Is There A List Of JDM And Euro Parts Suppliers?

[Texas_3D_Customs]

2 hours ago, ctruss53 said:

What?

A parts file should cost more than a part? You can't be serious.

Absolutely, I sell my engines with a transmission for $25 shipped, I wouldnt even consider selling my files for anywhere close to that. But my engines are not the run of the mill Cults3D designs

[ctruss53]

26 minutes ago, Texas_3D_Customs said:

Absolutely, I sell my engines with a transmission for $25 shipped, I wouldnt even consider selling my files for anywhere close to that. But my engines are not the run of the mill Cults3D designs

 

I am talking about a part file that is on Shapeways or Cults3D. It should be very cheap because you make it once and then resell it over and over again.

Now a high quality part file that is being LICENSED to a 3D printer like yourself should have a high price because there is only one transaction.

There is a difference.

[Texas_3D_Customs]

9 minutes ago, ctruss53 said:

 

I am talking about a part file that is on Shapeways or Cults3D. It should be very cheap because you make it once and then resell it over and over again.

Now a high quality part file that is being LICENSED to a 3D printer like yourself should have a high price because there is only one transaction.

There is a difference.

I mean if I were to sell my files on Cults3D which is what I think he was talking about. I wouldn't sell my files for nearly what an engine costs, much less what others are selling "Engine" Files for. Dont get me wrong there are some good ones out there, but most of the high detail super accurate files are much much more than even $50. The main issue I would have is we all know that people share files they buy on Cults3D and furthermore you only get that charge one time per person even if they dont share. Take for example Scale Model Auto Works Slant 6, he charges ~$13 for the file, and he has sold 24 which comes out to $323. Sorry the time to design a detailed engine like my Slant 6 my Hemi 426 my LS line... to me is worth way more than even $500. So the problem with Shapeways and I will say I am not a fan of the system, but its an avenue for creators to use so thats their decision, the file cost is all the creator gets, shapeways is getting the lions share if they don't charge a high rate for the file. I personally think that there are better options like licensing your designs to people like me with a royalty as as you say the prices are too high on SW. But you can set the price whatever you want to make per sale on SW. I have reached out to people that sell on SW and most of the time they are not keen to the idea of licensing with me, but that is there decision.

Edited July 19, 2023 by Texas_3D_Customs

[Xingu]

@ctruss53 many posts ago, you said you said Shapeways was to expensive and that you were going to leave it at that....you didn't leave it there at all.

Stop hijacking other members threads or you will be placed on moderation and/or temporarily banned from the site. The last thread got locked because you were beating a dead horse, stop looking for new horses.

Not everyone shares the same opinions as you.

[Texas_3D_Customs]

14 minutes ago, Xingu said:

@ctruss53 many posts ago, you said you said Shapeways was to expensive and that you were going to leave it at that....you didn't leave it there at all.

Stop hijacking other members threads or you will be placed on moderation and/or temporarily banned from the site. The last thread got locked because you were beating a dead horse, stop looking for new horses.

Not everyone shares the same opinions as you.

I will stop I am just adding to the issue

[bobthehobbyguy]

40 minutes ago, Texas_3D_Customs said:

I mean if I were to sell my files on Cults3D which is what I think he was talking about. I wouldn't sell my files for nearly what an engine costs, much less what others are selling "Engine" Files for. Dont get me wrong there are some good ones out there, but most of the high detail super accurate files are much much more than even $50. The main issue I would have is we all know that people share files they buy on Cults3D and furthermore you only get that charge one time per person even if they dont share. Take for example Scale Model Auto Works Slant 6, he charges ~$13 for the file, and he has sold 24 which comes out to $323. Sorry the time to design a detailed engine like my Slant 6 my Hemi 426 my LS line... to me is worth way more than even $500. So the problem with Shapeways and I will say I am not a fan of the system, but its an avenue for creators to use so thats their decision, the file cost is all the creator gets, shapeways is getting the lions share if they don't charge a high rate for the file. I personally think that there are better options like licensing your designs to people like me with a royalty as as you say the prices are too high on SW. But you can set the price whatever you want to make per sale on SW. I have reached out to people that sell on SW and most of the time they are not keen to the idea of licensing with me, but that is there decision.

This is great information for those of us who haven't gotten into any aspect of the 3d printing. It's important to understand what is involved from someone doing it as a business and not a hobby. Please provide any other information that you feel as relevant.

