I have been 3D printing for quite a few years now. I use it to help design prototypes and make a lot of fixtures. I need to hold things for laser engraving and have made a lot of jigs to hold parts at whatever angle and position I need. Just recently actually printed a set of vise jaws to hold an odd shaped part on the mill for a secondary operation on a 3D printed part, worked out well.
As for cost, you can figure roughly $20 a roll for good PLA, that¡¯s a 1kg roll, and your slicing software will tell you how many grams of plastic it will take to print. Electricity to print is something in the range of $1 to $2 a day, depending upon how hot you run your bed and nozzle temps.
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I have been thinking of getting a 3D printer for many years. I finally took the plunge about a week ago. Where ever I look I now see opportunities for 3D printed objects. There are also plenty of business opportunities, although I won't look into these before I've learned much more. Thought I might inspire some people here who are thinking about getting one. The coolest thing to me is that the things I create can be tailored exactly for my needs.
I have queued a bunch of print jobs with sandpaper holders to the printer. Soon I'll have complete order in my sand paper piles. The measurements for these boxes are made to exactly match my Systainer drawers. 3D printing takes very long time, these boxes prints in about 7 hours each. But the important thing is that they'll print completely unattended. I print at night and prepare the printer for the next job in the morning.
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