Best place to get 3d files printed?

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**usernamesareannoying**

So i can buy and find stl files but where can i go to print them and is it cheaper than buying them already printed instead of buying them this way?

Thoughts?

**Flinty**

I understand from other posters here that some libraries in the US have 3d printing services. Might be one near you.

I have a 3d printer soni dont need to use a commercial.service, however I looked at a couple of things.

taking shapeways as an example, getting 10 heads costs between £10 and £15. Getting 20 heads from pig iron costs £7.50.

Before I got my printer I looked up getting a 28mm tank printed and it was definately in the price range of GW tank miniature, so between £50 and £100.

If you feel like expanding your own hobby, printers are cheap.and pretty reliable now, but you need space, a PC and time to fiddle.

On the other hand, the market for on demand printing is increasing so costs will.come down further soon.

**CancelledApocalypse**

I recently printed a just over 8cm figure (which was admittedly quite detailed) through Shapeways and it cost nearly £100, so it's definitely not cheap. The problem I find with home 3D printers (and even some online companies that sell 3D printed bits, like Puppetswar) is that, even though the technology has come a long way, they still print with fine lines, which means you either have issues with painting on a surface that isn't properly smooth, or you have to find some time consuming way of 'finishing' the print (either sanding, melting or sealing somehow - all of which have issues - though other people can inform better than me on that). Shapeways print in a properly smooth plastic, which is superior to an SLA print, but is obviously expensive and not without issues of its own. Quite often you get frosting on one side of the plastic and occasionally that can be pretty severe - even to the point of making the print unusable (though I think they would refund or reprint in situations like that).

I haven't tried any other online printing services as yet, so I can't really comment on whether Shapeways is better or worse, or cheaper/more expensive than others.

**MDSW**

I have printed a number of pieces for people for a relatively low cost and they have turned out very well. I will say the STL file has a lot to do with the final outcome, as not all are as detailed as others. I will usually run my layer on the LCD printer at .02 with 2 anti-aliasing to super smooth and crisp results.

If you are looking to get a resin printer for minis they are in the mid-upper hundred dollars now - a real bargain. Just be sure to look at the x/y resolution which should be .050 or less (i.e. Elegoo Mars at .047). There are some 'bargain' resin printers that boast 16 levels of AA supposedly to compensate for a .075 or higher resolution. This this will simply give you really smooth blurred details!

**Danny76**

I was just wondering a similar thing for the UK.
I see load of cool Kickstarters that are stl files only, and think if only I knew someone to print them off for me, but don’t know of anyone with a printer.

Shapeways was the only one I had heard people mention, but from above that sounds expensive..

I guess knowing someone who has one but isn’t using it often is key, as you could just pay for resin and run it whenever they aren’t for a small cost.

**Flinty**

Anycubic's next generation entry level is on a preorder sale just now.

https://www.anycubic.com/collections/anycubic-photon-3d-printers/products/photon-mono-resin-3d-printer

Free delivery to the UK for about £160. Time to try it out?

**camsmclean**

Ask around your clubs. A friend I met at a FLGS does 3d printing for me now.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

If you want to pay to have a few minis printed Impact! Miniatures (in the USA) will do it for you and produces good quality prints for a reasonable price

https://www.impactminiatures.com/
https://www.facebook.com/impact.miniatures/

Impact! 3-D Printing Service

Have a file you'd like Impact! to 3-D print for you in very high quality durable (not brittle) resin at 1/20th of a mm of detail at 40% less and half the time of other popular 3-D printing services?
All you need to do is TWO steps: (if you do not finish the 2nd step I cannot print your file for you!)
1st - upload the files using this link: Upload File for 3-D printing here (https://www.dropbox.com/request/9aVlxnSXiAAfiotBwdAD) and then
2nd - fill out our 3-D print contact form (https://www.impactminiatures.com/formpage.html) with your information (specifically email and country).
If you do not hear from us about your print order in 3 days it means we did not get your form for the 2nd step so we have no way to contact you. So please email us or reach out to us on Facebook for your prints if that has happened.
I will get working on your prints as quickly as possible (most prints ship within 5 days of payment for the prints).
Normal unmounted heroes (like provided by services like Hero Forge cost $7 to $11 to print. Mounted figures and Centaurs (like on a horse or motorcycle) or normally $15 to $22. Shipping is a one time fee no matter how many prints are ordered and is $5 for orders going to the USA, $14 for Canada and $17 for Rest of World.
To save money on your print Impact! recommends not putting any name on the bottom of your base as it can easily add $1 or more to the cost to print your figurine.

clearly costs will mount up if you want a lot of minis done (and probably means buying your own printer might be sensible), but if you only want a few done and don't have any other access to a friend (or library etc) with a printer it's another option

**Tastyfish**

Craftcloud is also a price comparison site for UK based printers - you upload files and then a list of companies that can/will do the prints comes up.

I was looking at it for epic infantry, and interestingly whilst the price mounts up if you want 20+ done, more than that the increments that price goes up in get less and less (so 20 models was 20x the quite high price for 1 model but 40 wasn't too far off 20.)

**lord_blackfang**

Search for local creative communes. The terms you want are makerspace or fablab. You can often pay a monthly fee to use their machines and there will be people there who can do the techy work for you.

That said, printers are unbelievably cheap these days. Getting your own will always be the best option as long as your living arrangements allow.