I will be going to my son’s school fair on 9 May and promoting my business, 3D Printing in general & 3D Hubs.
I have a few ideas but am very keen to hear more about what I could show & sell.
The idea is to get complete novices who haven’t even thought about 3D printing to think about going online and ordering something
So the display so far will consist of:
1. Ultimaker 2 printing stuff - I was thinking I might do a large School logo or motto on which they can then keep afterwards.
2. Samples of a wide array of prints I’ve already done showing prototypes, phone cases, sculptures, widgets (gear bearing etc), household repairs, Motorcycle parts…
3. Slide show on PC showing 3D Hubs, Thingiverse, youMagine, Tinkercad, 123D Catch etc. (other software / site ideas for novices?)
So I’m looking for Thingiverse ideas that I can slideshow as examples of cool stuff that is FDM printable. eg iPhone cases.
I also thought it would be cool to have a few widgets that people could buy on the day that I could pre-print. I’m looking for ideas of (more) cool stuff that’s quick to print and I could sell for a couple of £ ea. Very open to ideas here. I like Faberdashery’s crystal ring for example
What are the legalities of selling stuff like this? I’m sure Faberdashery wouldn’t mind since I use their materials, and will give attribution, but is that acceptable in general principle?
If you sell with the purpose of making profit you have to start a business and have to pay taxes for your income. Better get some information before selling in large quantities. This is how selling works in Germany your laws might vary. Regarding the projects you should concider showing off a variety of materials (not only colors). I’ve showed my 3d printer and printed stuff in my chemistry class in order to teach about polymers and what material suits which purpose the best. Get the Colorfabb special sample pack to have access to metal and wood composites. Also glow in the dark is worth displaying and food safe material like T-Glase from taulman3d is good to show because it is very optically clear. Maybe print some phone cases out of flexible materials. Try to print some jewelry from the metal filament blends (and polish them). If you get taulman3d Nylon you can show some incredibly strong prints, also you can tell your audience, that the one, that splits the filament line of nylon with bare hands will get a print for free, the only one, that would get the free print would be the Hulk (seriously). If you want to see my PowerPoint file from the lecture please contact me. The most interesting part for students and pupils is not, what complex geometies you can print, but what materials you can use. Most people -sadly- think about 3d printing as a method to make spare parts and guns out of cheap plastic, the real potential ie for architecture models, jewelry, phone cases, toys, busts/statues, cosplay/costumes and prosthetics is often forgotten. I hope this helps, I have spools of all materials mentioned above, if you don’t want to order complete spools of nylon, metal etc. You can contact me so I’d send you some meters as samples as well as printing advises. You can also get 5-10 meter samples on other websites of which I don’t know the exact names. -Marius
Thanks for the great response. The income-tax issue is no problem, I have a registered company so that is all by the book. My question was more about the thingiverse licencing for commercial use, but it’s pretty clear actually -I should have followed that through myself before asking on here
So as long as attribution is given there is really no issue there.
I have the special sample pack, and have used bronzefill extensively and love it. I have been wanting to try the taulman3d Nylons and have applications for strong materials, so I think I will take your advice on that and buy some in.
Not sure I will have time to do anything with flexible, I think it’s a particular challenge with the UM2.
I would love to see your slides. I will attempt to PM you.
The main thing to check with any models you print is to make sure they dont have the non-commercial in the license. If they do, then even with attribution, it’s a no-no!
Apart from the materials thing that Marius mentioned, the other cool thing is personalisation. Print off some things with names on, maybe run up some simple keyrings with letters on. Google for the common first names and use that to decide what to print. Tinkercad up something quick and easy and, if you do it yourself, there’s no license to worry about…
Thanks Ian, I see. So the license is on a case-by-case, need to check each one.
Personalisation is a definite must I agree. There is really so much cool stuff that one could show.
Lithophanes are something I have been dying to try as well.
