3D Printer Farm Time Management (Surviving the Christmas Rush!) 3DPD 3P Printer Farm Biz
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มิ.ย. 2024
- Here is a summary of my experience trying to streamline business operations from order intake through to shipping to stay open for the duration of December!
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If you'd like to see a specific area of interest covered, please leave a comment in the section below!
FINISHING TOOLS:
3D Print Finishing Tools: amzn.to/3y4wFKm
Heat Gun: amzn.to/3IzwBqP
LED Magnifying Lamp: amzn.to/3Dz7lgU
Ergonomic Pliers: amzn.to/3elgEqw
BSI Gap Filling CA Glue: amzn.to/3lL9Ne8
BSI CA Accelerant: amzn.to/3oyqMlr
Super Glue Tubes (12): amzn.to/3y6NqVd
SHIPPING AND ORDER PROCESSING
Dymo 4XL Thermal Label Printer: amzn.to/3IrUYHb
Cheap Bulk Shipping Labels: amzn.to/3rLqkCx
Brother Laser Printer: amzn.to/3dzepzk
Cheap Computer: amzn.to/31KOphG
My Favorite Keyboard: amzn.to/3rMTq4k
FARM MANAGEMENT
Raspberry Pi 4: amzn.to/3IrYzVH
Raspberry Pi 3B: amzn.to/3rN3w5p
Ender USB Cables: amzn.to/3oBKHjM
Prusa Mini USB Cables: amzn.to/3oCsCSF
8TB Network Attached Storage: amzn.to/3pVQSyD
TP-Link 8 Port Hub: amzn.to/31yNUrE
TP-Link 16 Port Switch: amzn.to/3IyG6GG
BUSOHE Cat 7 Ethernet Cables: amzn.to/3rHn3Em
Wireless Access Point: amzn.to/3dwvD0l
Cheap Computer: amzn.to/31KOphG
Power Measurement: amzn.to/3lSIY7X
Handheld Radios: amzn.to/31J8NQI
AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT
HEPA and VOC Filter Unit: amzn.to/3e9I8z2
Medical Grade HEPA Filters: amzn.to/3E5cMEp
Air Quality Monitoring: amzn.to/3GVRFXa
FILAMENT STORAGE
Storage Containers: amzn.to/3sAMoA4
Filament Dryer: amzn.to/3estrYm
FIRE DETECTION AND SUPPRESSION
Wifi Smart Smoke Detector: amzn.to/3sjpzkh
Fire Stop Cans: amzn.to/3E9ut5N
Class ABC Fire Extinguisher: amzn.to/3FeeZin
NOZZLES AND TOOLS
E3D Nozzles: amzn.to/3GrmEKc
Creality Nozzles: amzn.to/3oAmIS3
6 in 1 Nozzle Tool Kit: amzn.to/3GpjLtn
PRUSA MINI MODS
Legit BondTech Gears: amzn.to/3ExesYm
Budget BondTech Gears: amzn.to/3GovqIR
E3D Metal-Only Kit: amzn.to/3rSDDRT
Filament Runout Sensor Kit: amzn.to/3Gu3SlF
FYSETC Textured PEI Build Surface: amzn.to/33cYbKv
Mini Heat Sock: amzn.to/3oCiysw
Capricorn PTFE Kit: amzn.to/307h00v
PRUSA MK3S+ CLONE MODS
Legit BondTech Gears: amzn.to/3ExesYm
E3D Heatbreak: amzn.to/3y9sbCq
FYSETC PEI Textured Build Plate: amzn.to/31Mn6DQ
Disclaimer: These are affiliate links in which I earn a small commission on purchases made. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Timecodes:
00:00 - Intro
00:26 - Overview
01:16 - Overhead Metrics
02:59 - 2020 Post-Mortem
03:49 - Changes
04:50 - 2021 Results
05:12 - Lessons Learned
#3DPD #3DPrintedDebris #3DPrinterFarmBiz - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Here is a summary of my experience trying to streamline business operations from order intake through to shipping!
Subscribe and hit the bell to see new videos: tinyurl.com/y42f4ydp
If you'd like to see a specific area of interest covered, please leave a comment in the section below!
SHIPPING AND ORDER PROCESSING
Dymo 4XL Thermal Label Printer: amzn.to/3IrUYHb
Cheap Bulk Shipping Labels: amzn.to/3rLqkCx
Brother Laser Printer: amzn.to/3dzepzk
Cheap Computer: amzn.to/31KOphG
My Favorite Keyboard: amzn.to/3rMTq4k
Disclaimer: These are affiliate links in which I earn a small commission on purchases made. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Congrats! I got chills when you said “I left my day job”. So exciting! I am starting my first paid print job tonight. Maybe in a few years I too will be able to say that. Keep up the good work and thanks for being generous with sharing your progress.
