How I Made Money Running My Automated Ender 3, 3D Printer For Months Non Stop!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 พ.ค. 2024
- I wanted to see if my Ender 3 3d printer would handle continuous production, so I designed a small product that I could sell. This video takes a look at my product from a design, production, and financial angle. In my example, you can see some of the pros and cons of using a 3d printer for production.
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Etsy Item Listing: www.etsy.com/listing/87757148...
Make/modify this thing in CAD: learn.watchitprint.com/course...
SLT Files: www.myminifactory.com/object/...
BOM (Affiliate): www.amazon.com/ideas/amzn1.ac...
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Title: How I Made Money Running My Automated Ender 3, 3D Printer For Months Non Stop!
#ender3 #3dprinting #Money - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
“Let me ask you a question, how much would you pay for this”
Me - “ Well wtf is it”. 🤣🤣🤣
exactly what i was thinking.
Watched the whole video, I still don't know
@@louiswouters71 He said $30 right after the question
@@lwhitehouse2424 LOL, we are not talking about the price. We are talking about what that object is. It looks like an oversized coaster to me.
idk if this is needed anymore, but he said it close to the start of the video at 2:05
I enjoyed the video but MAN that pizza analogy was rough
Yeah, it was pretty rough.
Im Glad i wasnt the only one trying to grasp the concept
*noted* However it was quite tasty.
At first I was having difficult with the pizza analogy as well, but 425F and 18 minutes later I solved the problem.
@@WatchItPrint Still, I appreciated the attempt to cover the diminishing returns aspect wrt to supply and demand. It was tasty.
"how much would you pay for these"
five bucks.
"I sold them for 30 a piece"
dang.
And even 30 bucks a pop the margins are absolutely trash. Just the filament runs him around $3-5.
When you do stuff like this you are really just selling to the one procenters... well spending vice.
If you going to sell to the 10%... shipping needs to be cheaper.
custom is always pricier
@@Macatho Doesn't sound like trash to me. It's not gonna make you a millionaire, but will certainly earn you a few hundreds per month, so it could be supplementary income. Now there are definitely other things that are way faster to print, so in terms of money vs print time I guess you must know better alternatives. But hey just buy more printers and print all kinds of things. Not all eggs in the same basket, unless you find a sturdy enough basket (in terms of how much money you could make) then feel free to print just that 1 thing on all those printers, and enjoy it while it lasts.
@@matsv201 "The one percenters" lol
Or people who know that low-production products COST MORE, you entitled twit.
The reason something like this might cost five bucks at walmart is because they'd make MILLIONS of them.
I'd look for some filament that is close enough in color for each section and skip the painting completely.
Yeah there should be almost no painting, unless your are printing one big mass.
Also would make it higher quality as paint can chip revealing actual color.
A dual nozzle hot end might aid in the process too assuming there’s no extra issues arising with his auto setup.
@@tony_yt5967 thats what i thought and print the whole thing in 1 go and just do the eyes after
The Prusa i3 MK3S+ has a 5 color addon (MMU2S) to simultaneously print upto 5 colors at the same time. Then you would just be adding cork and packaging
Activation hyper business consulting mode:
- make a stamp for branding the logo
- use oneway clip construction in your Model parts, too connect them (screws, are too slow= Workflow)
- Stamp for coloring the eyes
Mode off
Whut?
Doesn't even need a clip, just use bumps/studs for registration and then a dab of superglue to secure.
Also, a cutout vinyl piece will work better for the eyes, will have perfect opacity.
I was thinking thread them, but that works too! :D
@@Stevieboy7 superglue = work, clips are simpler
Oddly enough, clips are exactly what I came up with for my part. No more gluing two pieces together
I felt how the knife dulled when you cut on the glass.
HAH!
That glass cutting board had real nails on chalkboard energy.
It really bothered me
I really liked this video, but I'm still shaking out the chill from that...
