Legal import of a 3d-printer and 3d-printer parts?

[OneMoreFarang]

As far as I know it is illegal to import 3d-printers into Thailand without a special license.

Does anybody here have detailed information about this? And maybe a link to the law?

 

And what is the situation about 3d-printer parts?

I.e. stepper motors can be used for many things, I guess they can be imported without a license.

How about nozzles? filament? ...

 

I know that lots of parts are available in Thailand. But I wonder what my options are if I want to import some parts. 

I guess there must be a clear regulation about what is legal and what is illegal. Or is it Thai style: It's up to the officer and his mood on that day?

 

 

[VocalNeal]

Because you can print guns?

 

[OneMoreFarang]

11 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

Because you can print guns?

Because you can print sex toys. ???? 

[Yellowtail]

Just checked the Amazon US site, looks like plenty of 3D printer stuff ships to Thailand 

[recom273]

I don’t have any real answers for you.

 

I have never had issues getting parts and filament from aliexpress .. but I had issues getting a set of bed adjusters, which are just threaded wheels, from Lazada, even tho they advertise them, they said they were returned by Chinese customs, which I think is BS.

 

I also bought stepper motors from Lazada from China without any issues. 
 

if you buy a printer, it’s well worth spending a thousand on bits from aliexpress, because you will break things and make mistakes with your printer in the first months, stuff like Capricorn tube (from thailand) drive cogs, couplers, nozzles, a stepper motor. 

Depending on the brand you might want to upgrade some plastic parts to aluminium as you build it.

Edited June 17, 2021 by recom273

[kynikoi]

Just have someone from your home country re-box it and on the manifest just write printer.

 

Have a look at home of maker in Fortune town if you live in Bangkok.

[recom273]

To add - there is a massive printer community in Thailand,. It’s crazy that it’s illegal. 
 

There are places lt-make and especially, siam reprep, that sell some really expensive kit. 

[OneMoreFarang]

29 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

Just checked the Amazon US site, looks like plenty of 3D printer stuff ships to Thailand 

Printers are available and they ship to Thailand on many foreign websites.

And they ship them. And then maybe Thai custom stops them...

A friend ordered a 3d printer from China a couple of months ago. Customs stoppend it. Shipping it back would have been expensive. Money lost, lesson learned.

 

I am pretty sure I will buy a 3d printer in Thailand to avoid the hassle. And obviously that will be more expensive than from foreign suppliers. But sometimes it's nice to be able to buy some accessory parts from somewhere outside of Thailand. And that is why I asked above question.

It might also be that I (want to) bring some small parts with me when I travel to Europe. And then I want to know in advance if the import is legal or not. That's why I ask.

[OneMoreFarang]

19 minutes ago, recom273 said:

To add - there is a massive printer community in Thailand,. It’s crazy that it’s illegal. 
 

There are places lt-make and especially, siam reprep, that sell some really expensive kit. 

Do you have any links from shops which you can recommend? 

[Yellowtail]

9 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Printers are available and they ship to Thailand on many foreign websites.

And they ship them. And then maybe Thai custom stops them...

A friend ordered a 3d printer from China a couple of months ago. Customs stoppend it. Shipping it back would have been expensive. Money lost, lesson learned.

 

I am pretty sure I will buy a 3d printer in Thailand to avoid the hassle. And obviously that will be more expensive than from foreign suppliers. But sometimes it's nice to be able to buy some accessory parts from somewhere outside of Thailand. And that is why I asked above question.

It might also be that I (want to) bring some small parts with me when I travel to Europe. And then I want to know in advance if the import is legal or not. That's why I ask.

 

I think it a good bet if you order it from the Amazon US site you will get it. Plenty of stuff they will NOT ship to Thailand, and plenty of stuff they will.

 

In any event, I compared prices and whatnot and ender up buying in Thailand from Lazada and had the unit in two days. It was a lot cheaper in the US, bur with freight, duty and local tech support, getting it here was a no-brainier. 

 

It was a surprisingly well-built, robust machine for the money...

[OneMoreFarang]

3 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

I think it a good bet if you order it from the Amazon US site you will get it. Plenty of stuff they will NOT ship to Thailand, and plenty of stuff they will.

 

In any event, I compared prices and whatnot and ender up buying in Thailand from Lazada and had the unit in two days. It was a lot cheaper in the US, bur with freight, duty and local tech support, getting it here was a no-brainier. 