[Texas_3D_Customs]

1 hour ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

This is great information for those of us who haven't gotten into any aspect of the 3d printing. It's important to understand what is involved from someone doing it as a business and not a hobby. Please provide any other information that you feel as relevant.

Well about $20-30k worth of equipment, $700-1000/month electric bills because you dont want that many printers in your house and keeping a garage at 23C is really hard in Texas, over $30K a year in shipping labels, I don't even want to know how much I spend in resin but well over a thousand a month. It really is a different gig than just printing things for yourself. Taxes are a nightmare as well. When I was just hobby printing and the occasional sale it was much much different, and somehow it just kept growing until I was exiled to the garage. I regularly put in 12 hour days work a bit on the weekends, and vacation which is a week and a half away is stressful because unlike a paid job I wont get paid vacation. You deal with a lot of different types of people some are very cool some not so much. I have made a good deal of friends and likewise I have made some not friends, see above. It really comes down to I really enjoy doing this, and while its been a pay decrease its been a lifestyle increase. Now the money is all subjective, if you were say a gas station attendant then I am sure you would say the pay is great, but coming from my old career its not. Money is not everything in life and I am getting towards the later quarter of my working career, and as such I have already paid off a lot and was fortunate to not have to buy my house at current prices. It's not for everyone and due to my past career this was not a huge leap as I did a lot of CAD as an engineer, also helps that I am a 1:1 gearhead. Would I recommend it for everyone, absolutely not, but it does have potential but also competition is getting fierce.

[ctruss53]

16 hours ago, Xingu said:

@ctruss53 many posts ago, you said you said Shapeways was to expensive and that you were going to leave it at that....you didn't leave it there at all.

Stop hijacking other members threads or you will be placed on moderation and/or temporarily banned from the site. The last thread got locked because you were beating a dead horse, stop looking for new horses.

Not everyone shares the same opinions as you.

Yes, and I did stop talking about Shapeways. The conversation transitioned to the cost pf parts files.

This thread is about 3D printed parts. And all threads flow with the conversation.

I don't think any of us are doing anything wrong here, but thank you for calling me out as the problem.

Edited July 20, 2023 by ctruss53

[iamsuperdan]

14 hours ago, Texas_3D_Customs said:

Well about $20-30k worth of equipment, $700-1000/month electric bills because you dont want that many printers in your house and keeping a garage at 23C is really hard in Texas, over $30K a year in shipping labels, I don't even want to know how much I spend in resin but well over a thousand a month. It really is a different gig than just printing things for yourself. Taxes are a nightmare as well. When I was just hobby printing and the occasional sale it was much much different, and somehow it just kept growing until I was exiled to the garage. I regularly put in 12 hour days work a bit on the weekends, and vacation which is a week and a half away is stressful because unlike a paid job I wont get paid vacation. You deal with a lot of different types of people some are very cool some not so much. I have made a good deal of friends and likewise I have made some not friends, see above. It really comes down to I really enjoy doing this, and while its been a pay decrease its been a lifestyle increase. Now the money is all subjective, if you were say a gas station attendant then I am sure you would say the pay is great, but coming from my old career its not. Money is not everything in life and I am getting towards the later quarter of my working career, and as such I have already paid off a lot and was fortunate to not have to buy my house at current prices. It's not for everyone and due to my past career this was not a huge leap as I did a lot of CAD as an engineer, also helps that I am a 1:1 gearhead. Would I recommend it for everyone, absolutely not, but it does have potential but also competition is getting fierce.

 

 

I think it's good for people to hear this stuff firsthand. There's a huge difference between a hobbyist 3D printer and someone who is using it as their sole income, and a lot of people don't realize the enormity of that.

 

 

I've often thought about doing some printing on the side, actually setting up a business. I already have a numbered company I could operate under legally, so that part is easy. But the costs to do it properly, even just as a part timer for fun, is more than I'm willing to take on. Even just looking at the time commitment. Printing, curing, cleaning up the parts, packaging, shipping. I just don't have that much time to commit, while still working full time, and having a family life, and hobbies. 

[bobthehobbyguy]

Great information. Too often we have people make arbitrary statements about what something should cost without any knowledge of what the actual costs are. Somebody may comment that kit x should cost so much without having a clue on what the costs are. Take the time to understand what those costs are before making statements about what a product should cost. cost.