I might also take my kinect and do some basic frontal face scans just as a demo. That is really not well-practised though and may be a little labour intensive for the day.
otherwise you could PM me via skype, nickname: “railes123”
The UM2 is a bowden printer, and I know, that printing flexible materials is tricky on those. I have also a bowden printer with 1,75mm so the worst to get for flexible filaments. You could use PCTPE by Taulman3d, which is flexible but prints easier on bowden printers, or you can just print patiently and slow. As long as you do go with speeds of 15 +/-5 mm/s you should be fine printing Ninjaflex. Beside that you have to take into account, that Ninjaflex is very expensive (50-60€ for 500g 1,75mm) so it would be probably cheaper to get a 5 or 10 meter sample, especially if you want different colors.
A suggestion, that I would apprechiate would be, that you’d order a phone case at my Hub (but that might not be the cheapest way for a flexible sample).
I’ve been doing something similar recently and I find phone cases are popular. You do have to be careful with copyright as you can’t really sell trade marked prints. But you can give them away for free. I print off some small Minecraft pieces and the kids love them. I also resell Bare conductive kits and have my own solderless light up cards.
Rings are popular. Maze boxes are popular too. Skulls, ball-joint figures.
Sometime I also see things on thingiverse I like and ask the user directly if I can use it. Some say yes and others I offer a small per item commission.
That’s a really helpful response. Minecraft is always going to be a big (my son is addicted) but I am well aware of the copyright so would normally steer clear entirely.
I think that key-rings might be just the ticket for the day… gear bearings, skulls, hearts, letters.
That’s really secondary to getting a chance to evangelise about what I love though. If I can get a few people to go online and browse thingiverse or download 123D Catch and scan something that will be a good day. There is a huge untapped market out there. right now it seems like mostly enthusiasts interacting with other enthusiasts and we need to bridge the gap to consumers -albeit they will be mostly tech-savvy consumers at this point.
By the way I have some sample prints that I made for the chemistry lesson that I don’t need. For example an enlarged herringbone gear out of nylon (incredibly durable with a very smooth surface). Also I got some other composite prints. Regarding prints that you don’t produce to your customers needs but rather as giveaway and advertisement you might take a look at some little figurines for a keyring, there are minecraft items like the shovel, pickaxe and sword on thingiverse with holes to fit them on a key ring. A glow-in-the-dark widget like that would blow a child’s mind and they’d be bagging to have one also you can prepare those items to show the variety of colors that you can print with. -Marius
if you want me to send you the presentation please give me your email adress, skype nickname or any other way to send you the files. You could send me a private message on my hub, if you don’t want to publish your email in public threads.
If your son is fan of MineCraft, may I suggest a great kids-friendly CAD solution www.3dslash.net : efficient, fast & so fun ! available offline (for improved features and no worry about wifi during your show). If you need inspiration, please browse our Gallery and Education section for specific kids-curriculums. Our software offers STL import : so whenever you find something cool on Thingiverse or Youmagine, upload it, drag&drop it in our software and you can ask kids to customize it live!
A complete HowTo is also available on 3D Hubs Talk
Hope it will help & don’t hesitate to contact us for support and feedback
Sounds like a neat project! No problem with using that design as long as it fits with the CC Attribution Share-A-Like
Sometimes our designs are licensed with a CC Non-Commercial term (or other restrictions). We are normally fairly open to collaboration if people want to discuss commercial use with us.
We do a lot of events with give aways. Quick prints are always popular, like a small version of this Spanner:
- Check the third photo. We’ve given away close to 10,000 of those!!..
The spanners as colour samples look fantastic. Thanks for the idea. I have a couple more of my own now. I will likely do giveways too, not sure I can get it together enough to do any worthwhile sell-able items. I think I’ll treat it more like a promotion and exhibition than a sale.
Hello Greg
I am a master student in Brunel University. My major is product design. I am doing the survey about the 3D printing for my dissertation. I really need your help to finish the questionnaire, it just has 9 questions that will take you few minutes.