 

It was a surprisingly well-built, robust machine for the money...

Sure, shipping from America is expensive. But shipping from China is often cheap. Cheap is fine - if it actually arrives at our home or office and doesn't stop the trip in the customs office.

[Yellowtail]

Just now, OneMoreFarang said:

Sure, shipping from America is expensive. But shipping from China is often cheap. Cheap is fine - if it actually arrives at our home or office and doesn't stop the trip in the customs office.

 

Yeah, well a lot more cheaters shipping from China. Sometimes they get stuck, sometimes they don't. That something gets through does not mean it should have.

[recom273]

14 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Do you have any links from shops which you can recommend? 

 

What are you looking for?

 

I buy stuff from t-make 3D print who carries bigtreetech, ender and esun filament, he's really helpful and his English is OK.

 

3D Printer Korat are good for creality, and Siam Raprap carry more top end machines like Prusa, and more the kind of kit that you would use for industrial prototyping. 

 

I bought an ender-3 a few years back from a random company on lazada that also sold car polish and kitchenware, it was the cheapest supplier, it came well packaged, no problems - but I see a lot of those companies have stopped selling them now.

[OneMoreFarang]

4 minutes ago, recom273 said:

 

What are you looking for?

 

I buy stuff from t-make 3D print who carries bigtreetech, ender and esun filament, he's really helpful and his English is OK.

 

3D Printer Korat are good for creality, and Siam Raprap carry more top end machines like Prusa, and more the kind of kit that you would use for industrial prototyping. 

 

I bought an ender-3 a few years back from a random company on lazada that also sold car polish and kitchenware, it was the cheapest supplier, it came well packaged, no problems - but I see a lot of those companies have stopped selling them now.

I googled "siam reprep" with your wrong spelling from your previous comment and I didn't find it. Now I googled it with your new spelling and that works a lot better. https://www.siamreprap.com/???? 

 

I am still learning about the possibilities. In the moment I have a PRUSA (www.prusa3d.com) printer in my mind. And likely I will be near the Prusa factory in a few months. This is why I think about my options. 

[recom273]

49 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Printers are available and they ship to Thailand on many foreign websites.

And they ship them. And then maybe Thai custom stops them...

A friend ordered a 3d printer from China a couple of months ago. Customs stoppend it. Shipping it back would have been expensive. Money lost, lesson learned.

 

I am pretty sure I will buy a 3d printer in Thailand to avoid the hassle. And obviously that will be more expensive than from foreign suppliers. But sometimes it's nice to be able to buy some accessory parts from somewhere outside of Thailand. And that is why I asked above question.

It might also be that I (want to) bring some small parts with me when I travel to Europe. And then I want to know in advance if the import is legal or not. That's why I ask.

 

No, you won't have an issues bringing in small parts from aliexpress

[recom273]

7 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I googled "siam reprep" with your wrong spelling from your previous comment and I didn't find it. Now I googled it with your new spelling and that works a lot better. https://www.siamreprap.com/???? 

 

I am still learning about the possibilities. In the moment I have a PRUSA (www.prusa3d.com) printer in my mind. And likely I will be near the Prusa factory in a few months. This is why I think about my options. 

 

lol - Sorry for the typo, I was doing something else.

 

Prusa .. Nice, people say they just do what they are supposed to .. Chinese printers often need a bit of fine tuning that takes forever when you start out. There are a few times when I have considered binning my ender-3 and buying a Prusa, but really comparing 6K that I paid to 49K for a Prusa is a bit of a luxury to make custom plastic parts.

 

Also its fun to fiddle and  build a custom printer -if that's your thing. You are comfortable with Arduino, that's all they are controlled with.

 

Now, If I wanted to spend a little more, I would look at bigtreetech, they seen to be more substantial construction, they have some good features like runout detection, colored screen, ABL and silent boards.

[OneMoreFarang]

10 hours ago, recom273 said:

 

lol - Sorry for the typo, I was doing something else.

 

Prusa .. Nice, people say they just do what they are supposed to .. Chinese printers often need a bit of fine tuning that takes forever when you start out. There are a few times when I have considered binning my ender-3 and buying a Prusa, but really comparing 6K that I paid to 49K for a Prusa is a bit of a luxury to make custom plastic parts.

 

Also its fun to fiddle and  build a custom printer -if that's your thing. You are comfortable with Arduino, that's all they are controlled with.

