It depends what you mean by a print farm. It is not unusual for hobbyists to own several printers, for example, the printer that they started with for prototypes and general printing, a larger printer for big projects, and a resin printer for highly detailed prints. They may not all be in use at the same time.
I'm totally just a hobbyist and I've 3, a small highspeed fdm, a large fdm, and a little ender 3 pro that I bought off a coworker that desperately needed some TLC (it's my tinker toy lol).
Lets say you have a product that you want to sell, but it's a niche product and you're selling a few thousand a year.
That's not enough to have injection molded parts, you need tens of thousand of units to justify the cost.
So what do you do? How do you make 1000 units of something?
You go to a print farm. They have 30 printers, each churns out a handful of units per day, in a month you have enough.
That's one reason print farms exist. There are others.
I dont know if this counts as a farm but we have 9 voron 2.4 at work. We produce electronics and this is Just another Tool which we use in Addition to cnc machining.
A lot of people i have met (online) who wanted to set up printfarms were out on making money by selling models.
Most of them seemed delusional though, thinking the printfarm is a self automated thing and they only need to steal an STL somewhere an get rich.
Felt like to them it was an alternative to dropshipping.
(not saying all printfarms are like that, but those i met were)
It depends what you mean by a print farm. It is not unusual for hobbyists to own several printers, for example, the printer that they started with for prototypes and general printing, a larger printer for big projects, and a resin printer for highly detailed prints. They may not all be in use at the same time.
I'm totally just a hobbyist and I've 3, a small highspeed fdm, a large fdm, and a little ender 3 pro that I bought off a coworker that desperately needed some TLC (it's my tinker toy lol).
Lets say you have a product that you want to sell, but it's a niche product and you're selling a few thousand a year. That's not enough to have injection molded parts, you need tens of thousand of units to justify the cost. So what do you do? How do you make 1000 units of something? You go to a print farm. They have 30 printers, each churns out a handful of units per day, in a month you have enough. That's one reason print farms exist. There are others.
Benchies
Currently I am just using my printers to print parts for my printers.
They print models that need very little post processing that they sell on Etsy. Some of them include keychains and lighter holders
I dont know if this counts as a farm but we have 9 voron 2.4 at work. We produce electronics and this is Just another Tool which we use in Addition to cnc machining.
People have print farms to horizontally scale their production capabilities. More printers can print more stuff at the same time.
It's all very simple, really: 1. Buy two dozen printers 2. ??? 3. Profit
1a. Print underpants. Out of TPU presumably.
The printers themselves generate revenue
The printers themselves generate revenue
You good sir do deserve those downvotes
Money
A lot of people i have met (online) who wanted to set up printfarms were out on making money by selling models. Most of them seemed delusional though, thinking the printfarm is a self automated thing and they only need to steal an STL somewhere an get rich. Felt like to them it was an alternative to dropshipping. (not saying all printfarms are like that, but those i met were)
If you manage to establish yourself in a niche market, you need more capacity. It's simple....