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3D printing services?


Beatnik cryptek

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3d printers are only just more expensive than what you may end up spending populating a table with terrain. I've heard a lot of positive support for the Ender 3.

 

Love that guy's terrain, it will definitely be what I start printing whenever I can finally get a printer myself.

Edited by NTaW
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Well well well.

 

There's a list of distributors for 3d Alien Worlds prints from different countries on the site you linked, there's Shapeways, and there's also very likely companies/people with machines locally willing to print files provided (Google will help with that). The issue I found with this is that most companies are geared toward professional and industrial applications and as such use top quality printers and make quantities in excess of what is necessary (or affordable) for wargames terrain. You can also look into Facebook groups or other local classifieds on the topic and see if there's an enthusiast near to you that you can work with.

 

Good luck with your search.

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I’ll second looking locally. I have access to a good quality printer, but if I didn’t, I know a guy in my local store that has one that I could ask.

 

If he’s nice, your local printer aficionado may not charge you much more than filament cost, plus some for printing time. If they do commission printing as a part/full time job, expect it to cost more.

 

That said, do what you can to make things easy on your printer person, and yourself. Offer to remove supports and sand/file it down yourself. Orient parts so that they are flat and won’t require as much support.

If the printer messes up and it takes longer to get your product, don’t complain, or be a jerk about it. Understand that printers, like any tech, have the potential to break or do something stupid.

Realize they don’t have to do this, and if you complain, they may not agree to print for you again in the future.

 

Basically, follow Wheaton’s law and you should be good. Good luck! :tu:

Edited by Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch
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The reprap project is dedicated to building (open source) 3d printers. Their ultimate goal is to build a 3d printer which can print copies of itself.

While "building your own printer" is not a project you can just finish on a single weekend or two, the rep rap forums have a "job shop" subforum where enthusiasts offer various 3d printing services in various qualities and for various prices. If you can find someone close to you, you may be able to meet IRL and do business in person.

 

If you don't want to trust random people on the net, you could look around your town/city for 3d printing service companies. They must be registered with the town to do business, so there must be some way to find out what companies are around. Looking on google maps or some other map service which is listing companies could help too.

 

Your best bet is probably visiting the local hackerspace/makerspace and asking around for people doing 3d printing and/or peoples experiences with/reviews of 3d printing services.

 

 

If all else fails - I mostly heard good things about shapeways (from people at my uni), but shapeways is on the pricey end of the spectrum.

Edited by Exilyth
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