The Fab Store

While nothing lasts forever, the Fab Store can make your things last much longer.

Your Neighborhood, Next-Level Repair Cafe

How often have you trashed an entire product because of a single broken part? What if you could simply replace the part, at a fraction of the cost and waste? The Fab Store pairs advanced 3D printing with repair experts to fix previously unfixable items. These stores keep more stuff out of our landfills and more money in your pocket!

In addition, Fab Stores may finally deliver on the promise of a small-scale manufacturing revolution.

To Repair is Rare

Too often, a single broken part means sending the sum of all its parts to a landfill. For example- A hinge broke on my old electric tea kettle, preventing me from closing the lid properly.

You can't buy a new hinge. I wouldn't know how to install the hinge even if I had one.

In cases like this, I can't find a practical solution to repairing my item instead of replacing it.

A repair cafe's inability to fix a tea kettle with a broken hinge served as an inspiration for the Fab Store.

The Fab Store Expertly 3D Prints Parts and Fixes Products

Imagine a store equipped with 3D printers and CNC machines capable of fabricating parts made of metal, wood, plastic, rubber, ceramic and more. An expert greets you, examines your broken item, prints out the broken pieces and repairs your item for you. We have the technology and talent available today. If only there were someone to make the store a reality.

Fab Store 3D printers are way better than your home printer! This Modix 3D printer is almost 5 feet tall, prints quickly and handles a wide variety of materials. Image courtesy of Modix.

How Do Fab Store Repairs Work?

Your friendly neighborhood Fab Store is on a street corner near you. As you enter, a repair expert greets you, examines your broken item and comes up with a plan to fix it.

Your item may just need some adjustment. It may need a new screw or electronic component. It may benefit from a workaround rather than a like-new fix.

Both Fab Stores and traditional repair cafes handle these scenarios.

Broken and/or hard-to-find parts often stymie typical repair cafes, though. This is where Fab Stores shine.

Imagine the wheel of your child's favorite toy truck fell off. The problem is a broken axle. This axle is not a standard part you can replace. But the Fab Store can create a new axle.

The repair expert extracts the broken axle from the toy and scans it with a 3D scanner. The object appears virtually in CAD software, where the expert "repairs" the broken part in the software. Then the expert 3D prints a new axle and installs it in the truck. Your child gets more milage out of their toy and another item is spared from the landfill.

Beyond Repairs: A Small-scale Manufacturing Revolution

Considering all the equipment and skills that go into the them, Fab Stores can double as small-scale factories. You can manufacture a wide range of products using the wide range of materials and tooling available to you. By producing small batches of a variety of unique products, you may stumble upon a products destined for mass market success.

You can also produce items manufactured to customer specifications.

Your small factory could offer:

• Pre-fabricated products
• User-requested products
• Custom designed products

Not just repairs. The Fab Store can make and sell items like the "Tic Tac Gun." One of millions freely available designs for 3D printers.

Pre-fabricated Products: Discover the Next Rubik's Cube

Places like the Thingaverse are filled with designs for imaginative items you can't buy in stores. Lurking among those designs might be the next best-selling product trend. You manufacture just one of each design and prominently display them in your store windows and on the web site. There's little risk in making products that don't sell and huge rewards when a product proves popular.

Start by producing a single, intriguing item. Put it in the store window. Repeat until your store window is filled with unique and interesting items.

When an item sells, produce another. Maybe two. Increase your production as demand increases.

At some point, enough demand builds to support mass manufacturing. That's when you become the brand leader in the new product space.

The Fab Store network contains the collective wisdom of all Fab Stores on which items sell and which are duds. You decide which products are ready for the big time (mass manufacturing) through this collective data.

Who knows which design might turn into a commercial success. Producing a limited quantity of a wide range of products in search of a winner is a low-cost, low-risk way to discover the next hula hoop, hot jewelry trend or must-have phone case. Imagination is about the only limit!

Another free design to display the in the store window. Producing small batches of unique and clever items is a low-risk way to discover the next, must-have product. After finding a winner, mass-produce it and sell millions of them.

User-requested Products: Bring Your Own Design

You can also manufacture designs your customers find on the Internet. Not only does this create Fab Store buzz when your customers shows off their cool item, it also offers inspiration into which items to produce for your store window.