Great project! A few tips for the next batch to reduce cost/weight/time: You followed a lot of design for manufacture (DFM) which is great! This means making the actual components of the product, such as printed bits is painless (this is what most of printing is). But you didn't follow enough Design for Assembly (DFA) practices (this reduces time/energy spent assembling). For instance, you should eliminate screws, and move to snap fits if possible. They take seconds - you could have snap connectors on each round module, or you could have a single central printed pin you push from bottom to top that sandwiches it all together (a rectangular pin would be best to reduce rotation of the modules). Even better yet, use adhesive. If it's good enough for the Smartphone screens it is good enough for the 3D printed parts. PLA fuses to other PLA with normal superglue. ABS to ABS sticks well with superglue too, although for a perfect bond try acetone. If you put a slight lip internally on the round stacking modules no glue will run out, and you will save time assembling. Lots of amazing research done by big automobile and hardware companies on DFA, worth a google.
I love your jig for aligning the top cork lettering, genius work! That's some DFA right there.
I made and sold a similarly cylindrical product last year. What my company looked into was cylindrical shipping tubes for the product. It reduces internal foam packing, it's extremely strong, and can be bought in a variety of sizes (suppliers can make from poster tubes to huge wine whisky tubes and more!). It also added to the unique aesthetic. You can buy a 2 meter tube and then cut it down to size (or get in contact with a local box company to supply to size). You just put plastic endcaps in the top and bottom and you're good to go.
Thanks for the tips, it was a good read.
Nice conteibution. On iterative design, if the eyes are such a pain to paint, redesign the model and remove them, make them flat, paint should be easy with stencils.
Do you know if it's a good idea to glue ABS 3D printed parts together using the Solvent Cement plumbers use to connect ABS pipes?
I love how in depth you went. This helped me a lot so thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Oh man, I'm glad I found this channel. I love your ONI content and I also happen to be a bit of a 3d printing nerd. Having the same kind of objective scientific cost benefit analysis that you use in ONI applied to 3d printing tickles my brain in all the right places.
I have to say, the pizza metaphor was a little weak, but then again you got pizza out of the deal so I can see both sides here.
Should he have used a cake instead? :D
@@aerospaceresearchmeyerton2687 but the cake is a lie I thought?
After watching the hole video i still have no idea what this thing is.
Apparently it's a drink coaster? -ish?
plumbus?
novelty coaster
Did you really watch it then? It's explained quite clearly
Its stolen intellectual property
this was inCREDibly interesting to see and watch. very good break down of all steps involved, was like watching an entire business come to life in front of my eyes. well done, really enjoyable, subbed!
I would have printed the eyes separately with the right colour. You can fit a lot of them in one go. Just glue them in later.
wouldnt that be more work though?
if you have slots for the eyes it make sens to glue them!
If you 3D Print a cover for the eyes, you could perfectly align that mask and spray-paint all of them with the same mask. It would self-align from the overall shape. One thing to figure out would be the sealing at the very border. That would need a real test I think. Maybe it works straight away, or maybe one can add a tiny "seal" from glue, or tape or something to the critical corners.
3d printing tiny features like the eyes with an FDM 3D printer is tricky. Not impossible, but tricky and complicated.
@@diyfury if you use a brim or just have really good bed adhesion printing those eyes would be no problem. Make them a few mm thick and putting slots in the body for them, max of a minute for install. Sounds way better
I see some This Old Tony influences here, nice
Haha now that you mention it I see it to!
Exactly what I thought!
YUP! The hand-cam with the sharp cuts and the silly listing off of things
His son!
Such an absolutely great video. Loved the process and how you were able to keep improving it. Some great ideas shared. Will definitely help me with my own "product." Thanks for sharing this.
thanks for the work. brilliant work at always looking for improvements. looking forward to applying it to some of my stuff if I get some of my ideas sold
Michael, thanks for the entertaining and informative video❤. I have close to two thousand hours in ONI, watch all your ONI content, and recently received my Sweepy. My son and I enjoyed the video and it was great to see how they were made. I'm more interested in getting into 3D printing now. Though it looks like an expensive hobby lol
just a thought - if you let the eyes stick out a mm or two more. maybe you could rolling the green color on it.
