It is my pleasure to announce Dynamic Z, a proposal to open a true retail store for everyday consumers, 3D Printing enthusiasts, and business professionals.
We are excited for the prospect of being one of the first retail locations for 3D Printing AND Scanning, both as a service to print models for people, and also to be a local seller of filament and spare parts. We want to be heavily involved in the maker community as well, since the technology is ever changing.
I personally, as the founder of the project have a few ideas which I hope will be useful, such as splitting up filament sales into smaller quantities than 1 Kilo at a time, for people who just want to experiment with a color/material.
We plan to have live video-streams of prints and want to have a bit of R&D as well.
I’m pretty sure that in any city where a 3d printing store might be viable, the lease for the storefront and even the mildest renovations to get that old laundromat smell out will cost more than 28k… Plus machines, and salaries for the first X months before it’s profitable? Unless your employees will work for free 28k isn’t going to come close to cutting it.
I have tried to ensure that all of the facts regarding the project are clearly displayed on the site. If you want a further cost breakdown, I can show you, though I am receiving small funding from other sources, so this $28K is NOT all-inclusive, it includes exactly what I’ve listed on the site. If you choose not to fund the project, I have no issues, that’s your choice naturally.
What do you plan to do about the extensive time a print takes? Are customers expected to come in, start the print, and then come back a few hours later once it’s finished?
Are they expected to do that? No, they CAN do that if they choose to do so, or they can order a print online and pick it up later in the day. This is not much different than ordering a pair of glasses custom made, or in the old days, having photographs developed. Clearly many prints will be time-consuming and we’ve planned for that, which is why the bare minimum number of printers we plan to have is 3. A similar setup in Denver, CO has two Makerbot Rep 2’s and a Stratasys printer, and their concept seems to be doing well so far.