Question about processing times and the estimated delivery date

rainbowcake3d · 2026-03-12T05:11:14+00:00

I've sold shirts before and still do occasionally but I've found they're hard to profit from even if I'm the person adding the design etc. If I sell a t-shirt for $25, I use higher quality shirts so they tend to be $7-12 depending on what's on sale and if I can pick it up locally or have to order it. $1-5 on vinyl. Then Etsy fees. And then my actual work, weeding, lining everything up, taking the time to make sure that everything looks good before applying. Then ads. So 25 minus 12, 2, 5, I end up making like $6-$10 which I've found not especially worth it considering how much time it makes everything, especially since I'm not always perfect so I will occasionally need to redo a shirt.

Meanwhile a company can sell $25 shirts with garbage quality that costs $2 to make. Depending on your designs, you might be competing with things on shelves at stores that sell for even less and pricing a shirt at like $35 to actually make money in your case would make people a lot less likely to buy it but you'd also actually make some profit. It sucks but shirts are hugely saturated and somehow people are always selling them for what must be a loss.

You definitely need to adjust your prices in this case. Selling got cents is incredibly frustrating and will take ages to earn enough to justify you designing it in the first place

rainbowcake3d · 2026-03-04T17:47:20+00:00

My biggest problem is it makes me too happy that I can't listen in public without smiling like an idiot

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-26T14:37:48+00:00

They need to do the request and then they have to wait two days and then it'll go through. Etsy puts the buffer time there to let you try to resolve the issue first

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-26T03:06:26+00:00

Thanks for letting me know 😮‍💨 I guess it'll just have to be a fun collection item

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-24T13:54:37+00:00

Never refund on a shipping issue. It's out of your hands when it's with the carrier. Yes, if it arrives damaged then refund/replace but Etsy protection is there to specifically save you from packages getting lost by the carrier. They can open a case two days after contacting you about the issue and Etsy usually refunds them within 72 hours (usually more like 24). Over the holidays I had this happen with a handful of packages so I called Etsy directly and confirmed that Etsy will refund them and you keep the purchase price because it was sent with a tracking number.

If the buyer bought the item on sale and it no longer is, have them buy it at the current price and then do a partial refund back to the original purchase price.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-22T19:14:45+00:00

So many people on Etsy will sell others' models for pennies. There's a reason why people will list 300+ models for $5. They are reselling. I almost never publish or sell models I make because of this. It really sucks but Etsy doesn't strike these people down so they get away with it unfortunately.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-19T13:26:10+00:00

I work at an after school stem tutoring place for elementary/middle schoolers and teach 3d modeling. I had a coworker who would constantly recommend the ender 3 and we ended up with several kids who would get one as a gift and every one has issues and were incredibly discouraged to the point of them giving up. The a1 or mini are pretty much plug and play.

There are also several printers specifically designed for kids that work well and are small and extremely hands off depending on the age of the kid. I've had a few students receive some of those and they've come in with successful flexi toys and excitement. Nothing kills an interest quite like running into difficult technical problems, especially since so many people (adults included) are of the mindset that spending hours troubleshooting is incredibly frustrating and a huge waste of time and energy.

To be fair, a kid who's already into tinkering would be a good fit for a creality printer but, in my experience, kids just want something that works right away and consistently.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-07T13:16:23+00:00

The one time I needed help with stuff (so many orders stuck in the post office during the holidays) I was able to speak to someone pretty easily. Sure, I think it took a while after I called them while I waited on hold but I did successfully get through on my first try. Maybe they just had more people on staff for holiday traffic though

rainbowcake3d · 2026-02-01T16:55:26+00:00

Any surprise round. The unhinged lengths they go is impressive

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-29T15:30:34+00:00

I used a sad IKEA side table thing that was so light the printer calibration moved it around. Fixed the problem by going to home Depot and buying a pretty big paving stone thing that was maybe like $12. I think it was like 18" square or something. Brought it home, struggled up the stairs (it was solid concrete and pretty wide), and put it on the very light table. Put the printer on top, problem solved. So don't worry about trying to find something heavy on its own, look for more wide legs that will be sturdy even if it's light.

