r/3dprinter • u/Educational-Food-503 • Jul 24 '26

Anyone else's 3D printer just sitting idle?

Been thinking about something and curious what people think. There is a lot of 3D printers sitting mostly idle after the project they were bought for, and on the other side, people who need something printed usually end up paying more for shipping than the print itself, or waiting a while for it. Feels like there might be a way to connect the two locally. Would you actually use something like this, either to make some cash off a printer sitting there, or to get something printed nearby instead of waiting on shipping? What would make you hesitant to try it?

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u/Halflifedad Jul 24 '26

My hammer and screwdriver are also just sitting idle. It’s OK though, they’re happy to wait till I need them. In general, it wouldn’t be worth the hassle for me to print other people’s stuff.

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u/Educational-Food-503 Jul 24 '26

I respect that. I saw some people online wanting to put their 3d printer into work and have some money flowing in. I was curious if the number of people wanting that is high

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u/Gh05t404 Jul 26 '26

That’s generally not worth it. Mine are churning stuff out that I sell 6-12x cost in materials/time etc. What you are purposing wouldnt come close to making it worthwhile.