yep. I used to use shapeways because they had a deal with tinkecad where you could just order your part right out of tinkercad basically.. it would export it right to shapeways directly and you’d just have it shipped. now tinkercad is owned by autodesk and shapeways went through some kind of wild spasm where it was just broken and shitty, and now the costs are getting out of control with lead times continuously expanding.. unless you want to pay for faster service.
scuplteo has a $30 minimum order fee, which makes buying single smaller parts seemingly not worth it.. but when i compared the same disc part I’m having printed now, it was actually cheaper even after they tacked on an additional $10.43 to bring it to the “minimum order” of $30.
Shapeways quote
Sculpteo quote
My point here is, there are all kinds of ways these services are taking shots at gouging just a little more from you so it can be hard to make direct comparisons.. the materials are even becoming a bit obscured. Shapeways used to be very straightforward with material descriptions, giving the chemical makeup of each type etc. but now they seem to have switched to the Venti, Grande, Mochachocabullshit marketing approach to materials names.. again making it difficult to make direct comparisons.
Still, I’m glad these services exist. I’ve been able to order the odd custom part when I need it and save the space on my bench and the headaches associated with maintaining such a device. But, as I said, the lead times are growing and the costs are going up.. the very same STL file I had printed by Shapeways a few years ago for $4.50 plus $3.75 shipping, now costs $7.90 and $10 shipping.. and I have to wait twice as long.