Interview with Justin Finesilver of the 3D Printing Store

Justin Finesilver

Justin Finesilver is the owner of the 3D Printing Store in Denver, Colorado. They are a 3D printing service bureau that helps various organizations and individuals with their 3D printing needs in Denver. From the consumer toy, to even the highly private aerospace solution, the 3D Printing Store has your needs covered. Justin helps to manage the day to day retail aspect of the store, as well as the social media marketing of the organization.

Give us some background when it comes to education and life experiences that have gotten you to this point?

I went to Colorado State. I went for an English degree. I used to manage retail. I got into 3D printing when my mom started the store. I kind of jumped in and did it on the side. I came on full time in 2015 and bought an ownership into the organization.

What was the first thing you 3D Printed?

The flexible bracelet was on Makerbot. It  was a clever design. I showed it to other people and they were amazed. It was my light bulb moment. This all sparked everything.

Flexible Bracelet Design

What are your thoughts on the maker movement?

All of these companies are pushing the envelope. They all started off as makers. These are all garage companies. It is the most important thing in our industry. People are pushing and doing so much innovation.

A contest entry in the store’s Additive For Coloradans competition.

What are the coolest products you’ve seen in Colorado?

We do a lot of industrial stuff. We do parts for satellites. There is a huge aerospace community in Colorado. We will have 10 products that have launched out of our store that will go to the market. We help to invent different aspects of toys. We have a lot of stuff in the golf industry. We have our green vertical as well. There are so many people with interesting products in this space. We have done a lot of scientific and industrial models. We have even done stuff for an ancient tomb for researchers. We run the gambit. We are a catch all place and it allows us to interact with creative.

What industry you think could benefit the most?

I think people are aware and smart. I think the custom footwear and dental industry are really cool. The personalization of the world is big. I am really excited about bioprinting actually. We were the first service bureau to buy Allevi’s bioprinter.

What are your thoughts on the industry in five years?

I think we are going to see a lot more known commodities. There will be a lot more production based technologies that are able to do 5,000 to 10,000 parts. The ease of use will be ideally better. Machines that do not have a lot of materials will need a larger amount of offerings. Companies like Origin are now looking for experts in materials to work with them as an open source platform. I want the industry to have the expertise in different fields create within their sectors. This includes hardware, materials, and software. 3D printing is democratizing manufacturing. We are not able to educate our workforce with actual skills.