UK 3d printing marketplaces...

[njee20]

Last week I had a 12 hour print (using nearly 400ml of resin) which ran out with about 15 minutes to run; just missing off enough to totally screw the print up! 

[woko]

1 hour ago, njee20 said:

Last week I had a 12 hour print (using nearly 400ml of resin) which ran out with about 15 minutes to run; just missing off enough to totally screw the print up! 

Don't you just love this printing malarkey  

[monkeysarefun]

At least IPA has gone down in price from the covid-induced madness of 2020. I just  bought 20 litres of 100% for $80. When the pandemic panic buying started  last year the same place was selling it at $100 a litre, then ran out.

Edited December 16, 2021 by monkeysarefun

[njee20]

That's nuts! I got lucky with a big order just before the pandemic which saw me through until it was back to ~£4 a litre.

[woko]

Resin prices seem to be dropping as well  

[animotion]

On 16/12/2021 at 12:50, njee20 said:

Personally I disagree - horizontal is rarely the best orientation, and although I can print much of what I would want to flat on the build plate I rarely do. But then I think print time is far more important to some than others. Personally for me, once it's beyond about an hour (ie the time while I can almost attend it or it can at least run while I'm pottering nearby) I don't really care. Whether it's 4 or 10 hours I'll walk away and come back another time, likely the following day! I orientate based on the best outcome, and the time is what it is, YMMV.

 

I've been messing around printing O gauge wagons split in half and vertically though, which would appear to work well - and for that height is important.

 

The Rocket1 looks interesting, I note they provide a denser 'filler' liquid so you don't need to fill the vat with resin. Apologies for the hijack, but the Rocket had come up previously!

 

[Din]

On 16/12/2021 at 11:34, wainwright1 said:

Hi DIN.

Just been scanning your blog again.

I have been in discussion with Woko, and would certainly like some of his 4mm wagons and coaches, the SE & CR and LC & DR ones especially.

Be pleased to hear if you decide to produce these.

 

All the best

Merry Christmas

Ray

 

And Happy New Year! Just spent a delightful fortnight with the missus in Wales with her family (though half of them got COVID) 

 

So, updates for all!

 

I'd love to produce stuff from Woko and others who're looking to hand off kits to a production house or have their own popular lines but find the cottage industry aspect tiring or too time consuming. (I beleive Turbosnail of this parish is still casting his net about for his own wagons which were produced similarly).

 

So, to whit.

 

The underlying system, at its most basic, is now programmed and whirring away doing its... programming things. I'd pretend to be more technical with this but at the time my business partner called me excitedly about how he'd finished it, I was tired and had just completed a wonderful five mile walk in the stunning Ogmore Vale, which thanks to the health issues myself and my partner suffer from left us utterly knackered the next day.

 

There was talk that an API will be built that means, if you wanted to, you could basically have your storefront on your own blog or website, but production still done by us, a sort of "Powered by" thing. All part of the evolution of our systems in order to make it convenient for both parties.

 

So my own job (once recovered from the drive) will be to do some of the marketing side, grabbing a few more of those names of people interested in being pioneers (Again, please drop me a message if you have not done so already). As well as plotting the future direction of both the underlying system (we plan to offer it out to people eventually) and other proposals of projects for our own.

[woko]

Fantastic news Din, really looking forward to joining up on this, and have messaged you chap

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[Din]

So we continue to inch closer and closer.

 

https://invision3d.co.uk/

 

A basic page is up, with hopefully a "sign up" box and things appearing soon once I write the content to go onto the home page.

 

My friend has had his baby, little tyke turned up four weeks premature, so there was a bit of panicing and the little one kept in hospital, and he in turn having to offload all his work from his day job far earlier than expected!

 

Little one is now safe and well along with the mother and all are back home and relaxing and settling into their new life as parents. This thankfully has also freed him a bit to work on the various bits and pieces we've come across while studying other websites.

 

He's began talking about building our own slicer that will do the basics and calculations, or a modification of an open source one, to help calculate the costs and material usage to automatically publish them to your pages when you upload a model. Part of the cloud computing systems and solution he's coming up with means there won't be a single server box sat with the slicer and files doing their thing, so things need modifying.

 

He's also having our adorable mascot animated so expect that sometime soon. I also plan a bit of a fun thing with that, including a 3d model which I will print.

 

I've also began introducing myself to various societies, wargaming stores in the area etc and have chosen a 30% discount for retailers and societies interested in stocking some products. This will be taken from "our share" of the costs and will not effect anyones comissions from sales. Tides rise all boats and all that. I may introduce a minimum order amount, as I'd really like some custom boxes made with Invision's branding on them and they're a little more expensive than bog standard cardboard boxes. Plus would look more "professional" in the shop displays and even issued out to customers.

 

While I dont think it will be a "Main source" of income, there's something nice about getting things to a physical shop and I am not the largest beleiver in murdering the high street with convenience of the online. Plus if said shop say, passed on 10%-15% on to the customer... all the more reason for them to come back and order through you instead, eh?

 

Having also seen how difficult and busy shows have become now we're returning to normal (I cheekily went with cards for Invision3d to Doncaster to give out and wound up handing out about 3 over the entire show) I'm beginning to wonder if making our own stand extolling our virtues to a few expos and exhibitions might be a better idea and pull a Mohammed going to the Mountain instead.

