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Can you print money with a 3d printer
Can 3D Printers Be Used To Print Money? – Printing It 3D
3D printers can be used to print multiple types of objects, including toys, machine parts, and even medical devices. It may seem like they can print virtually anything. But can 3D printers be used to print money?
3D printers can’t be used to print money. Printed money has a different surface texture that 3D printers cannot duplicate. Currency is also printed with unique designs to prevent counterfeiting, so replicating those security features can be challenging and illegal.
In this article, I’ll examine why 3D printers can’t be used to print money and how money is printed. Keep reading to learn more.
Why Printing Money With a 3D Printer Is Not Possible
3D printers, or additive manufacturing (AM) machines, can create three-dimensional objects by building them up layer by layer. This technology is revolutionizing how we design and manufacture many types of objects.
And while machines that are capable of printing currency do exist, there’s no device yet capable of replicating banknotes with security features printed on them, including watermarks and special inks only visible under ultraviolet light. For these reasons, a 3D printer cannot print a banknote that presents the same texture and appearance as a real bill.
Most 3D printers may not be able to handle ink either. Many currencies use multiple colors on their banknotes to add further complexity to the design, making it difficult to copy.
For example, U.S. banknotes have a mix of dark green and black ink on them. These inks help create the intricate designs and patterns that you see on each banknote. So, even if a 3D printer was able to imitate the texture of a banknote if it’s still unable to handle ink, it likely won’t be able to print detailed graphics on each banknote.
At the same time, 3D printers have been used to print coins and can even emboss the prints, so they look nearly identical to real coins. However, this doesn’t mean you should make 3D copies of your pocket change, as it could have severe consequences.
Consequences of Counterfeit Money
While it’s true that there is an increasing number of 3D printers entering homes and becoming more affordable, they aren’t being used to print money.
Attempting to print currency with a 3D printer isn’t only dangerous for the user but also criminal.
Counterfeiting is a serious crime that is punishable under the law. Therefore, you should refrain from using your 3D printer to make counterfeit currency.
There are also no materials available that can replicate printed money’s exact look and feel. And if new security features are added to currency, such as micro-images or metal components, it’s doubtful that these could be completely replicated with a 3D printer either.
How Is Money Printed?
Money is printed in various ways, from hand-held bills to massive printing presses. The currency is printed at two facilities: the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C., and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Virginia.
Money is printed using a printing press. Metal plates containing the design are pressed against pressure rollers that force ink onto the blank paper through fine screens.
Paper currency passes through multiple steps to acquire its unique and colorful designs.
After being printed on sheets of paper, bills are then cut into individual notes that have their edges roughed up so they can’t be re-used. Finally, each bill is inspected for quality before being released into circulation.
Banks use specialized machines to count stacks of money, which prevents them from being stolen or damaged during transport. This allows cashiers at businesses to take only small amounts of cash out at a time, keeping large quantities of money secure.
The Future of Printing Money
Today, most countries around the world use banknotes made with cotton fibers for paper bills. We may see governments begin to explore other options with regard to this material, though, which could lead to the implementation of alternate materials into banknote creation in the future.
Printing money with 3D printers would be difficult if it were to be attempted using today’s technology. As mentioned previously, these devices cannot replicate the subtle colors used on banknotes and tactile features that help prevent counterfeiting.
Other Uses for 3D Printers
While the technology isn’t yet capable of replicating money for counterfeiting purposes, 3D printers can be used to create a variety of items that allow designers and engineers to test prototypes faster.
Additionally, AM processes enable manufacturers to build products more efficiently with less waste, reducing finished goods inventories significantly. 3D printers can make prototypes and manufacture items such as medical implants or customized prosthetics.
3D Printers are also used to make tools and parts for personal use or gifting. But is there anything else 3D printers can print?
3D Printers Can Print Play Money
While they shouldn’t be used to try and print real currency, 3D printers can safely be used to print plastic tokens, coins, or chips. They can be helpful if you want to print play money for children, collection purposes, or to accommodate board games.
You can also use a 3D printer to print any other important board game pieces that have gone missing, such as figurines.
To learn more about printing play money, such as coins, check out this YouTube video:
Conclusion
3D printing technology has been used to create objects from computer models. However, 3D printers can’t be used to print money because they can’t replicate the surface texture of paper bills. They also can’t imitate the security features on most banknotes.
Although it is possible to print coins with a 3D printer, attempting to print fake currency is illegal and could land you in a lot of trouble.
Therefore, if you’re going to print any money using your 3D printer, make sure it’s play money, such as board game tokens.
How to make money with a 3d printer?
How profitable is 3D printing?
