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queeb posted:I just put magnets in mine and sell em as kits for a bit more ?? i add $5 in magnets and ramp the price up an additional 60+ bucks. Obviously since they're selling well I'm gonna raise the price a bit and see where the equilibrium is. Though I hadn't sold much of anything in November until yesterday when that dude dropped 4300 queeb fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Nov 11, 2022 |
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Nov 11, 2022 16:33
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So I managed to catch my stopping stepper issue again This is what it sounds like when I try and unload the filament after the stepper stops turning the gear completely. You can hear me press the button on the LCD screen to unload the filament then the stepper tries to move. https://imgur.com/gallery/2HaTPp7 After this happens the only way to remove the filament is to back out the tension screw and then the filament will move however I want it to. It almost seems like the stepper is seizing up completely for whatever reason. During the print that this happened it did start to skip on the filament and I was able to get past that by basically helping the filament along by pushing it into the extruder and then it continued on. But when this happened I heard it skip like once or twice then just stopped. edit: Forgot to mention, I was able to get this test print out right before just fine  mattfl fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Nov 11, 2022 |
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Nov 11, 2022 18:41
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I know goons are just looking out for you Queeb, but I’m going to hit you with some different advice. Do what makes you feel good. Of course, there’s a lot more to this advice, so here’s a wall of text. First things first: Figure out what you want to do with this hobbisuness, both short term and long term. I don’t mean make a formal business plan or anything, but I mean just take a day and REALLY think about it. Do you want to replace your day job? Do you want to pay for your hobby? Or do you just want beer money? Again, think about now and think about the future if you get a measure of success. Then adapt what you do to that vision. If it’s beer money, then who gives a poo poo how much profit you make? If it’s more than that, then scale your plans accordingly. If you’d like to get out of your day job, it’s entirely possible, but you’re going to need to get a lot more organized with what you are doing. The next question is related to the first. How much profit do you want to make? Or more accurately, how much do you want to maximize profits? If you don’t care, then again, don’t listen to anyone but your heart. If you’re having fun, that’s the goal. Just keep in mind you’ll piss some people off for ‘racing to the bottom.’ But depending on your answers, you can make good decisions going forward. There’s nothing wrong with selling in bulk at wholesale prices. That’s a perfectly valid plan, and a lot of companies do just fine with that model. Tailor what you do to that should that be what you want to do, e.g. print a lot of things really fast. Business schools (I am a Business Major) will tell you that anything that nets you a profit is worth doing. Even it’s $1. Capitalists will tell you to maximize profits over anything else. I (again as a Business Major) am telling you - gently caress all that poo poo. Do what makes you happy, content, and mentally sane. Now, from your posts I’m going to assume you are somewhere in the middle. You are having fun, making scratch, and building sales. Assuming you are NOT going full-on Capitalist, then what you want to do is to take a good look at your competition and then decide how you differentiate. Translation: look at stores on Etsy selling things you sell. Note what they are charging, from high to low. Assuming all else equal, then you don’t want to be at the top, nor do you want to be below the midline. If you want DO to charge at the high end, then you have to set yourself apart. Customer service, quality, perceived value, bonus items, and so on, are not necessarily going to improve profits directly, but they will all improve your business. Conversely, it’s also a valid strategy to go on the low side and make it up in volume. Think about Apple vs. whatever the cheap no-name phone brands are. They have wildly different approaches, but whatever keeps you out of bankruptcy works just fine. I will agree you really should figure out a baseline cost of goods sold (how much some unit of measurement costs to make AND SELL a mini). It could be by any measurement, but I find by the gram to be best for Filament prints. Again, unless you want to go whole hog capitalist, accounting for EVERYTHING will only make you crazy. Do not factor in your time! At this stage you really don’t have a good idea what to charge for your time anyway. I know people say use $X per hour, but when you are starting out, all that will do is inflate your prices to stupid levels. Again, look at what $ everyone else is selling (including GW, WizKids, Reaper, and other big companies) and adjust as you feel. I’m sure I could charge a lot more for some of my models, but meh I really don’t care about fine tuning. The time spent doing THAT is more valuable to me doing other poo poo. I would love to rely on my storefront for my livelihood sure, but I have a day job but because of that I also don’t have the time needed to build up to make an equivalent amount of money. And that’s OKAY for me! Anyway, keep on posting and asking questions, but seriously, figure out what you want *first* before doing anything like raising prices.
