How To Convince My Parents To Buy Me a 3D Printer
3D printers are amazing machines that create three-dimensional items from a digital file. Using additives that layer thin plastic over and over, a 3D printer can make almost anything you can design.
Convincing your parents to buy a 3D printer can work with this logic: Explain that learning to use this printer can teach you design software and each model teaches you new skills. You can enter school and NASA contests for 3D design and production, possibly paving the way to your future career.
As you learn how 3D printing works, you can expand your understanding of more complex models. Since the printer’s initial cost is the most significant expense, you won’t need to spend much to learn how to print 3D.
Convincing Your Parents to Buy You a 3D Printer
Convincing your parents to buy a 3D printer should not be too difficult when you use credible arguments. Digital 3D printing is booming in popularity, both in business and as a hobby. If you can figure out a way to make money off your 3D printing, you can recoup your costs pretty quickly. Consider any or all of the following arguments:
- Explain to your parents how 3D printers can make useful household items like toothbrush holders, drawer dividers, and even broken dishwasher pieces.
- Save your money and ask them to match your savings for a 3D printer.
- Show them the statistics that explain how 3D printing is overtaking engineering, manufacturing, and other industries, so the printer can help your future career.
- Write them a business plan of how you plan to make things and list them for sale on ebay, instagram, and tiktok.
You can show them this list of all the things a 3D printer can make to help your parents see the possibilities:
- Shoes
- Jewelry
- Eyeglasses
- Furniture
- Tools
- Toys
- Sculptures
- Prosthetics
- Dental implants
- Scale models
- Architectural replicas
In short, 3D printing is changing how things are made. Soon, there will be very little that 3D printing cannot manufacture. Showing your parents how useful it can be will help you successfully convince them.
How Much Do 3D Printers Cost?
The average price for a 3D printer is around $400. Some of the specific factors that affect the price of 3D printers include:
- Size of printer
- Added features
- Quality of printing
- Durability of printer and models
- Printer manufacturer
To help you understand printer pricing, here are some categories of 3D printers and what they will make.
Entry-Level 3D Printers
An entry-level printer is an excellent way to learn 3D printing. While they limit what you can print and the materials you can use for printing, an entry-level printer is a great way to play around with the design and printing process to see if you are seriously interested before spending a large amount of money on a more complex 3D printer. The cost range is $100-500.
Hobbyist 3D Printers
The hobbyist 3D printer is faster and offers more materials you can use for printing, but they are still quite basic. Expect to spend additional time assembling, testing, and calibrating before you print an actual item. The hobbyist 3D printer is perfect for someone who prints for a hobby and they range from $400-1500.
Expert 3D Printers
The expert 3D printers are wildly popular and deliver a reasonably good printed product. You have a more extensive selection of print materials and longer run times, but they will require maintenance and often a printer is designed for a particular application. They range between $1000-4000.
Professional 3D Printers
Professional 3D printers can print with polycarbonate, nylons, and ABS, making them ideal for many business applications. They can print relatively quickly without losing print resolution. Professional printers are widely used in schools and business environments, and they range from $4000-20,000.
What Can I Learn by 3D Printing?
You can learn how to use 3D design software to print many ordinary objects. In addition, entry-level and hobbyist 3D printers require a lot of testing, calibrating, and maintenance that will teach you how they work and how to make the best prints.
You will likely already be acquainted with 3D printing as they are present in many schools. You will start with little knowledge and build on that as you learn more and more about successful 3D printing. Much of the printing technology relies on 3D printing, so here are some things to learn by experimenting with a 3D printer.
- By exploring tutorials for 3D printers, you can learn how they work and what they produce. As you experiment with making ordinary objects like toys and small bottles, you will learn from where you go wrong so you can produce a better model next time.
- You can enter school and technology competitions. Many competitions focus on taking an ordinary task and making it easier, or asking you to design an item for an unmet need.
- You will progress from simple objects to those with moving parts. Learning to print individual parts and connect them with moving bonds is a great skill.
- As your skill progresses, you will master more complex design software. When you start with simple software and learn all the features, you can move to more complex software. You might even end up in the manufacturing field of 3D technology as a career.
Is 3D Hobby Printing Expensive?
3D hobby printing is not expensive. Since entry-level software is free and you can obtain free design files from the internet, once you purchase the 3D printer, you can experiment and create all sorts of items.
There are three primary costs to getting started:
- The entry 3D printer costs between $100-500, or the hobbyist is $400-1500. Since this is a fixed cost, your materials will be minimal after purchasing the printer.
- The filament cost varies according to model complexity. A simple 3D model uses one kind of filament, while a model with supports requires denser and larger filaments.
- You can also calculate the cost of electricity to power the 3D printer. The printing time and complexity of the model influence how much electricity you will use.
Conclusion
Three-dimensional printing is the future of product manufacturing. Learning how to 3D print with your own machine will allow you to experiment and see if this is the right path for you.