How to Make Money with a 3D Printer

In this video, I talk about the $15,000+ of revenue from a product I invented using my 3D printer! I share some of my experiences and insights developing my product, selling it, and some business lessons I learned along the way. Enjoy!
Follow me on twitter @sean_ong
If you have any specific questions for me or about my journey with this product, feel free to ask away in the comments section below!
Curious about my new HoloLens / Mixed Reality business that I started? Check out my website: www.onginnovations.com
Amazon links to some 3D printers:
Lulzbot Taz Mini: amzn.to/2zrN1A5
FlashForge Printer: amzn.to/2zs0WX2
MonoPrice Printer: amzn.to/2MZuZsv
DaVinci Jr Pro: amzn.to/2MZhJ7m
The 3D printer that I show in my video is the Lulzbot Taz 5. It's no longer available, but you can get the next version (Taz 6) on Amazon: amzn.to/2QWdcWo

[@chutsu_io]

A lot of the comments make good points about how one could easily mass produce what Sean is doing. But the key point of this video is about **iterating fast and putting your product out to the market to see if it will sell**, before you even think about creating moulds etc.

[@nappyman3366]

3d printers not about mass production its about prototyping. And this video about how to get your idea fast to the market,he learned his mistakes and he just shearing his experience with us. thanks for video Sean

[@seriousmaran9414]

You just add more printers and print multiple sets at the same time. You then go to a manufacturer. The real problem is other people stealing your idea.

[@jerrywhidby.]

Are his ideas hairy? Why do they need to be sheared?

[@pebble24]

People like Out of Darts use 3d printing as a full time job so it's not entirely valid. Still a good comment tho

[@chancewindham1718]

@@jerrywhidby. Yea i dont understand why anyone would be shearing their experience. It seems counterproductive.

[@iNickyB]

Title: How to make money with a 3d printer. End of video: “ yea I didn’t make any money. “

[@RizandroNapone]

He got experience though which was better than money.

[@roflepiclol]

Also gotta think, was his time factored into the costs - was he renumerated within that overheads figure? If so, then yes he did make money. The company had little to no profits, but it could be sustainable!

[@Mr_Pewpy_But-Whole]

10:15 great experience. this was not a fail. you came out not in the hole and you learned about the whole systematic process.

[@custer175]

Good video. It should be called "How to break even with a 3D printer" lol

[@murdock6450]

Lol

[@fongus6420]

printers are quite cheap nowadays. buy an artillery genius. they are like 250 euros now.

[@Sky_vulpes]

@@fongus6420 I just got my ender 3 for 130

[@individualone]

Great job..I've been on this mission for a year👍I have 2 Anet A8's they both have mods..one laser and the other a dremel for cnc routing

[@HeathLedgersChemist]

You have the design and a 3D printer (and a market), but are looking for volume? Use the printer to make your own moulds and cast your products instead. There's numerous resins available, and given a suitable one you could increase production by probably 2 orders of magnitude quite easily.

[@noneNone-mw1px]

What is the best 3d printer for business?

[@amitshukla1007]

@@noneNone-mw1px check makerbot.

[@ponnarajashekhar760]

Thank you bro , I watched for the first time anything on 3D printing and I' am amazed about your straight forward approach and ideas , people like you make this world lovely and liveable , thanks bro keep growing .👍 Love from India .🌸

[@jibp9197]

For anyone wondering, i would 100% recommend the Creality Ender 3 as your first 3d printer, its only around 200 usd and it works amazing with a big heated bed, it takes an hour or two to assemble and works perfect after. You dont need to be an expert to use one it is my first and only 3d printer and i love it and its been a great learning experience

[@derrickdale3865]

Mine's been running nonstop all month I love it.

[@tongkiparts4672]

I am so proud that Indonesia is mentioned on this video Sure, we do have lots creative carpenters and bamboo here in Indonesia

[@joefromravenna]

Sell 50 spirals, then the Chinese copy it and make them for 5 cents a piece.

[@noway8233]

To avoid that , put and apple logo..

[@stewedapple]

The bamboo was a great choice, the earth is drowning in plastic crap already.

[@brianfoster1504]

Worse, Amazon decides to make their version and puts you out of business.

