I know Shapeways announced there was going to be a pricing change last month, but the spreadsheet generator came out the other day and this is ridiculous: Most of my models' printing costs are going to double on the 4th. I'm sure this applies to all the other part stores as well. Sure, Shapeways prints weren't exactly cheap to begin with, but this goes well beyond viability IMO. If I'm not willing to pay these prices for my own models, surely no one else will either? Where do we go from here?
I already had never ordered from them because they seemed kind of expensive. I kept hoping over time it would become more affordable. I guess not.
Guess I'm never using Shapeways again. I haven't used them much in the past because they were already too pricey, but definitely not now. Although I do have one model that I've been having the damndest time trying to print on my printer so maybe I should hurry up and print it before the 4th. There are other 3d printing services, aren't there? Are any of them as good as Shapeways and/or cheaper?
Nooooo. I've been using them for years. Stuff is already expensive. Coupled with their decision to retire the high definition acrylate material, maybe I'll have to look elsewhere.
Okay, THAT'S STUPIDLY CRAZY!!! Pretty sure they just lost over half their users.... Myself included...
Their basic material is rubbish, and the higher end stuff is slightly better rubbish. Both are painfully obvious next to molded plastic and stand out way too much to be viable for anything but inner workings. I actually ordered some guns from @Hot Shot. a while back and, while the designs are top notch, they were hampered by the crappy materials. I even used the FUD and it just wouldn't clean up even with smoothing filler and lots of sanding. I've also gotten parts from someone using a good quality home printer and it blows Shapeways out of the water, so I stopped using Shapeways long ago.
Depends on the quality of the printer. Most of the affordable consumer printers can't hold a candle to Shapeways. You can get a resin printer that will do a better job but the standard resin is pretty brittle. There's more durable resins but they're pretty pricey. I don't have a resin printer but I have friends who have one and I find that it isn't as precise as you'd want it to be for making custom toys - it's as if the price were ever so slightly swollen. We're talking 100 microns but that's enough to keep tight fitting parts from working. That may be solvable or it might just be that their printers aren't good enough but, as I said, I don't own one (my printer is fdm) so I've never had a chance to tinker with it. Despite what @Yaujta says, Shapeways' fud and especially their fed are actually pretty hard to beat. Their high definition acrylate was pretty damn good too but for some reason they decided to discontinue it. Their standard plastic is trash though - it's made from a powder that's been sintered together by a laser but it doesn't get completely melted so that powdery texture permeates the entire piece and can't be sanded off.
Just stumbled upon this thread, and I was wondering if anyone else was worried about the SW price increase. It was pretty brutal, and has me feeling like it's pretty pointless to put any new designs up for sale through them as they were already pricey to begin with after shipping. I'm playing around with the idea of doing small batch runs of designs to sell directly; obviously won't beat SW's higher quality plastic options, but at the same time, no one will pay those prices for accessory pieces created by home designers/hobbyists. I'm currently printing on an FDM using Esun PLA+ (aka Pro) filament which is a much higher strength/temp resistant version than standard PLA, and I feel it's plenty strong for making a sellable product. Of course, buyers will have to decide if they're willing to do some of the post processing themselves once they receive it, but then again, a lot of the affordable plastics on Shapeways also require additional sanding and painting anyways.
I don't own a 3D printer and I can't really afford one. I rely on printing services to print my designs. Hopefully the backlash from consumers will be enough that they'll be forced to lower the prices. I hope.
I've ordered 1 time from them but if prices go well beyond affordable then i might not ever order again. This to me is a TRUE shame that prices are at this price level.