I was thinking that if he used his eye stencil with the paint pen, he'd be able to go to town on it a lot faster and not have to worry about getting any on the face.
I love how you broke this down to explain the business side and all the facets that come into play when considering this stuff. I approve this.
really, really interresting, I've never see someone explianing and detailling every steps, and costs, like you did. great job!
"It's rather humbling looking at a simple thing like this and realizing how many steps are required to build it." I used to make milk jugs and sunny delight bottles. I felt that comment in my core.
I know, right? I spend months refining a product to sell to my niche customers, only to get told they can do it better....... And then they come back and pay for it, because it wasn't as simple as they thought it was.
Man, i love your content and I swear, eventually I'm gonna buy one Sweepy (it's a little expensive the shipping from US to Chile), so again, love your content and thanks for all your efforts on both channels. Greetings from Chile
Well done, thanks for sharing. You touched on the process and expense of each one. Your break down is very good. Markets that is a whole other thing. Best to you, Cheers!
Thanks for the break down. I think many of us who own 3d printers, sooner or later ponder what it would take to make money doing production runs. Your video helps open the eyes to things many people might not realize.
Love this breakdown! One other consideration I'd add to the "should I do this full-time?" question is "what's the market size?" That is, how many of these could you sell before you run out of customers?
BTW I bought one and I absolutely love it! Brings a smile to my face every morning.
Yeah I'm not sure how to figure out the full market size.
Steamspy dot com estimates 1-2M downloads and 14k concurrent users. Your channel has over 100k subs and your discord has a couple hundred members afaict. I think these are valid data points but I'm not sure quite how to use them. My gut says the market size is 1k-10k which is admittedly a rather large range.
You also have to factor in, some customers may buy more than one. Offering a discount on multiples will also drive sales.
Thats until the chinese step in and offer it cheaper using injection molding with better surface finish than 3d printing
3D Printers are great for the prototyping - the production you start doing silicone molds and cast resin.
not true, I make products from 3D printing and have made over $100K in the first year doing so.
@@igorchak48 mass produced parts or one offs?
@@OrginalDravas mass produced, over 10,000 units
@@igorchak48
How many and what printers are you running? I would assume material cost is high?
@Tycondaroga100 Resin casting is not that good for the environment. PLA for instance can be recycled and reused, it's not toxic and eco-friendly. Consumer products should have a life span, just like every living thing on this planet.
This is great. Glad to see you discovered the value of primer for painting.
What an awesome video. I started watching this thinking what a cool looking item (I'm also interested in 3D printing selling use cases), then I find you have made a detailed video discussing the finer details of design/manufacturer/selling/marketing business! Thank you for making so much effort making this.
Amazing! Makes you really think how automating these types of production chains cuts the cost and the production times. Keep it up!
I like how you explained how much time each process takes
Thanks man, i was really interested in your process. Subscribed, please keep on with homemade business talks and experiences.
This is a great video. Thank you for all the detailed information, very helpful!
Everything what you went through is called "production design". It's the difference between coming up with a concept and another version for production where the end goal is to reduce costs/time as much as possible.
Good stuff.
For the eyes you can paint it green with the first stencil, let dry and paint over it in black. You can then just rub off the black from the eyes with tissue while it's still wet.
Been doing that for signs and other embossed things...
That cardboard guide template is so awesome! That wrap-around design is genius. Really got me thinking of all the applications.
This video is awesome, really transparent and all inclusive on how you would come with a product
That pizza analogy reminds me of when a professor gives a really bad analogy in class. You were the one kid who understood it and went on with it.
That being said, I loved the video
I got more from the spreadsheet data 😂
Excellent presentation on product developement and delivery. Great job.