[@PrimalKadmon]

@@stewedapple PLA is made out of starches and are not petrol products.

[@stewedapple]

@@PrimalKadmon firstly the final product would not be PLA if it went to market in an industrial way. And secondly PLA has a dirty secret, it doesn't just break down in a year after it's been thrown into landfill. www.filabot.com/blogs/news/57233604-the-misleading-biodegradability-of-pla

[@carlos_mann]

Dude, that was so awesome to watch. I don't know much about 3D printing but after watching this video, it makes me want to get one. Great video

[@WhoCaresWinsAgain]

You could make these spirals on a laser cutter with bottle/glass engraving jig and some standard diameter tubes...each one can be cut in less than 1 minute with .1mm accuracy. Never use a prototyping machine for production like a 3D printer. Good lesson but it took a while for you to learn it sadly...well done on the video hopefully it will help others not to make your mistakes. Always good to try though as people who don't make mistakes make nothing!

[@donmckee90]

Do you have any more brutal honesty that you care to share?...lol

[@edwardgiovannelli5191]

@@donmckee90 Nick makes a perfectly good point though. 3D printing, for the foreseeable future, is not a viable production method. Perhaps acceptable for a proof-of-concept application, or to make trinkets for a customer, but I can think of no jobs that ran through my shop in the last five years that could have been more economically produced by printing. This is the fallacy that draws a lot of people into turning their hobby into a business. The economics are completely different.

[@socrates_the_great6209]

True, the learning experience was the real profit of that journey. And he just gave most of it away for free.

[@madmaxofspokane1691]

Exactly! That's why I have a 50Watt laser with a cylinder attachment and a 3D printer for prototypes!

[@madmaxofspokane1691]

You can even engrave the cylinders before cutting the spirals.👽😎 NEVER CUT OR ENGRAVE ANY TYPE OF PLASTICS ACCEPT polycarbonate(plexiglas) WITH A LASER. The fumes can literally kill you.

[@TheRonellCross]

You also could have opened a Shopify store, integrated it with the Shapeways app, added your design to Shapeways, sold your product via print on demand. That takes care of the inventory and fulfillment. The price per product, now that's another story. Casting your own molds and pouring some resin is also an option. Shipbob, Shipmonk, or Amazon FBA can handle your fulfillment.

[@jenniferlambert3886]

The bamboo spiral definitely had the highest quality appearance.

[@FuntaSingh]

And then he started a KZbin channel..

[@Siddharth_Sharma7711]

😝😝

[@amrfwws4461]

Lol 😅

[@davidr.massey419]

Your real skill is a think-outside-the -box thought process. Thinking bigger a person could go with a 3DP-Platform WorkBench Series #400 as a basis for printing auto body components that are light thin cores for application of Carbon-Fiber Prepeg. Guys that can dream this will also have SolidWorks, Kreon magnetic based 3D Scanner, knowledge of composites, and the ability to access a banks pool of auto brake/oil change properties that you can get a deal on with only property taxes owed for a year till your on your feet. Great video!!

[@Nico-bn9qi]

You gave me inspirations

[@shwetagarwal8768]

Great very inspiring, and honest....pls do share Ur experience a in other endeavours.....loads of knowledge and wisdom is here in this video. It really helps to choose the right road...

[@JakobDam]