But first, let's answer this question.
Can you really make money with a 3D printer?
The answer is yes and no. It depends on the niche that you serve. If you're 3D printing for the general consumer, then your profit margin might not be high because it's for personal use. Consumers love cheap stuff. You'll barely cover your cost because of the amount of labor required to finish just one job. But if you're serving clients where 3D printing solves a costly problem that they have, then they are more willing to pay you a lot more to solve it for them.
Here's what we mean by that.
Scenario A: Joe is looking to 3D print a door handle because his door handle broke.
Scenario B: Amanda is looking to 3D print a prototype of a product she plans to sell on Kickstarter.
Believe it or not, we get a lot of Joe's looking to get a quote for their missing appliance part. And most of them are surprised by how expensive 3D printing is and why can't it be as a cheap as Amazon!
We turn them away.
Cheap clients are not worth your time.
Best entry level 3D Printer
Don't have a 3D printer already?
Phrozen Sonic Mini 4k 3D Printer
Check out this Phrozen Sonic Mini which is very popular among 3D printed miniatures enthusiasts.
$349.99 from Phrozen3D
Commisions earned
Different ways to make money with 3D printing
We've listed a couple of ways you can make money with a 3D printer. Some of these ideas are really good, some of them are bad. But we're listing them any way and it's up to you to make that decision if it's even worth considering.
Let's dive right in!
1. Sell pre-made 3D prints on Etsy
Etsy is one of the biggest marketplace for 3D printing. A lot of 3D printing hobbyists and even professional gravitate towards Etsy because of its large audience who are into handcrafted stuff. Some of them have even made a name for themselves on Etsy, whether that's selling pre-made items with a little bit of customization or selling full on 3D printed objects.
When we were starting out back in 2016, we were the first ones to start selling 3D printed planters. Made boatloads of money but ultimately had to stop because of copyright issues. But also partly, because it wasn't where we imagined company .
Remember how we said cheap clients aren't worth your time. On Etsy, you will encounter a lot of cheap clients.
Pros
- Quick way to validate your 3D printing idea
- Benefit from Etsy's huge audience
- Running ads are cheaper compared to Google
List of 3D printed products that you can sell on Etsy:
D&D miniatures
Planters
Vase
Freezing Bernie
How do you choose which products to sell?
On Etsy, you will see a lot of people selling different variations of the same thing - planters, iphone holder, headphone holder, etc.
Why?
Because these things sell!
Like it or not, Etsy will be full of copycats and originality doesn't matter.
If your product sells, people will copy it. (And vice versa)
How can you stand out on Etsy?
There's a lot you can do to stand out, but here are some of the common ones that we hear over and over again.
Offer something unique that differentiates your product. Whether that's offering higher quality 3D print (resin), custom finishing, etc.
Avoid competing for price. It becomes
Ask your happy clients to leave a review
Take high quality product photos
2. Offer a specialized 3D printing
This comes down to finding a niche that you're comfortable to work with or if there's enough margin for you to be profitable.
Here's a list of niches you can offer your 3D printing services to:
Tabletop Miniatures
Toy Designers
Jewelry Designers
Architecture firms
Engineering firms for prototyping services
Pros
- You can standardize your process
- Repeatable business
- Easier to master one industry than be a jack of all trades
- You can become a known expert in that industry
3.
Start a 3D printing business in your local areaWe'll start off by saying that starting a 3D printing business is the most difficult thing to do out of all the other ideas on this list.
Pros
- Potential for high profits
- Local advantage over online only 3D printing companies
We were fortunate that we were located in NYC, where there is huge demand for 3D printing, and that we started in the early days when 3D printing was still new.
We're not saying this because we don't want you to compete with us, but we're saying this because we want you to know the risks involved in the 3D printing business. Many 3D printing companies have gone out of business because they could not make a sustainable profit to keep the lights on.
The amount of work that you have to put in on fulfilling custom orders is a lot. If you don't opt for an automated system, you end up doing a lot of back and forth with clients. And if you do opt in for these instant quoting systems, you can get a lot of low end jobs and lose out on clients with a very custom need.
The real money in offering a 3D printing service, especially if your a small business, is if you can differentiate yourself from merely becoming a commodity.
For us, we had to become more than just a 3D printing service. It sounds corny, but that was the reality. We had to offer other services that would add value to 3D printing. For example, a marketing agency came to us for 3D printed trophy in 24k gold. But we know that we can't 3D print gold. We can either tell them to take it to a metal plating shop or we can do it ourselves and charge on top of it.
We can charge a lot more because:
We're taking all the risk. If that metal plating fails, we have to 3D print again.
