Start a 3D Printing Business During Your Coffee Break
- SlantPOD
- Nov 14
- 3 min read
Most people assume selling physical products requires weeks of prep, technical expertise, and thousands of dollars spent on equipment.
They’re wrong.
The truth is: if you can upload a photo, you can start selling a product.
You don't need expensive equipment. You don't need 3D printing experience. You don't need a ton of time. With Portals, you can start selling 3D prints in the time it takes to make a pot of coffee.
All you have to do is:
Upload a 3D model.
Set the price you want to sell it for.
Share the listing around.
When you get an order, Slant 3D will print and ship the item right to your customer for you.
Find a 3D Model
First things first. In order to make a Portal, you need a 3D model.
But you don’t need to invent a complex mechanism or learn CAD from scratch. Your fastest path is to use a pre-made model from a repository, then upload it and start selling.
Since we’re on the topic of coffee, let’s look at some coffee-accessory ideas you can begin selling right now:
Download the coffee starter pack:
These products are just scratching the surface of the amazing designs that are out there, all you have to do is find them. Here is a good place to start looking.
Upload the Model to Portals
Once you have found a 3D model, you are ready to create your Portal. A Portal is a standalone product page that anyone in the world can buy from. They are free to create and only take about a minute to setup.
The steps are embarrassingly simple:
Signup for Portals
Click the Plus Button
Upload the 3D model
Give it a Title and Description (We recommend going with "Who you are, what the item is, and why it is great")
Set a Price (The cost to make the product will show up after its uploaded. Price it where you see fit.)
Start Sharing and Selling (We'll handle everything from there)
Here is a video walking through the whole process:
Market Your Portal
Simply creating a Portal may not get you sales, but you don't need a massive advertising campaign. You just have to share it with people that will care.
Here are some ideas:
One of the fastest and easiest ways to start getting sales is to share your Portal with the people in your life. If you're selling coffee accessories, chances are you love coffee. If you love coffee, chances are you know other coffee lovers. Share your Portal with them.
You can take this even further by sharing them in community forums. Go find a "coffee-addict" Facebook group or a subreddit for baristas and show them what you've made. This is why it is so much better to find products that you love yourself. Because you already know where other fans hangout.
Make 10 TikTok/Instagram videos demonstrating the product. Don't overthink these. Just saying what it is, how it works, and why it's great will go much further than you think. And you don't need to be a pro videographer either, a smartphone will do just fine.
After you make those videos, you can run the top performers as Boosted Posts and target them towards "coffee lovers". This also lets you link your Portal to the post. You don't need to break the bank here, even $10 can go a long way.
Your goal is to get your first sale, so don't stress over perfecting the final business model.
Start small. Validate quickly. Adjust only after you see real behavior from real buyers.
If your first product doesn’t sell? Zero loss.
If it does sell? Do more stuff like that.
Portals allows for rapid listing of new products, so test new ideas quickly and improve on the ones that are working.
Ready to Turn a Pause Into a Product?
Every day gives you small pockets of time. A breather, a sip, a reset.
And now that’s all you need to create something real.
List your first product during your coffee break, and let that tiny pause become a tangible product.