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Nov 11, 2022 20:02
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Doctor Zero posted:I find by the gram to be best for Filament prints Great post, one note: include your failure rate and your consumables here. Amortize them out across every gram of COGS (cost of goods sold). Most stuff you can ignore, ++ on not trying to price your time, but don't lose money because your printer burped and wrecked a print, or needed a new nozzle, or whatever. tracecomplete fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Nov 11, 2022 |
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Nov 11, 2022 20:06
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Doctor Zero posted:First things first: Figure out what you want to do with this hobbisuness, both short term and long term. I don’t mean make a formal business plan or anything, but I mean just take a day and REALLY think about it. Do you want to replace your day job? Do you want to pay for your hobby? Or do you just want beer money? Again, think about now and think about the future if you get a measure of success. Then adapt what you do to that vision. Awesome post, but this is in particular is incredibly good advice. I don't use my printers for miniatures hobby stuff, but I have been doing contract work for a while now. I'm scaling back (a bit) because I didn't really establish these goals and boundaries, and it reached a point where I was in a very uncomfortable middle ground between beer money and a real business. It kind of feels like a smooth slope from one to the other when you're scaling up, but it hits a point where you really are running a small manufacturing shop and it starts demanding a lot of time on things you don't really expect. Whatever you decide you want to do with this is ultimately cool and good, but it's a really good idea to have a direction in mind before you suddenly find yourself needing to triple your number of printers while you spend all your free time managing your print farm.
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Nov 11, 2022 20:39
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Paradoxish posted:Awesome post, but this is in particular is incredibly good advice. I don't use my printers for miniatures hobby stuff, but I have been doing contract work for a while now. I'm scaling back (a bit) because I didn't really establish these goals and boundaries, and it reached a point where I was in a very uncomfortable middle ground between beer money and a real business. It kind of feels like a smooth slope from one to the other when you're scaling up, but it hits a point where you really are running a small manufacturing shop and it starts demanding a lot of time on things you don't really expect. I'm curious - how did you find customers for this, and what're you manufacturing? (I have the spare time, as I WFH, and I have an alarming number of printers which just keeps growing, and the space to operate them, so it might not be the worst idea in the world to fill some time. So I've been thinking about it a bit.)
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Nov 11, 2022 20:52
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I definitely want to take this to the point of losing my lovely day job, but yeah i can see where the awkward transition would be. This all blew up so fast i have been woefully unprepared. I've made 8k in 2 months basically, though minus etsy fees and materials probably like 5.5k, which is still more than my day job at the moment! I appreciate all the advice and i apologize for annoying people too, lol. I'm trying to absorb it all. oh also i just made this today and i am really happy. 
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Nov 11, 2022 21:22
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I know it's winter, but I found that standing laser-cut wood up in an old CD rack in the summer sun outdoors for a day was a fantastic and hands-off way to get the campfire smell to dissipate. Looks great!
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Nov 11, 2022 21:25
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tracecomplete posted:I'm curious - how did you find customers for this, and what're you manufacturing? Initially just through Craigslist and some other local classifieds, and then through my existing network. I'm a contract software developer by day and I've done work for a few small shops in this area years ago. Turns out several of them liked the idea of rapid prototyping but never wanted to invest in the learning curve of 3d printing, so that worked out pretty nicely for me. A lot of what I print ends up being partial functional prototypes or client mock-up stuff, but I also help with editing parts to actually make them 3d printable in the first place, so my labor ends up being a big factor in a lot of jobs. I don't know how replicable it is as a business, but I really just run on word of mouth at this point. It's enough to keep my printers going 24/7 when I have work, and it's fun getting to print lots of odd small run parts and prototypes.
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Nov 11, 2022 21:45
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Doctor Zero posted:I know goons are just looking out for you Queeb, but I’m going to hit you with some different advice. I'm just here to pile on this being excellent advice. Especially the "gently caress the MBA handbook" stuff. Thank you for that.
