I’m creating a board game that has custom 3d pieces. I’d like to test out my print before I send it to the game manufacturer and also want to make demo sets. They need a huge tooling fee before they’ll do samples. There are app. 10 designs and no bigger than 45mm.

I’m not sure as to whether I should buy a starter printer or would the learning curve be so big that I should just have a POD company do it. I know blender really well but have never printed anything from a file. I was going to make the file from blender for the company too. Any thoughts? I think my SO and I would use it for other things, probably, maybe, if it’s not so complicated that I give up on it.

Thanks for any advice on this, I don’t know what direction to point on this and I have a ton of work to do already.

Edit: You guys are awesome. I went from totally lost to ordering the Neptune 3 Pro and it should be here next week. Thanks for everything and I hope it goes pretty smoothly, I’ll keep you posted. Thanks again.

  • Remy Rose@lemmy.one
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    Check with your local libraries! I work in a public library makerspace, we do this kind of stuff all the time. Most libraries do it either completely free or for the price of materials

    • PeleSpirit@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Wait, I’m in Seattle, we have a great library and I never thought I should check there. I’ll look into there or the King County libraries. Thanks for that info.

      Edit: Apparently we do not have a great library in that respect. No 3d printers, which is surprising tbh.

      • Remy Rose@lemmy.one
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Awww that’s a shame! I’m honestly pretty surprised, my library isn’t even that big. Tell them to get their act together lol

        • PeleSpirit@lemmy.worldOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          I just found one out the king county has one but we already ordered the neptune 3 pro. We might check it out anyway to just see. Their classes are all filled for the near future as well.