You got this!
That's awesome! I'm working in my first commission job from a friend of mine.
These videos are so nicely produced and paced. They're super informative, thank you for putting them together.
Glad you like them!
How good is this info, 10 grams an hour is what I found with 2 years and 40ish machines - this vid is super helpful for anyone thinking of the farm bizness! Thanks a ton for the content
You're welcome! More coming before too long.
Really impressive. Great attention to detail. Enjoying your videos!
Thank you very much!
TH-cam is showing your videos to me 1 year after you published them. It would be great to know your printer farm is growing and doing fine.
All is well, the ROI on videos is a tough ask, and after YT killed the "3D Print General" it has me wondering if it is worth my time.
Its amazing how lovely your channel is and that you stopped doing videos somehow! I just saw one of yours and I've gotten such value out of it. I hope you are ok and safe and doing well with your business and if it is well with you, I hope that you will take this as motivation to restart these videos. I have seen some "fancy" channels but your channel video being 25 minutes long I still watched it intently until the very end despite being tired and sick from a long journey without sleep. That goes to show that for those that truly wish to learn, will love your videos.
Thank you! TH-cam is one-sided enough that it's priority 99 for me. Someday I'll get interested again. Right now I'm on a hydroponics (3D printed, of course) tangent and growing my own food. 3 seasons in and I can grow just about everything I eat. If only that content aligned with this channel.
@@3DPrintedDebris well I'm happy to hear from you! I totally understand. But i still come back to your videos to seek inspiration. Do you still continue to expand your farm?
I almost quit seeing a small print farm near me but then i saw your videos and now continuing to build mine. I don't think people understand the value here. I do cause I've literally watched 100s of videos so i know this is practically valuable than others!
I do hope you get interested someday too! I salute3 do. I do intend to cater to that hydroponics enthusiasts in my country as I'm doing planters now so even those videos will be valuable
Really enjoying your series of videos. Appreciate you taking the time to produce these. Given you are so keen on running efficiently, what have you chosen for layer height and print speed? Would be interested in your take on quality vs throughput. Thanks!
It depends on the size of the model. Anything under 5" gets .1mm, 7" .15mm, and 12" .2mm. I focus on quality.
A friends dad died recently so I took him away to a Rock Festival at the beginning of Nov to take his mind off it. Although that was a great idea, it wasnt so good for my printing. I had 4 days off where the printers were silent. That cost me! not in orders but obviously time, I never caught up. I got about 80% out for Christmas the rest were in the lull between Christmas & New Year. Fortunately I print items for a great community and they all understood. Im not doing that again this year!
I hate feeling like I left money on the internet!
Thanks for the videos, they have been really helpful.
Any recommendations for a small sized reliable FDM printer for farm work? I was going to set up with Prusa mini's as I only need a 20 by 20 by 10 build area for almost all of my prints and I've seen a lot of good reviews of the Prusa from hobbyists but interesting all the print farm people I have found on TH-cam have been disappointed with it.
You can't go wrong with the MK3S. Buy once, cry once.
I have 3 science bust's on the way to me in Denmark. Since I made my order, I have been binge watching your videos, I find it so interesting and fun to get an insight into your business. Judging by what I have seen im not gonna be dissappointed. When I saw your items on eBay I tried to look for something simliar in the EU to avoid import charges but to my surprise there was nothing like this. I think there is a huge market to cap in on in Europe. I am currently studying a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Energy Technology, so it's really cool to see what kind of other paths you can go, it's clear to see you are an engineer with a good business sense as well. If you ever want to expand to try to hit the European market, hit me up 😄 Even though it look's like you have plenty of work in the US 😉
Surprisingly, scientists and engineers don't sell well at all. Most people don't know who they are. I think most of my customers are educators or academics.
@@3DPrintedDebris I might have gotten a bit excited when I saw the Science bust hehe. I also thought it would be must faster than it is. Im gonna stay tuned, I enjoy watching your videos. Thanks for the replies and videos 👍
Your vids are helping a lot :) I'm just about to start my farm (currently have 2 fdm, 1 sla printer, want to scale to 4 fdms at first), but I'm stuck at choosing the next printer(s). Can you give some advice what machine is reliable enough (without changing everything in it... looking at you ender3...) for farm purposes?
Prusa MK3S+ hands down.
very professional. Do you have a video explaining how to calculate the printing hour cost o how you calculate the cost of your products? That's of course taking into account the real cost of 3d printers, maintenance and repairs.
Great suggestion!
Hi! Very interesting metrics.
I'm also very surprised by the "low" number of kg per day for a so big farm.
I have only six printer in my farm but they eat near 1kg each per day.
I like a lot your presentation about fixing all your problem.