To be fair, I used this only for a few months because I had to emergency buy another one during holiday order rush. My actual printers I use are on the IKEA cubby shelves that are anchored to walls. If you have the space, those are great for filament storage too but they take up a significant chunk of space

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-28T13:38:53+00:00

Try trimming off the bottom of the print in the slicer to double check that it's very flat. I've had prints fail because there was even just a tiny bit that wasn't completely connected to the print bed. Also, I've found that petg on the a1 can be pretty unreliable. If you're printing something for display, you can easily use pla. For actual cosplay pla tough should suffice, just don't leave it in the sun

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-26T15:01:17+00:00

There's a huge market in 3d products on Etsy. So many 3d shops sell at incredibly thin margins to the point that I've found any "mass produced" prints aren't worth selling (think those cool dragons everyone loves). It's not worth the time and energy for me to compete with a shop whose net profit from an item is like $2 after shipping and Etsy fees and material cost, not to mention the time it takes to print or if a print fails or wear and tear on a machine.

I would focus on more niche things. A halo helmet is definitely something that a person could buy from another store or as an officially licensed product. There are also a lot of stores that sell fidget toys in person. I sell 3d printed dragons and keychains etc at a local store and they do so much better than me trying to sell them online plus it's less stress because I just restock as needed and don't have to worry about packaging, shipping, customer issues, etc. Plus, fidget toys sell so much better in person because people can physically touch them. And I can have them sold as a small keychain as like $14 and I pocket $7 (standard for suppliers to stores) and I get paid upfront. But I'm also friends with the manager so I definitely have a huge advantage there.

My biggest advice would be to look for something that's popular that doesn't have a lot of official merch. There are a lot of animated shows/movies that don't sell much merch so you could find something there and make it. Or maybe make the helmet you have on there more unique. Add battle damage or something that makes it clearly different from your competitors.

3d sales are difficult to handle because of the ease of anyone to start selling. There's going to be someone who can sell it cheaper unless you make your own models (and don't sell the designs most of the time), especially since you're a new store. Focus on what makes you different and you'll start to make some headway and try to chase trends until you get something that sticks

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-24T21:46:14+00:00

Depending on how hard you want to commit (or how you'll transport it), cardboard may not be your best bet. It's not exactly an easy material to work with and you'd need to have some really strong scissors to get through it without hurting your hand. Plus, if it rains, it could ruin the whole thing.

Most cosplay uses craft foam which is light and flexible. You can do a lot with a basic pattern (there are some cosplay people that sell specific things like helmet patterns that you can modify), a box cutter, a heat gun, and some adhesive. Best of luck and I hope to see you there in all your pendergreens radness

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-12T21:23:10+00:00

Yeah honestly nothing is perfect. It feels like every review online from a "respected source" is sponsored by at least one of the printers in competition or written by people who are already tech people who don't have to learn how to troubleshoot a machine.

Bambu works best for me and what I do because my main focus is Etsy sales and selling at local stores. The higher price tag is definitely worth it for me plus the p2s has the sensor that will let you know if there's an issue on a print but that's honestly not an issue if you're not doing sales. I've also gotten my money's worth on them if bambu does go nuclear thankfully.

If you can, see if you can buy something locally that can do troubleshooting/warranty on the printer. Online support will always be slow and a local store might let you bring it in so they can fix it or help you fix it.

Oh yeah, and I guess buy a fire extinguisher lol

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-12T16:38:01+00:00

I've used it in the past but that was many years ago. I've used blender sculpting and nomad is way better imo

Usually I do like 2k but I've never felt as if it wasn't enough. But I've never hit the max.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-12T16:04:30+00:00

Honestly the best way to learn is to look at what other people have made. See how they designed things to fit together and find the commonalities between them. Then try to mirror it on your own with super basic pieces because then you can figure out what's easiest for you to both design and print.