Great video! And it shows another important factor: Do the budget. It's fun to just push ahead and do the actual work - but having a product that's so popular that it sells out very fast, often shows that it's under priced. By bumping the price by 20%, you will often only discourage only a few customers - while having being able to keep those extra 20% as part of your profit. The mentioning of mold confused me a bit; as I know we can use our 3D printers to actually create a mold. The curing process is not exactly fast, but it's easy to make several molds so more items can cure faster as they cure at the same time - and in any case, it's faster than your average cartesian printer. Your unit price would then be calculated based on the whatever resin price you could manage, and the printing cost of each mold divided by the number of molds it can manage before being unusable. Another way to go would be cheap delta printers to make this spiral; I don't know the measurements of the spiral, but I'm guessing the smaller ones are within the capabilities of my small delta printer - which was on sale at Christmas 2019 at around $ 80. Then use an additional $ 30 for upgrades - but still, it's very fast and from then on, your immediate running costs would only be PLA, power and nozzles. Then I'd factor in that each printer would be good for, say, 1,000 spirals before several parts are being worn out. I'd sell the printers cheap for $ 30-40 or even less, then buy new. Which suggests a 3D printer unit price at around $ 40 per 1,000 spirals - or $ 0.04 per print. Add to this an quick estimate of $ 1 for PLA and $ 0.1 for power consumption per spiral, and we're talking around $ 1.14 cost price per spiral. However, failed prints are bound to happen, and to err on the side caution, I usually factor in an aggressive 1.5 price in expectation that 1 out of 3 prints will fail - which means $ 1.14 x 1.5 = $ 1.71 per spiral. However, the video is from 3rd quarter 2018 and we're now in 1st quarter of 2020, and printers are of course cheaper now than back then. The story told in the video must have taken place around 1st or 2nd quarter of 2018 (or that's my guess). But bamboo is definitely more fun - and the clostest we could get with a 3D printer would be wood filament. This would require a more expensive nozzle that can handle abrasive filaments, and for some printers, it'd require a better extruder as well. The 3D printer's cost would rise - but so would the potential selling price. After printing, I'd treat my wood filament prints with oils - so there's an additional cost there as well (and the time to do all this should be factored in as well). We would maybe be looking at $ 300 printers nowadays - or even $ 400. I have plans to sell 3D printed "business cards" (meaning prints in roughly the same size as a business card, but with added functionality such as phone stand and a plastic coin for shopping cards that require coins to be released). I have calculated my cost per print to be a total of around $2 which includes filament used, power draw, my time for setting up each design and slice it, printer maintenance (oils, nozzles etc.) and expected lifetime for my printer's tension belts and extruder and failed prints. I expect to sell them at around $8 which means a profit of 3/4 of the selling price. However, there's also the cost of marketing, budgeting and local taxes - and factoring these things in, my profit becomes something in the area of 1/10 of the selling price. That's ok - because in these calculations, I have covered all costs - including wage to myself for the time I use - so those 1/10 = $ 0.8 profit per print, is a true profit with no strings attached. I have actually already sold 12 prints, and that's without any other advertising than having shown it to people - so there's definitely an interest. My issue would also be manufacturing capacity - and as I offer to personalize each print with names/logos, I can't create a mold or outsource it. I can, however, buy more printers. :) And since we're at a point in time where an adequate printer for this purpose (the prints are 85mm x 55mm x 2 mm) only costs around $ 100-130, I can scale up my small business on the fly without large down payments.

[@Gallardo6669]

U r such a great inspiration for all of us !!! Thx.

[@StephenMWolfe]

I think you have something GREAT happening! I just started using a 3D printing about 2 weeks ago and I really like it! I think when I become more proficient in making objects, I can start contracting my services to hospitals and physical therapies building one of kind devices for their clientale!

[@mlungisinsele1520]

What a selfless contribution. Thnx bro totally informative and inspirational.

[@roadstar499]

i think with the right invention you can most definitely make good or great money with a 3d printing business...

[@CampCarverAVTI]

Thank you sir what an excellent and very informative video!!! You provide just what I was looking for and then some! Great job

[@xbing61]

I agree with Nick laser cutting is the way to go with your production problem. 50watt laser cost less than $2000

[@Level_Up_Nation]

I've been scanning car parts and doing them in Carbon Fiber for awhile, big market for cars that do not have a aftermarket following.

[@eddiegrogen7771]

What material do you use for carbon fiber with 3d printer

[@jonathancolon3673]

What scanner do you use?

[@JoshKaufmanstuff]

@ 10:20 "hololens mixed reality business" I think most of us would be more interested to see a video on that Sean! But the details of your small business also seem interesting.

[@staudnert]

Josh Kaufman oo

[@kennyl7209]

upvote this =)

[@TheAntonbacon]

Increases your price demand will slow down. You can keep up.

[@wholesalergal7854]

If you find your nich or target that's a start for some

[@smartcatcollarproject5699]

And add some engravings or color motives to make them more attractive, maybe... ? same for the Indonesian spiral in bamboo, they are classy already.

