Cost To Print An Antweight chassis/parts with PLA

[DomSCR]

Hi all!

I'm starting up a new antweight combat society at my university and in order to do so I need to plan out costings etc.
We would like participants to be able to 3D print their antweight chassis and I am wondering:

How much does the filament cost to 3D print one antweight, roughly? In terms of weight how much filament material does would a typical antweight consume? Let's say it's a typical 2WD with servo lifter. I know it will vary from bot to bot, but I'm not sure what kind of ball park I am dealing with here. For our purpose I think PLA would do the job!
Any help would be appreciated!
Cheers!

[Tufty]

My last print was roughly 45g, with a spool of PLA filament (1kg) being about £15-£20.

[DomSCR]

Wonderful, that's much cheaper than I thought!! thank you!

[MarkR]

I think the Hackspace charges something like 5p / gram, so it's still only a couple of quid, to use the Reading Hackspace's nice 3d printers. That includes some maintenance costs on the machines.

My 3d printer at home is broken; I think this is the default state for such a machine.

[Tufty]

I think the Hackspace charges something like 5p / gram, so it's still only a couple of quid, to use the Reading Hackspace's nice 3d printers. That includes some maintenance costs on the machines.

My 3d printer at home is broken; I think this is the default state for such a machine.

I've been looking into replacing mine for the exact same reason, I just can't justify the costs yet

[MySolderIsOlder]

Don't forget to multiply expected unit cost by any random number between 2 and 10, depending on the number of failed prints and corrections made after you realise *THAT BIT JUST ISN'T GOING TO FIT IN THERE IN REAL LIFE EVEN IF IT DID IN FUSION... *

[MarkR]

Cost of 3d printing (today's fun)

£200 cost of printer
£20 /kg cost of materials
£flip amount of swearing and buying spare parts, fitting them and it still not printing reliably !!?!?

Yes cheapo 3d printers are a scam . Join a Hackspace with a good 3d printer and someone who knows how to maintain it.