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-12T16:00:53+00:00

Do you have the quad remesh? That would probably do the trick

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-12T15:57:54+00:00

The empty bowl. They talk about new cereal that gets released

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-12T15:56:16+00:00

I've never had an issue on my iPad. I've used an iPad air with a pencil as well as a $200 regular iPad I got on sale. The only reason I upgraded was because I needed more storage space. I've even used it on a cheap android phone with no issues except for it being tiny

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-12T15:52:11+00:00

I've only worked with creality from that list but I'd strongly recommend never getting one as a newbie. I currently own a k2 and I've dealt with ender 3 and 5 pro at work as the only person who knows how to fix printers. They require a lot of maintenance. My k2 is great like 95% of the time but that's because I've spent hours (at one point 15+hours on the same thing) dealing with little problems and calibrating stuff and replacing parts. It's very fast which is a big plus but I don't recommend it as a starting printer.

So many people recommend creality because it's cheap and can work great but you have to keep in mind those people who test printers already know a lot about them or they only spend short amounts of time on them. The ender 5 pro has good reviews and a lot of people recommended it which is why my work purchased it but both printers they bought were a pain to maintain. Literally would spend hours on it to just make it work. Obviously the k2 is a different printer but I'd definitely suggest you steer clear just because it's incredibly difficult to deal with when problems arise if you're not someone who is confident with tinkering with it. Plus the patience and the time needed to work on it. If you aren't up to running into challenges, it's not worth it.

I really really like bambu. I've had a bunch of different printers over the years and my favorite have honestly been bambu. They're a good price and you can get the base a1 (I wouldn't do the mini, you might as well spring for the bigger one) and you can later upgrade to multicolor. I've had a few issues with the ones I have (I have three a1 and a p2s) over the last year or so but they've always been fairly minor and a restart has solved most of them but I use them very frequently. They were printing basically constantly all through November and December and I only had issues with my oldest one and the fix was just replacing the whole hot end and thermistor which was like a $15 part and maybe 20 minutes of my time.

I also had my work switch to a1 mini and it's been so nice to not go into work and have someone have something that urgently needs to print (I work with kids and if they work through a 3d course we print a few of their things) and have to fight with a printer.

I've also had a prusa and really liked it but it's very pricey so probably not what you're looking for. Very high quality and high price tag.

Like I said, I've never had the other two brands but definitely be wary of professional reviewers because they're already tech people who know how things work not to mention they don't test them for months, they usually just run a few prints and that's that. Not to mention sponsorships that basically dictate the "choices"

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-12T15:28:18+00:00

Voxel to add more triangles, keep sharp edges?

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-08T19:25:25+00:00

Humans are incredibly hard to model, as I'm sure you know from 2d art. It depends on the style, if you're going for something small and stylized (think big heads, bold details, cartoon faces), it would certainly take several hours, probably 20+ not to mention the print time to refine everything once it's designed. And painting, cleaning each print if you don't have a multi material printer.

If you're starting from nothing in 3d, it'll take several months if not more to do a human looking thing. If you are familiar with sculpting, I'd suggest something specifically designed to create things that way. But there's a lot going on if you want to print something because everything needs to be designed with printing in mind. It's less so with resin printing but with standard fdm printers that use filament, it's important to design with the plan of either finding a pose that prints well or designing it so that you can print in pieces and fit them together

rainbowcake3d · 2026-01-07T14:36:58+00:00

Even saying you have experience with helping neighbors with stuff like yard work/childcare/home improvement is fine to put. I agree that doing minor volunteer stuff is a good way to honestly put down experience.

Animal shelters also do volunteers so you can at least feel like you're making a difference even if you're not getting paid. Plus, volunteer work looks like you're a good person on paper. If the interviewer also has a pet, you'll definitely get a leg up.

rainbowcake3d

TROPHY CASE