 

So, guess that's this months update from me, I'd best go write content for the Home Page.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Din

[richard i]

Good to hear the progress. 
looking forward to it all being up and running. Such possibilities.

richard 

[Penrhos1920]

Thanks for the update, good to hear that you are progressing.  Have you got any design guidelines similar to imaterilise and Shapeways?

[Din]

33 minutes ago, Penrhos1920 said:

Thanks for the update, good to hear that you are progressing.  Have you got any design guidelines similar to imaterilise and Shapeways?

 

Pretty much the same as you would on any commercially available printer. Ideally walls about 1mm or so, I reckon with a bit of tweaking on our own parts we can soon narrow that down a tad more.

 

My hope will be to get bigger and better machines as we grow.

[woko]

On 14/02/2022 at 10:48, Din said:

So we continue to inch closer and closer.

 

https://invision3d.co.uk/

 

A basic page is up, with hopefully a "sign up" box and things appearing soon once I write the content to go onto the home page.

 

This is fantastic news Din I shall be signing up as soon as I can, plus I have a bunch of new stuff in the shape of 28mm Wargamming bolt action buildings to add to the collection

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[Din]

57 minutes ago, woko said:

This is fantastic news Din I shall be signing up as soon as I can, plus I have a bunch of new stuff in the shape of 28mm Wargamming bolt action buildings to add to the collection

 

Cheers

 

Rob

 

Good job it just went live then! Designers can sign up as "Invisioneers" and we'll have some different emails and bits and bobs out there.

 

Saw, and met, one of the guys from Warlord/Clockwork Goblin the other week and stood fascinating watching a Konflict 47 game. Did mention your own stuff and he seemed interested, so here's hoping we both get a nice customer.

 

...I foresee much money lost in my future from that particular gaming system.

[martin_wynne]

5 minutes ago, Din said:

 

Good job it just went live then! Designers can sign up as "Invisioneers" and we'll have some different emails and bits and bobs out there.

 

Saw, and met, one of the guys from Warlord/Clockwork Goblin the other week and stood fascinating watching a Konflict 47 game. Did mention your own stuff and he seemed interested, so here's hoping we both get a nice customer.

 

...I foresee much money lost in my future from that particular gaming system.

 

Hi,

 

Invision? Make sure you have that trademarked. As you probably know the software which runs RMweb is Invision:

 

 https://invisioncommunity.com

 

 https://invisioncommunity.com/about-us/

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

[Din]

1 minute ago, martin_wynne said:

 

Hi,

 

Invision? Make sure you have that trademarked. As you probably know the software which runs RMweb is Invision:

 

 https://invisioncommunity.com

 

 https://invisioncommunity.com/about-us/

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

 

We're covering a completely different area of work and are registered as such. We also have the 3d bit on the end

[martin_wynne]

2 minutes ago, Din said:

 

We're covering a completely different area of work and are registered as such. We also have the 3d bit on the end

 

IPS is an aggressive business and might start their own "Invision" 3D printing service. 

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

[Andy Reichert]

Sorry if I missed this this earlier. Would you be offering a build service for parts privately that are not intended for sale off your site?

 

Andy

[Din]

5 minutes ago, Andy Reichert said:

Sorry if I missed this this earlier. Would you be offering a build service for parts privately that are not intended for sale off your site?

 

Andy

Yes but for the time being we're UK only based. You can upload a file, and pay us to make it. You can also contact us seperately about individual such works.

[Andy Reichert]

On 18/02/2022 at 07:19, Din said:

Yes but for the time being we're UK only based. You can upload a file, and pay us to make it. You can also contact us seperately about individual such works.

 

Great, will do shortly .

 

Many thanks.

 

Andy  (Cockney in Califonia)  

 

[woko]

On 18/02/2022 at 12:08, Din said:

 

Good job it just went live then! Designers can sign up as "Invisioneers" and we'll have some different emails and bits and bobs out there.

 

Saw, and met, one of the guys from Warlord/Clockwork Goblin the other week and stood fascinating watching a Konflict 47 game. Did mention your own stuff and he seemed interested, so here's hoping we both get a nice customer.

 

...I foresee much money lost in my future from that particular gaming system.

Thanks Din, sounds amazing and yes I imagine I may also be brassic once I have finished this 8x4ft gaming table Oh and I have just signed up to your platform and looking forward to getting started sir  

[JCL]

Hi Din

 

@woko told me about your site a couple of weeks ago, but it's only now I've had the time to have a good look. It looks like just the thing that people are looking for.

 

I've just signed up as an Invisioneer.

 

I hope it all works out for you!
 

Edited February 21, 2022 by JCL

[stewartingram]

What would be good, is to get those UK based 3D producers to move over, instead of using Shapeways. No offence to Shapeways, but the carriage and duty costs make their services prohibitive nowadays. Up to the designers in the end though.

[Blandford1969]

Lets hope some like @rue_d_etropalmight move some of their coaches over to you. It might make them then affordable, which put simply on Shapeways they are sadly not.

[Quarryscapes]

On 22/02/2022 at 09:53, stewartingram said:

What would be good, is to get those UK based 3D producers to move over, instead of using Shapeways. No offence to Shapeways, but the carriage and duty costs make their services prohibitive nowadays. Up to the designers in the end though.

 

On 22/02/2022 at 22:39, Blandford1969 said:

Lets hope some like @rue_d_etropalmight move some of their coaches over to you. It might make them then affordable, which put simply on Shapeways they are sadly not.

 

Good luck with that, If you actually compare like for like, Shapeways are very competitive.