FilamentIQ

Analysis

What a product costs to print, what the channel takes, and what is left — for a niche you pick or a file you upload.

The marketplace connector is only partly current

Marketplace listings: 523 of 1,059 (49%) refreshed within 7 days. The middle record is 13 days old.

41 h old · 1,059 rows · 178 ms

Scenario

Preset niche

Product & price

Your time

The constraint most operators actually hit.

19.0 min of hands-on work per unit. At 60 hours a month that is 189 units.

Demand

Sellable demand / mo

9

P50 of the Monte Carlo forecast (614), taking 5% of ~191 units/mo.

Summed across 20 etsy listings from 0 shops matching "Adjustable Monitor Riser". These are the vendor's monthly unit ESTIMATES, not sales records, and they cover only the listings we hold — activity in the sample, never the size of the market. Captured 2026-09-14.

Contribution / unit

$119.48

79% of revenue

Monthly operating profit

$1,048

9 units/mo · $1,070 cash

Cash payback

Month 1

on $269 of hardware

Demand-bound: you have spare capacity

You could fulfil 59 units a month and expect to sell 9. More equipment changes nothing until demand grows — the work is marketing, pricing, or a second product.

Machines could make

59

386 h available · 15% used

Hands could finish

189

60 h available · 5% used

You expect to sell

9

all of it fulfillable

binding constraint

Cumulative cash

24 months, hardware paid up front

Cash, not profit. The printer left the account on day one rather than in equal monthly slices, so this starts in a hole that operating profit never shows.

Unit economics

Where each $151 of revenue goes. Gross margin is what is left after making it; contribution margin is what is left after selling it too.

Cost to make

Filament
$3.36
Electricity
$0.12
Failure allowance
$0.22
Labour
$6.33
Gross margin
$141.39

Cost to sell

Marketplace fee
$9.64
Payment processing
$4.79
Shipping (net)
$1.40
Refunds & replacements
$2.97
Contribution margin
$119.48
Fixed cost / unit
$3.05

Includes $2.49 of hardware, written off over 9 units a month — the units this scenario actually makes, not the ones it hopes to sell.

Operating profit / unit
$116.44

Return on what is scarce

Profit per unit tells you whether a product works. Profit per constrained hour tells you which product to run when you cannot run both.

per machine-hour

$17.99

per labour-hour

$367.70

per printer / mo

$1,048

break-even

1 units/mo

At this volume the break-even list price is $16.85 — you are pricing $131.48 above it.

If it goes worse than planned

The two things that actually slip: prints failing more often than hoped, and finishing taking longer than it did on the first one.

Downside

$1,034

Failures and finishing time both half again as bad

9 units/mo · demand-bound

Base

$1,048

Your assumptions as entered

9 units/mo · demand-bound

Upside

$1,054

Failures a third lower, finishing a fifth faster

9 units/mo · demand-bound

Does another printer earn its keep?

PrintersUnits/moOperating profitChangeVerdict
9$1,048The first machine is the business.
9$1,021-$27You already make more than you can sell. Another printer adds cost and no revenue.
9$993-$27You already make more than you can sell. Another printer adds cost and no revenue.
9$966-$27You already make more than you can sell. Another printer adds cost and no revenue.
9$938-$27You already make more than you can sell. Another printer adds cost and no revenue.
9$911-$27You already make more than you can sell. Another printer adds cost and no revenue.

Fleet sizing

1

Printer to fulfill expected demand (9 units/mo, P50)

1

recommended — expected demand already includes headroom for downtime at this size

614

forecast demand range, units/mo (P10–P90)

Monte Carlo · 10,000 draws · lognormal demand (σ 35%) · seeded. Same inputs always produce the same result.

What each additional printer adds

P50 marginal monthly net

Bars flatten once capacity passes demand — extra machines past that point add cost, not revenue.

Fleet scenarios

click a row for the full distribution
PrintersCapacity/moService levelMonthly net (P10–P90)Marginal paybackVerdict
1rec53100%$1,069($672.4$1.7K) recommended
2106100%$1,064($667.4$1.7K)neverdiminishing returns
3159100%$1,059($662.4$1.7K)neverdiminishing returns
4189100%$1,054($657.4$1.7K)neverdiminishing returns