pic: Bad Brad with a 3D Print

[Greg Needel]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

What is the ballpark price range on a rapid prototyped part? I'm completely unfamiliar with how much this actually costs, but I always come up with things I'd love to get printed. How much would something roughly the size of a softball cost?

[THIS IS NOT AN AD, as we do not do commercial parts]

I can't speak for brad but I work with the rapid prototype machines at RIT(we have the same one as brad, plus a few others) Typically we don't work with outside companies, but have been known to throw a few parts in as favors from time to time. When we bill inter-departmentally we charge $15 per hour the machine is running and about $20 per square inch of material. So for example that sculpture that brad made would have cost $509.35 (24.25 hours to print and contains 7.78 cubic inches of material)

now obviously in a university environment we have some flexibility with the billing, and take into account past parts and departmental relationships.