What’s 3D Printing Anyway?
With the dawn of a new decade right around the corner, it’s amazing to see how far 3D printing has come since its inception. The industry is on its way to becoming a household product, but what is 3D printing?
If you’re unfamiliar with the process, there are two popular methods of 3D printing. Photocuring 3D resin printing can print designs layer by layer by curing every individual layer with a UV light source until you have a fully-formed 3D model.
The reigning 3D printing method is with filaments. Filaments come in a variety of types and materials with the standard being PLA and ABS. If you’re a novice to the industry, there are dozens of cheap 3D printers to be considered as a 3D printer for beginners.
Why Buy a 3D Printer?
‘Why should I buy a 3D printer’ is a great question to ask yourself if you’re unfamiliar with all of the benefits that come with owning one. Here are a few reasons why buying a 3D printer for beginners could be useful:
New Skill – There’s something to be said about being ahead of the curve. When you’re among a group of early adopters to new technology, especially as it gains popularity, you can leverage that knowledge to help others, help yourself, and even monetize what you know. Tasking the brain to learn the nuances of printing with thermal plastics can be a rewarding and enlightening experience as you learn how to assemble 3D printers and learn the best settings to print with various building materials.
Print Easy Fixes to Household Problems – Do you hear a constant drip drip drip of a leaky faucet? Perhaps the handle to your favorite coffee mug has broken off. One of the benefits of learning 3D printing is to have the ability to print miscellaneous solutions to household issues from the comfort of your home. You won’t have to scour home repair shops or supplies stores looking for random items needed to fix things up around your place.
Outlet for Creativity – Sometimes you see something, whether it be from your environment to your imagination, and you want to bring that idea to life. Having one of the best 3D printers gives an avenue to express and create images you may not be able to build by hand, draw, or paint.
Perfect for STEM Learning – 3D printing isn’t for adults alone. Teaching and training across all ages can use 3D printed models to create parts, pieces, and other educational tools to assist in lessons for science, technology, engineering, and math.
Learn CAD & 3D Modeling – Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? You can’t be too old or too young to learn about CAD files and 3D modeling. Even the best budget 3D printers use the computer-aided design (CAD) file format as a means for creating, modifying, analyzing or optimizing a design. The software increases designers’ productivity, improves the quality of designs and the quality of communication through documentation.
Learning 3D modeling allows you to explore the file formats used across the best 3D printers. G-Code, STL, OBJ, and AMF are just some of the file formats you’ll come across when designing files for 3D printed models. It’s essential to learn these as the properties and specifications of each format will achieve different results based on the design rendered in the file.
Create Gifts for Loved Ones – Whether it’s months in advance or days away, being able to create a gift for someone at your convenience is an answer to the question ‘Why should I buy a 3D printer?’ With filaments able to carry properties of metal and other exotic materials, it leaves a lot of room for creativity when constructing a gift.
Start a Business Selling 3D Prints – Learning the basics of 3D printing, even with cheap 3D printers, can springboard you into a new business venture. From action figures to trinkets and jewelry, you can sell your prints to make a few extra dollars on the side.
If you’re new to 3D printing and would like to learn more, feel free to check out our article Best 3D Printer for Absolute Beginners.
What are 3D Printers Used to make?
Even if you’re using a 3D printer for beginners, you can make an array of items across multiple industries. Professionals are turning to 3D printing to provide solutions that reduce waste and increase efficiency.
Medical Supplies – Heart valves, implants, and even bioprinting organs are on the horizon to service the medical industry in ways never imaginable. It’s an astounding possibility to think of people no longer having to wait on donor lists when the body parts they need to be repaired can be printed in a medical laboratory. Sure it may sound of science fiction, but simply having the possibility to make this an option is an achievement on its own. While there’s still a ways to go before organs are being printed, simpler things to make the lives of doctors and patients can be printed with minimal time and costs.
Jewelry – With metals like bronze, silver, and gold available for 3D printing filaments, the best budget 3D printers can print beautiful earrings, bracelets, rings, and necklaces with little effort at all. Being able to replace a broken clasp or link instead of hauling your valuables to a jeweler has its perks too. You can also get into the market of selling your 3D printed jewelry if you don’t want to maintain it as a hobby.
Household Stuff – Bowls, plates, utensils, and other household items can be printed from a 3D printer. You’ll have to make sure the filament you’re using is safe for food contact if printing dishes and other kitchen items, but something as simple as a cabinet knob can be printed and replaced within your home.
Cosplay Apparel – LARPing or heading to your city’s next Comic Con doesn’t have to be full of duct tape and makeshift costume parts. Printing items that you won’t have to scour the internet to buy, like a life-sized Iron Man helmet, is another reason to invest in a 3D printer.
Models – Industries like Architecture and Design can benefit from using a 3D printer. It prints the latest scale model of a building or piece needed to improve a pre-existing design. Building miniature scaled models of cars, homes, furniture, or other pieces can be done with ease instead of relying on the hand-eye coordination of someone tasked to put the model together.
Homes – At the moment, there are industrial-sized 3D printers that pour cement the same way 3D printers extrude filament to form homes that people can actually live in. While the square footage can seem lacking as most 3D printing homes average 800 square feet, that’s still larger than most 2-bedroom apartments. The costs to build a 3D printed home is another enticing feature that makes worthy of consideration when you’re ready to enter the market for a new place to live with costs reported as low as $4,000. Check out this article on 3D printed homes featured on BusinessInsider.com.
How much do 3D Printers Cost?
You can find cheap 3D printers to start yourself out, but you may want to opt for a printer that comes preassembled. Making this kind of purchase can be decided based on your experience with 3D printing and how much you desire to tinker. Many of the printers at the lower price range, typically $150 – $300, are shipped as DIY kits. They’ll come partially assembled leaving the buyer to get the printer put together and up and running.
Another alternative is buying a more expensive unit that comes ready to print right out of the box. Printers can reach up to thousands of dollars, but these machines often cater to professional industries like construction, medical, manufacturing, and engineering.
Can you Sell 3D prints?
Selling your 3D prints of things like missing board game pieces, hard to find action figurines and toys, jewelry, and even household gadgets like a T-Rex shower head can be a profitable venture.
You’ll need to consider what you want to print and the target demographic for who’ll be purchasing your prints as that helps you decide what websites you’d like to sell them from. Etsy is great for art and homemade jewelry, while Amazon may be better suited for gadgets you find around the house like a 3D printed plate set.
The best part about selling 3D prints is that you don’t have to create and develop the design files on your own. There are several websites you can find on the internet where you can download free 3D prints or purchase ones that you’ll find useful as a 3D printer entrepreneur. Here are a few of the best sites:
Thingiverse – The biggest content provider for 3D models with almost 2 million STL files available for your use. It’s run by MakerBot Industries and facilitates a huge community of 3D printers who offer free files for others to download and share.
CGTrader – This marketplace allows users to buy and sell designs while offering over 740,000 files, some of which are free. You only need to create a free account on the site to gain access to the content provided.
MyMiniFactory – With over 50,000 files, this site offers community space with a strong emphasis on gaming culture. It has an online store that sells printers along with a premium store where creators can promote their work and earn money.
Cults – This site is a 3D printing marketplace where members of the community can share or sell STL files. There are over 40,000 free models. Users can follow their favorite designers and pursue collections that are specially curated for specific brands like IKEA.
Conclusion
Buying a 3D printer for yourself can open up your world of creativity bringing your ideas to life in ways that you never considered before. It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor, a LARPer, a teacher, or a hobbyist, a 3D printer can prove its usefulness regardless of what you want to print.
