financially worth it?

Probably not.

Did it give me brief respites of light against the clawing, ever encroaching abyssal darkness of life and misery?

Yes.

Define “worth it”??

For many, it’s a hobby. For many more, it’s an adjunct to whatever hobby they do have. Hobby’s don’t have to save you money; and I’m militantly opposed to monetizing hobbies as a way to “justify” them.

Personally, I’m mostly 3d printing custom components (that I’ve designed), for R/C aircraft of various sorts. (Like, my cyclogyros, or the flying saucer powered by a 3d printed ducted fan; which is, more or less, a scaled model of the saucer from the OG Day The Earth Stood Still. or the thermal airship using toaster wire that has taken on a lot of different forms, ranging from 20’ star destroyers to whale sharks to a robot named Buoyant Bob that hands out candy on Halloween.)

I also enjoy 3d printing as a hobby, in of itself, too. (and spend waaayyyyy too much tinkering on the printer. its fun.) But it doesn’t have to save me money, and I feel no need to compare it to other forms of hobbies. It’s what I enjoy.

edit: lets put this in perspective. This would be like asking a golfer if they found golf worth it. the only real questions are “Do I enjoy it” and “can I afford it”. not “can it save me a buck”.

Depends on how you define “worth it.” Have I spent less money on the printer than I would have buying things I printed? Probably not. However, it has been a blast and great learning experience. Most recently printed landing skids and a camera shroud for a friend’s dji drone which is pretty cool.

Hell yes! I make a lot of things and having this ability really expanded on that.

I should point out that anyone interested in anything more than printing trinkets found on the Internet will also have to learn 3d drafting, at least to some extent. Bear that in mind.

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Learn to model things in CAD. That’s what is limiting me from getting real use out of my printer. It’s fun to print models you find online, but the real value is in printing your own designs.

I print figurines, busts, and diorama scenery for my son and I to paint. Sure I’ve got my share of functional prints but most my print time is spent so I can spend creative time with my son. So very much worth it for me.

For me yes definitely, I’ve used it to fix a half a dozen things around the house, people love 3D printed tchotchkes, seasonal decorations, and just yesterday I actually ended up printing some stuff out for my RC rock crawler.

I would put it in the same class as lathes or mills you probably aren’t saving money by buying one but it may open more avenues for you.

I will say though with the price of printers vs mills & etc, a cheap printer will get you much closer to breaking even. You might save more than you spend if you can use an Ender 3 judicially but overall it’s mostly for those odd projects or when a custom part is needed.

I built my own because they were quite expensive, lots of fun but very little real use at all. I’m planning on reviving it because it’s lots of fun to tinker with.

Yes absolutely. I’m sure the hobby hasn’t paid for itself, but I never expected it to. It has been worth it because of the amount of happiness I have spread with personalized gifts and a feeling of satisfaction when I make a print to fix something around the house or make life a little easier or more convenient. The little toys and doo-dads are great and the kids love them too.

Financially yes. I pretty much only print functional things. I probably have saved enough money just in printing chip clips to buy two printers.

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I print warhammer for friends for money. So that plus the money I saved on models for myself, I’d say it’s worth it.

But it’s also a hobby, learning how the things work and how to model is a lot of fun!