Customers find unique item designs on the Internet. Or perhaps they are designers themselves. Either way, they need your facilities to produce it.

Today, such a hobbyist would have to depend on their own skills and a maker's space to create the item from their design. It doesn't have to be this hard.

Fab Stores could professionally manufacture the item with better equipment, materials and skills. The convenience and value to the customer is far beyond the price you would charge.

You should view customer-supplied designs as an insight into what kinds of products sell. If one customer wants the item, others likely do too. Look at the product space, not just the product, and you may find a profitable niche.

Custom-designed Products: Giving the Customer Exactly What They Want

Customizing a user-requested product opens up a consulting revenue stream for the Fab Store. The user brings in a design that they would like to improve in some way. Maybe it's putting their name in the design. Maybe a certain part of the item needs to be larger. Maybe they want to combine two designs. Fab Store experts have the skills to create unique designs for customers who can pay for the expert's time.

The Fab Store Network

I envision Fab Stores becoming as ubiquitous as 7-Elevens- on a street corner in every neighborhood in the US. Each Fab Store doesn't live in a vacuum, though. They are plugged into the Fab Store Network. The power of scale and collaboration makes individual Fab Stores even more profitable and capable.

The Fab Store Network pools the knowledge of individual stores while supporting their operations. Here's how:

Sharing Designs

Every custom made part, every custom design, every repair technique discovery goes into the design database. If any Fab Store has fixed it before, all Fab Stores know how to fix it in the future.

The first time an item is repaired at a Fab Store, there's a lot of upfront work. Diagnosing the problem, 3D scanning the broken part and correcting the broken piece in CAD software are typical steps before 3D printing the part. Once a Fab Store repairs the item once, the part design is uploaded to the Fab Store Network. Now the next time any Fab Store encounters the same item, they can skip the upfront work and immediately 3D print the part. Techniques and caveats for fixing the item appear alongside the design.

The Fab Store Network's design database ensures efficient repairs, improving profitability and enhancing the Fab Store's reputation as the master of repairs.

Part Sourcing

Often, the only practical solution to replacing a broken or missing part is 3D printing a new one. What if the part in question is a small screw, a spring or a latch, though? While you may not be able to find exactly what you're looking for at your local hardware store, parts like these are standard and used across many items and many product categories. It rarely makes sense to go through the time and expense 3D print a part when you can buy it for pennies.

The Fab Store Network sees patterns of frequently used parts, finds distributors for those parts and then makes them available to individual Fab Stores.

Eventually, the Fab Store Network could engage manufacturers who produce custom parts only used in their products. This could be a symbiotic relationship where the Fab Store Network reports parts that frequently break and the manufacturer improves their product while supplying Fab Stores with custom parts to keep their existing customers happy.

Specialized Parts from High-end 3D Printers

Each Fab Store has the following equipment:

• A professional-grade, FDM 3D printer
• A 3D scanner
• CNC machinery (off-site)

This equipment should cover the majority of needs. However, there will be times when even more expensive, specialized machines are required to create parts and items. In these cases, the Fab Store sends the order to the Fab Store Network to fulfill.

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) printers are the workhorse of 3D printing. Each Fab Store will have one. They can:

• Print a wide variety of materials (not just plastic)
• Print quickly. Some can print 500 mm/sec
• Print fairly large items. 3' x 3' x3' or larger for higher-end printers

Certain materials and processes require different types of 3D printing technologies, though. Namely, Stereolithography (SLA) and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). Here's a chart ChatGPT created showing the materials each printer type can use and the types of items each materials can create.

