Hot of the heels of yesterday’s announcement, I’ve taken the Troke game that I uploaded to Thingiverse and added a board that you can buy on Ponoko. You don’t need it to play, but it is super cool and it comes apart for easy storage. I predict a number of these sorts of project populating Ponoko in the near future. …
Adventures in Selling Designs part 3, Ponoko and CGTrader
My to-do list is rather long at the moment. I’m making a promotional video and website for the book, I’m going to create a web site for my 3D design work so I can take commissions, I’ve got some new materials to experiment with, an upgrade for the Makerbot, and a few other things. Lots of good things to look …
Chess production day 2
This time around feels like a very different experience than last time around for so many reason. Filament diameter. Filament diameter. Filament diameter. I measured, swear I did. 1.81mm. They both worked. Then suddenly… they didn’t. Every joint was too loose. Of course I didn’t figure this out until I got home and 4 batches had already printed. Fortunately there’s a fix. Clear nail …
Unidentified Party Crasher
Not that I’m ready for it yet, but I thought I’d look at what it would take to get a UPC code for something. You know, in case I wanted to go full time with this. Use the 3D printer to keep up with sales and put something in a store. The only problem is UPCs are regulated and in …
3D Printing as a Business – History Repeating Itself
Joseph Chiu wrote this on the makerbot user group and I felt it was worth repeating. As Shawn had mentioned a while back, making money on the print-for-pay is generally not a good return on your investment in time/resources… It’s like photocopiers in the early 1980’s. Back then, there were the big high-end copiers that resembled printing presses. Then the …
Will 3D printing replace traditional manufacture?
It seems to be a topic on many people’s minds today. Here’s some reading material to get you started: Will 3D printing make global supply chains unnecessary?EU Looking to 3D Printing to Help Revive Manufacturing.What’s the Dreamweaver of 3D Design? That last one kind of made my point for me. Of the multifacted discussion of the disruptive effect of 3D …
How to make money with a 3D printer part 1
My last post on this topic was more reflective. This post is going to be more how-to. So you want a 3D printer because they’re cool. But you’ve got to convince someone its a worthwhile thing to spend the money on. So you point to me or Mark Cohen and say “those guys are actually making money with their Makerbots. If they …
Making money with a Makerbot
One day I want to write a “How winning a Replicator has changed my life” post, but there are some details that I don’t think I can express with the proper tone of ironic humor. Until I work that out I can talk about how having a Replicator has allowed me to be a weekend entrepreneur. One of the biggest problems …