3D printing alternative for the Spokane area

[benush26]

If you live in the Spokane area (or Helena, MT) plus have ideas for 3D prints but no printer, you may have an option. A company called Skyforge has contracts with local libraries which allow you to send the file through them, they send it to the institution and manage the print. In my case, my library only charges for the material used and my account with Skyforge is free.
Skyforge can accept designs made in SketchUp and other free 2D/3D design programs like Blender.
At some date in the future I may still buy a 3D printer, however this alternative allows me to finish some projects and save some money.
Anyway, just a thought.

Be well,
Ben

[damagi]

shapeways.com will do similar for 3d printing...I use them for work when we scale up from in-house 3d printing.

for laser cutting, when we go from in-house to larger runs we usually use ponoko.com

There are a number of online 3d printing places. https://www.3dhubs.com/ and https://www.makexyz.com/ are two examples of places that attempt to match you with people locally.