I'm considering the difficulty of using 3d printers to make useful things. The main challenge Id like to address is that most interesting things that can be made with a 3d printer require non-printable parts such as springs, motors or electronics, and gathering all the parts one at a time is time consuming and expensive due to small quantities and often needing to be shipped separately. I'm currently considering the viability of starting a tiny company to provide kits containing the unprintable parts needed for common projects, and would like to hear feedback about what kind of kits (if any) would be useful to the members of the community at large. Thanks in advance.
First of all...I have a 3D printer and I use it all the time in a variety of ways.
1) repairing things around the house--just this week I busted the handle on the fridge. One part of the handle had already been designed and on Thingiverse. I designed and printed the other. I also designed and printed a part to repair the foot on my treadmill. The list goes on and on...
2) when mounting electronc board and things, I print brackets to attach one board to another...standoffs of the exact height I need
3) custom boxes--generally of the small variety
Things I use to support the 3d printing? Screws, threaded inserts, battery clips, etc. All from China. I am reducing my Chinese purchases for now and would prefer to buy American and even pay a little more.