"3d printing costs" Topic
7 Posts
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Phil Hall | 06 Jul 2018 4:14 p.m. PST |
So how much does it cost to print 28mm figure? Or a large building? |
Bashytubits | 06 Jul 2018 4:24 p.m. PST |
It all depends on the type of material you use, most 3d printers will do PLA, ABS or PETG. That is assuming you are using an FDM machine. SLA printers use a completely different type of material and their detail is superior but costs for materials are much higher. |
UshCha | 07 Jul 2018 2:14 a.m. PST |
For an FDM using PLA a large building may cost around 7 GBP (I have just printed a 1/32 scale slot car pit 300mm by 200 by 100 for about 6 GBP). Perfectly adequate as far as I am concerned. |
21eRegt | 07 Jul 2018 7:33 a.m. PST |
Actual for what you get is negligible, but your/my time and wear and tear on the machine needs to be factored in. Many slicers will estimate cost in filament for you. |
SeattleGamer | 07 Jul 2018 11:51 a.m. PST |
I once calculated I could get a mix of 3 28mm houses suitable for WWII gaming (say, Normandy style, some multi-story) and some garden walls for one spool of PLA. Or 4 28mm houses of an Arabic nature (one story, with steps leading to the roof) and some walls, again, for 1 spool of PLA. Figure 1 spool average price is $20 USD and that turned out to be $5 USD-6 per building. I then added in $1 USD per building for "wear" on my 3D printer. Figure if it lasts for 250 builds then I have covered the cost. If it wears out sooner, I would need to adjust. If it lasts longer, then perhaps only .50 cents per building (or building-sised worth of prints). I then figure that to buy a 28mm plastic building in a kit form would probably run me $15 USD-20. So my bottom line was, I am getting more variety for about one-third of the cost. And that accounts for the cost of the printer. |
Munster | 07 Jul 2018 5:13 p.m. PST |
Someone did a cost calculator, and from memory with a $500 USD machine, that went for ~12 hours a week, and lasted 5 years the true cost was roughly double the cost of filament used. So an item that used $5 USD of filament would cost about $10 USD overall Edit – found it link |
UshCha | 09 Jul 2018 4:38 a.m. PST |
My printer cost 2000 GBP it has done about 2000hrs and I have spent about 100 GBP on spares, in particular base plates which last a bit less than a year with heavy use. Its still going strong but at that its about 1 GBP per hour and falling. New printers are cheaper so all ways cost are falling. With buildings twice filament cost would be of the correct order. A three hour print uses about 1.5 gbp of filament. 1/144 tanks use about 0.2 GPB of filament but take 1 1/2 hrs to print (lower print speed and thin layers). Much more than twice filament cost for printer cost. |
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