The cost for 3D Printing depends on a few variables such as the amount of material used, the type of material, density, and the resolution we are printing at. The resolution impacts cost because higher resolutions take longer to print than the lower resolutions. It is important to consider the impact of these variables on price before you order a 3D print.
We need the 3D file in order to tell you the exact amount of how much the print will cost. Please visit our Automatic Quoting Tool and submit your .STL for an accurate price.
We actually no longer offer to fix printers. Please see our various tutorials for some in-house remedies. A full detailed book on how to diagnose and fix problems will be coming soon
The highest resolution we can print at today we call Ultra HD and has a tolerance of 90 microns (0.09mm) in the Z-direction and 125 microns (0.125mm) in the X/Y direction. Fine resolution is 100 microns (0.1mm) in the Z-direction and 200 microns (0.2mm) in the XY direciton.
Our standard resolution has a tolerance of 250 microns (0.25mm) in the Z-direction and 300 microns (0.3mm) in the X/Y direction. Finally our draft resolution has a tolerance of 400 microns (0.4mm) in the Z-direction and 300 microns (0.3mm) in the XY direction. These tolerances are determined by the layer heights and nozzle diameters. The lower the quality, the quicker the print can be completed.
We can print almost anything that you can 3D design. Our printers are more tailored towards mechanical parts and prototypes rather than intricate small shapes. However, we can be creative to slice various prints to optimize the print settings.
Yes, however we fulfill most of our orders with FDM 3D printers as we specialize in low cost prototyping and low-medium volume manufacturing. SLA prints can provide extremely high resolution, but are far more expensive and often not feasible due to cost. Our 3D printing service advisors can help guide you in the right material and process for your application before you order a 3D print from us.
This property, called infil, can drastically change the price of your part. Most non structural parts can be printed in PLA with our standard 20% infill settings. For a very dense part, it is likely you would not need more than 75% infill. ABS with very high infill are very strong parts yet have the tenancy to want to warp.
Infill refers to the amount of material is used to fill your print. Since 3D printing involves building from the ground up, we can actually change the amount of material that is being used in your project. Some items can even be printed hollow. The higher the infill, the longer the print, the more material, and the more costly the project is.
The standard materials we print in are ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) and PLA (Polylactic acid) plastics. These are the lower cost and easier to print materials.
ABS is the same material used in Legos, it is strong and a little flexible. PLA is a biodegradable material made from corn starch which is extremely strong yet can be brittle. We can also print in most exotic 3D printing materials such as nylon, t-glase, PET+, carbon fiber ABS, polycarbonate ABS (PC-ABS), flexible materials, and more. For a full list and in depth description of each, visit our Materials page.
For ABS, we can provide a vapor finish for an additional cost. This essentially melts the material down slightly and blends all the layers together to give the “injection mold” appearance. This also makes ABS pieces watertight. For PLA, we can provide a brush on clear coat finish which gives it a shiny finish. When designing dimensionally accurate pieces, there are shrinkage rates with the different printing materials. This is a common situation even with injection molding parts. Before you order a 3D print in ABS, it is important to consider shrinkage, particularly for parts that mate together.
PLA tends not to shrink while ABS often has a shrinkage rate between 7-8%. It all depends on each material manufacturer and therefore ABS with one companies filament can shrink less than another companies filaments.
We can print in any color that the 3D printing material comes in. Colors include: black, white, green, red, yellow, blue, silver, pink, orange, gold, semi-translucent, etc… If you are looking for a translucent material, the options are natural PLA or another exotic material such as t-glase or PET. We can apply the clear coat to the t-glase or PET to increase the translucency.
Other unique materials may be limited in their color selection.
We currently only provide the option to order a 3D print in 1 color and 1 material at a time. There are some 3D printers with 2 extruders which can print 2 colors or 2 materials and also some machines that can print in full color. These 3D prints tend to cost a tremendous amount more (2-10x the cost of our solutions).
For ABS, we can provide a vapor finish for an additional cost. This essentially melts the material down slightly and blends all the layers together to give the “injection mold” appearance. This also makes ABS pieces watertight.
For PLA, we can provide a brush on clear coat finish which gives it a shiny finish. We can also apply the finish to t-glase and PET for more of a translucent look.