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Nov 11, 2022 22:32
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Queeb do you have a link to your tiles
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Nov 12, 2022 01:37
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queeb posted:I definitely want to take this to the point of losing my lovely day job, but yeah i can see where the awkward transition would be. This all blew up so fast i have been woefully unprepared. I've made 8k in 2 months basically, though minus etsy fees and materials probably like 5.5k, which is still more than my day job at the moment! I appreciate all the advice and i apologize for annoying people too, lol. I'm trying to absorb it all. fyi from someone who makes money 3d printing, you will probably begin to hate it, because it becomes work and you can't escape work into your hobby because your hobby is now work so there's just work no hobbies it's all work and you're completely dependent on people wanting your parts and somebody not coming along undercharging for your product then you can't work and you can't do your hobby because that's also work and kill me
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Nov 12, 2022 03:45
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Sockser posted:I've got this model that is too big for my Saturn. Cool, whatever. Slice and dice, baby. It’s probably too late, but SOLIDWORKS 2022 onward and OnShape should be able to generate an edge along there using thru hybrid mesh modeling/convergent modeling tools. You should be able to generate a surface that follows the edge to split it all the way through, or if they’re not planar or sufficiently consistent, you might need to get creative with split lines.
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Nov 12, 2022 05:45
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insta posted:fyi from someone who makes money 3d printing, you will probably begin to hate it, because it becomes work and you can't escape work into your hobby because your hobby is now work so there's just work no hobbies it's all work and you're completely dependent on people wanting your parts and somebody not coming along undercharging for your product then you can't work and you can't do your hobby because that's also work and kill me I can back this up as well. Buddy of mine got into 3dp over the pandemic. He's printed ~nothing~ for himself in the last two years, that were not direct spinoffs of the art products he sells. It's just CNC colored markers for him now. And about as exciting.
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Nov 12, 2022 05:49
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Yeah, I can see that being an issue. I mean if this could be my job id feel pretty great not doing loving dispatching for a cable company and instead growing something that I built, it feels pretty neat so far. But it is encroaching on working 2 jobs now which is yeah, not amazing. Be neat to sell the laser cut stuff I made myself, that'd be cool, plus it cuts quick and I can have stuff on hand rather than print to order. Should probably just target the Facebook mom demographic with that and make live laugh love signs
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Nov 12, 2022 06:38
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queeb posted:Should probably just target the Facebook mom demographic with that and make live laugh love signs Lemmie tell ya, karens on the internet are still karens.
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Nov 12, 2022 06:44
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queeb posted:Yeah, I can see that being an issue. I mean if this could be my job id feel pretty great not doing loving dispatching for a cable company and instead growing something that I built, it feels pretty neat so far. But it is encroaching on working 2 jobs now which is yeah, not amazing. Be neat to sell the laser cut stuff I made myself, that'd be cool, plus it cuts quick and I can have stuff on hand rather than print to order. The takeaway is to decide how many hours a week you want to spend doing your hobby, and just skyrocket your prices until your workload falls to that number. STOP CARING about your cost vs their cost. If you enjoy printing and painting terrain for 15 hours a week, and you get about 15 hours a week of work at $55/hr, that's your price. Seriously, sculptors and potters charge buku bucks for things dug out of the ground. Labor is king in pricing.
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Nov 12, 2022 18:29
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My hidden talent is to love 3d printing, but not in any particular way love the 3D PRINTER part really. I like making things and creating something that didn't exist before. As a result there's no burning out on the printing part, it's just a means to an end. The 3d printer community seems to tend to kinda look down on a disinterest in the bleeding edge and lack of determination to optimize for edge cases, tho.
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Nov 12, 2022 20:45
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I've watched the recent CNC Kitchen video on conical slicing and that poo poo is like magic. Has anyone toyed around with it?
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Nov 13, 2022 02:38
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I raised my prices and someone messaged me wanting the final room of the lost mines of phandelver done, so I made a little 30 tile room and said double the price of what I usually charge for 30 tiles and they went for it no problem so.. yeah.
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Nov 13, 2022 03:01
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queeb posted:I raised my prices and someone messaged me wanting the final room of the lost mines of phandelver done, so I made a little 30 tile room and said double the price of what I usually charge for 30 tiles and they went for it no problem so.. yeah. 
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Nov 13, 2022 04:09
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How are your prices compared to places like Xometry, 3D Huns, Fictiv, etc? It’s super easy to upload models and get an instant quote for comparison.
