I don't know much about 3D printing but I know there are many places where you can hire/rent a 3D printer to print things if you have the STL files and pay for the materials.

What I'm wondering is: is it cheaper to buy 3D printed terrain and have it shipped or is it cheaper to buy the STL files, pay for the materials and have it printed yourself? Generally speaking that is. I live in Toronto so no shortage of access to printers and shipping to Canada even just from the US from sites like Etsy can be almost as much as the item I want to order. I'm wondering if anyone has insight into where the break even point is and what is more cost effective. Cheers.

39 minutes ago, Crawfskeezen said:

I don't know much about 3D printing but I know there are many places where you can hire/rent a 3D printer to print things if you have the STL files and pay for the materials.

What I'm wondering is: is it cheaper to buy 3D printed terrain and have it shipped or is it cheaper to buy the STL files, pay for the materials and have it printed yourself? Generally speaking that is. I live in Toronto so no shortage of access to printers and shipping to Canada even just from the US from sites like Etsy can be almost as much as the item I want to order. I'm wondering if anyone has insight into where the break even point is and what is more cost effective. Cheers.

check out https://www.3dhubs.com/ local people with 3d printers sign up and offer their services for often VERY good rates. I do most of my 3d printing through a local guy I met here.

i think it might just depend on what you're going to use it for - if you have a set amount of things to print (i.e., you want a Tatooine town for a board) then I would just outsource the work, but if you think you might want to print MORE than just scenery or are unsure of how much you're going to print, might be worth investing $300-500 on an entry level printer to print stuff.

then you could also do work for others to cover your costs

For me it was worth it as i swap terrian out at my flgs on a regular basis. If your doing a single table just buy what you want.

If it’s buy once and done, outsourcing is fine.

But honestly you’ll like other ideas and want to do more (most likely) - a good entry level printer will recoup the investment very quickly versus buying made terrain. I have hundreds of dollars worth of printed terrain I made myself already, and storage bins for my minis, and.... yeah. The printer one time cost is worth it unless you’re really specific about “buy this one board setup and be done”

2 hours ago, ScummyRebel said:

If it’s buy once and done, outsourcing is fine.

But honestly you’ll like other ideas and want to do more (most likely) - a good entry level printer will recoup the investment very quickly versus buying made terrain. I have hundreds of dollars worth of printed terrain I made myself already, and storage bins for my minis, and.... yeah. The printer one time cost is worth it unless you’re really specific about “buy this one board setup and be done”

I too have been looking into this... What in your opinion would be the a good 3d printer for terrain? And how about additional software, hardware, and filament? And what kind of timetables and other issues can be expected? Sorry to bombard you with questions lol.

Check local library. They might offer 3d printing services. Ours does

11 hours ago, Crawfskeezen said:

is it cheaper to buy 3D printed terrain and have it shipped or is it cheaper to buy the STL files, pay for the materials and have it printed yourself?

It is far cheaper to buy the STL's and print them yourselves if the only concern is cost of materials - there is no break even point, the plastic used in a piece of terrain is, like, 1-3 dollars. The cost of the file and plastic will never approach the cost of buying the printed product unless you find someone who's horribly over-charging for the STL. If you have to pay for a maker space in order to access those printers, then you're in a questionable area unless you're printing enough.

My city has a 3D print bar.

They use thingyverse.com

Plenty of legion stuff

1 hour ago, Turan said:

It is far cheaper to buy the STL's and print them yourselves if the only concern is cost of materials - there is no break even point, the plastic used in a piece of terrain is, like, 1-3 dollars. The cost of the file and plastic will never approach the cost of buying the printed product unless you find someone who's horribly over-charging for the STL. If you have to pay for a maker space in order to access those printers, then you're in a questionable area unless you're printing enough.

Ok, so first of all I really appreciate this kind of insight. I really appreciate the former member's suggestions too but I don't know if buying my own 3D printer is needed or feasible. I don't plan to just print 1 table of terrain but I also don't know if I'll be printing enough to justify a $500+ 3D printer.

Accounting for the STL files (which as I've seen cost for the most part around < $10 per model, some models are batched at a cheaper price) and then for materials (as @Turan estimates, $1-3), my question in response is: what is the average cost for use of time and equipment to print these items? I know if I'm printing a small model (say a Legion-Style mini like a Storm Trooper) versus a larger model (like a building of sorts) it will cost more in materials and time. I'm just curious, and - as my OP states - I don't really know a lot about 3D printing.

I appreciate everyone's responses. Thank you.

14 hours ago, VadersToothbrush said:

I too have been looking into this... What in your opinion would be the a good 3d printer for terrain? And how about additional software, hardware, and filament? And what kind of timetables and other issues can be expected? Sorry to bombard you with questions lol.

I use a monoprice maker select. It’s a little on the small side but I can print any of the module landing bay from Imp Terrain (some of their stuff like the big landing pad or even the desert tower are a bit big for my printer without altering scale).