[@retiredshitposter1062]

profit is theft! full communism now!!

[@taffetamocha4130]

I’m the only person in my middle school with a 3D printer and people ask me for stuff for 5-20$ depending on the size

[@lyteyearz5810]

My son says the same thing

[@westernmontages7805]

I do that

[@ChickensAndGardening]

Good entrepreneur! My daughter's classmate is doing that as well... 8th grader.

[@nicorobin7666]

Bless you

[@voldy3565]

Yeah, and the amount of filament you spend for a $5 print costs you $20.

[@Bion479]

Really great video. I feel really inspired, thanks

[@ST-A3]

The bottom line is you enyoy yourself with your genius ideas. Making money at the end probably someone else and surely the Chinese. Few years ago, I made myseft a weeds puller using a cordless drill, not long latter I saw them at almost every hardware stores, but I am happy my thoughts were useful to many people. Thank you , and I should learn more about 3D printer. At the moment I started to get interested in desktop CNC routers and probably I will get one soon. Thanks for sharing.

[@heroknaderi]

Very incredible I love how these work I’m curious if 3D printers need a dedicated circuit.

[@mousetrappingvideos]

I feel like I need to learn 3d first.

[@ELValenin]

Not hard, look up on KZbin for fusion 360 tutorials, I'm 12 yrs old and can do anything if I watch a tutorial on it before. Definitely not hard.

[@ak_fx]

@@ELValenin same

[@ak_fx]

@@ELValenin and over time you don't even need tutorials

[@ELValenin]

@@ak_fx yep

[@stickboyfpv4742]

Thank you for this my friend! Youre an awesome guy!

[@MrOscar5690]

“How to break even” Lol. Buy more 3D printers??

[@JoanD999]

Thanks for sharing your experience and hope.... I can use all I can get... never too old to set new goals☝🏽🙌🏼☝🏽👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@tylerprince9494]

You should get a manual injection mold for small stuff like this after you've seen how well it sells.

[@andyfleege8504]

Dude, thank you for sharing your experience. Insight and experience is priceless. I hope you get to go where you're headed. Thanks.

[@HSRMF]

روعة ، شكرا على المعلومة .. so cool , try to print it without support by printing two pieces inside each other ..

[@chrcai]

3D Printing is basically used for prototyping. If I want to sell a product and produce a bigger mass of it, I would use the printer for the first drafts - and then consider to use the print for creating a negative form - and then, you could just mold the part out from it... this would allow a much faster production and - lower costs....

[@sevendesign1805]

Why not create a slicone mold and reproduce the parts from cast urethane? You need to make a tool to capture the economy of scale.

[@rons3634]

Lesson: Even really good ideas don't always pan out. It can be worth it, though, if you learn something from it that you can apply to a future project or idea.

[@vyepez500]

What I learn is that you can 3d print the prototype in this example, the spiral, and make a silicon mold out of it, then cast it into plastic. It's cheaper to manufacture and faster to fulfill the orders. Cheers.

[@shridevishah-px5rp]

Enjoyed your video and look forward to your video explaining the next level of jobs that could be done by a 3D Printer.

[@da_cat]

This video is like a large commercial for that website

[@JonnyMidnight870]

Thanks for the business tip. I learned that getting it out there as fast as possible is essential plus learning from feedback makes and mistakes allows you to see what needs to be done at a blink. Thanks man!

[@webcompanion]

3d print for yourself and don't expect profit is the lesson learned here.

[@socrates_the_great6209]

Wow, your story is interesting. I just ordered my first 3D printer because the items it can create are so cool! And I was thinking "they are so cool! why would others not want to own them too!" So my dream is first to earn home the price of the 3D printer and then begin making real money. Scale up with a second printer and so on. 3D printing is so cool! It is freedom! I want later on a 3D printer that can print metal and gold man! Then we can talk how to make millions! Jewelry would be where the gold is at imo. Or at least the top of the 3D printing moneymaking pie.