3D Printing Materials vs. Printer Types & End Products

Material	FDM	SLA	SLS	Example End Products	Notes
PLA	✅	❌	❌	Prototypes, figurines, hobby parts	Cheap, easy, not heat resistant
ABS	✅	❌	❌	Enclosures, fixtures, automotive prototypes	Stronger than PLA, needs heated bed
PETG	✅	❌	❌	Mechanical parts, bottles, containers	Tough, chemical resistant
Nylon (filament)	⚠️	❌	✅	Gears, hinges, wear-resistant parts	Flexible, durable, hygroscopic. Challenging on FDM
TPU (filament/powder)	⚠️	❌	✅	Phone cases, seals, gaskets	Flexible, rubber-like. Flexible filaments can jam in FDM
Polycarbonate	✅	❌	❌	High-strength brackets, safety parts	Strong, heat-resistant
PEEK / ULTEM	✅	❌	❌	Aerospace, medical, high-temp parts	Industrial-only, costly
Composites (carbon/glass fiber reinforced)	✅	❌	✅	Strong lightweight parts, drone frames	Enhanced stiffness, lightweight
Metal-filled filaments (bronze, copper, steel PLA blends)	✅	❌	❌	Decorative items, jewelry, “metal-like” parts	Heavy feel, mostly aesthetic, not true metal strength
Standard Resin	❌	✅	❌	Miniatures, prototypes, molds	Brittle, fine detail
Engineering Resin	❌	✅	❌	Dental models, mechanical prototypes	Tougher, heat or impact resistant
Nylon (PA12, PA6 powder)	❌	❌	✅	Clips, hinges, automotive parts	Industrial SLS staple, strong and flexible
Powdered Thermoplastics (PP, PE, etc.)	❌	❌	✅	Lightweight housings, functional prototypes	Lower density, specialty powders
Metals (true SLM/DMLS)	❌	❌	✅	Aerospace/medical implants, tooling, high-value components	Expensive, requires post-processing

Compatible materials aside, other limitations with FDM require other 3D printing technologies for certain items. For example, FDM technology is:

Jeff Lawlor

About Me

About My Idea

I am the founder of Idea Supreme. I also have a lot of big ideas. See you around!

Fab Stores make a dent in ending our throwaway culture in two ways. First by 3D printing custom parts to repair broken items. Second by delivering on the promise of small-scale manufacturing.

What Do I Want?

While I give this idea away freely, here's what I'd like if you decide to make my idea come true.

• Own a small percentage of company
• Opportunities for additional, early investment.

• Low-resolution. It creates visible lines between each layer laid down. An SLA printer creates items with smooth surfaces and much finer detail
• Not very strong. Items produced FDM printers tend to have weak adhesion between each layer. SLA have low mechanical strength without post-processing. Only SLS can produce strong parts natively
• Single item printing. Speed is often measured in hours when it comes to 3D printing. This can be a bottleneck. While SLA and SLS typically print slower, they can print multiple items at the same time. FDM it limited to one item at a time

Having an additional SLA and SLS printer at each store would be cost prohibitive. They are also better suited for a building zoned for light industrial rather than commercial.

Beyond 3D printers, the Fab Store Network could buy other types of expensive, large, specialized machines to offer a wider range of materials and items, such as:

• Woodworking
• Metal 3D printers
• Food-safe materials
• Specialized CNC machinery

When a customer's part or item needs go beyond the capabilities of Fab Store equipment, the Fab Store Network can fulfill the request.

marketing data

Support/training

Mail order sales and repairs

Start Small/Mail Order

Fab Stores:

• Are a next-level repair cafe where experts 3D print missing or broken parts
• A retailer selling unique and customizable products manufactured one at a time

Equipment

Procedures

Dump Throwaway Culture

They build exactly what you need for you. They always have better equipment, deeper integration and more supplies than you do at home.

Suggest and advise on variations of original designs. Have a library of customization presets.

Order online. Pick up at the store or ship.

Simply Fab

Next level repair cafes

On every block. Come in and browse finished products (also for sale), chat with a fabbing expert and build something just to your liking.

Repair shops too- building custom parts to replace broken ones

What if cost is more than it's worth

Fab stores have windows with fun items on display

Fab stores have repair experts who can look at something and know how to fix it

3D printers in the store, off-site industrial building for CNC, wood working, anything that involves fumes or noise

Walk ins or set up an appointment online

Browse items, services and learn about it online

Beyond a repair cafe- you're able to fabricate broken parts for things you couldn't otherwise repair

Picture - rubber gromet on tea cups.

https://www.thingiverse.com/

https://www.3dsourced.com/3d-printers/metal-3d-printer-buyers-guide/

https://all3dp.com/2/silicone-3d-printer-all-you-need-to-know/

https://www.ifixit.com/