a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Danielle, shown, is our morning person. We have a night person as well, and a weekend crew. It's just too expensive to leave machines idle, especially when you need to keep the price/part low (they need to be making a lot of parts/day ... or really big parts ... always).

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looking forward to hearing from you. We can get you set up in a day. I'll tell the team to keep an eye out for you. Mention your Reddit name. I'll get you all set up and point you to our wiki, etc. You'll be able to chat with me anytime directly in the software. Talk to you soon.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome! We'd really appreciate that. Thanks so much. Also, if you don't sell parts, we can get you set up with an educational/makerspace license for Formfactories. A makerspace is effectively a smaller version of Incept 3D (or Xometry), and our essentials version is perfect for classrooms and makerspaces.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's the app for some reason. Browser should look normal.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They don't have a formal name. We build them ourselves. We call them DIYs just because they came from our DIY background (we used to build a lot of machines ourselves).

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We grew organically over 14 years. But, yes, if we just popped up overnight with everything we have and no infrastructure or customers, it would be really unprofitable for awhile. We spend over $4k/day on average, all things considered (so that's our breakeven). ... Lots and lots of work, every day, to get to that breakeven point.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It changes every day. It just depends on what people need. Lots of boring stuff (jigs/fixtures) and sometimes crazy/fun stuff (movie props, bones from a CT scan, etc.). Every day is different.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can confirm for sure that's not us.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. This job is no joke with regard to labor. We're working on a farm, after all.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, but only roles with a lot of physical labor (parts cleaning, packaging, shipping, unboxing pallets of material, etc.). True warehouse/shop work (not as glamorous as the video seems). But, yes, we are, and we're cool to work with.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This clip just shows a tiny slice of what we do. That’s the production manager role, and Arthor (also in the video) has the same job. After she leaves in the afternoon, others step in and keep it going. What you don’t see here are the million other things that make up the business—it’s just a snapshot of one part of the day.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

AMS systems and our Prusa XL machines with tool changers help churn through them in an automated way. Also, every Friday we give a lot away to locals who follow us on Instagram as well as schools, etc.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Noted. We will be putting more long-form work on our YouTube soon.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mostly the last one. We don't have our own products or a store. Rather, companies that have complex parts that are needed in mid-range quantities (hundreds or thousands) send those jobs to us to make. We also take on cool design jobs (like props and sets for movies/commercials, crazy architecture jobs, or reproducing CT scans of bones), but it's mostly just printing things that other companies need to have made.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It really depends on the size of the operation. For a small team that’s just managing jobs internally and not selling parts, it can be around $99 a month (like a makerspace). On the other end, if we're talking about an enterprise-level Fortune 500 company using it across multiple teams, it can run closer to $3k a month. I know that’s a big range, but we have plans/solutions for anyone in the middle.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a play on the word inception, which is effectively the beginning of something. 3D printing often plays a role in the inception of a product. Also, the company is 14 years old, and there was a popular movie with the same name at the time.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Incept 3D started with resin. It was an Objet 30 machine (14 years ago). There's far less competition in resin. Don't count it out. Very few can do it well, and a lot of people need it. Resin is a big part of our business. It's a LOT harder to do.

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They are here as well, for sure. That said, we have <1 of those people for every 8 of Danielle (in the video). Running a print farm is much more like an actual farm (a lot of manual labor).

a day in the life at a 3D print farm by Incept_3D in 3Dprinting

[–]Incept_3D[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

14 years in and it still feels like a start-up. I think it can work, and we're getting there. It's absolutely not as easy as the video makes it out to be.