I’ve been working on a small MVP around something I keep seeing in 3D printing: replacement parts for products that are broken, discontinued, overpriced, or just annoying to source. The idea is basically a searchable database/marketplace organized around the actual product rather than just STL files. So instead of searching something like “replacement gear STL,” you’d browse: Brand → Product → Model/revision → Part A listing could be an STL you print yourself or a physical printed part from someone who makes it. The part I’m most interested in is compatibility/trust. Things like whether somebody has actually printed the part, what product revision it fits, material used, whether it survived real use, installation notes, etc. I have a rough MVP now, but before spending much more time on it I’d love some criticism from people, else than me, who actually print/repair things. A few things I’m curious about: Have you ever tried to find or make a replacement part for something you owned? What was the hardest part? Where do you currently look first: Printables, MakerWorld, Thingiverse, Google, Reddit, somewhere else? Is finding the STL actually the problem, or is figuring out whether it will fit/work the bigger problem? I know it is a 3d-printing community so it might be biased but do you think that offering the possibility to download the file or actually buying the physical part is less a thing? What information would make you trust a replacement part made by a random person? What would make a site like this pointless compared with the platforms that already exist? If you read until there, the link of the mvp: https://3-d-marketplace-sigma.vercel.app/ (every listings or propositions are just purely illustrative, you can't buy anything)   submitted by   /u/MrDotNobi   to   r/3Dprinting [link]   [comments]