I've given up how to search a forum specific question so I ask what do shops charge for 3D printing?

I've given up how to search a forum specific question so I ask "What do shops charge for 3D printing"?
I exed out the threads that made no sense and still get no returns.
I know my material costs and I know my time involved and electric cost. My unknown right now is maintenance cost. Any help on this?

my buddy charges ~$5 per print hour, that includes everything.

What material?

Industry rate that I'm aware of for metal 3d printing is approx ~$240/hr. I regularly work with parts that are valued over $40k per piece as they have days and days of printing time, and are typically hollow. 98% aluminum (various alloys) and some exotics like stainless, inconel, or titanium. Machining these as part of post processing to add machined tight tolerance features like bearing seat bores, threads, like castings of old

This is going to vary wildly as material options, part size, application, and post processing can be factored in. I know the company I work with typically has a pretty large maintenance staff, as the printers and their component duty cycles are still not understood and there are failures fairly frequently

I don't know that there is a good off the shelf answer to this, but knowing your costs is great

Bob E said:

I've given up how to search a forum specific question so I ask "What do shops charge for 3D printing"?
I exed out the threads that made no sense and still get no returns.
I know my material costs and I know my time involved and electric cost. My unknown right now is maintenance cost. Any help on this?

Click to expand...

Plastic printing is a low budget race to the bottom. You can upload a file at hubs.com and get an instant quote to compare.

Metal printing still carries a premium, especially the higher quality stuff.

I charge a flat $25 for a PLA print.

It's not something we make money off of. Print jobs here typically have a pretty high likelihood of turning into machined parts, or are part of an engineering project.