From the beginning, I have been using 3D prints for the PolyKybd cases and other small parts and was always satisfied with the quality of these resin prints. As there are already plenty of options, I wanted to see if there is a 3D printing farm in Europe comparable in price and quality to my go-to-shop JLCPCB:

In the picture above, you can see that all the small parts from JLCPCB have a good surface finish, there are hardly any marks from support structures, and the dimensional stability is impressive. Especially the last point is important so that the MX stem firmly fits.

So I went off to https://craftcloud3d.com (where you can get offers from various 3D printing farms all over the world) and indeed found a company that would offer similar prices for 3D prints with higher order quantities in Europe. Even if the prices are slightly higher, there would be no import toll within Europe in contrast to anything imported from China. With that in mind, I ordered a smaller batch (which is unfortunately quite expensive compared to high-quantity orders) to see how that works out...

While the support was quite responsive with questions before starting the 3D prints, it took longer to ship the prints from Sweden to Austria than from China to Austria :'(

However, I'm patient, and waiting a week longer is not a big deal. When the parcel finally arrived, I opened it and was quite disappointed: Straight corners were bent and twisted, the surface showed a lot of spots from the support structure, there were seems and when measuring with the calipers it was clear that the prints were unusable: 

Even more visible on the cases:

Comparing to:

Of course, the cases are different iterations, but I believe you can still spot the quality difference.

I reached out to the print farm and they told me that they had an issue with their resin that was discovered later, so I gave it one more try and they sent me a batch of replacement parts free of charge:

While the dimensional stability improved, there were very ugly break-outs where the support structure was attached:

Also, the surface finish is still far away from JLC, which is very visible in direct comparison:

It might be worth trying one or two other farms, but that first experience was not the best.

In the end, I got my 3D prints from China once again and put my first test kit for crowd-supply together:

At some point, I should think about the packaging. For now, I just put everything together with bags, trays, and wrapping I had at hand.

I hope you get a good rest during this holiday season and wish you all the best in 2024!