How Do I Make Salt And Pepper Shakers Not Cost 160$ On Shapeways?

Discussion in 'Newcomers Lounge' started by C_Edmunds, Sep 29, 2023.

  1. C_Edmunds
    C_Edmunds Member
    I made some novelty salt and pepper shakers and thought to upload them here. But they want $80+ per shaker as a base price at the cheapest material. No one will spend 160$ for salt shakers no matter how funny they are. What do I do?
     
  2. SemperVaporo
    SemperVaporo Well-Known Member
    You make wax mold masters for $80+ each, make the molds and melt the wax out, then injection mold dozens of them to bring the cost down to a few dollars each.
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    Sorry, but that and making them tiny models of salt & pepper shakers is about it for making a one-off 3-D printed item.
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    You might be able to print them with thinner walls (and risk them getting crushed by some brute of a dinner guest).
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    You could possibly invest in a home 3-D printer for $300 to $1000+, then buy reels of plastic filament and print enough of them to recover the cost of the machine and filament. You will also have to eat the cost of failed prints (it happens too often for me to waste my money, time and hair pulling, on a home printer).
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    Yes, 3-D printing is EXPENSIVE for one-off products, but sometimes it is easier to 3-D print something that otherwise would be too time consuming (or require a rare "talent") to make any other way!
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    Look through the Market Place on the ShapeWays site (link at the top of the page). I see dozens of products that I'd love to buy, but as 3-D printed products I cannot afford them. But the prices are not based on the greed (err. Um.. entrepreneurship) of the designer, but the cost of the materials (and process) that ShapeWays charges.
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    I make many things for myself using ShapeWays, because I, either, cannot find the item commercially (and I scour the hardware store for things I might be able to use if I take the commercial product apart to use some small portion and throw the rest of it away), or don't have the talent (or time) to create the item by hand in my workshop (I have a lathe and mill for metal working and have made a few things I am quite proud of, but I can make a 3-D drawing of things I could not possibly whittle out of wood or metal (total lack of talent with those machines!), so I choose 3-D printing and pay the piper for what I want if I want it badly enough).