You want faster turn around time and less expensive make a smooth finished prototype with your 3d printer. (Bondo and primer paint) and then make 5-20 silicon molds of it. Then just cast them in resin with the color you want, no painting and then you can do batches of them. Also get rid of the fasteners and just design in a locking tab and slots so it can be used as a treasure/stash box as well as being assembled with just a twist.
I really like your idea of a stash box
This was such a well thought out and put together video well done sir
Great video 👍
Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😊
For small details like the eyes, you want to consider using an air brush and airbrush paints. My personal favorites currently are Createx Colors acrylic airbrush paint. On plastics I would suggest adding some of their polyurethane to the mix which helps with adhesion and durability. The advantage of using a airbrush paint is that they dry very flat and smooth. so you get very smooth surfaces. Plus the pigments are very fine, and you will find you don't need to spray anywhere close to as much paint for good coverage.
What if you'd print the eyes separately in a big batch in the desired color. And just make an insert in the face as a guide.
So you would only need to glue it in place and can use the bottom layer as nice top surface finish👍
This was a really good video. So many things to consider when investigating the possibility of starting a business around additive manufacturing in your home. Very informative. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing. Some good info about design for production and design for logistics 👍🏻
To be quite frank here: You made money because your fans wanted your autograph and wanted to contribute to the channel. This is not a product you would generally get to sell for $30.
@@rb4234 so basically you are paying what you thought the video content is worth actually, not the print
Yes, he got basically free marketing for this product, because he'd already set up the TH-cam channel. The combination of his fans and the game's fans is probably what sold it. But, if you really like an Indie game, and someone sells merch --- well, it's a rare thing that's worth a little extra.
@@rb4234 You're only proving his point, minus the autograph part.
Wait so isn't that the same with almost any product? People buy a product because they are a fan of the brand? Like I don't get your point here?
So they were donations pretty much ;)
OMG, I'm glad I watched this. This is getting posted to all my social media. Maybe if people see this they will stop asking me, "Why don't you 3D print things and sell them online?" THIS is why. As you found out it is quite a time-consuming process!.
Amazing very informative tour in production process!! Thank you!! 😉
Wow, such an excellent overview of the complete make-and-sell product! I faced with something like that when I've decided to make plasma cut fire pits. I didn't expect to actually needing a full-blown factory (which I'm in process of building right now) to scale the production up just a little bit. You can make prototype with sticks and glue, but in order to be able to mass produce it you'll need way way more. It's also almost impossible to communicate to people who never done anything similar.
Love the optimising steps. I did the same making face shields trying to save time but improving quality :-)
Overall, this was an excellent video covering the steps necessary for small production runs. This is were making a silicone mold and casting the parts would really help with large numbers. The mold has a sunk cost of course, especially for larger items, but the time saved and the ability to dye the resin a certain color would definitely help. You would still need other steps of course and optimization for a different production method.
Really enjoyed your iterative process! Looking forward to checking out more of your channel. Subscribed!
New subscriber here with a new 3D printer still in the box…. I’m excited, and your video definitely lit the fire of inspiration under my behind. Thanks for creating, and posting, this!
would love to see the automation video!
Great video! You’ve earned a sub :) What are the modifications you made to the ender 3 besides the tilt for automation? Could you provide links to any stl files and products used? I am assuming you upgraded the hot end for printing with ABS? I’d like to get into printing with ABS and PETGand could use some tips. I look forward to more of your videos. Thanks!
Thanks for the sub! I'll be covering that soon.
Great vid with a real breakdown and also insight into changes that can be made to improve all stages :)
Dude this video was awesome and answered some of the questions I didn't even know to ask! You earned this subscriber for sure! I'm tinkering atm but do plan to make it more of a side hustle/fulltime in the near future.
Depending on how you size your screws, threads and holes. You can often just let stuff self tap in. If your building a product with a very course thread. Then you will likely want to change your model so that the thread area is treated as a second model so you can assign a much thicker extrusion amount . I have found in the .8mm range helped significantly, so that I could print replacement Microphone clips. As its very hard to find inserts for said thread size. If you don't do this, you end up with little pockets of air that causes the tap to just tear out the threads you have cut. Took me a bit of trial and error to figure this out. Hope it helps people.
