Does 3D Printing Save Money?

[trickg]

I thought I'd post a question to the forum brain trust about 3D printing when it comes to reloading and shooting related accessories. My question is basically one of whether or not it winds up saving any money, or if it's something to do because you enjoy doing it. To clarify, I have zero interest in printing lowers or frames - I'm talking about printing little doohickeys for things that you'd be able to find online, but might be more expensive than you thought they'd be.

Case in point, I was looking for an AR receiver cleaning link today. There are a few out there, but I was surprised at how much they cost for no more than they are, and I found a 3D file for one online. I also found a 3D file for an AR bore guide, and a myriad of other shooting and reloading related things - tool head stands for Dillons, little tabs for Dillon locator buttons, etc.

I'm not opposed to spending money on the ability to do something myself if I think that the investment will pay off, or at least allow me to do more for my money - that's why I invested in reloading equipment. I'm just curious if the juice has been worth the squeeze for those of you who have invested in a 3D printer.

This is a pic of a AR cleaning link I was talking about.

 

[dannyp]

3d printing is a hobby in itself , you will "save " money on thing-a ma- bobs , but you have to be willing to invest time and money in the printer to get it running right . think of it as a p-80 with a patmos upper .

 

[ToolAA]

In my case it’s paid for itself many many times over. My very first need was back in 2015 we had a part for a machine at work which broke. It actually several buttons on the CNC control panel. The Italian company who made the machine didn’t sell the small plastic parts. The only option was to buy a remanufactured controller for something like $8000 then you would get a up to a $3000 credit when I sent in my broken one. Or I could just send my broken one to Italy for repair and wait 8-12 weeks. Not an option. So I had modeled some simple plastic control switch knobs and had them printed on Shapeways. I think it had cost me about $50 at the time. The parts came in within a week or so and I was back up and running. At that time 2016 I decided to spend $900 and build my first printer from a kit. Since then I’ve had numerous functional items I’ve printed and used to this day. Some notable ones were also for work. We made a huge mistake on some stone parts that had cutouts for electrical outlets. My guys overcut the holes for the boxes. I worked with the electrician and printed custom spacers for the box
Inserts and saved probably $2500 in material and labor. I’ve also printed tons small parts for home over the past 6 yrs. So for me it’s saved me money for sure.

 

[Melnic]

Its a little bit of both. Over the years I have had my son design and print small doo dads that I needed. Sometimes he/I was able to find a model, sometimes I had him design stuff for me. It built experience for him. Had him design and build some stuff for the boat only for it to be available commercially a year later. If something is $5-$15 on Amazon,I'm likely to buy the injected molded part instead of 3D printing it, however many cases, I need something custom. I have taken to cadd myself (I'm an Electrical Engineer by education) so that part is a hobby. I do have 2 printers at work and we use it to save time, not $. It costs me more in work time to print vs. contract it out, but I save calendar time (days) having my Junior Engineer print out his own stuff to test fit. We 3D print ZERO items for production. We may prototype something for field trials but they are always replaced by thermo formed, machined or other metal parts.
I printed a 223 reloading tray a few weeks back. Maybe replaced a $15 tray. It cost me $4.50 in plastic plus my time. not really much of a true savings. I could have spend the time searching, downloading, setting up and printing by instead spending time reloading a box or two of 9mm.

I know a guy who has 3 of them and prints adapter parts to make new parts fit old vending machines. Like ToolAA, it can save you $$ if used wisely at a work environment.

 

[guzma393]

Do you have CAD experience and currently have access to CAD softwares? If so, you'll go far with 3d printing as it complements it so. If it's the latter, I recommend downloading fusion 360, hit up some tutorials, and get some simple things modelled before getting a printer. Otherwise, you'll be limited to printing what is 'free domain' online.

Im not saying to get so technical to literally model guns, but there are free CAD files out there (grabcad) where there are some incredibly gifted people that literally model scaled replicas and give the files away. In my case, I downloaded and imported a whole k31 that I can build parts directly in to check interfacing (left hand operating project, still in the works):

 

[babalou]

3d printing is a hobby in itself , you will "save " money on thing-a ma- bobs , but you have to be willing to invest time and money in the printer to get it running right . think of it as a p-80 with a patmos upper .

curses to you and the patmos!!! I got one of those complete uppers and it was poo poo tray platter. lol My man Outrider had to help fix the myriad of issues. He told he he has had other people that have purchased them and he had to fix.

 

[jrumann59]

It saves time and money if you have the mind for it. Example my wife bought some solar lights that hang in trees in my yard well the solar panel has a stake to mount in the ground but the cord is short, I ended up making a bracket that fits the spline of the solar panel bracket and clamps around a tree limb. I could have made it with some rigged things from home depot but it would have been more trial and error and took longer that it did to design and print.

 

[dannyp]

yeah , some of them are a challenge , i was pretty lucky in that all i needed to do was smooth the rails and work it in . i racked the slide at least 100 times before trying to cycle ammo .

 

[Russ D]

Been having fun working with my son to make some of these loading blocks. There are some really good pre-made files out there that are easy to customize. I’ve paid for the printer 3 times over just on things like reloading blocks and organizers.