In addition to out of pocket costs there is the cost of time and resources to becoming proficient at doing something like 3d printing. To excel at anything one needs to put in the time to acquire the knowledge to produce a quality product. That needs to be factored into the final cost.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

It's a mistake, pure and simple, to tell someone who's in business actually DOING something that he's doing it wrong, or charging too much, etc.

All my professional life I've had to deal with clients telling me I "charge too much" because they could get "the same work" from some ignorant ham-handed mouth-breather for $15/hr, instead of paying my "exorbitant" hourly rates...never realizing my background, education, experience, skill sets, huge investment in tools and equipment, and general qualifications put me on another level entirely.

Needless to say, I've shown the habitual know-it-all lowballers to the door, and my current clients fully understand that what they're getting from ME is the same as...or better than...they could get from a "big name" shop, but for considerably less money due to my very low operating overheads.

BOTTOM LINE: UNTIL YOU'VE DONE SOMETHING FOR A LIVING...SUCCESSFULLY...YOU HAVE NO VALID INPUT AS TO HOW IT "SHOULD" BE DONE, OR WHAT IT "SHOULD" COST.

 

Edited July 20, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy
CLARITY

[Texas_3D_Customs]

3 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

 

 

I think it's good for people to hear this stuff firsthand. There's a huge difference between a hobbyist 3D printer and someone who is using it as their sole income, and a lot of people don't realize the enormity of that.

 

 

I've often thought about doing some printing on the side, actually setting up a business. I already have a numbered company I could operate under legally, so that part is easy. But the costs to do it properly, even just as a part timer for fun, is more than I'm willing to take on. Even just looking at the time commitment. Printing, curing, cleaning up the parts, packaging, shipping. I just don't have that much time to commit, while still working full time, and having a family life, and hobbies. 

So I started this as a side hustle, my personal life became non-existent. Get home from work wash parts, eat dinner, start prints, read with boys at bedtime, pack, That was the order of my evenings, and I worked 5 minutes from home and would even come home at lunch and work on it. I would go to bed around 2-3 AM every night to get up at 7. A decision had to be made, so with that said I almost shut down the business just to do on demand orders if I felt like it. There was and still is a lot of risk doing what I did, job security as a senior engineer is pretty good as I could get a job in a matter of days, now I am in a position that if this fails in say 5 years how do you go back. I will say I do enjoy it and have over 10 years of printing experience and a decade more of working as an engineer using CAD and subtractive manufacturing, think mills and lathes.

[Texas_3D_Customs]

I will say it can be done much cheaper than what I do, but output will be limited and you will be a slave to the machines. I have enough machines that I don't have to turn them over immediately. Normally I run then 2-3 times a day depending on the machine and the print running. Obviously at 12-14 hours a print to do 1:8 I don't run that more than once a day. Also the machines I use to post process are excessive, but it improves workflow and quality. You could do it as cheap as a single small printer like a Mars 3 or even Mars 4 Max and make a little side money manually washing and curing in the sun, but that's not a good way to run a business, plus the quality of a poor washing system is very obvious at least to me.

[Texas_3D_Customs]

2 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

It's a mistake, pure and simple, to tell someone who's in business actually DOING something that he's doing it wrong, or charging too much, etc.

All my professional life I've had to deal with clients telling me I "charge too much" because they could get "the same work" from some ignorant ham-handed mouth-breather for $15/hr, instead of paying my "exorbitant" hourly rates...never realizing my background, education, experience, skill sets, huge investment in tools and equipment, and general qualifications put me on another level entirely.

Needless to say, I've shown the habitual know-it-all lowballers to the door, and my current clients fully understand that what they're getting from ME is the same as...or better than...they could get from a "big name" shop, but for considerably less money due to my very low operating overheads.

BOTTOM LINE: UNTIL YOU'VE DONE SOMETHING FOR A LIVING...SUCCESSFULLY...YOU HAVE NO VALID INPUT AS TO HOW IT "SHOULD" BE DONE, OR WHAT IT "SHOULD" COST.

 

So one of the bottom lines that is also relevant is what is that persons time worth. Don't get me wrong I try to stay humble, but for me, doing this instead of working in my "normal" profession needs to be at least in the ballpark of what I can make going back to work for the man. Now I did take a pay hit doing this, but the benefits of working for myself are worth it. For example I am going to Colorado the first week of August, I didn't have to ask permission for when I was going to take vacation, but I have only had one run in with an issue like that anyways, but there were times my boss would call me Sunday night and tell me to get on a plane Monday morning to do a customer visit and I wasn't asked I was told.