3D Printing Cost Estimation: Material, Machine Time & Pricing

What you'll build

What you will be able to do

Each lab ends with a concrete result that you build yourself and the checker confirms, cell by cell.

• Turn slicer weights into material grams with support and waste, price them per kg, total the order and work out how many spools to buy.
• Build the cost per print hour of three printers from depreciation, electricity, maintenance and overhead, and see how fewer hours raise the rate.
• Correct slicer times, turn failure rates into expected attempts and price the machine time and material of one good plate, including what failures cost.
• Cost the hands-on work of a print job, from support removal to painting, add the one-off setup and find the labour cost per part.
• Add per-part costs and a setup charge into a job cost, price six quotes to a 40 % margin, round them, apply a minimum order value and show the price per part.
• Cost one plate for 1 to 12 parts, spread the plate costs over the parts, measure the saving and chart the cost-per-part curve.
• Compare the full cost of one order printed on FDM, on SLA or bought from a bureau, pick the cheapest and find from how many parts in-house SLA beats the bureau.
• Recost eight finished jobs with actual material, machine and labour hours, calculate profit and margin, compare SLA jobs and flag the jobs below the target margin.