u/TommyS333

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some honest advice from people who have more experience with 3D printing as a small business or side activity.

I’m a 3D artist working from home. My main work is 3D visualization, so I already have a good setup with two powerful computers and experience with 3D modeling. I mainly use 3ds Max and Blender for polygonal modeling, and Plasticity for CAD/hard surface modeling. I’ve also used Fusion 360 in the past, but I currently find Plasticity faster and more intuitive for my workflow.

Recently, my girlfriend gifted me a Bambu Lab P2S. At the moment I don’t have the AMS or AMS Pro yet, but I’m planning to get one in the future mainly for convenience.

So far, I’ve mostly been printing practical things for myself and around the house. Small parts, useful objects, fixes, organizers, adapters, things like that. I’m getting more confident with the printer, settings, materials and general workflow, and this made me wonder if there could be a realistic way to turn this into a small side business.

I’m not looking to immediately build a big print farm or make this my full-time job. I’m thinking more about something I could work on for a few hours a day, test properly, and maybe scale later if it actually makes sense.

My main doubts are:

• What kind of 3D printing niches are realistic to enter today?
• Is it better to design my own products and sell them?
• Is it better to offer a print-on-demand service where customers send me files?
• Should I focus on practical/custom parts instead of decorative objects?
• Are there specific sectors where a 3D artist/CAD modeler has an advantage?
• Should I prototype a small product line first before trying to sell anything?
• Is improving existing ideas/products a valid approach, or is that usually a dead end?
• If the business starts working, does scaling with more printers make sense?

I would like to avoid the usual keychains, toys, generic STL files and over-saturated products. I’m more interested in something useful, functional, well-designed, or possibly custom.

Since I can model both organic/polygonal objects and CAD-style parts, I feel like I may have more options than just printing downloaded models, but I’m not sure which direction makes the most sense.

For those of you who have actually tried to make money with 3D printing, what would you suggest?

What worked for you, what didn’t work, and what would you avoid if you were starting again today?

Thanks in advance for any advice.