3D printing firms

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kimi_8
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3D printing firms

Post by kimi_8 »

I need the following printing on this link

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4278788

I need 4 of the lower M8 and 4 of the upper M8's printing. I'm clueless where this is concerned and online quoting seems rather expensive for the pieces i need (£100 inc shipping apparently)

does anyone know of or can provide a link for a 3D printing company, or better yet, if any of you kind folks have a printer, can you work out how much it would cost to print and ship to Manchester UK?

Much appreciated :)
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Re: 3D printing firms

Post by kimi_8 »

edit: I've just tried Shapeways, they're even more expensive :(
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Re: 3D printing firms

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Re: 3D printing firms

Post by MoFo »

Those parts are designed to be printed with a consumer-grade filament printer. Unfortunately, most 3D printing businesses are moving up-market with higher-end machines, for commercial clients. Looks like Shapeways don't even do FDM any more. So the prices you're getting may not be out of whack for the printer and material... you just don't need it done on anything so sophisticated. If their website talks about material jetting or sintering or powder, it's not what you want.

I'm nowhere near Manchester, but off the top of my head and from a quick Googling...
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprintmything/ connects users around the world. Should be a cheap option, but only if someone offers to do it.
https://www.mmu.ac.uk/isds/support/print/3d/ may be more expensive, but are local. You want extrusion printing.
https://manchester3d.business.site/ seem to do FDM printing.
https://www.hacman.org.uk/ hackerspace that has 3D printers. You'll need to be a member to use it and I have no idea how they price stuff, but it could be cheapest just to sign up for a month and use their machine.
https://www.prusaprinters.org/world shows people with one popular brand of FDM printer. You can use the menu to find people who will print stuff for you on demand. There are a bunch of people in/around Manchester, so you should be able to find someone nearby.

Lastly, when you're looking for a quote, for those specific parts, I'd suggest printing it in either ABS, PETG or nylon. Nylon is probably your best bet as it's very strong and resilient, but is less common and more expensive. PETG would be the second choice - again, pretty strong, pretty resilient, will work well for those prints. ABS is okay, but doesn't stick together as well so it's less suited to practical objects. Avoid PLA; it's the most common material, but it deforms under tension, so won't clamp very well when you screw the parts together.
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Re: 3D printing firms

Post by steinietrabi »

Sent a PM ;)
Greetings Thomas
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