Welcome to the Replimat!
"Replimat is well known for it's wide varieties of exotic thermoplastic delights"
(If you knew what the name is from without Google, you win 1000 geek points)
Ever since I got a MakerBot I've been determined to make this 3D printer "hobby" pay for itself. Although I've sold a few things on eBay, I'm a long way from that goal. I wanted to open up a shop to sell my services. Tonight I finally settled on a name and registered http://replimat.com. (I also registered http://replimart.com just in case (Earl Grey Fabrication was a close third)) I was on a roll and brushed off my Photoshop skills and made a logo that I'm kind of happy with. Right now the website just redirects to the Etsy shop I started. I added some Wade Extruders for sale based on a super secret formula I came up with to calculate what I think is a fair price based on the skeinforge statistics output of an STL file. I'm curious to see what Etsy thinks of me selling these. Technically they are sort of handmade... by a robot... and there is precedence where another person sold items made on a MakerBot.
I'm also really curious to see if CloudFab takes off. It's an interesting service that still seems to be under development. Using CloudFab you can register as a Seller and then people with 3D designs can post a request for Sellers to bid on a price to fabricate their object. Kind of like a crowd sourced Shapeways. It could be a great way for 3D printer hobbyist to make some money. One thing I think it is missing is a way for a seller to offer specific objects for sale. With Etsy I can sell pre-made objects and Etsy also has what they call Alchemy Requests where people can request that someone make something and people can bid on fulfilling that request. (as well as private requests to a specific seller) So you could goto my store and click Request Custom Item and ask me for a quote to print your 3D design. That could serve the same purpose as CloudFab, although CloudFab is optimized for making 3D fabrication requests...
Do you have a 3D design you'd like to have printed cheaply? Do you have an idea that needs low quality rapid prototyping? Request a quote from the Replimat! My MakerBot has children to feed!
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