I think I can also try to Hire a virtual assistant to be in charge of the admin part.
The low number is due to the large volume of detailed prints I turn out. They run around 70g on average, but take 12-14 hours to print at .1mm layer height.
Thanks for the video very informative - just curious if a belt printer would help with your most common/fastest print time item to have it printing non stop 24/7 while you check the "basket" every so often to fill orders to help free up the time in clearing the bed / re heating between prints
The belt printers are still too new for me. I haven't seen an implementation yet I can get behind, more R&D needs to be paid into the belt surface, and decoupling the exit interface force from the nozzle. Maybe in a couple of years, but for now, it looks like it's too soon for me to invest in it.
@@3DPrintedDebris totally understand - im in the process of setting up my print farm that includes several belt printers i will let you know how it goes
Have you thought of building own Voron printers to crank out the prints at faster speeds and still good quality?
What would the cost breakdown ROI be vs the Prusas given that you're upgrading them and spend more time on maintenance than you may have on a custom Voron?
Right now I don't have a production problem. I have more printers than I can feed, and I'm running at about 50%. I might switch later on if demand overwhelms production. This year, at the peak of the rush, I was only backlogged by 0.5 day.
I looked around comments already and haven’t seen you answer this (apologies if you have):
Do you print ahead and store any stock?
If so, what do you use to manage your product inventory?
Heck, what do you use to manage your materials, printer spare parts/consumables inventory?
I’m playing with inventory management and I can’t quite justify using anything beyond Excel. I know, I know, businesses should grow out of Excel ASAP but it’s just too… free, and useful lol.
I don't, actually. I have a shelf of overstock which is comprised of misprints (wrong color, wrong size, returns).
Right now everything is done visually. My filament rack has minimums I replenish every 2 weeks.
There's no shame in using excel. Quickbooks is awful for a AM business. I've been using excel to derive the requirements to code up my own business software. Defining what is needed and wanted was a tall ask that took 3 years of steady business to define.
Need updated video on how business is doing, any changes.
All is well.
New Sub here, quick question, what would you recommend as a first time 3d printer to make some cash as a start up? Is there anything you could suggest? Thanks for all the info!
It depends. You should pick the product first, see if polymers are a good fit for the use case, and then get a build volume requirement. Then you pick your hardware.
What are some of the things you've learned cleaning up your prints? I 3d Print casually and sometimes have a rough time with the cleanup
I'll do a finishing pro tips video soon!
Hey, any tips on hiring a virtual assistance? I'm too stuck in an administrative work loop.
I had a family friend skilled in data entry. There's a huge pucker factor there in that they'll need access to your sites. Make sure they can provide references, and they check out.
Newer subscriber! Love this industry, trying to break into it eventually myself. You still hiring lol?
Are you in SoCal?
Great video, going full time is amazing. It really brings into focus two things for me. 1 trying to avoid post processing as much as possible, 2. buying reliable printers from the off not stuff that needs 10 hours per printer of fiddling, for you buying 30 prusa minis was a very negative thing and prusa should be ashamed of that. It sounds like you would have actually been better off buying like 40 ender 3 v2s and with the money saved you coulda hired a local 3d print guy for the weekend to build/test them for you!
My favorites are "Chip-n-ship"items for sure, but those were all pulls from Thingiverse. Perhaps I'll dive into my own accessories. Re: Mini, yeah. I'm still super pissed about that machine, and it's largely responsible for me ignoring the XL model announced last month. I think Vorons are the way to go from here on out for my shop.
@@3DPrintedDebris interesting you should say that! I've standardised on QIDI printers for "printing 20 minutes after the box is delivered" but I e just had two voron 0.1 kits delivered in process of printing parts and building the first one.
@@3DPrintedDebris Wow, was not expecting you to say Voron. What do you like about Voron as opposed to the time tested Prusa Mk3S+? The XY system Voron seems nice but not sure what benefits it provides over Prusa.
@@73notch I'm likely going to replace my Modernized CR-10s with Voron 300x300. The Prusa's z height has been a pretty limiting factor with my larger prints.
@@3DPrintedDebris Same thoughs about my next printer. Instead of buying Prusa XL, I'll take some Rat Rig Vcor3 optimized buy a very good engeneer and I expect trippling my production capacity.
why not print more than what u need so u always have a stock ready to ship
With 190 subjects, 5 forms, and over 500 listings that is difficult to do. I tried last year, but I guessed wrong what orders came in. It took me all year to sell off that inventory.
@@3DPrintedDebris haha damn i see, thank u for responding this 3d printing thing is very interesting but probably too complicated to me.. but i keep watching videos on it anyway
I really like your content, but get rid of the annoying music. It wil up the quality of your videos tremendously.
Thanks for the feedback!