Making money with a 3D Printing farm

[mantuxas3]

Hi,

I have a 3D printing farm (20+ FDM machines). I used to sell on various marketplaces like eBay and Etsy, but lately it has been difficult to get a high number of orders. Almost all of my designs are original and made by me.

Are there any other ways I could make money with my farm? I was thinking about a model where I work with someone based on dropshipping principles: the other person drives traffic and sales, and I manufacture the products as orders come in and ship them out directly to customers. I could even design bespoke products for a specific niche. I'm much better at manufacturing than sales. How would I find people who would like to work with me?

Have you seen any other business models that work for 3D printing farms?

 

[CPANathan]

I've been beating my way around the local area B2B using 3D print and laser engraving as a door opener

You'll find work with workshop owners with print farms, 90% of them are going from large format and screen printing to having resin and 3D print in the mix

Let me know if you're up for keeping in touch, can definitely battle

Edit: Dancyn 3D prints on YouTube for great content, I think another good YouTuber changed his name to always being creative or something. Both God-sent

Will come back when battery isn't on 0.1%, cough cough, gold mine in my pfp, have perfected it at this stage and moved from 256x256mm to Ender 5 Plus to be modded to the sky

 

[KdoT_Resolute]

Hi,

I have a 3D printing farm (20+ FDM machines). I used to sell on various marketplaces like eBay and Etsy, but lately it has been difficult to get a high number of orders. Almost all of my designs are original and made by me.

Are there any other ways I could make money with my farm? I was thinking about a model where I work with someone based on dropshipping principles: the other person drives traffic and sales, and I manufacture the products as orders come in and ship them out directly to customers. I could even design bespoke products for a specific niche. I'm much better at manufacturing than sales. How would I find people who would like to work with me?

Have you seen any other business models that work for 3D printing farms?

That's interesting. I don't know much about 3D printing, but have you ever tried using a LiDAR device to scan an object and replicate the model, or editing it in some software and printing a new object/product?

 

[CPANathan]

That's interesting. I don't know much about 3D printing, but have you ever tried using a LiDAR device to scan an object and replicate the model, or editing it in some software and printing a new object/product?

There's better tech these days coming from cameras from new devices

LiDar is cool, you can get it in the new top iPhone model or build one from scratch dirt cheap but it's still a rough journey for a slightly lower quality than you can get from other tools

Even if the quality was the same, the price is a bit off-putting for lidar

 

[xmastox]

The dropshipping-style model can definitely work, but I'd focus on finding people who already have an audience in a niche rather than generic marketers. A creator with 50k followers in a specific hobby can often outsell a professional marketer with no niche knowledge. Your biggest advantage is custom manufacturing, not competing on commodity 3D prints.

 

[AnyAds]

i think I'd just advertise on social media and propose custom orders and just ship them. Custom orders might be advantageous to make more money because they're customs.

 

[mantuxas3]

The dropshipping-style model can definitely work, but I'd focus on finding people who already have an audience in a niche rather than generic marketers. A creator with 50k followers in a specific hobby can often outsell a professional marketer with no niche knowledge. Your biggest advantage is custom manufacturing, not competing on commodity 3D prints.

Do you know a good tool to find accounts in a specific niche? Ideally, a free one xd

 

[LOQ Marketing Agency]

You have a good product, but I think you should target a specific audience instead of running ads or a general approach. Partnering with content creators who have a large following is also very expensive, so leverage your personal creativity and unique selling proposition to compete.

 

[GeorgeCruzz]

You need to buy high-quality printers; otherwise, there will be a lot of errors in the printed products, which will result in wasted time and increased costs. You also need to think about how you’ll market the products. You’ll need capital.