3DPrinting

I would put it in the same class as lathes or mills you probably aren't saving money by buying one but it may open more avenues for you.

I will say though with the price of printers vs mills & etc, a cheap printer will get you much closer to breaking even. You might save more than you spend if you can use an Ender 3 judicially but overall it's mostly for those odd projects or when a custom part is needed.

So my printer (elegoo neptune 4 pro) is 300-400 I think and the filament is nearing $200 now. Printers are cheap, filament cost accumulates.

I print all kinds of usefull stuff.
Custom installation panel for after market navigator/media center for my car, upholstery fasteners for the same, custom panels for usb button box, cable organizers for lan cabling, newspaper reading stand, you name it.
Might not be financially feasible, but it's fun.

Yes, I just finished printing a rudder core for my sailboat.

For all the headache its caused, its also saved me from several trips to the store to find cable ties, chip clips, a hair dryer holder, pencil cups, spice racks, etc.

Honestly I don't really know, and don't really care. I enjoy sporadically using it, and I've enjoyed making both useful, and some useless things.

Trust me, I've spent far more on dumber shit that I use half as often.

The trick is to justify buying one for your business, and then using it yourself after hours.

As a business asset, it has paid for itself fivefold in less than a year. As an employee of said business, i have unlimited access to a machine that I could never personally justify the expense of.

Yep. So much so that we have 3. One cheap resin, one older FDM, and a Bambu FDM. The only regret…sorta…is the resin. Shoulda got a better one. I mean, it works, but it is super fiddly and finicky. I think a better model would have been worth spending on. We print costume parts, but I also design and print all sorts of stuff for things like headset hangers, cup holders, toolbox organizers, parts bins, etc.

It would be worth it if I had an actual decent printer. As it stands now, I feel like I just wasted money because all I can print small, pla objects, after days of trial and error and adjusting settings. Saving up for a prusa, hopefully will make it worth it.

Absolutely. The experience has been a blast, but I also print miniatures for tabletop games and the printers have paid for themselves multiple times over if I had bought all the minis I have printed. Granted, I wouldn't have bought that many, but that's not important.

I bought a Makerbot, so emphatically NO it was not worth it. Never buy one of these shitty printers.

Tell me. Can you buy food safe microwave safe plastic to print with?

If so. Google the "Fasta Pasta" and tell me of you can print one half the size of a normal one.

I want one. But my microwave is too small. And nobody makes a small one.

Not really. I purchased one with pretty significant maintenance/process requirements, had I gotten one a little more seamless (self leveling/etc) I think I'd use it far more often than I do now.