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Nov 13, 2022 04:12
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lol way lower than 3d hubs, like they charge ~16 for one corner tile that i charge like 6.50 for. edit: im competing against guys like this though, not them https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/908..._20&pro=1&sts=1 that dude has 54000 sales almost selling terrain.
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Nov 13, 2022 04:26
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Unperson_47 posted:I've watched the recent CNC Kitchen video on conical slicing and that poo poo is like magic. Has anyone toyed around with it? Seeing that you can do it with a Prusa mini, and I have a prusa mini, I’m gonna give it a shot in the next few days
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Nov 13, 2022 04:27
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queeb posted:lol way lower than 3d hubs, like they charge ~16 for one corner tile that i charge like 6.50 for. I buy a fair number of $30-50 parts from those 3D printing brokers. One example, 3x5x1.75 inches, 56 cm3 volume   For that part, in small quantities, I'm paying $27 from JLC in China, and up to $35 for some brokers. This part is designed for HP Multi Jet Fusion (sintered nylon), so it might need changes for FDM. Also, I need the parts to handle occasional exposure to 80 C, so that limits materials. Nylon, PC-ABS, and ASA work. Are there any goons who can print high temp materials that might be interested in printing parts for me? (Just personal hobby stuff for now.)
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Nov 13, 2022 07:36
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLUDLJQXZeU This is the Voron nerds talking about their latest bed probe. it's a 2 hour video. Nobody wants to watch a 2 hour video. I watched a 2 hour video. Here's the details: - Nozzle probe. - Printhead is on a separate carriage with MGN9 rail - Optical switch for no wear parts - Precise enough to see the bends in the Y rail from the screws used to hold down the Y rail. - Only works with MGN12 based Voron carriages. - No more nozzle probe. - No more inductive probe. - Has moderate force, so requires a rigid bed, so Trident, and V2 only. It eventually burnishes smooth PEI, doesn't leave a mark on textured surfaces. - Works with CW2 and "other" extruders only, not the CW1 - PCB design forthcoming, uses ~very cheap parts~. V0 version is coming.... But not "soon".
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Nov 13, 2022 10:26
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ryanrs posted:I buy a fair number of $30-50 parts from those 3D printing brokers. There's a huge difference between MJF and FFF. It's absolutely worth the money for MJF for parts like that.
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Nov 13, 2022 13:57
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Also that's a really awkward shape for FDM printing, I don't see how you would print it without a shitload of supports.
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Nov 13, 2022 14:19
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Nerobro posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLUDLJQXZeU I have been dealing with klippy , rebuilding it a couple times, and I even got parts for alternative ones. This might be very very interesting. When is it out? edit: watching the stream skipping around. Do i need to put a screw in every hole now :/ Roundboy fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Nov 13, 2022 |
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Nov 13, 2022 20:00
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BadMedic posted:Also that's a really awkward shape for FDM printing, I don't see how you would print it without a shitload of supports. Yeah, I design my FDM parts a lot differently, but I don't have a good sense of how crazy you can get with supports.
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Nov 13, 2022 20:38
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BadMedic posted:Also that's a really awkward shape for FDM printing, I don't see how you would print it without a shitload of supports. meh, it's not ideal, but I've printed worse
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Nov 13, 2022 20:49
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Roundboy posted:I have been dealing with klippy , rebuilding it a couple times, and I even got parts for alternative ones. Before Christmas. Klippy, or Clicky? I'm.. wishywashy on this project. It's precise as hell. Enough that it exposes so many other problems with printers that you need to be ready to understand that "this is showing you what's there, not that it's a problem." It feels very voron. But I am not sure it's better than clicky.
