3d hubs alternative?

[sundberg84]

3dhubs.com seems to be re-worked, and its not possible to select a local hub anymore. Price is about +100% for a small enclosure now.

Anyone knows any alternative? Local 3dprinting, 1-2 small prints for a good price.
Or anyone willing to print some small things in Sweden for some paypal money?

[bjacobse]

Sweden is fairly long country (1,574 km) I'm located in Malmö region, so depending where you are hiding you are welcome to drop by (not sure how well PostNord are these days, but I can try to post) (I'm not near my printer the next couple of days, but in the weekend I'm able to print)
I have so far only printed with PLA. and for now I wouldn't yet upgrade to print with ABS, so be aware that PLA isn't UV and weather proof

I have just gotten my 3d printer on youtube, just a boring test video below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwmXvqW2mRM

Sweden facts:
https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Sweden-LOCATION-SIZE-AND-EXTENT.html

[bjacobse]

@sundberg84
I never heard from you?

[sundberg84]

@bjacobse - oh! SORRY!! I missed your message! I appreciate your offer, really do - but this ended up in me buying myself a early x-mas present (Creality Ender 3). I will be able to print myself in a couple of weeks i hope.

[bjacobse]

@sundberg84 said in 3d hubs alternative?:

You will love yr 3D printer (Mine is a Zonestar 802QR2), even my daughter 6yo loves it when I print her some Barbie chair or other toy
I can strongly recommend when printing with PLA, to use an old 3mm window/glass frame attached to headbed with clips, spray hairspray on top of glass so the first layer of melted PLA will "stick" well to your bed

[sundberg84]

@bjacobse - thanks! Much to learn :) O will try your tips for sure.
Barbie/horses was a request from my daugher as well when i told her, hehe... not sure if its the first print but I guess i have to buy some PLA qiuckly.

[frede8]

I used (as in provided a service) 3d hubs for a year or so… maybe 2 years ago? The biggest problem were people giving me data that was in no way 3d printable. I just did it for fun, but based on my time involved,… it just wasn’t worth the money. I’d have hours of back and forth with people trying to explain why they had bad data.

So, to answer your question, there almost needs to be an intermediate step where somehow… the client is made aware of the 3d printability of their data. Maybe that alone is worth an hourly rate for “data inspection, and cleanup” ? Having that as a listed step that costs cash money preps the client for that expectation . Otherwise, most people figured they could just throw any 3d data over the fence and the magical 3d printer would do the rest.
Also, their model for figuring out how much a print would cost was wayyy to generalized. Individual hubs need much finer custom control over those knobs.

I’m happy to print your stuff, but I have little interest in redesigning it to be printable, unless they want to pay a premium for that service.

[NeverDie]

@sundberg84 This answer isn't exactly what you asked for (namely, local printing for a good price), but.... to the degree you might be ordering your own custom PCB's, I notice that JLCPCB now offers a 3D printing service, so maybe you could combine orders and save on shipping.

I like the possibility that it opens up: very often people want a custom 3d printed enclosure to go with their custom PCB, so this might make it possible to get both at the same supplier.

[ejlane]

@NeverDie I tried to combine shipping and try out their 3d service a few weeks ago, and they said something like 'incompatible' when trying to combine the shipping. They would only ship the 3d print separately from the boards. And I was only trying to print some little pin holders, so it wasn't like it was something large and unwieldy, or even really delicate. Just a basic small part.

So anyway, don't count on being able to combine shipping. I ended up not having them do it, so I don't know how their 3d print quality is. I might still end up trying it just to see, but I have my own printer, so it's not a rush.

[NeverDie]

@ejlane Good to know. Well, maybe one of the alternatives will combine shipping. PCBWay has a 3d printing service:
https://www.pcbway.com/rapid-prototyping/3d-printing/
but I've no clue whether they will combine shipping. I haven't even scratched the surface looking, but that business is so competitive that surely at least one of them would combine shipping?

I notice that Digikey has a 3d printing service with free shipping within the US:
https://www.digikey.com/en/resources/jabil-3d-parts-printer?utm_adgroup=General&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=EN_DK%2BSupplier_Jabil 3D Printing&utm_term=digital 3d printing&utm_content=General&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8t2y_4Hg9wIVaQaICR3NHwqwEAAYAyAAEgJgIvD_BwE
Since it's free shipping, combined shipping becomes irrelevant. Unfortunately, that doesn't help the OP, who is in Sweden or Europe somewhere, but maybe Digikey (or a near equivalent) has a point of presence somewhere in Europe as well?

[ejlane]

@NeverDie Yeah, but when I priced out domestic places, they all wanted enough that the client just decided to go a different way. This was only going to be for a prototype, but even so, I got prices ranging from I think $10-50 per pin holder, and it was less than 2 grams of plastic each. I just checked again, and JLCPCB would do them for $1 each, and then $20 for quick shipping, and as low as $4 for the slow boat that takes a month. None of those options were very appealing at the time.

Digikey wants $13.66 each for this when I pick qty 10, so still not worth it for this project. Shipping with them is free, but I have no idea how quick they would be.

I also checked PCBWay, just for fun, and they quoted 1.24 at qty 10, for $12.45 total. Interestingly, the quote for 1 was $12.45 also. :) They wouldn't show an estimate for shipping without clicking the 'Submit' button and having a human engineer review the file for printability. Since I'm not actually going to do this now, I don't want to waste their time, so I don't have a total price from them for comparison.

As far as OP, this is a very old thread from 3.5 years ago, so I doubt that they still need help.