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Well, that was informative. I've printed a few things for other people, mostly pre-engineered parts from the internet, so I tried to cover my machine and material cost and settled on a quick calculation to arrive at a price. I start with the filament used (per gram), and multiply by $0.25. I felt that a $10-$20 piece that only used $3 of filament was enough to cover my landed costs, but I hadn't fully calculated it. I'd like to try your more complicated method and see how close I was getting with my internet trinket estimates. Obviously, if I were to scale up to a business, the more complicated calculations would be more useful.

Etsy also can ban you everytime for no reason at all. They can destroy your business in a minute.

this was so transparent and informative i love it hope to venture into something like this in the future

While I generally agree with everything you've said, I think it's worth mentioning that etsy has a lower cost of entry and a built in userbase unlike a self-hosted website. Their model is great for users who are truly just starting out and cannot leverage existing social media or other means of marketing to quickly drive traffic to their website. Yes, you lose ~25% of your sale (depending on if you sign up for Etsy Marketing), and pay $0.20 to list the item, but that's it. 25% is quite reasonable considering most consignment shops will range from 40-60%. The cost of the domain, hosting, e-commerce platform, and initial marketing campaigns all represent an up-front cost not present on etsy which I think is relevant for your target audience of this channel. Keep up the great work, I'm definitely enjoying the content between both channels!

Do you manage each printer individually or from a central server?

This is my main problem is finding what the heck to print. I'm a mechanic whose into cars but having a tough time finding a product that'll really take off. I understand it's just trial and error. So far all I've sold is a couple cupholder block offs I designed to make the armrest more comfortable. Since my design skills are limited I am trying to get more experience and practice designing whenever I have spare time.

i always thought it was "nich" not "kneesh"

The Prusa XL in the background 😂

This part is also a piece of junk

chill bro, not all 3d printing hobbyists are going to be converted to card-carrying capitalists like this

Electricity?

Excellent 😊

Another fine video Travis. Looking forward to more....

"Why I charge $55 for this 3D printed part": don't bother with reality, just rough estimate, assume based on feelings, and inflate by ass-pulled 10-30% factors for unspecified reasons. People, if somebody is charging $55 for a 3d printed part, you're getting scammed, full stop.

Cost of space and cost of R&D are two costs that come to mind that you didn’t mention, but loved the thorough explanation of “hidden” costs… 🙏

I bought your Bosch dust chute and unfortunately it’s not worth the price unless you’re willing to provide a warranty. This product is good for the type of person who does a couple cuts a day but in a production shop I managed to blow mine up within the first two months. Per our conversation on Etsy you do not warranty your work so for me, a product that can’t stand up to production use isn’t worth it to me. If you change your policy to offer replacements, then I’d say it would be worth it but throwing $50 at something that only last me two months isn’t worth it.

Rule of thumb I was always taught was Whatever your total cost is Double it. If you are the only 1 making it Triple it So you have room to adjust as copycats, etc, start popping up, and they will.

You aren’t considering the cost of electricity for the space you have along with the vents and lights and temperature control. The office or warehouse space rental, cost of designing the product and even cost of marketing then.

very interest..I work with drafting CAD/SolidWorks for a company and I'm wondering about something... "If I want to 3D print something for my job or buy something online, how should I proceed?"

Question, do you use a bookkeeping tool? Will you be putting out a video on that?

The best thing I ever applied is the cost per hour of my time, this was good to hear. Depending on when the hour is used I modify with multipliers and I always double my current hourly job wage as a start due to me also having a full time job. No side hustle is worth missing out on your children.

Nice examples, but lots of expenses not accounted, amortization cost for printers, tools, machines, etc... R&D time, production and prototyping. Space costs, rent / buy, services (power (not for printers), water, gas,), business taxes, garbage/residue taxes, any mortgages or bank credits for business, insurances. Personal, you and employees (payroll, taxes, etc...) Also I don't know in the States, but in Spain you must pay some taxes as a self-employed professional and personal responsibility insurance. Yes I know you simplified the numbers but, you cannot simplify that much when you scale your business at your level.

J bought my first printer and going to try something similar ! Open to any advice :)

You neglected the cost of design. That involved purchasing tools to model from, CAD software, your time and your unique solutions.

You should probably move into cleaning up companies and optimizing them. Train a few to think like you and go from there.

In fact, your UPS only filters (actively) when the current is bad. It does, however, constantly protect against voltage surges and spikes. Then I don't understand why you bought one for each machine, that's so overkill

Ain't Rocket Science... You charge as much as they will pay. No silly calculations required.

What about the design cost ? Time spend designing and testing the CAD files to be printed ?

Could you please do a tutorial on printing petg functional parts with p1s? Im just a hobbyist, not trying to start business. Have been getting faulty prints whenever I have support not sure why :(

I’m an IT executive, have managed data centers. We’d factor in for things like power consumption of device, BTU’s of heat it produces (which have to be offset with AC), etc. If you’re not Slant 3D you can probably do some napkin math to come up with a good factor which is like time to print times the facilities overhead cost for the print farm (over time).

I don't know what material you're using to print some of your products, but a material cost of $30+ per KG seems pretty high when the average consumer can get filament for $20/kg or less in the US.

Really nice video.

Great video.. I've been printing for ages but recently developed something which I thought I'd just throw out to see if anyone was interested... The answer was yes and turning into a big yes, so gives me some direction to scale. Already running P1's and already looking to add some more (particularly given they're on special :D.

Remember if someone argues about price they aren’t your target demographic. I’ve had people ask me to work for peanuts where I usually charge around £80-100 per hour. Brands that turn over 100’s of millions don’t even wince when I quote.

You'll run out of China material FAST If another COVID ever happens, it will happen when business is running great.

$33 per Kilogram brooo 😂 why are you spending so much per roll.

How do you get from 20,07$ to 40$ with a 50% margin? Are taxes factored in? 10:22

Very good comments from your side. You are calculating the parts price almost on the same way like I do for my 3D printed parts. I am sometimes frustrated if hobby printer destroy the market price by charging only the material costs. They do not have a sense to run a business in a correct way.

White guy ikigai 🤣 good advice!

I would also be adding to add on cost of the lease or rent of the building & insurance etc and all the other things you need to run the business

waauw thanks for the explation and the file, my price are so low :'D

I dabbled in selling physical 3D printed parts a couple of years ago, but it quite literally cost me > $25 to ship a tennis-ball sized print domestically here in Canada. Between that and various fees, I couldn't price competitively. Between that, increased filament prices, taxes, marketplace fees, payment processing, packaging, workspace costs, etc, I'd probably have to sell that part you priced at $55 USD for almost $120 CAD to make it worth the trouble. Any advice?

I always thought that if I started selling prints I would need to figure in print time somehow since it can vary widely based on layer height, infill, ect. Your "Machine Cost" looks like it would cover it nicely. Very informative video, thank you.

Finally someone who can say the word niche correctly!!!

where do you get the 3 KG Filament Spools here?

This is fabulous advice. Interest, Experience, and expertise. I love it.

You forgot to factor the cost of the UPS's, batteries, the shelving etc, the room rental, lighting, heating, aircon, air filtering/recirculation/exhaust, cabling, internet, admin PC, accounting, tax reporting, etc. Very few of these are fixed costs and the complexity and overheads increase heaps when you start hiring staff. But overall nice work as a starting point. Cheers.