Comes with software in the box for Windows. Cura is an awesome opensource alternative that is cross platform. I’ve used both with success.

Filament? I just use hatchbox pla. The big things I liked about monoprice were could take generic filament (huge cost saver) and wasn’t a kit build (can you use a screwdriver? Great you can assemble a monoprice. No soldering like those kit builds).

Not sure what you mean by timetable or issues. I mean, there are print issues you have to be able to troubleshoot while you get it set up but google is your best friend when learning the gotchas of 3d printing.

47 minutes ago, ScummyRebel said:

I use a monoprice maker select. It’s a little on the small side but I can print any of the module landing bay from Imp Terrain (some of their stuff like the big landing pad or even the desert tower are a bit big for my printer without altering scale).

Comes with software in the box for Windows. Cura is an awesome opensource alternative that is cross platform. I’ve used both with success.

Filament? I just use hatchbox pla. The big things I liked about monoprice were could take generic filament (huge cost saver) and wasn’t a kit build (can you use a screwdriver? Great you can assemble a monoprice. No soldering like those kit builds).

Not sure what you mean by timetable or issues. I mean, there are print issues you have to be able to troubleshoot while you get it set up but google is your best friend when learning the gotchas of 3d printing.

Would you be willing to share some photos of terrain you have printed. I've been trying to figure out what you need to print Imp Terrain stuff and I'd love to see what quality you are able to get out of a reasonably priced 3d printer.

1 hour ago, Skyguard said:

Would you be willing to share some photos of terrain you have printed. I've been trying to figure out what you need to print Imp Terrain stuff and I'd love to see what quality you are able to get out of a reasonably priced 3d printer.

Let me know if this works (I don’t have a good way to share photos with the forums limiting attachment size)

I created a public read only folder and tossed the only image on my phone up into it. 100% of the plastic terrain viewed is 3d printed, and I didn’t buy it. Some is Imp Terrain, other stuff is random files online like thingiverse.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10lsnSOkL5MFSTJLGincypmH5WXB8CHvi

Edit - ignore the escape pod and the short stumpy tree next to it - the pod was while I was dialing stuff in and making mistakes, and the tree stump has filler on the top because I ran out ofnfilament mid print lol.

9 hours ago, Crawfskeezen said:

my question in response is: what is the average cost for use of time and equipment to print these items?

Only you can answer that, because you know what you have access to in your area and you can find out what their rates are.

As far as time goes, it depends on the printer you're using and the settings for it and the size of what you're printing. I can offer that a moderate-sized building on my printer takes about six hours or less, depending on how the file is engineered. But that's a super rough estimate.

If you find someplace that doesn't charge a monthly membership to use the equipment, but actually per hour, you might be able to go over with the file on a jump drive and see how long it would take before committing to it.

Awesome. What kind of printer would be good, size wise, for some of the larger pieces?

1 hour ago, VadersToothbrush said:

Awesome. What kind of printer would be good, size wise, for some of the larger pieces?

For the imperial terrain stuff I believe they list that files are designed for a 200 x 200 print bed.

14 minutes ago, Skyguard said:

For the imperial terrain stuff I believe they list that files are designed for a 200 x 200 print bed.

I believe their main printer is a Prusa.

6 minutes ago, KalEl814 said:

I believe their main printer is a Prusa.

as the proud owner of two Prusa's, I can't say enough good things about them and evangelize on their behalf, but at $1000 it's not exactly an entry-level price-point.

They are not as full-featured but my best pal has a CR-10s that he loves, that is about half the cost of a Prusa.

A prusa mk2 is like 600... I could swing it, but the CR-10 is like 350. How much better is the Prusa?

I use a pair of anet a8s. So far im happy with the terrian ive printed. The amount of other stuff to print is huge. Biggest issue ive had is print bed leveling and prints sticking to bed. Most of the building i did for my desert table averaged 5 hours to print.

31 minutes ago, VadersToothbrush said:

A prusa mk2 is like 600... I could swing it, but the CR-10 is like 350. How much better is the Prusa?

I think the kit for a MK2S is $600, it appears to be $900 for a ready to go system.

I'd love to see some recommended printers for doing this type of terrain printing at different price points if any one has them.

I'd recommend just buying one. I got a nice one for $230 on Amazon. I had to assemble it and it requires being a little tinker-handy, some things need to be adjusted. But once you get using it, you won't look back. It's just a nice thing to own. And you can find free amazing terrain on thingiverse, just search legion terrain or something there's tons on there.

27 minutes ago, lukecook said:

I'd recommend just buying one. I got a nice one for $230 on Amazon. I had to assemble it and it requires being a little tinker-handy, some things need to be adjusted. But once you get using it, you won't look back. It's just a nice thing to own. And you can find free amazing terrain on thingiverse, just search legion terrain or something there's tons on there.

Did you get the Ender 3?

15 minutes ago, Skyguard said:

Did you get the Ender 3?

Yes I did, very good pick