If you’ve been pondering over whether a 3D printer is a sound financial decision, here might be your answer: researchers have calculated that they can pay for themselves inside a single year. The study, conducted at Michigan Technological University, considered 20 common household items—smartphone cases, a garlic press, a shower head, the list goes on—listed on Thingiverse, then used Google Shopping to work out the maximum and minimum cost of buying them online (not including shipping). Then, the researchers also calculated how much it would cost to make each using a household 3D printer. The results are pretty amazing: it would cost between $312 to $1,944 to buy the items, but just $18 to make using the 3D printer. Clearly, the printers are expensive, but those figures suggest that they can pay for themselves in a time frame of months to years.
