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The Everything 3D Printer Thread

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Old tool guy

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You know what’s interesting, looking at all the equipment and people it takes to make the filament ...
A little mental math … cost me $10 for a 1 kg roll. That’s about $10 for 1,000 ft of filament … or 1 cent/ ft. Delivered to my door. That includes raw material, labor, equipment depreciation or acquisition cost, shipping, and profit.
 
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jeepxj

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Old tool guy said:
You know what’s interesting, looking at all the equipment and people it takes to make the filament ...
A little mental math … cost me $10 for a 1 kg roll. That’s about $10 for 1,000 ft of filament … or 1 cent/ ft. Delivered to my door. That includes raw material, labor, equipment depreciation or acquisition cost, shipping, and profit.
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It's a wild thought process when you get into a global market. the massive ships really bring down the cost to move tonnage long distances. thus making it viable.

the extruder machines you see there run about 29,000USD roughly. support dryers a couple grand each. batch mixers, etc.
1788807799737.png
 
F

fourjeepin

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jeepxj said:
Yea.... I designed mine ground up. gona sell a kit.
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I need more details before I'm in

jeepxj said:
It's a wild thought process when you get into a global market. the massive ships really bring down the cost to move tonnage long distances. thus making it viable.
the extruder machines you see there run about 29,000USD roughly. support dryers a couple grand each. batch mixers, etc.
Click to expand...
I appreciate the education you are giving us on how filament is made and on your print lab. Cool to see it grow.
 
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jeepxj

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Yankeefarmer

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M.Brane said:
Thinking of getting a printer to make some small parts for the bikes that are unobtanium, and some jigs for rebuilding speakers. I'm sure there are other things in the future that could justify the expense, and space.
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They are wonderful for that sort of thing. My most recent print was a template for marking drywall to cut openings for a single gang old work electrical box. I had about six I had to do to help out an in-law.
 
D

Damon L.

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M.Brane said:
Thinking of getting a printer to make some small parts for the bikes that are unobtanium, and some jigs for rebuilding speakers. I'm sure there are other things in the future that could justify the expense, and space.
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I've been using mine for wood and metalworking jigs, custom organization, and random other bits as I need them. Definitely do not regret the purchase, and I use it more than I thought I would.
 
M

manwithtools

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jeepxj said:
www.vevor.com

VEVOR Tire Bead Setter, 8L Capacity, 120 PSI Air Bead Blaster, Handheld & Portable Inflation Device, 85-116 PSI for Trucks, Tractors, ATVs & Cars | VEVOR US

VEVOR Tire Bead Seater blasts up to 120 PSI for quick inflation, featuring a portable design, ergonomic structure, and aircraft-grade aluminum for durability.
www.vevor.com www.vevor.com


is the basis.


1.5" male thread to 1.5" female. whatever length of 1.5" sch 40 you want. then my parts kit.
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I'm sure you know what you are doing, but I would not want to offer a kit for something like that. We live in very litigious society full of idiots...
 
S

signcrafter

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jeepxj said:
Yea.... I designed mine ground up. gona sell a kit.
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Is there a way for you to sell the files so we can print them ourselves without someone "stealing" your work to sell them? I'd be interested in purchasing the files to print one myself.

Do you have a thread about your 3D printing adventure somewhere? Or just the posts in multiple threads? I've seen your shop thread and this thread but think a story of how you started and got to now would be a great read.
 
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jeepxj

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signcrafter said:
Is there a way for you to sell the files so we can print them ourselves without someone "stealing" your work to sell them? I'd be interested in purchasing the files to print one myself.

Do you have a thread about your 3D printing adventure somewhere? Or just the posts in multiple threads? I've seen your shop thread and this thread but think a story of how you started and got to now would be a great read.
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still preproduction. we offer buying stls from the shop.

but for now:


not a single thread really.
 
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signcrafter

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jeepxj said:
still preproduction. we offer buying stls from the shop.

but for now:


not a single thread really.
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I ride the short bus when it comes to a lot of computer stuff so forgive me. It's going to be an interesting struggle for me with the file side of things when my printer gets here. But I clicked on your link and it downloaded a file and then asked me what I wanted to use to open it. It looked like a web address to me so I tried typing it in search bar and it downloaded something again. What do I need to use to open it? Thanks for sharing it, I'm guessing it will be the files when I figure out how to open it. 😂
 
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jeepxj

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signcrafter said:
I ride the short bus when it comes to a lot of computer stuff so forgive me. It's going to be an interesting struggle for me with the file side of things when my printer gets here. But I clicked on your link and it downloaded a file and then asked me what I wanted to use to open it. It looked like a web address to me so I tried typing it in search bar and it downloaded something again. What do I need to use to open it? Thanks for sharing it, I'm guessing it will be the files when I figure out how to open it. 😂
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bambu studio is the app you need.
 
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jeepxj

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signcrafter said:
Do you have a thread about your 3D printing adventure somewhere? Or just the posts in multiple threads? I've seen your shop thread and this thread but think a story of how you started and got to now would be a great read.
Click to expand...


Its really not super interesting. I go to the family farm to help with harvest. uncle tractor cup holder solution was annoying me/cutting my wrist. went to amazon to buy a tractor cup holder. there wasn't anything good there. went home learned to 3d model. bought a printer. then turns out people wanted solutions in cabs. and here we are.

ask away. im an open book.
 
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signcrafter

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jeepxj said:
Its really not super interesting. I go to the family farm to help with harvest. uncle tractor cup holder solution was annoying me/cutting my wrist. went to amazon to buy a tractor cup holder. there wasn't anything good there. went home learned to 3d model. bought a printer. then turns out people wanted solutions in cabs. and here we are.

ask away. im an open book.
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Just thought if there was a thread of going from making a cup holder for yourself to a print farm that keeps expanding and I didn't see exactly what you are doing with the filament but read shipping loads on boats and the post about the machines to make the filament would be interesting to me. Maybe I'm weird.
 
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jeepxj

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signcrafter said:
Just thought if there was a thread of going from making a cup holder for yourself to a print farm that keeps expanding and I didn't see exactly what you are doing with the filament but read shipping loads on boats and the post about the machines to make the filament would be interesting to me. Maybe I'm weird.
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Nothing really laid out.

I ended up with 30ish printers in the basement of the house here in NJ with a couple wholesale accounts plus all the online sales. up until 3-4am doing orders, printers, etc. waking up 5-6 am for the day job ( a software company I own). Thats became unsustainable. Cousin at the farm needed part time work. He "bought" into the company by convincing uncle to let us do it and building the loft in the uncles barn we went into. 14x40' overall for all raw material, printers, inventory, etc. we were going to be there for 2 years. it was 6 months before we started construction on the new 60x60 building since we ran out of space. great news: the 60x60 ran outta space in 6 months.

Product wise its just so quick/easy to fusion360 a new model and get it up and selling. so we're talking over a thousand skus right now.

why filament? we burn 900kg roughly a month at the print farm currently. pricing is by weight. the more I buy from the factory the better my price. schoolhouse was designed to simply boost my numbers for the print farm. My goal is my cost on PETG black 5kg spools is $2.85 a KG delivered. now schoolhouse is kinda popping and we can't predict what colors are popular. so having a line here to run when we need would be very helpful.
 
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Old tool guy

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A. I vaguely remember the tractor cup holder story.
#2. Need to revise my mental math example. That brings the cost down to 1/3 cent / ft. Wow.
 
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