Outsourcing step by step, service by service

Chapter 14b laid out every route to a finished squeezer and listed the established print services. This short section gives each of those services its own page with the exact steps to order from it, so you can open the one you picked and follow it move by move.

You do not need all of these pages. Pick one service and read its page. They exist so that whichever you choose, the steps are spelled out for you.

The shape every order shares

Every service on the following pages works in the same five moves. Each page repeats them in that service's own terms, but it helps to hold the pattern in your head first:

  1. Upload your STL (for this book, lemon_squeezer.stl from the code/ folder).
  2. Configure the print: process and material, color, and any options.
  3. Read the instant quote: price and lead time, updating as you change options.
  4. Choose shipping (or local pickup) and pay.
  5. Receive and finish the part: inspect it (checklist below), then the food-safe steps and the five tests, which are still yours.

Which file to upload. lemon_squeezer.stl is the one-piece squeezer and the default choice. If you are taking the catch-cup approach from Chapter 14 (the printed plastic never holds the juice, it only reams over your own glass or steel cup), upload lemon_squeezer_reamer.stl instead; it is smaller, so it also quotes cheaper. lemon_squeezer_bowl.stl is the bowl alone, for when you print the two parts separately. All three live in the book's code/ folder.

Quantity: set it to 1 unless you want spares. Two or three copies often share one shipping charge, so if you plan to gift one or expect to iterate, check the multi-part price before you dismiss it.

What it should cost, very roughly. For a palm-size PETG part, quotes commonly land somewhere between a few dollars (budget overseas shops, before shipping) and a few tens of dollars (domestic on-demand manufacturers, shipped). These figures are approximate and they drift; the point of them is calibration. If a quote comes back at a hundred dollars, something is set wrong, usually the units (inches instead of millimetres), the material (resin or nylon instead of FDM PETG), or a finish you did not mean to add.

Two rules that apply on every page

  • Choose FDM and PETG. A juice tool wants FDM in PETG, for the reasons in Chapter 14. Several services default to SLS nylon or resin, which look good and are wrong here. If a service does not offer FDM PETG at all, it is a poor fit for this project, and its page says so plainly.
  • Print in your own country when you can. Crossing a border adds customs delay and sometimes a brokerage fee larger than the part itself. Brokers and marketplaces let you filter to your own country; see the speed section in Chapter 14b.

Don't be confused. These pages tell you how to order from each service, not which is best. The best one depends on your country, your deadline, and the quote you get today. Open two, compare the quotes, and pick.

Which page should I open?

If you do not want to weigh anything, use this:

  • You have no idea where to start: Craftcloud. One upload shows you many shops at once, including domestic ones, and you need no account to see the quotes.
  • You want it fastest, ideally today or tomorrow: Treatstock, filtered to your city, with local pickup.
  • You want it cheapest and can wait: JLC3DP, with the DDP courier option so customs does not surprise you.
  • You want the order to just work, no comparing: Protolabs Network.
  • Sculpteo, Shapeways, Xometry: open these only if you already use them or a quote elsewhere fell through. They are industrial services whose default materials (SLS nylon, resin) are wrong for a juice tool, so each of their pages starts with a confirm-FDM-PETG check.

When the part arrives: the inspection checklist

Every service page ends with "finish it," and finishing starts with a two-minute inspection while the packaging is still on the table. If the part fails these checks, photograph it in place and contact the service before you sand anything; established services reprint or refund a genuinely defective part, but not one you have already modified.

  • Right material. The invoice or bag label should say PETG. An FDM part shows visible layer lines; a suspiciously smooth, slightly grainy part may be SLS nylon, and a glassy one resin, both wrong for this.
  • Right size. Set a lemon in the bowl, or measure it: about 73 mm across for the default model. A tiny or giant part means a units mix-up.
  • Layers bonded. Look at the outside wall under a raking light. Fine, even ridges are normal; open gaps between layers, or layers you can flex apart at a seam, are a defect.
  • Base flat, no warp. Set it on the table. It should sit without rocking.
  • Cone crisp and holes open. The reamer ridges should be well formed, not blobbed, and the strainer holes should be open, not skinned over with stray plastic (a few wisps you can trim are normal).
  • No support scars on juice surfaces. The inside of the bowl and the cone should be smooth top surfaces. Rough, torn patches there mean it was printed in the wrong orientation with supports against the food side.

Pass those, and carry on to the sanding, optional sealing, and washing in Chapter 14, then the five tests in Chapter 15.

The services

Best fits for an FDM PETG food tool, and the simplest places to start:

  • Craftcloud: a broker that compares many shops from one upload.
  • Treatstock: a marketplace where you pick a specific maker, often a local one with pickup.
  • JLC3DP: the cheapest for a single small part.
  • Protolabs Network: a reliable on-demand manufacturer with instant quotes.

More industrial services, which lean toward SLS, resin, and metal, so confirm FDM PETG before you rely on them for this:

👉 Start with the broker, the gentlest first stop: Craftcloud.