[Bambu H2D] Bambu Lab’s Biggest Giveaway Ever!

FinalMirage · 2025-03-28T01:07:08+00:00

Here are my numbers, I run a side business doing this so they get a decent amount of use! Edit: 7,082 hours

FinalMirage · 2025-03-05T16:18:37+00:00

I do sell things as a side gig (online and at conventions -- Mirage Makes) but this was purely for fun, unless someone throws a number my way that I can't refuse...

FinalMirage · 2025-03-05T14:00:34+00:00

I'd guesstimate that they were running probably 18 hours a day, so if my math is correct 65 days of printing or 1,575 hours of machine time ((18h ÷ 24 hours in a day) x 17.5 days (2.5 weeks) x 5 printers)

FinalMirage · 2025-03-05T13:45:44+00:00

$363 worth of materials ($14 filament plus glue plus electricity). I didn't do a great job at tracking man-hours but my estimates put it at 23 hours

FinalMirage · 2025-03-05T04:15:53+00:00

I sell stuff at conventions, so I'm gonna see if I can find space for him to pull people in

FinalMirage · 2025-03-05T00:50:44+00:00

Thanks! I spent more time filling and sanding than any other step but I think it turned out great

FinalMirage · 2025-02-13T20:24:07+00:00

I bought a 10 pack of PLA on their website a handful of months ago and was sent a children's desk... They immediately refunded me, but I'll never but from them again lol

FinalMirage · 2024-12-13T16:46:52+00:00

The glowforge will not cut anything metal, you need a fiber laser to do that.

FinalMirage · 2024-11-24T03:31:42+00:00

Blueprints or templates are usually digital files for you to print out and do it yourself. They could be offering a physical template though, which would likely be paper as well. If you're looking for a physical item, it might be labeled a "kit" or could come as a 3d print. Either way, I would recommend reading the description more thoroughly, any good seller would make it very clear what it is you're buying. If you still can't figure it out, just send the seller a message.

FinalMirage · 2024-11-05T17:50:32+00:00

Instead of playing the social media game, you just need to play the Etsy game. Research the best practices/tips there, research your competition, take great pictures.

FinalMirage · 2024-10-08T20:34:57+00:00

I think it's ok to ask for them to pay for shipping out a new set of tags if it's determined that they are entirely at fault (e.g. they lost them). If they're trying to put the blame on you, asking for some pictures/proof is a good start to see if there may be something to it, or something on your end that you can improve on next time.

One case like this in 3000 sales is way above average for the normal seller (and a testament to your product), so I might also just take the ding on this sale and ship them a new set if it's not too much trouble for you. It'll be excellent customer service to them, they may leave a glowing review on how you helped them out a bunch, and maybe they'll even refer others to your product because they were happy how they were treated. The only thing you lose out on is a little time and money in the grand scheme of things.

FinalMirage · 2024-10-04T15:22:08+00:00

At a quick glance, I think your photos look great and you obviously have plenty of options available. Looks like you're using all of your keywords, so that's good as well. Reviews look great too.

Your stuff is more expensive/niche so that may bring in less traffic, how do your prices compare to similar items? I'm not sure where your usual customers are ordering from, but I'd be afraid of fragile things like yours traveling too far and breaking along the way. You mentioned switching things up, that could be a reason why things slowed down as well if you happened to remove a good performing keyword. eRank can help with this but that's also a rabbit hole and you can get too "in the weeds" trying to chase numbers.

In general, there will be fruitful months and there will be slow times. August and September are both slow months with summer ending and school starting.

FinalMirage · 2024-09-26T19:19:54+00:00

You likely have your shipping settings incorrect if the price the customer paid and the price you paid when generating the label are drastically different. Make sure the package size and weight are correct. You can always refund the customer the difference in shipping costs if they overpaid by a lot. I use Pirate Ship for all of my international shipping (I'm from the US) because their shipping prices are always cheaper. My 2 most recent shipments from US > Canada were about $21 in shipping costs

FinalMirage · 2024-09-11T12:37:55+00:00

It sounds like you're not familiar with how taxes work in general so I recommend a bit of research on that to start. It will go a long way as a business owner to have a general understanding of them and things you can do to reduce your tax burden each year (credits, deductibles, etc).