My thoughts exactly. Threaded screws (and inserts) are great when you need to disassemble and reassemble. But for a build that is meant to remain untouched, self tapering screws were designed for this very purpose.
Would it be possible to have it hollow with a coaster lid? That way it could store stuff in it. Would be much lighter for shipping probably, too. Not to mention it's adding a feature of allowing you to put whatever you want in it.
Excellent video! Very good breakdown of the process of manufacturing small batches. The "real deal"! Keep up the great work!
Awesome video well done ! I have been 3d printing a lot of stuff I have thought of selling thanks for putting it all into perspective!
Him: How much would you pay for something like this?
Me: uhh 5-15 dollars?
five bucks. no more than that.
China: hold my beer
@@joegadget670 Hahahahaha
Have you looked into printing it already pieced together with the correctly colored filament using Mosaic's Palette or Prusa's multi material device? (You'd need a Prusa MK3S for the MMU2.) With the better use of swapping colors in the infill, the wasted filament can be minimized (but still there). Granted, using either of these technologies can cause some extra failed prints and does increase the print times a little. But curious about your stance on this. Thanks for your videos and also for sharing your STLs, from a fellow 3D printing enthusiast.
That would be interesting, but I don't have access to that equipment at the moment. There are still some issues with overhang that would require special attention. The biggest hurdle that I see would be obtaining the correct colors.
Another alternative could be a 3d printer as the Weedo X40 IDEX or similar.
Seems like he would be wasting so much material with a multi color printer. That block of waste would be huge each print.
Excellent video, thanks for breaking it down to this degree
Fantastic production quality and display of information! I can't believe you only have 5k subs. Please keeping making videos and don't give up when it gets tough, this is a million sub channel, I know it will be. Keep up the great work!
You should set the brim only inside the part so you dont have to remove it
For these parts, a brim isn’t even needed, if you needed a brim then you have bad setup and settings
Im feeling some "This Old Tony" bibs from this video.... Especially the oven part :)
:) Yeah I'm a fan of his videos.
Thanks for this posted video. Really hits home and cost. I bought my 3d printer to replace a wood product that I was selling online. The math like yours became a nightmare and showed I would need a lot of printers. The business side of P &L was fun and interesting.
I really appreciate this detail work through of a real product, from the designing to production even to the packaging method. I'm a leader of a middle size OEM/ODM company/factory in China. We are dealing everyday these similar work process, sometime for much bigger project. I really like this video because of its comprehensive thinking of the whole process of a product and I may translate this video and share it to my colleagues. Good job!
I just can from your oni video, if I can I will buy one, they are lovely
Thank you so much :)
@@WatchItPrint I would so buy two of these. I need one for my home and one for my work desk.
@@forkekus6917 Me too
I really feel the shipping part. I offer a product with lots of variants. Most expensive one with all features is just under 1 kg. If I go from 999g to 1001g shipping cost is doubled and would make it as profitable as one with half the features, but with twice the production time 😅 Gonna save the box cutting part for testing! 😁
Awesome video! I love your data-driven approach to P/L etc and the product makes for really cool case study!
This is a fantastic video! Very honest, thorough deep-dive, and each point was well made (well, except for the pizza analogy but the pizza was well made at least). THANK YOU for your massive effort to help us.
I love this! By the power of the almighty algorithm, GIVE THIS MORE VEIWS!
I loved the pizza slice analogy, a good representation of the motivations behind setting your pricing. IE, reducing item price might grow sales, but at what point do the returns diminish.
-Me, a person who currently makes pizza for a living
-Also me, a person who played rollercoaster tycoon as a kid
Thanks for posting such an informative video
wow. a quick lesson in Industrial engineering and many thing else. great job.
