Like many nerds, I have a 3D printer (or two) sitting around that I picked up at the peak of the hobby’s popularity. Surely, I’ll use this thing all the time, I thought. I’d never again purchase something I could make at home for free. That turned out to be a lie, because buying something is almost always easier than making something. That is, until Trump’s tariff threats.
Specifically (though not exclusively), the end of the De Minimis tax exemption changed the math for me quite a bit. Previously, this exemption allowed manufacturers to import products with a value under $800 without facing tariffs. This meant buying, say, a laptop or television might result in tariffs, but a gaming console or accessories would be safe. Without that exemption, even cheap items on Temu and Shein have become more expensive.
It made me wonder: Could my 3D printer be useful for something more than collecting dust? I sat down to do the math.
Why 3D Printing (Sometimes) Wasn’t Worth It Before
When consumer-grade 3D printing first arrived, it was an expensive hobby. It also had only a few niche use cases, since everything had to be made of plastic. If the thing you wanted required, say, foam, glass, metal, rubber, or ceramic parts, your options were pretty limited. Plus, when you factored in the cost of buying the 3D printer itself, and the material to print with, suddenly the idea of making things for yourself becomes less attractive.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
Early consumer 3D printers were also fiddly to work with. If you dabbled with 3D printing in the 2010s, you likely have horrible memories of recalibrating the print bed before every attempt at a print, or discovering that your room was a bit too warm and your print was warping as it was being made. It seemed everyone’s first print was a pile of hard spaghetti.
The core appeal of printing stuff you need in your home was washed away by the costs, both in terms of initial investment and time spent making it work. Even if you spent time learning how to work with 3D models or calibrate print beds, the average person just wasn’t going to compete with a mass production facility overseas that could churn out thousands of the thing you wanted and sell them to you for a pittance. What was the point?
Why the Math Has Changed for 3D Printing
There have been two major shifts for consumer 3D printing. First, the process has gotten a lot simpler and cheaper. The Elegoo Centauri Carbon, released earlier this year, for example, costs a relatively affordable $300 for filament-based printing. It features an enclosed, temperature-controlled chamber, reducing the likelihood of warping, and an auto-calibrating print bed, for fewer failed prints.
The Elegoo Centauri Carbon (Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
One of my favorites, the Elegoo Mars resin printer, is even cheaper at less than $200. Resin prints, in particular, are way more appealing to me, personally. While filament 3D printers are great for building solid, more utilitarian products, resin printing provides a lot more fine detail. The process is messier, since it involves working with liquid resin, but the results are great for things like tabletop gaming and board games, where you might want to print highly detailed, customized character minis.
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It’s also never been easier to find projects you can download and print, without having to worry about learning specialized skills yourself. Sites like MakerWorld and Thingiverse have huge libraries of 3D model projects that you can browse and download, often with very little additional work required to start printing. Over the years, hobbyists have added some incredible projects, like this automatic card dealer or an articulated phone holder arm.
What I’ve found more useful than the flashier projects, though, is just how many practical models are out there now. Simple projects like these customizable organization bins, stylish toothbrush holders, storage baskets, and even cable organizing tools exist in so many variations that you can probably find one that fits your needs and aesthetic easily. Buying a 3D printer to make one basket might not be worth it, but once you start looking at all of the little household items you might buy for $10 at Target, suddenly a free model and $1-2 worth of material looks a lot more appealing.
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A boat printed by the Elegoo Centauri Carbon (Credit: Ted Needleman)
How Tariffs Shift the Math Even Further
Tariffs are the second major shift that benefits 3D printing. It’s a complicated problem, and no one can really predict exactly how tariffs will affect the prices of everyday household goods. But they’re not exactly likely to make prices go down. For one tangible example, let’s take a look at back-to-school supplies, an area where one report found prices had risen an average of 7.3% due to tariffs.
Some things you need to buy no matter what, like pencils, pens, and paper. But for one small example, here’s a (rather stylish) desk organizer. Printing this model would require about $3.04 worth of PLA filament (estimated using Elegoo’s slicing software), and even less if you skip the ornate outer portion that’s largely decorative. Compare this to, say, this $8 smaller metal desk organizer.
(Credit: Meyui / Maker World)
It’s a little thing, but these little things can add up. Once you have a 3D printer set up and start looking at what you can make, you’ll start to notice all kinds of things that are worth printing. For example, I recently cracked an electrical outlet plate while moving a couch. I could spend $0.68 plus a trip to Home Depot to buy a replacement, or $0.28 worth of material and clicking a download button to make my own. Similarly, I can spend $17 for a dog bowl riser, or use $4.49 of filament to make one.
I’m not going to pretend that buying a 3D printer—or pulling out the one that’s been hiding in the back of your closet—is going to be some magic windfall that changes your family’s finances forever. It’s still a DIY solution, which will always involve some level of labor that you’ll need to factor into the equation. Is the lower cost worth more of your time? That’s a question everyone has to answer for themselves. But inflation and tariffs are making the price of everyday goods even higher, so the trade-offs for taking up 3D printing can look a lot less burdensome. If you’ve written off making your own stuff at home before, it might be time to reconsider.
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Eric Ravenscraft is a freelance writer and tech nerd working out of the geek capital of the world, Atlanta, Georgia. He watches way too many movies and definitely has one to recommend that you haven’t seen. Follow him on Twitter or Instagram.
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