[@SohaNoha]

Your voice is awakening 🥺

[@frilink]

One Question: How reliable are the 3D printers when it comes to mass producing stuff? Will it breakdown a lot

[@hanzofactory]

3D prints are not as durable as other methods, but can still last a while depending on the model and quality of print. But mass production is not ideal mainly because unless you have multiple printers, it is going to be very time inefficient. 3D printing is amazing at getting a prototype, and seeing if there is a proper demand for your product.

[@ProtonOne11]

It depends on the printer! Did you buy the cheapest crappile of a printer on the market? Expect more breakdowns... Some printers have at least some failure detection features (thermal runaway, filament runout, filament feedrate,...) and you can of course add or even make more. If you are smart enough, you could even use video cameras to analyze the print result automatically and detect more issues... And if you invest in industrial 3D printers, you usually have a service agreement with the manufacturer, so they will be more involved in fast repairs if there are issues with the machine. Personally i would say, if your production volume is so high that you have to worry about machine breakdowns, 3D printing is probably not the right method of manufacture anymore.

[@jorgefelixgarcia4978]

I feel really inspired, thanks! KEEP ON DOING!!

[@dwighthuth6656]

All you need is a turner where one end of the tube goes in the turner and the other end goes into a rotater. You set the speed of the turned and the resistence of the rotater and then cut away.

[@stephenspencer2121]

I have learned that it doesn’t matter if someone already has a product out like yours. Bc one person will like the first type product an another person will like another product. That’s what’s cool bc not everyone will like the same one.

[@PaulSmith-pf2uq]

How do you design the product?

[@sandragon2714]

Thank you. You described your journey very well. Good luck in the future.

[@ronniechowdhury3082]

Interesting but it's easier to make money if you makes something that has some intellectual property behind it. For example a mechanical item is often less printing, and sells for significantly higher than the material cost. (Eg curtain open close mechanism $30) Add electronics and it's even more(eg curtain open close mechanism which tracks the sun and connects to power source $500+)

[@nitebook]

Interesting. I've thought about combing electronics into 3D prints. Do you know anybody that is currently doing it and making money of it?

[@momoneyinpocket4935]

This was a fabulous design

[@kaytee7607]

The music is killing me. You already have an energetic voice, so much that the generic free music is unnecessary. :]

[@jman4715]

Great story. Really explains the pros and cons

[@leanmixture]

Honest, informative and inspiring. Subed

[@kevinerickson2595]

I just bought a 3-D printer and I’m going through this exact problem right now

[@RizandroNapone]

Thanks for making the video man. Quite inspiring and educational for startup entrepreneurs and hobby 3d printers

[@smilncynic]

Very enjoyable, thanks!

[@jbsugarpop]

Thank you for your honesty and look forward to many more vids from you.

[@yagzefedemirel3934]

KZbin reads my mind and i am freaking out.

[@lefteriskostoulas]

Great video. One question though. In case someone does not own a 3D printer and he sends his designs to someone else to print them , how can he be sure that his designs are not going to be stolen or copied? Thank you for your video

[@jacintodedios9191]

Hey ... don't give up man. Keep going. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@lizarrrdbeth]

Sean.. Thanks. I'm looking into starting a home based business. You covered some if not all of my questions.

[@Alan-sj2zy]

Nice video, have a three part 6 gang mold made in three different sizes use the small for napkins.

[@seabelothari5663]

"40% recycled wood" so sneaky, I love it

[@FilamentFriday]

Do you share the 3D file anywhere so we can print one?

[@akarna69]

"One" 🤔🤣😂

[@sonda03]

AkarnaPrime 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

[@berkay102]

Nice try m8 nice try

[@WillofNewZealand]

Lets hope if its licenced people pay the royalties.

[@RCpropo]

Thanks Sean for your inspiring message !

[@MathieuB05]

Thanks for sharing your experience

[@levilais1063]

I love the cinematic music. I got sad there at the 10 minute mark when we found out the profits were low and the music quieted down lol. I like the surprise HoloLens twist right after that - and the music picking up. Super fun, informative, and entertaining.

