Chinese molds would have been 2x. Plus all that goes into working with China (as a very small fish at that) I was pretty concerned with paying $20k for what wouldn't amount to much more than a boat anchor.

After fulfilling around 700 units on Kickstarter, I sold another 300 at local Makerfaires and around 100 on Amazon (using Vendor Express.)

What was the part you designed? Do you have a link to the Kickstarter?

Sure. The product was a new type of tube squeezer called Squizmo (Squeezing Gizmo.) I know I'm biased, but I think it is the best tube squeezer ever made.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1954489654/squizmo-a-3d...

I have seen devices like this several times, and what I honestly don’t get is why not just press the tube against the edge of a counter and squeeze that way?

I didn't sell many Squizmo's to people like you. There are a number of people who bought them without even being "pitched." I did witness several awkward disagreements between significant others who had different tube squeezing habits. Different strokes for different folks.

Using the edge of the counter is certainly one way to get the contents of the tube toward the opening. The Squizmo stays in position so the toothpaste stays in the same place. I think you'd be surpised at how flat the tube is after a Squizmo has been run up it!

Not OP but I agree with you regarding tube squeezers. Just lean it up against the counter and pull down.

However, I guess this one has the unique feature of letting you reuse smaller tubes by cutting off the end and refilling from a larger tube.

I get the convenience of using a smaller tube, so refilling it would be nice, but doesn’t convenience go away when you have this big plastic squeezer thing at the end of it?

What's wrong with just folding the end of the tube and rolling it in (like a squeezing spiral)? I grew up in Easter Europe, we were always squeezing the toothpaste to the last drop.

It seems like I was spite down-voted for mentioning a hack that removes need to create an ever more plasticky device that is useless IMO and pollutes the environment and kills animals. Until we find a way to recycle plastic properly we should think twice about the lifetime of every plastic item we create or bring into this environment. Thanks for reading this.

As sibling comment says, I'm not sure I see the value over a counter edge (though clearly refilling tubes is one point)

But I want to say WOW to your kickstarter video!! I was not expecting that level of testing and engineering to go into this, kudos to you for taking it next level.

Do you think you recouped the costs of those testing jigs or was it all good fun?

I absolutely did not recoup the cost of the testing jigs. Though I put a joy stick on the one jig that squeezed one tube into the other. At the makerfaires, people had much more fun with it than I would have ever anticipated.

That's incredible, thank you for sharing and making a quality kickstarter and apparently a quality product!

Honestly if you showed me your product in CAD or injection molded and asked if it could be useful 3D printed I would have guessed "no". You've opened my vision up!

Small nitpick but if you want to save money, stop using so much toothpaste. All you need is a pea sized amount. You're putting 3 times what's needed in your videos.

That was more showmanship than a demonstration of my personal teeth cleaning routine!

Either way, however much toothpaste you use, this could potentially help you get more out of the tube. The payback would be longer, but that's not really why most people buy stuff like this.

Regarding "HeyLaughingBoy"'s comment - that market would be tubes of caulk and glue/epoxy.

While in the industrial space most use the common "gun" style applicator with the large tubes of product, and certain other manufacturers (3M in particular) sell custom applicators for industrial use for certain products (oftentimes at an insane markup) - there is the space for both the DIY'er and "handyman" (as well as commercial maintenance).

They will typically use regular squeeze tubes, especially on smaller projects where the larger gun-style tubes are too much or wasteful (because they may only use a small amount, and even when capped off, the tubes will dry out/cure relatively rapidly, especially at the nozzle end - making them useless and wasting product/money).

There also might be a market for automotive window glass installers for the sealants they use (and a/c repairmen?); actually tons of markets like this when you stop to think about it!

When in doubt, don't sell to consumers, sell to businesses.

Find a business that buys product in tubes (protip: find industrial product in tubes and figure out who buys it!) and sell your product to them at a 10x markup as a cost-saving device.