3D printing business small parts fabricators in Australia - where to find?

[Tilarta]

I'm experimenting with creating 3D printed accessories for my Transformers toys.

My first completed project is an armgun socket mode for Siege Sixgun:
https://i.imgur.com/fteS7wzl.png
This is designed to fix a flaw where the armgun keeps falling off if his arm is bent at the elbow.

Since I need to print these objects to find out if I got the design right, I am looking for a place in Australia that can print small 3D items.
Mostly because it's incredibly inefficient/slow to order parts from Shapeways and I don't think this is appropriate for a test procedure that may be need to be done a few times a week for refining purposes.

Does anyone know of a business in Australia that will print small items with their 3D printer?

[llamatron]

You might have some luck looking at local hacker / makerspaces. They'll often have 3D printers, although quality will vary and they are notoriously prone to breakage. Keep an eye out for open days to have a look.

[minstral]

If you're on Facebook a local Australia group (TCCA) had people posting about printing services. You could try there

[UltraMarginal]

google
3d printing bureau Sydney
that should help you out with options

[Tilarta]

I did some searching, but the results are varied and unpredictable at the moment.
Can anyone make any suggestions to narrow the field a bit? Or a lot.

The common "wrong" results included 3D printers for sale, engineering or industrial printing (jobs less then 100$ not accepted, specialising in large items).

I'm looking for an Australian based business that specialises in small once-off production jobs that will mail the completed product to an address of my choosing.
Preferably one that specialises in hobbyist or small toy production.

Officeworks also offer their 3D printers, but according to the data gathered from their website, they only have this facility at specific outlets (unfortunately my local Officeworks is not one of them) and they insist you claim the printed product instore personally.

I found a local Hackerspace Group which offers the use of their 3D printers, but their open times (for non-members) is like 7-9pm at night every Thursday.
Membership entails a fee of $25 per year.
Still considering that one, I'm not exactly keen on travelling all the way out there at night (our public transportation closes operations at 6:00pm).


As an aside, the two business I investigated so far seemed to have fairly high prices.
The first wanted 50$ to print this:
https://i.imgur.com/uOYCvjKl.png
The second wanted $25.

I'm uncertain if those prices are appropriate, since this:
https://i.imgur.com/fYFyhFjl.png
cost me $20 for 1.75m.
I think there's a lot more filament in the box then could ever be used in the object printed.......

[Tober]

For something with detailing that small you would need a STL resin printer, not a FDM that uses 1.75 plastic.

If you want to you can send me a PM for my email and I'll have a go printing it. No promises it will work though.

I know there are public libraries around here (NSW) that offer 3D printing services, but I've only seen FDM on offer.

[Tilarta]

What do you mean by 1.75 plastic? Please clarify.
That number I gave is the length of the filament in the reel, 1.75 meters.
There was a larger reel, but I didn't want to get that until I'm sure this material is good for my intended purposes.
According to the box. this is PLA filament.

[Tober]

Coincidence. 1.75mm is the diameter most FDM printers use.

1.75 is very little. There's about 330 meters of 1.75mm PLA in a $20 1kg roll.

[Tilarta]

It may not be suitable then, I looked at the other label and it says 1.75mm.
Maybe it's because 3D hasn't really taken off here that we do not have many consumer products relating to it.

From all my research, getting a quality hobbyist printer still costs at least a thousand dollars, if not more and one article compared it to the early dot matrix printers, expensive yes, value for money/quality printing, no.

[Tober]

The last few years has seen a huge increase in practicality and decrease in price. You can get a good FDM printer for around $400, but you will need to be willing to understand how it works when it acts up (which it will). A good STL resin printer can be bought for around $850 now - I'm seriously considering it, but they are really messy and dangerous. A high-end Form2 will set you back about $6000.

Yeah, circa 1990 a color printer had to be licensed with the police and cost aprox $10 000 and tool about 30 mins to print a color page. A few years later you could get a decent bubble-jet for about $500 (roughly where we are now). Now you can get a vastly superior Canon Pixma for less than $20. :o

[Tilarta]

That's mostly why I'm holding off buying my own 3D printer, I'm waiting for them to become so common it's not overly expensive to go out and get a good one.
And hoping it doesn't take 10 years for the technology to become that accessible.

[gamblor916]

The last few years has seen a huge increase in practicality and decrease in price. You can get a good FDM printer for around $400, but you will need to be willing to understand how it works when it acts up (which it will). A good STL resin printer can be bought for around $850 now - I'm seriously considering it, but they are really messy and dangerous. A high-end Form2 will set you back about $6000.

Yeah, circa 1990 a color printer had to be licensed with the police and cost aprox $10 000 and tool about 30 mins to print a color page. A few years later you could get a decent bubble-jet for about $500 (roughly where we are now). Now you can get a vastly superior Canon Pixma for less than $20. :o

If you get a resin printer I'll be your best customer. I'm holding off buying one because of cost and toxicity, but I've heard good things about the Elegoo Mars printer at sub $400USD.

[Tober]

If you get a resin printer I'll be your best customer. I'm holding off buying one because of cost and toxicity, but I've heard good things about the Elegoo Mars printer at sub $400USD.

I was considering the Anycubic Photon, but I'll check out the Elegoo. :)

[Tober]

The Photon gets a mention here:

https://www.cnet.com/news/best-3d-printers-in-2019-for-beginners-and-budget-creators/

[Tilarta]

I like the fine detail of those Resin printers, but not so crazy about the resin vats and the toxicity of the chemicals involved.
From the sounds of it, if I was to hypothetically set up a resin printer, I'd need to make a dedicated workbench in my garage and open the sliding door everytime I did a print.
Could they possibly make a fine detail printer without the toxic vat substances one day?

Do they always need to have LCD screens though?
I don't know if it applies to 3D printers, but for the paper printers, the inclusion of a LCD control panel sometimes doubled or tripled the price, due to the associated hardware/firmware/software functions connected to whatever the LCD screen was controlling.
Which is why I prefer not to have them, if it knocks down the price a fair bit, an incomputer control interface is perfectly acceptable.

Are these printers compatible with MacOS?
I do all of my modelling on a Mac Desktop unit, so would need something that can be controlled from a Mac system.



I don't remember the name of the plastic type involved, but when I was taking my first training sessions in 3D printing, we were told we could print anything EXCEPT cups to drink out of.
Something about how the material is safe to handle, but not safe to consume drinks out of.
By logical extension, that would mean you can't print a plate either.

Which got me wondering, I saw a comedy scene in a tv show about a person obsessed with 3D printing, his date drops her eating fork and he tries to print her one to replace it, to show off his portable 3D printer.
But could she actually use the fork to eat with afterwards or would it be considered hazardous?