5 Tips to Make Your 3D Prints Cheaper
Receiving a high-quality print for an affordable price is the number one concern for most 3D printing enthusiasts. So it’s about time to reveal some simple tricks that can reduce your 3D printing costs enormously.
Trick #1: Compare 3D Printing Materials
Each material comes with its own price. That’s why comparing prices between (similar) materials makes sense. For example, you might want to print a prototype in the cheapest plastic material, or you may want a material suited for a particular purpose such as our flexible Rubber-like material. If you are not dead-set on a certain material, then you should start by comparing the prices of similar materials and finishes.
The best way to compare material prices is a two-step approach:
Visit our material pages and compare different materials for their characteristics, production time and design rules.
Upload your 3D file here . You will see the price of your 3D print in 100+ materials and finishes immediately. This means that you can now compare which material is the cheapest for your item.
Standard Resin , for example, offers great quality at a great price. Standard Resin has a “ get this part with support ” option which means that the part needs less manual labor and thus will be cheaper. And what’s best: in terms of quality, resolution, smoothness, and details, Standard Resin is definitely comparable to our other resins.
Trick #2: Play with Size to Make Your 3D Print Cheaper
In the world of 3D printing, the size of your print makes a difference. Keep in mind that decreasing its size means that it will be decreased in all three dimensions. And as a result, your print will become cheaper!
Let’s take a look at an example: our cute little piguin costs €170.60 at the height of 15 cm. Now, if we reduce the height of this piguin by 50%, the smaller 3D print will not cost half of the original price as you might think but around one-eighth of it (€23.39)! That’s because your print will be reduced in length, width, and height at the same time. The imaginary box around our original piguin could be filled not only by two but by eight smaller piguins.
Luckily, finding the best price for each size of your model is easy with our scaling tool. Once you have uploaded your model , you can simply up- or downscale your model according to your needs. The price for each material will automatically be updated.
Conclusion: Play around with the size of your 3D print, scale it down whenever possible, and save some money while you’re at it. Our scaling tool will become your best friend!
Trick #3: Attach 3D Prints to Non-Printed Parts
For someone who works for a 3D printing company, this is strange to say, but not everything needs to be 3D printed. 3D printing works its magic for sophisticated designs, customized models, or low-volume orders. This means that some parts of your...
