Okay folks,
First sorry for the long silence been dealing with both personal and family illness as well as launching new products and moving a website and web-store. So I ask for a bit of forgiveness for not posting a blog spot for these last months.
Going back over my notes of discussions and learning from others as well as what studying and learning I have done on my own a question keeps popping up among small business and other beginner 3D printer users. That question is:
Should you build or buy your first printer? Why and to what advantages? Are the cheap ones really worth it?
Over the next couple of blogs that I will be publishing over the next few weeks we will look at the why's and wherefores of that question.
The first and most important answer to that question is a word that annoys the heck out of the person asking it. That answer is "Depends". Why is it a valid answer and honestly I consider it to be the most honest answer.
What I want folks to do is get out a notebook for this part and start writing down some points. These are very important in how you can evaluate which choice is best for you. I am doing this to help folks and pay a bit of the help I got forward. Anyone who wants to help support me in this blog and hopefully future VBlogs on these subjects can do so either via our Paypal donate button or via subscription once we decide which one we are going to use (suggestions welcome).
Okay, first point in the notebook is Hobby or business? The hobby MIGHT become business but a business model from the start is going to look at things a bit differently.
On the hobby side what materials do you want to work with and what safety margins can you reasonably keep in the area you will be having you printing equipment? Yes that should be before you even start looking at printers and costs. The reasonable safe space that you have for running the printer(s)
On the business side who are your target markets and what types of printing are they lacking and what experience do you have or can you get to be able to fill that market need? Which then comes to the second question. Do you have either the funds or the time/equipment to either buy or build your printers? What is your short term goals with them? Also the wonderful world of safety comes into play here as well.
Okay this is going to be it for today. Sit down and think on what i wrote above and then look at how you can apply it to your work area and goals. I will be going into a bit more with another blog (hopefully today) that will look at the next steps before deciding which road you are going to go down and why.
Until then stay safe and be creative.