We're making their lives so much easier by being an expert at this field.
And if they're on a really tight deadline, we can charge even more because we're guaranteeing results.
Clients who care more about their time and results are willing to pay you a lot if you can deliver.
So we've partnered with a local metal plating company and later on started offering metal plating services for 3D printing.
Having capabilities more than 3D printing will allow you to charge more than just the 3D print by itself.
Whether that's painting, or creating molds. Whatever it is, you need to find the right clients.
Bonus: Offer 3D scanning services
3D scanning and printing services are perfect way to increase money you can make from owning 3D printer. Although this would require buying a 3D scanner, it's a good option to think about when increasing your chances of landing a 3D printing client.
4. Sell your 3D printing designs
Making money with 3D printing isn't only limited to running your 3D printer 24 hours a day. You can also make money from selling 3D models!
This might be hard if you don't have any design skills. You can either learn or hire a designer on Fiverr or Upwork.
Pros
- You can make money while you sleep
- More scaleable than running a 3D printing business
Patreon Business Model
Here's how it works.
People pay you an X amount every month for you to publish 3D models for them.
This business model is very popular among the tabletop miniature community.
The above picture is from LordOfThePrint's Patreon. They're one of the popular designers focused on building 3D designs for tabletop gaming. They currently have 1,933 subscribers as of this writing. Assuming only 5% of that is merchants, (about 100) that's $3,866 of monthly recurring revenue!
Take this WallStreetBets 3D model by ChaosCoreTech for example. We spent $50 to have the rights to sell their design for a month. Imagine having 10 Etsy sellers wanting to sell your 3D model. That's have $500 of passive income every month for a few hours of design work!
Merchants/Etsy sellers are great target to sell your 3D models to because:
They'll use it to make more money
They know that your 3D model would print properly because you also know how to 3D print. You might also include supports to make it easier for them
You can show them how it would like 3D printed, thus, making it even easier to sell.
Marketplace Business Model
Some prefer to sell their designs as one-off product that people can just buy online without having to subscribe monthly.
Places where you can sell your 3D models
MyMiniFactory
CGTrader
TurboSquid
5. Start a YouTube Channel
We know that this is easier said than done. Creating content requires time, effort and consistency. With the amount of 3D printing related youtube channels out there, it might be hard to stand out.
But we're not here to stop you from starting your own channel. We're just here to tell you that you can make money with it.
Pros
- Potential for high earnings
- You can use your audience to make more money aside from YouTube Ads
6. Sell an online 3D printing course
If your confident enough with your 3D printing skills and you have knack for teaching others, then selling an online course about 3D printing can
What should you teach?
Again, you need to find a problem where people are willing to pay money for.
If you search "3D printing" on Udemy, you'll find 3D printing courses that people are paying for.
It doesn't have to be "how to operate a 3D printer", it can be a course on "how to operate a profitable 3D printing business". With this strategy, you'll attract clients who are willing to pay money to make more money.
Pros
- Passive income
The following ideas are not so good
So you can probably skip to the end if you wish to.
7. Rent your 3D printer for events
With the pandemic and all, this is probably not a good idea. But it's still an idea right?
The business is very similar to a photo booth. A bar mitzvah will hire you for 3 hours to 3D print keychains for them.
But 3D printing takes a long time. They are going to complain that you didn't 3D print for everyone.
Yup, bad idea.
8. Sell your 3D printer
You can quickly make money if you sell the 3D printer you just bought.
Guaranteed.
All jokes, aside
9. 3D print the word "money"
You will literally make "money" with a 3D printer with this strategy.
In summary
Yes, you can make money with a 3D printer. And there are a lot of ways that you can do it, whether that's selling 3D printed items, digital goods, or even offering a 3D printing service in your local area. Is it easy to make money 3D printing? It's not. You still need to work hard(and smart) to become successful in the 3D printing business.
How to make money with a 3D printer
August 12, 2019, 20:44 7314
3D printing becomes more accessible. Four years ago, the cheapest consumer 3D printer cost about $1,000. Today, some budget models can be purchased for $250, and a DIY printer kit can cost around $100.
It would seem that the era of truly affordable 3D printing has begun.
But no. Most people are in no hurry to buy a printer. To the average user, it still seems like a strange exotic. This is due to two factors. Firstly, the average user is extremely rarely faced with the need to create some kind of three-dimensional object. Secondly, to work with a 3D printer, it is desirable to have at least basic skills in working with three-dimensional models. In general, it is a bit more difficult to use than other computer peripherals.
However, as real experience shows, a 3D printer can turn into a source of additional income or help small businesses grow. Here are some ways you can make money with a 3D printer.
