I don’t think that 3d alone is very profitable. I notice that most people who do a lot of 3d are those who are retired and don’t place much value on their own labor aka they are running a fun hobby, not a business.
I’ve integrated 3d elements into a mostly 2.5D project and the buyers there are willing to pay more for those details, and I do it more as a means of generating social media content that gets the views moreso than making an actual profit on the carve… that said the machine time in and of itself is rather low, so If I’m able to start and run multiple machines in the shop all while I’m sanding or running a saw to cut more stock down, then the machine time itself wouldn’t really include all of my labor hours into it’s cost, granted the cost of running the machine for a business shouldn’t only include the electrical costs which is where that lower amount stems from, but should also include depreciation and other maintenance related costs like bits and router brushes of course.
All in, I’d probably place about 10-15$ / hour on my machine time because I’m usually running 3 different machines at the same time and also manual labor items as well (sanding / finishing) … so the man hours get divided down pretty well. but even then, it can be a LOT of cost…
I think the key is identifying and properly tracking costs, doing whatever possible to reduce those costs, and checking whether the market is willing to pay what you need them to pay in order to turn the required profit margins… and IF the profits cannot be achieved with 3d then it’s not a viable product to market… we all operate in different local markets that might be willing to pay enough to make it worth while, but I don’t see it being profitable enough via online sales with the undervalued competition online and added shipping costs though.
Some people use the 3d more as a “wow” effect at farmers markets, the people want to see more even though they don’t sell them (at least not at a profit) but the influx of customers might buy other items after seeing the quality of the 3d items as they were walking by…
Something to think about as well, IF you’re running an X-carve then you might want to look at what can be done to expedite the 3d carving process, something I’ve been covering on the last couple livestreams I’ve been doing every Friday afternoon…
