Shapeways Files for Bankruptcy | Hacker News Reader

Shapeways Files for Bankruptcy

hackaday.com

41 pointsLuc12 comments

That's a shame, but there's heavy competition from companies like PCBWay, I suppose.

Incidentally, I read it the title like Shapeways provided some files to somehow 3d print bankruptcy. I'm not sure why.

> Incidentally, I read it the title like Shapeways provided some files to somehow 3d print bankruptcy. I'm not sure why.

I feel like this could be the basis for a sort of 3d Pictionary

Here is a personal anecdote that I cannot help but extrapolate on this sad day:

Back in 2016 I made an impossible to get replacement part [0] for the Breville BCG800XL SmartGrinder and sold it through ShapeWays. It paid for all my coffee up until ~2022 when another company popped up and began selling an injection molded copy of my part on Amazon, Walmart, etc. ShapeWays' marketplace always let you easily see the top sellers in each category. I somewhat wonder if outside firms simply caught on, bought one of each, copied it, and made an injection mold to mass produce everything cheaply. This is great for the consumer but I have no idea how ShapeWays could have defended against it. I am thankful it lasted the few years it did. 3D printing was a fun way to make a little while helping folks keep their stuff out of the landfill.

[0] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/BCG800XL+Grinder+Jamming+due+to...

> but we’d be surprised if the rise of similar services in China

Can someone list those? As someone who has no space for 3D printer this would be interesting to check out.

Protolabs and Xometry for when you want the most aggressive sales, least supportive support, worst of Chinese quality and the highest of Western prices.

PCBWay and JLCPCB for when you want good quality at great prices.

Craftcloud for when you want the best quality to price ratios, and want to decide on country of origin.

Not China, but I have used this EU based service with good results and fast delivery

https://www.craftrum.eu/

Wenext. I used it from single quantities up to a couple hundred pieces. They assign a human in the loop to check your model that you can email to.

As I remember, both PCBWay and JLCPcb (both originally PCB manufacturer) now offer 3d printing service.

Xometry, though it's also US and EU based.

oh what a shame to see them go!

We just made our London based 3D printers and CNC machines at hello@factory.london in a similar offering (much smaller, early days!)

If you have regular "making needs" (printing, CNC, electronics) it would be great to talk to you, our processes aren't defined yet and we can be very flexible to accommodate you.

Yes, I came here to say this.

Full disclosure: I am helping with factory.london because it seems like such an obvious need, eg for the inventors' club I am a member of.

Damn. I used to order metal parts from them. It was nice quality and far cheaper than owning a metal printer

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