3D Print Technologies - Three Tanks from Three Technologies - Costs

This article is a continuation of the discussion "3D Print Technologies - Three Tanks from Three Technologies"

Here is a chart of costs based on 3D Hubs quotes for a print of the Jagdpanther that we used for our test case:

	Range of Low Costs
Technology	Low	High
FDM	9.59	14.48
SLS	13.55	18.4
SLA	9.68	32.99

Some comments on the above:

1. These are selected costs from the low-end of costs given that pricing on 3D Hubs is all over the place.
2. There are relatively few SLS printers in the market place and most are in Europe
3. The low end for SLA is not representative of costs.  Most costs for an SLA printer will be higher than the above

I think a little more focus on FDM print costs might be more useful than further expounding on SLA or SLS printing...which I can't really do any hows as this has tapped out my knowledge.  Here is a chart that presents the costs to print one of our tanks (actually a tank destroyer):

	High	Low
Cost of Printer	1,800.00	500
Maintenance per Year	100.00	50
Lifetime Maintenance	300.00	150.00
Lifetime Printer Cost	2,100.00	650.00
Life in Years	3.00	3.00
Cost per Month	58.33	18.06
Printing per Month	153.60	153.60
Cost per Print Hour	0.38	0.12
Time to Print	5.08	5.08
Machine Cost of Print	1.93	0.60
Filament	0.77	0.27
Cost of Print	2.70	0.87

Some comments on the above:

1. Above costs are in GBP (exchange rate to the dollar is about 1.42 at the moment).
2. You can spend more on an FDM printer and you can also spend less but these are two good price points at each end of the range.
3. Maintenance would be for things like replacement parts, nozzles, and upgrades.
4. Cost of print time was calculated based on how many hours my printers have been used (average of five hours every day).
5. The actual model shown in the previous article was not printed with super expensive filament, which I do use for some things, but rather with the first notch up from the stuff I used to get on eBay (20GPB as opposed to 14 or so).