I am a hobbyist, and my job will probably never require me to design and print anything for work.

I do really enjoy the process of conceptualizing, designing, and printing, and have done so for myself and some close acquaintances.

I’ve spent many hours/days learning the tools of the trade and was wondering if there was an opportunity to make some money as a side gig. Has anyone been successful doing this, and how did you go about it?

Here are a couple of my early designs, I plan to upload more once I clean things up a bit.

https://www.thingiverse.com/landon8848/designs

  • pm_me_your_panties@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Your Thingiverse only has two over year old designs? How serious are you?

    Yea, I am net positive with my 3d printing, that includes buying another printer. You have to remember that the raw material the 3d printers use is relatively cheap. I can print off something that costs me less than $1 per part, not including labor, electricity, etc, and still charge multiple times what it cost me to make. #d printing is basically a money making machine if you find the right niche and are decent at design.

    • lando55@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Haha yep! There are actually several iterations on those models that have not yet been uploaded, as well as some commissioned work that I keep on a private share.

      If I can make enough to offset the cost of my time and materials, I’m more than happy.

    • PdeT@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      How did you get started with selling 3d prints? Where are you selling your things?

      • pm_me_your_panties@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        So what I sell is kind of a replacement part for a machine that usually wealthy people own. Sorry I know that’s super vague. But anyways I redesigned as one part to make it custom and now I sell those custom parts. The website I use to sell them very specific to people who own these so if I had any advice I’d say get into a niche market.