Serious Problems With “tan” Detail Plastic.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by AgeOfPlastic, Jan 26, 2024.

  1. bwterrainforge
    bwterrainforge Well-Known Member
    The problem is Shapeways invested in this wax breakaway support technology and those printers dont seem to offer the resolution miniature and model designers need. The layer lines are horrible and the brittleness combined with warping results in shattered models.

    Other print services (3d craft cloud Xometry etc...) the printers use industrial version of the Elegoo, Anycubic etc printers and just deal with the cleaning curing and cleanup. All While having a cheaper price per print. The only thing keep us designers from using them is they dont offer an established marketplace. So as @hendi mentioned he is doing his own prints. However, if you don't have a high traffic store or marketplace you are out of luck.
     
  2. barkingdigger
    barkingdigger Well-Known Member
    Indeed the only thing in SW's favour is the "Shop" system that lets anybody go into business while SW takes care of the payments, printing, and shipping. Sadly the search interface is rubbish so customers can't find what they want, and the print quality is falling behind what can be done by home printing enthusiasts. Somebody in SW management needs to get their butt kicked until they see the light and get the same kinds of printers everyone else is using for successful detailed printing...
     
  3. hendie
    hendie Member
    there are companies out there, such as Protolabs etc. but they are all well established now and I don't see how Shapeways can hope to compete with them.
    The one thing that is missing from the market is a good hobbyist resource, such as Shapeways were in the beginning.
    Lots of us have home printers now, but there are still thousands of people out there who will never own such a device (for many reasons) and they will always be looking for s good supplier. However, with Shapeways current material set and pricing structure, there is very little chance they will manage to take over that market.