I am a hobbyist, and my job will probably never require me to design and print anything for work.

I do really enjoy the process of conceptualizing, designing, and printing, and have done so for myself and some close acquaintances.

I’ve spent many hours/days learning the tools of the trade and was wondering if there was an opportunity to make some money as a side gig. Has anyone been successful doing this, and how did you go about it?

Here are a couple of my early designs, I plan to upload more once I clean things up a bit.

https://www.thingiverse.com/landon8848/designs

You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments
10 points

What you are describing is simply being a design engineer. That’s what I do and I take on side projects once in a while. It’s not worth my time to simply 3D print things for people. The printer is simply a tool used for prototyping.

permalink
report
reply
3 points

How do you come across those side projects?

permalink
report
parent
reply
4 points

They sometimes find me. Friend of a friend knows someone who needs some stuff designed. That kind of thing.

permalink
report
parent
reply

3DPrinting

!3dprinting@lemmy.world

Create post

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: !functionalprint@kbin.social or !functionalprint@fedia.io

There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml

Rules

  • No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.

  • Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.

  • No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)

  • No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing

  • Do not create links to reddit

  • If you see an issue please flag it

  • No guns

  • No injury gore posts

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

Community stats

  • 2K

    Monthly active users

  • 1.2K

    Posts

  • 16K

    Comments