We offer the ability to take a silicon mold of your 3D printed part or print a negative of your part. We can then continue the process of cold casting your parts for quick turnarounds.
The quickest and easiest way to get a 3D print quote is to use our Auto Quoting Tool by uploading an STL. If you don’t have the STL, you can send us over the design file(s) and we can try to convert it to STL for you. However, this can add processing time to your order so it is best if you are able to export to STL directly from your design software.
You should have the .STL file and the material in mind that you would like to print it in. Please watch our video on how to design for 3D printing to make sure your model is printable.
Before you order a 3D print, you should also know the quality that you want, the density (infill), and what you hope to use the product for. As you can tell in the Materials Page, each material has it’s pros and cons.
Yes we offer 3D design work as well as the ability to set up a free 15 minute consultation with one of our in house designers. We charge $80 an hour and we will give you an estimate on time and price during the consultation.
Design services are $80/hour and the cost for a full design just depends on the complexity of the design. We can schedule a complimentary 5-10 minutes design review for you to meet with one of our designers and discuss the project.
When printing push fit pieces, you need to design the larger piece (the part that the smaller part is being pushed into) a little larger. Or make the smaller piece slightly smaller. For example, if you are designing a button to fit into a remote control, you either need to design the button’s perimeters about 0.125-0.3mm smaller (depending on the quality you ordered) or the hole perimeter in the remote control about 0.125-0.3mm larger.
The quickest and cheapest way to get a quote is to send over the STL of your 3D design. If you don’t have the STL, you can try to send us over the design file and we can try to convert it to STL. However, sometimes this process messes with the mesh. Other file formats we do accept for conversion are Solid Part files (SLDPRT), STEP, PRT and other common 3D model files.
When designing dimensionally accurate pieces, there are shrinkage rates with the different printing materials. This is a common situation even with injection molding parts. PLA tends not to shrink while ABS often has a shrinkage rate between 7-8%. It all depends on each material manufacturer and therefore ABS with one companies filament can shrink less than another companies filaments.
You should also try to have a flat bottom, since that is easiest to print. Extreme angles are also tough and anything larger than our current build volume of 11.7” x 10.8” x 9.8” would have to be split into multiple parts.
Yes, but not for high detail mechanical parts. For scanning individuals in figurine or bust form, we can do that after setting up a meeting. The price ranges from $75-$100 per person.
For scanning an actual part that requires proper measurements, we will outsource this job or design in house rather than scan. High detail scanners still cost a lot of money and are only really cost effective for something that is too difficult to model by a designer on a computer.
Individual scans for busts or figurines cost $75-$100 and parts with specific measurements generally start at a minimum of $500 (which is why having our designers start from scratch is often less expensive).
Larger objects will have a lower resolution, but our vendor offers a resolution of up to 0.1% of scan size (down to 0.06 mm) and a mesh density of up to 1,200,000 vertices per scan. We generally say that it will not quite be this accurate, since this is in an ideal situation.
The sense scanner can scan larger objects with lower resolution. It also scans humans with ease. Large high detail scans are not currently possible with the connections we have.
With a small initial investment we can guarantee you the cheapest prices available for 3D printed parts. If you plan to order large quantities of 3D printed parts, you can expect to save thousands of dollars vs our normal pricing. We can even dedicate a printer for your prints when needed.
As members you get the best access to our customer services and available options. White Label Fulfillment means whenever you send us a bulk order 3D print request, we can send your parts to the final destination with your labeling. This means you can sell 3D printed products to customers without ever having to leave your chair!
Each membership has an initial deposit required in order to designate a machine to your parts. It doesn’t take long though for this investment to pay off.
With an investment of $499 per year you will have access to print up to 2,500 grams of plastic per month at a rate of $0.20 per cubic centimeter. $999 will give you access to 5,000 grams of plastic per month at a rate of $0.18 per cubic centimeter. Finally $1499 per year will get you the ability to print 9,000 grams at a rate of $0.16 per cubic centimeter. That is nearly 1/3 our normal prices!
Doing break-even math vs our normal pricing, the economy plan begins saving you money on anything over 2,000 cubic centimeters, or roughly $900 in our normal pricing. If you plan on spending over $1,000 or printing over 2,000 cubic centimeters in a year, our membership is the way to go!