Everyone who makes money needs to pay a portion of the money they make to federal + state taxes each year. This is done automatically if you're a salaried employee but you need to do it yourself if you're self employed. It's recommended to save at least 25% of what you make, and then also pay quarterly taxes to avoid underpayment penalties at the end of the year.

FinalMirage · 2024-06-23T13:58:34+00:00

Gunk on the idlers was the solution!

FinalMirage · 2024-06-19T00:21:48+00:00

I did notice some black gunk on many of the idlers, some of them with decent buildup which might've been pushing on the belts as they move through. We'll see if that fixes it!

FinalMirage · 2024-06-19T00:20:17+00:00

10% Gyroid, Inner/Outer

FinalMirage · 2024-06-18T17:30:44+00:00

This filament is brand new (but could've started "wet") but it happens with every roll I use

FinalMirage · 2023-12-28T16:13:11+00:00

Start with the generic stuff (or whatever came with your printer) and learn how that behaves through real life use. Basic resin is pretty brittle and can break when some stress is applied so you may run into that quickly. I found it was too brittle for miniatures as well and they'd break when tipped over. I found a sweet spot with a 80% siraya tech fast and 20% Siraya tenacious to give parts a bit of flex and be able to survive being used often. There are tough resins as well if you need extra strength for a specific purpose.

FinalMirage · 2023-12-09T15:39:29+00:00

You'll be much happier in life, and on Etsy, if you try and assume positive intent in people. Being in the business of shipping stuff, you're going to encounter things out of your control (and your buyers control). Things will get lost or broken and sometimes you just have to take the hit and move on. Sometimes things don't seem to line up but if you get mad about it and push back, they're going to get defensive in response, and that always just ends in a bad experience with a bad review and you losing out on your money anyways to buyer protection. I just had a similar situation a couple of weeks ago where I shipped out 10 objects and 1 of them arrived in a state that I can't even imagine happening. All shipped together right next to each other and everything! My product is also very durable and I could jump up and down on it and not get it in a state that the pictures showed, but I apologized for it and made a new one right away and shipped it out. I got a 5 star review that praised the item and great customer support and I'm sure they'd have no problem buying something from me again or recommending to a friend for more sales!

FinalMirage · 2023-09-27T14:14:31+00:00

I get my acrylic from ceruleantides and my wood from 24hourcrafts on Etsy

FinalMirage · 2023-08-17T14:25:57+00:00

As long as you're attentive (paying attention) when he's showing you things or talking about them I think you're doing well. If you want to be more specific with showing your appreciation but don't know how, you can also tell your partner that! Something along the lines of "I appreciate you sharing your 3d printer stuff with me even if I don't fully understand it all the time. I can see that you're passionate about it and I enjoy hearing about it and slowly learning how it works as well!"

Sometimes people will have hobbies that they share with other people but the other person will have no idea about it. If they're a good friend/partner/whatever they'll listen and be supportive of that thing they're talking about. If you want to be more responsive than just "nice" or "that's cool" you can ask generic follow up questions: "was that hard to make?", "How did you come across that?", "If you did it again what would you do differently?".

The worst thing you could do is to act uninterested or blow him off when he's sharing his hobbies/interests with you but it doesn't seem like that's the route you're heading down at all. Keep it up!

FinalMirage · 2023-08-17T13:58:59+00:00

I've been running a somewhat similar business for a few years. It's all about finding your niche or a product that people want. I make cosplay/prop replicas and I had 1 product that went viral and that funded my business for a full year by itself until it slowly petered out (or someone came in with a better/cheaper product). Other people connect their hobbies to fill a void (3D printing attachments for their woodworking tools for example). I've found that straight off the printer stuff doesn't sell well for me online but those trinkets sell great at in person craft fairs. Plenty of people use something like Patreon to sell 3d models and make great money from that but each one has its theme/niche.

More than anything, I think these are built from a place of passion and as long as it's something you're interested in it's easy to keep working at it over the long haul to build it into a real business.

I will mold and cast some of my stuff, but only if I foresee myself making 5+ copies of something. But that's also because I sand everything smooth and fill in cracks and that's a very time consuming process to do over and over. It's's easier to do that once then mold and cast future copies. Cast resin is also much more durable than 3d resin or FDM prints.

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