Fab lab, maker space or print service: where to print in Barcelona
An honest comparison between printing it yourself in a public or paid space and ordering from a workshop, with the clear case for each.
Barcelona is unusual in this: it has municipal fabrication centres, fab labs attached to schools, membership maker spaces and service workshops like ours. We are an interested party, so let us be explicit about when we are not the answer.
When you do NOT need us
- You want to learn. Watching a print fail and working out why teaches more in an afternoon than twenty perfect parts arriving by courier.
- It is a weekend whim with no deadline. If it not mattering is fine, print it yourself and enjoy it.
- You are going to make fifty versions of one shape. On your own machine, or one with open access, iterating is free but for the plastic.
- The process is the project: a workshop, a class, a fabrication module.
When you do
- There is a date. A shared space has a queue, and the queue does not negotiate with your Thursday delivery.
- The part has to come out right first time. The gap between someone who prints daily and someone who prints monthly shows exactly there.
- You need a material or technology the space does not have: fine-detail resin, flexible TPU, ABS, or a different nozzle.
- You need an invoice. A membership space cannot always issue one to your company for a specific part.
- It is many units. Occupying a community machine for thirty hours with your production run is slow and, frankly, unfair on everybody else.
The comparison, in a table
| Fabrication space | Print service | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of one part | Low or nominal | Firm price, with a minimum |
| Your time | Hours, plus the learning curve | Five minutes of configurator |
| If it fails | You start again | It gets reprinted at no cost |
| Materials | Whatever is there, almost always PLA | A catalogue with defined properties |
| Production runs | Impractical | The normal case |
| VAT invoice | Sometimes | Always |
Are there places to 3D print for free in Barcelona?
The city has a network of municipal fabrication centres with public access, and several schools and libraries offer equipment to their communities. Conditions, opening hours and what is charged for material vary between sites and over time, so check with the space directly before counting on it for a deadline.
Can I bring you a file the fab lab could not print?
Yes, and it happens often. If you have had failed attempts, tell us what went wrong: knowing a part lifted, warped or snapped along a layer saves time and usually points straight at the orientation or the material.