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Nov 13, 2022 22:02
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It seems precise enough to measure the height difference of Kapton tape. That's pretty nice. I have a Klicky right now, too, and that deals pretty well with changing build surfaces. If I was to swap hotends on the regular, I'd probably consider Tap, but so far I'm still using the same. I'll probably curse up a storm whenever I swapped a nozzle. Also, I'm still on CW1 (with Stealthburner, tho) and a high quality MGN9 single rail (and the older 9mm-only XY blocks). That's some amount of upgrading to be done. Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Nov 13, 2022 |
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Nov 13, 2022 22:30
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Klicky. And I have the Euclid probe parts, but that would be too much of a rebuild to use it. Then I was going to try some unklicky, or even the redone parts to account for some magnet shenanigans My problem -moght- be a loose z belt, but it's not consistent on any one corner. I can probe all over the bed with . 005 accuracy, then I start failing probes, or qgl, and my offsets aren't consistent Doing the squares across the bed gives me mostly a good surface, but then I need to adjust a bit. It's never find what works and keep it, dispite using the same plate over and over. I'm prob due for a new surface anyway All that takes a backseat to needing to print a new stealthburner, and I still need to get reliable panel corners and door parts. I get a few good prints, then something breaks because I was using stuff on a temp basis, and repeat I don't put the time in because my job and family have me so burnt out I can't dedicate the brain power I need to code and mechanical fixes. It's all on my back burner
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Nov 13, 2022 22:39
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I haven't posted since a week or so ago when I was asking for advice regarding which software to learn (I went with Fusion 360) but since then I've been finding tutorials and figuring out how to design things to 3D print for a project I've been wanting to do. It's been a very long time since I've done any electrics or soldering so remembering how to do that was a challenge too. However, today I finished that project! I know this isn't only a 3D printing project but getting the 3D printer did enable to to make things needed for this and other ideas I have, so I hope it's fine to post about this and that it's okay to post a lot of pictures in the thread. I'm super happy and quite proud of this even if it is incredibly nerdy  I wanted to add a real electric gear stick knob to my G29 shifter with the few extra buttons for changing the transmission for some more realism and enjoyment when I'm playing truck sims. To buy one of these that someone has made I've seen priced at £120 or more!  Firstly I 3D designed an adapter to connect onto the shifter and then screw the truck gear knob onto it.  I worked out the measurements and whatnot to make the adapter and finally completed its design. Lots of trial and error and printing parts of it for testing was involved for both the thread and the attachment part, but I got there.  The G29 shifter with original knob removed, the truck gear knob with switches, and my adapter plus bolt.  I opened the gear knob to expose the wiring.  I checked which wires I needed to use for each switch with a multimeter. The top push button has three wires; the black and yellow are permanantly on. The blue and yellow are on when the button is pressed so those are the two I need to wire. The black wire is not used.  I cut off the gear knob connector which would normally plug into a truck and strip the wires to expose them, except for the black which is unused in this project. I also used the highly technical item of a clothes peg to hold them in place.  I cut the terminals off three connectors and stripped the wires ready to connect them to the gear knob.  Next I soldered each pair of wires to the connectors ready to plug them into a joystick controller. Blue & Yellow for the push button, green & purple for one of the switches, red & white for the third button. I also upgraded my clothes peg to a clip used for securing open packets of food which was a much tighter grip.  Next I slid my pieces of heat shrink down to cover the soldered parts and applied heat via a mini blowtorch to secure them.  I used a larger piece of heat shrink to cover all of the smaller wires and hold them securely. I then plugged the connectors into a joystick control board, plugged a USB cable into the control board, and lastly plugged the USB cable into my PC.  I then connected my adapter to the G29 shifter and used the bolt to hold it in place. Finally I screwed the gear knob onto my adapter and everything works perfectly! The very last step is that I'll need to design a box in Fusion 360 to 3D print which can house the control board and wires but I will do that over the next day or two.
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Nov 13, 2022 23:27
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Dang that's cool! I've been meaning to learn how to make threads but I keep putting it off. Very interesting
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Nov 14, 2022 03:54
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Cory Parsnipson posted:Dang that's cool! I've been meaning to learn how to make threads but I keep putting it off. Very interesting Click circular face (innie or outie), click thread button, mash controls to taste
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Nov 14, 2022 04:02
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Oh, that seems simple enough. Now I just need to decide what to do with this knowledge. Maybe I should make that salad spinner I been thinking about 🤔 Cory Parsnipson fucked around with this message at 10:42 on Nov 14, 2022 |
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Nov 14, 2022 10:39
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Oh yeah - don't forget to set slicing tolerance, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6nCKQToOUg
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Nov 14, 2022 15:53
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totally finished my 1st laser project for a tabletop building!    gonna see if i can sell for around $30 CAD.
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Nov 14, 2022 21:36
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