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A comment on Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside pr... by dplgk on Sunday April 21, 2019 @11:36AM (#19712547)
The hard part is finding appliances that need fixing. This is super easy if you happen to own a lot do things that break. If not, it becomes quite boring and tedious to scout out things that are breaking for other people, that you have no personal motivation to fix, to get the broken appliance and then figure out the 3d model for the bad part.
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Re:Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside pr... by microtherion on Sunday April 21, 2019 @12:13PM (#19712751)
A few years ago I bought a replacement part for a baby stroller: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/bugabooparts

It's a neat business model: The person posts DIY repair videos on youtube, which drives traffic to his site. The strollers can easily cost $1000 new, and are often handed down / resold, so there is motivation to keep them running, and they have some weak spots which tend to break. The 3D printed replacement parts can be of superior quality to the original parts.

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Re:Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside pr... by kwiens on Sunday April 21, 2019 @01:52PM (#19713431)
Yes! We have guides for doing Bugaboo repairs using 3D printed parts on iFixit. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Bugaboo+Cameleon+1+and+3++Handl... https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Bugaboo+Cameleon+1+and+3+Swivel... https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Bugaboo+Cameleon+1+and+3+Brake+...
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Re:Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside pr... by tlrobinson on Sunday April 21, 2019 @11:46AM (#19712595)
It seems like once you build up a critical mass of reputation/SEO you could get people to send you their broken parts to reproduce (then start advertising that specific part too)
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Re:Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside pr... by dplgk on Sunday April 21, 2019 @11:54AM (#19712643)
Then that depends on either how much they're paying for the part and how much you enjoying 3d modeling and the trial and error dof 3d printing. You'll also need at least a real version of the part to copy and maybe even the appliance.
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Re:Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside pr... by petra on Sunday April 21, 2019 @03:02PM (#19713860)
Depending on the long-term economics, it might be worthwhile to work as a repair technician for some time and gather repairs.
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Re:Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside pr... by ausjke on Monday April 22, 2019 @12:13AM (#19716470)
someone needs to make wheels for those luggage suitcases, some wheels broke while the case is still good.
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Re:Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside pr... by bronco21016 on Monday April 22, 2019 @03:52PM (#19722225)
If you buy a bag with rollerblade wheels vs the plastic castering garbage that comes on a lot of bags you’ll get significantly more life out of them. I spend 15-20 days/month on the road and get several years out of rollerblade wheels.
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Re:Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside pr... by dplgk on Monday April 22, 2019 @12:18AM (#19716492)
A lot of them appear to be the same as roller blade wheels
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