:
| Games Workshop store employees will also kick you out for
| using 3d printed models in your army, even when it's just for
| casual play.
| seanw444 wrote:
| That's... insane
| pjc50 wrote:
| Bartenders will also kick you out if you bring your own
| booze to a bar.
| dvh wrote:
| I recently had 3d printed part made by jlcpcb, it was
| 110x100x25mm resin print, 60ml for EUR5 plus EUR12 shipping.
| https://imgur.com/a/ctOTImN
| proee wrote:
| How long did it take to get shipped to you, from click ->
| doorstep?
| dvh wrote:
| 2 weeks (that's their cheapest shipping)
| kennywinker wrote:
| For resin printing, doing it yourself almost never makes sense.
| It's expensive, fiddly, messy, hazardous to your skin and
| lungs, and consumes a lot of space to do right.
|
| Filament printing, on the other hand, makes sense to do
| yourself quite often. A $200 printer will do an excellent job
| of most things you can throw at it, it doesn't take up much
| space, is quite safe unless you're using weird filaments, and
| even a kid can learn the basics in a couple days.
| EAtmULFO wrote:
| This post reads like an invitation to one or more Trademark
| infringement cases.
| wespiser_2018 wrote:
| All logos used were provided by the customer and remain their
| property.
| misthop wrote:
| You made a card stand for the Boston Celtics? The Celtics own
| that logo, selling it is clear trademark infringement. Same
| is true for most (all?) of the images on the post. Just
| because a customer provided the image does not mean they own
| the the trademarks or copyrights
| ghostly_s wrote:
| Lol. that's not how this works.
| ryanhuff wrote:
| From what I gathered from the article, one of your problems is
| that you didn't understand the economics before you launched, and
| therefore your pricing was disconnected from the true costs. Next
| time, try to anticipate these by breaking down the various input
| factors (material, machine wear, design time, desired profit
| margin, etc). You may get an answer that convinces you it's not
| worth it before you invest time.
| wespiser_2018 wrote:
| I way under-estimated how long it would take to actually design
| something. I did a cost breakdown ahead of time on printing
| time + materials, but at that time the designs were simple,
| just text.
|
| As things advanced, we had people ask for logos, and recreating
| them is really what took time.
|
| There is still one lever here, and that was to increase the
| price to make that design time actually worth it. If I had to
| continue, that's what I would have done, but I was still losing
| my weekends and my free time was just more valuable.
| dylan604 wrote:
| Lots of places charge a separate fee for the design aspect
| like this. Printing prices will stay the same as the time +
| materials is consistent, so that's what you charge the
| client. However, since you're having to do the design part,
| that's where you come up with a different pricing scheme.
| I've been in multiple places that had similar concepts that
| kept things somewhat sane.
| mauvehaus wrote:
| Howdy from a former Somervillen (inferred from the photos)!
|
| If you have any interest in doing custom B2C instead of B2B,
| there's Somerville Open Studios. I did that one year (2019)
| before we moved to Vermont just before things went to shit in
| 2020. I also noted that Somerville Open Container Day (aka
| Porchfest) would be a great time to have something going (a demo
| maybe?) at our house given the huge foot traffic. I think you'd
| get a lot more folks passing by rather than the folks already
| committed to visiting art and craft studios specifically.
|
| Don't let your likely lousy space be a barrier. We had my
| furniture on display in our living room (aka: our furniture) and
| I gave people tours of our basement which had my bench, my table
| saw, and damn little else. People kind of dig it. Small and
| scrappy is kind of expected for these kind of events.
|
| Good luck if you try to give a go at it from another angle! And
| if you stick with software, that's cool too.
| Aurornis wrote:
| I enjoyed this writeup. It was interesting to read the
| perspective of someone starting a 3D printing business without
| first researching all of the countless 3D printing businesses and
| trying to duplicate their work. They discovered why doing custom
| designs and low volume orders doesn't work, but it was more
| interesting than reading yet another 3D print farm story.
|
| The current meta is to license (or steal) 3D toy models and then
| market them relentlessly on social media. It's a marketing and
| social media game most of all. These shops have tens of printers
| set up in a room printing plates full of little toys, a web shop
| or social media shop to pick colors, and then they spend their
| days monitoring printers and packing up orders. There's not much
| 3D printing or design fun in the job because it's mostly a social
| media and logistics operation.
| bdcravens wrote:
| I have a small side business selling 3d prints, creeping up on 2
| years old. It's roughly break even, but that's mainly because I
| rented a space for a studio to do the work in. I mainly sell
| others' models (either open licensed, or commercially licensed,
| and intentionally steering clear of others' IP). Slowly I'm
| building out additional automations to facilitate scaling, but
| I'm really in no rush. (Day job is great)
| jacquesm wrote:
| - design time earned about $25/hour
|
| - $3666 total revenue
|
| - $3352 in expenses
|
| - ~50 orders fulfilled
|
| - ~3000 hours of logged print time.
|
| This tells the whole story... these numbers are so far off from
| what they should be that this is not a business, but a charity
| cosplaying as a business. It's a pity you are going to drop this,
| I think if you adjust your pricing and become a bit more
| efficient you can easily make it work. But great you're sharing
| your numbers, you really just need better customers.
|
| Rules of thumb: 10x on materials, base fee of $3 / hour of print
| time, $100 / hour design time if < 1000 parts, above that you can
| start pricing it into the job total.
| mandeepj wrote:
| well, there's that, and there's this
| https://www.businessinsider.com/teenager-built-six-figure-ec...
| yapyap wrote:
| that single succes story doesnt impact this situation though
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