I've considered it - I've even talked to guys who do 3d printing for sale and special-effects folks who use 3d printing. The advice I'm getting is that for what I am trying to do, home/small-biz printers aren't up to snuff yet. Ordering a slick piece from Shapeways is expensive, but it is a one-shot tooling cost, then I have the panel and can make as many molds as I need from that one piece, keeping it stored safely in a fireproof safe. My QA guy looked at injection molding, but that was in the $15k ballpark for set-up, with a minimum piece order. He's working on finding us a CNC shop that will look at what we are trying to do, so we can compare it to a Shapeways order.
The good thing about Shapeways (or any other professional print service) is that they take care of all the setup and clean-up. We don't have to figure out how or where to add support rafts to my models - I'm paying them to do that for me. Same thing for cleaning up the final parts. Plus, I don't have to go through hundreds of dollars of trial and error to learn how the printer responds best. The whole design-team sat down and looked at getting a printer, and we concluded that *right now* it simply wasn't feasible for Production Platform 3 to tackle. It *IS* absolutely an option for the future, if we can find a person who wants to dedicate their spare time to learning the tricks of the 3d-printing trade *AND* a printer that will provide the type finish I require of my parts.
Right now, though, we've got to stay focused on creating models to havemade for us to cast and sell. TWO MODELS on our "gonna do them soon" list are already either in production or are nearing production by competitors! (I'm looking at JrnyFan's Vehicle Maintenance Energizer as one of those!
No worries - we've got a list a parsec long to pull from...) That means Production Platform 3 cannot afford to start learning a new technology if we want to get our designs on the market and into the hands of clients ahead of competitors. 4 years ago, I didn't consider myself to have any true competition - because Clint and I were pursuing filling different market-needs, I didn't consider him a competitor - and today we have two, maybe even four. I remind my team almost daily "INNOVATE OR DIE!" If we are slow to get a design out, then someone else will.
That reminds me - I need to pitch a thought at JrnyFan, collaboration-wise...
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