[@SeanOng]

Lol! I don't think that was intentional, but you're right that it does add some good cinematic effects :) perhaps it was subconscious

[@mbulelozulu7963]

@@SeanOng very inspiring I'm based in South Africa we have a car parts shortage Do u think I can make money producing car parts for mechanics

[@mrebholz]

Mbulelo Zulu Inform yourself about the different types of filament and their thermal and physical capabilities. Non heat critical parts that are rare, expensive and printable (size wise) - Why not ❓

[@tomzell3666]

Wow, your story inspires. But mainly, your 100% honesty on your journey. Well done. Thank you

[@johnvonachen1672]

I'm starting out doing this. I figure to sell physical things you should take the number of hours it takes to print something and multiply time 2, or some constant. With PLA you can get Jessie PLA for $25 a kilo which means your printer can make for instance at least $1 per hour. That doesn't sound like much but if you have a really reliable printer, as I do, it can make $1 an hour every hour of the day with minimal babysitting. So long as people are willing to pay for it, like for instance some specialized thing that's mechanical, even if you don't have any pending orders you can be building an inventory. $24 a day, $168 a week, $8,736 a year. But that's for just 1 printer. What if you had 10 printers? $87,360 per year. And if you made something that people were willing to pay more than hours x 2? That's what I have in mind. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[@nirjharbhatnaagar1982]

Thank you for sharing your story.

[@rokrjock33]

This is something that came to mind when i first heard of 3d printing and felt it was a god send for small entrepreneurs and even for big businesses because even they need prototyping and make improvements till they arrive at the final product and this speeds it up by leaps and bounds maybe like the jet engines speeded up aircraft and they breached the sound barrier. In fact there is lots of scope for such things in countries like India. Pakistan, Bangladesh etc. the reason for that is that there is no dearth of people here as in manpowerand with so many people there have to a lot of good ideas too but the prohibitive cost of making a product traditionally makes it impossible for the people to be entreprenuers, The established players can benefit because the trial and error of product design and development happens fast and thry can perfect the product by refining it on thr 3d printer it self and then make the master for making moulds etc,

[@chrcai]

3d Printing for companies is basically available since the 80's and being used for prototyping for a long time ;) It is only available for "private use" - or at least, printers around 1000 USD / EUR are available for about 10 years now. Business machines are also usually much bigger... not this ~20x20x20 cm print space...

[@sfcoawol6273]

another option is you can 3d your molds for injection molding. they don't have to be machined the down side is the mold just don't last as long

[@Ashik_Coversun]

hey i would like to buy that product. curtain holder. pls share link

[@zumbaconrobertosouthwestde1577]

You're an inspiration! Thank you 🤗

[@clayhuston3295]

Great story. I really think 3D printing is viable for mass production of consumer products like this, as long as the price point is right. But yeah it’s easy to steal ideas so branding is essential.

[@collinchapin805]

Very encouraging video. Thanks for making it

[@ars1364]

Good luck out there

[@CJBERMUDEZ23]

awesome video. you shine a light for the little guys like us. did you worry about patents at all? how did you negotiate outsourcing?

[@WillofNewZealand]

The community should report the post on this page saying to ignore licenced things royalties.

[@MrOwnerxD]

i love your story and this video is inspiring me so much

[@sunny37845]

Thank you for your knowledge sir

[@janetbarnes9892]

Great video! ❤

[@sam6124023]

Sean thank u so much for the eye opener !!!

[@wildsilva1952]

Have you thought of making them like how they make springs? use strips of plastic heated at the right temp. and form them on a 50mm pipe.

[@Bisher1967]

Thanks very much for the video, and special thanks for the honesty.

[@sourcekings]

Great video I'm debating jumping in myself

[@bhushansonawane9000]

Which are the different products we can manufacture with 3D printer for business point of view?

[@tkseries6442]

Good idea, great job Sean! Go ahead

[@gotpancit]

Awesome story!

[@etoile6216]

Inspiraling but that’s not a spiral it’s a helix

[@breadandbutter644]

Just like DNA

[@spacethril]

Great experience sharing

[@MrPascalchito]

I have to say, what a inspirational story, I love it, and thank you for sharing. You left me wondering if I should start designing and 3D random things 🤔🤔. I I have both Autodesk Inventor and Solid works. Just out of curiosity, did you get a patent for the spiral curtains holder??. Please don't stop designing ,3D printing and selling. Also keep sharing please. You're inspiring many people on here.