Most large cities now have at least one 3D print shop and every shop has its own style and approach to the local community. I met the team from Bitshapes, one of Budapest’s first 3D print shops, and I really liked their unorthodox, yet knowledgeable approach, so I promised that I would go visit them. And, since I went on a bicycle, I also got a great tour of this magical city while getting there.
The first thing I noticed about Bitshapes is the type of 3D prints they make. Many of the objects they have on display are complex assembled objects and components, with mechanical functions, showing off their familiarity with engineering CAD software. This and the maniacal attention they put into their 3D printing is what gives them the necessary edge to survive.
While you may be driven by passion and pioneering enthusiasm, opening and running a 3D print shop is no easy task. You have to be humble and find a location where the rent will be sufficiently low that it won’t drive you out of business until you build a customer base. At the same time, you have to be in an area with enough passersby that you can actually build that client base.
Bitshapes is not in the center of Budapest, but it is located in a welcoming, open air, mini-shopping center that looks lively and has a good number of visitors at any time. This is perfect for a team that describes itself as “young and set on showing the world that 3D printing is not the future, but it is here and it is the present”.
The way Bitshapes intends to do this is by selling 3D printers and offering 3D printing services at a lower price than competing services, coupled with the team’s expertise both in SolidWorks and Autodesk’s Inventor CAD software. Their main clientele is made of professionals and Endre Dienes, the shop’s founder, told me that they had just sold a 3D printer to a customer that uses it to make replacement car parts.
The other main source of income is in fact the sale of the 3D printers themselves. Bitshapes started with Solidoodle systems and later moved on to the Hungarian-based Lambda open source 3D printer. Now, the top selling systems are the CraftUnique (also from Hungary) – which is a solid and easy-to-use system based on a core XY architecture – and the Felix, which comes with a heated plate and large build volume at the equivalent of about €1,200.
“We only sell a printer when we know every detail about it and we are able to fully take it apart and reassemble it,” Dienes explained. “The reason people come to us is because we not only supply design and 3D printing services, but we are also able to completely optimize the print, modifying the G-code and the 3D printers’ settings in order to best meet the customer’s specific requirements.”
Other sources of income are educational courses and modeling jobs for architectural studios, along with online sales of 3D printed products and 3D printing supplies, including filament. “Being focused on engineering, for us the next step would be to be able to offer laser sintering services and we hope the next generation of low costs SLS systems becomes available soon,” Endre said, “We are following Sharebot’s and Syntratec’s progress and will begin offering laser sintered products through external services very soon.” This is probably the best possible answer to those who think 3D printing is a fad.