Print to order
If you type in the phrase “3D printing” in the search box, you will immediately find many small companies providing such services. However, the 3D printing market is still very young, which means there is room for competition.
Custom 3D printing can be in demand in a variety of industries. If your city has a high school of technology, your clients may be students who want to create 3D models for their projects.
If you find a table war games club nearby, its regulars will bombard you with orders of various miniature figurines. The official versions of these figurines can be incredibly expensive, so 3D printer owners who offer the product at lower prices are highly sought after in the desktop strategist community.
Prototyping
Hardware technology startups always start with prototype development. But whatever your device, ordering a case or mechanical components for it from third-party manufacturers is very expensive. After all, at the design stage we are talking about single copies that can undergo many changes.
The 3D printer is a great way out. It allows you to create a prototype for a relatively small price, which you are not ashamed to show to investors or put on a crowdfunding platform. If you take a look at Kickstarter, you will see that most gadget prototypes on this platform are made using 3D printing. And already at the stage of mass production, their creators order components in batches somewhere in China.
Creation of merchandise
Even a small company can use merchandise to increase brand awareness and popularity. A merchandiser is understood as goods related to the main product: figurines, key chains and other similar trifles. If we are talking about a growing business, such trinkets can be offered to customers for free as gifts. If the brand is already recognizable, there may be people who want to buy such souvenirs separately. One way or another, related products can be printed for your company, or you can offer printing services to other small firms.
Business promotion
3D printing makes business memorable. For example, it can be used to create three-dimensional business cards. Against the background of standard cardboard cards, plastic ones will look very original.
The 3D printer brought to the exhibition is guaranteed to attract the attention of guests to your stand. As already mentioned, for most people, 3D printing is still exotic.
This means that interested customers will be spinning around you all the time. The funny thing is that this technique works not only at technology exhibitions. Unusual technology attracts attention everywhere. So even if you sell honey, you can easily put a 3D printer near you and give away souvenirs in the form of miniature plastic bees to customers.
How to make money with 3D printing?・Cults
3D printing has completely changed the world of design. The discovery of 3D printers offers innovative entrepreneurs new ways to make money with their creativity. You can print a lot of commercial objects that have a high market value. Owning 3D printers is a real help for those who want to make money online. Learn how to make money with 3D printing in this guide.
This is one of the fastest ways to start your business. Designing models for 3D printing is a rather complicated technology even for owners of 3D printers. They are willing to pay for professionally designed 3D printing files to create their model.
3D model designers have the opportunity to earn money by selling their creations online. Aside from being a hobby, 3D printed models can become a livelihood.
There are many sites where you can sell 3D printable models to hobbyists and printer owners. The Cults site, for example, is home to strong community of 3D printer owners. This makes it easier for 3D print modellers to find buyers for their creations. This very active community is constantly looking for great OBJ or STL 3D models. Therefore, you can earn money from your 3D models by creating an account on our website. You then upload 3D print files to attract potential buyers.
On Cults, the designer earns about 80% of the selling price of his designs. Our site takes a commission of 20% of the sale price of the print to cover technical management costs. You set the selling price of your creations yourself, so you can easily make money with your 3D printer. When selling files for 3D printing, choosing the path through Cults3D , you will earn money, and this is from the first sale.
There are many buyers on the Internet today who want to purchase 3D printed objects. You have the opportunity to make money quickly by creating 3D parts that are sold to various clients. Earn money by showing off your creations. You can also create a website to showcase your details.
Small businesses that want to generate leads often choose Shopify. To make money with a 3D printer , you also have the option to receive direct orders from customers. They will tell you what objects they need and you will take care of the 3D printing. Use your creativity and offer your services to the market in your area.
For example, you can start selling a series of 3D printed vases with different designs and colors. If you take care to respect the license to distribute your works, you will be able to open your online business and earn rewards for your creations. However, you must ensure that you are registered as a self-employed person with the local tax authorities.
This is a great way to make money with 3D printing. Today it is a very popular service. Professionals in the field of construction, architecture and engineering sometimes urgently need the services of prototyping . You can create prototypes for various clients with a 3D printer. The contractor will then use the prototype for series production.
Rapid prototyping services are very popular among professionals due to their many benefits. Prototypes created using 3D printing reduce the possibility of errors in the design process. Plus, printing costs less and offers more options. This means that you can easily make money with your 3D printer.
The 3D printer is also used by automotive designers to prototype car parts. Prototypes, made on the 3D printer, will be used to test various features on new models.
Mastering a 3D printer can be a great way to make money. You can use your tech and 3D printing skills to teach classes to people who want to learn.