Haven't finished the vid yet, but the eyes may be easier with an ink stamp pad where you just press the eyes into the paint
I was thinking that. Maybe some sort of specially shaped pad and printed reservoir so it's a slap it on and go process
I bought one last time round it’s great recommend to anyone
Thank you :D
You sir, earned a subscription! Love the stuff you do!
Great insight! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Recognizing that bots were tracking you and using it to get lower prices is pretty cyberpunk.
Use Big Brother to help you out, kicking 1984 in the behind...
"get the bots smelling ya"
Lol in germany we pay like 0,28€ per kw/h
Was meinte er was die Zahlen?
@@DatFunnyPerson 0,07 USD wich is 0,058 Euro per KW/h so in germany we pay around 500% more 😳
Those oxygen not included sprites you added in are such a nice touch, nice video!
Nice video man, really interesting to see how all these tiny pieces can have such an impact on the overall outcome of a project.
"$19 to $30 an hour. So NOT quit your day job money"
What day job do you have? 'Cause uh. That sounds like quit my day job money to me, rich boy. :|
I live in Europe, and here, its definitely a quit my day job money. Muricans are so GODDAMN lucky.
For the love of God, get a wooden or plastic cutting board. your knife is going to thank you.
knives don't have feelings
Very informative!
Thanks for making this video.
Super informative video, can't wait to see the automation one
Lol, who the hell pays that much for something like that?!? 😂
You don't own a single piece of anything from your favorite movie, game, band, artist, etc?
@@NickBair316 That doesn't make any sense. I was referring to "that price, that kind of item". But anyway, still, actually no I don't. Why would I buy some junk? And to that note. If I'd buy something like that, why would I pay excessive price of it?
@@jothain That's just the realistic price of producing something small batch in a developed country. Of course it's gonna cost more to produce something like this when you don't pay the worker $1.50 an hour and make 15 000 of them.
@@finpin928 No it's not. Heck if that thing would be Swiss made it would still be expensive. Just look at the quality of those, they look horrible for that money. I live in more developed country and I don't think anyone would pay that kind of an price here. Which is good imo btw 😂
@@jothain wow you are salty lol. I'm sure plenty of people in your country would pay that price. Sorry things are bad for you right now, I'm sure they will improve!
Great video. I make a device for barber shops and even though I have been doing so for 8+ years now I am always innovating the process to make it easier and more profitable and in the end I try to make the product better as well. It's a box and took 16 drill operations (drilling, chamfering, enlarging....) and I ended up with a small tabletop CNC machine, 3D printed a fixture and now it does all but 4 of those operations for me. Keep up the good work.
Excellent video! I am super impressed and learned much. Finally a high quality video recommendation from youtube! Would be interesting to revisit this in 6 mths time and recalculate the numbers from the perspective of this video itself being the final product, figuring in costs of production and any revenue from TH-cam. I'll help by sharing with everybody I know! PS. love to see details on how you automated the ender.
loved the video, thank you for sharing, keep it up :)
Great video! Good job dude, subscribed. This has sparked ideas for me.
nice video! well shot, good explanations. keep them coming!
Thank you for this video, I learned something from it :)
This is an amazing amount of information packed into just one video. Thank you so much because I have a FFF/FDM printer that doesn't work. I'm trying to find out if I can even make enough money with it to even justify working on it at this point. I'd love to do jewelry on a resin printer but cost is still prohibitive. However with spreadsheets and and actual pizza pie chart you did an excellent job explaining how to take into account the total cost of running this printers very well. Thank you very much for sharing your experience with printing for profit.
This is a great video. You're helping a lot of people.
Thanks for an awesome breakdown. Definitely puts so many things into perspective!
Glad it was helpful!
Damn this is a great video. I sell low scale products too and this is what I'm always trying to tell people that it's not just 3D printing and counting grams per print.
Really nice job and kudos for sharing even financial details. Most people (even myself sometimes) find it taboo to talk about that sort of stuff.
Enjoyed this video, good to see the breakdown in tasks etc.