 

Now, If I wanted to spend a little more, I would look at bigtreetech, they seen to be more substantial construction, they have some good features like runout detection, colored screen, ABL and silent boards.

Thanks. In principle I like to play around with things and I am familiar with Arduino and electronics in general.

But I am new to 3d-printing and sometimes it's nice to have something that just works.

I recently saw this video from Prusa. I am sure you will enjoy it.

 

[Yellowtail]

You learn a lot about 3D printing and printers in the first couple days you dick with it. 

 

I would recommend buying a cheap one, learning everything that is not good about it, and if you really get into it buy something nice. 

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, Yellowtail said:

You learn a lot about 3D printing and printers in the first couple days you dick with it. 

 

I would recommend buying a cheap one, learning everything that is not good about it, and if you really get into it buy something nice. 

I understand your point.

The thing is, I know I need a 3D printer for some things. So the question for me is if I start with a cheap one or with a good one.

It seems even with a good 3D printer there is a lot to learn and a lot which can go wrong - even assuming the printer works perfect.

 

The situation reminds me of when I learned playing pool many years ago. I soon decided to learn only on high quality pool tables. The reason was and is that on good tables I knew if I missed a pocket that I made a mistake. And I could learn to play better to consistently make that pocket. If I would have played on bad tables then any miss would bring up the question: Did I do something wrong? Or is the table the problem? Now I know how to play - and if I miss I can still blame the table. ???? 

With 3D printers I will use the same principle. I don't want to waste my time with trying to find out what I did wrong if in reality the cheap printer is the problem. There will be enough things to lean for me even with a good printer.

[Yellowtail]

55 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I understand your point.

The thing is, I know I need a 3D printer for some things. So the question for me is if I start with a cheap one or with a good one.

It seems even with a good 3D printer there is a lot to learn and a lot which can go wrong - even assuming the printer works perfect.

 

The situation reminds me of when I learned playing pool many years ago. I soon decided to learn only on high quality pool tables. The reason was and is that on good tables I knew if I missed a pocket that I made a mistake. And I could learn to play better to consistently make that pocket. If I would have played on bad tables then any miss would bring up the question: Did I do something wrong? Or is the table the problem? Now I know how to play - and if I miss I can still blame the table. ???? 

With 3D printers I will use the same principle. I don't want to waste my time with trying to find out what I did wrong if in reality the cheap printer is the problem. There will be enough things to lean for me even with a good printer.

 

Much like learning to drive only high-end cars in perfect condition. Better to lean to drive anything, and better to learn to read the table exploit it's flaws to your advantage. 

 

The biggest negative I see with the cheap unit is that the vertical axis only drives on one side. I would not waste money on any higher end unit that did not drive on both side. 

 

Any quality unit would ideally have ball-screws as well, or at least acme threads rather than the SG lead-screws on the Ender unit. 

[recom273]

2 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I understand your point.

The thing is, I know I need a 3D printer for some things. So the question for me is if I start with a cheap one or with a good one.

It seems even with a good 3D printer there is a lot to learn and a lot which can go wrong - even assuming the printer works perfect.

 

The situation reminds me of when I learned playing pool many years ago. I soon decided to learn only on high quality pool tables. The reason was and is that on good tables I knew if I missed a pocket that I made a mistake. And I could learn to play better to consistently make that pocket. If I would have played on bad tables then any miss would bring up the question: Did I do something wrong? Or is the table the problem? Now I know how to play - and if I miss I can still blame the table. ???? 

With 3D printers I will use the same principle. I don't want to waste my time with trying to find out what I did wrong if in reality the cheap printer is the problem. There will be enough things to lean for me even with a good printer.

They all do what they are supposed to, they make custom parts out of plastic but it’s the difference of 40K THB between a Prusa and ender.

 

If you want someone in BKK to calibrate and adjust your printer to give you quality similar to a prusa, http://www.technoshopthai.com he can also upgrade your printer for you.

 

 

[Ralf001]

I have 3 Creality Ender 5 Plus machines.

 

I have zero issues importing components from China for them.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, recom273 said:

They all do what they are supposed to,

Unfortunately that is not the case.

Until now I have no personal experience with them. But I read already lots of articles and watched lots of videos. There are big differences.

Obviously 50,000 B is money. But personally I prefer to pay one time 50k for a good hassle free product compared to 5k to start with and then upgrade and upgrade and still have problems. The thing should work like a high quality product - and I am willing to pay for that.

[1FinickyOne]

What are you looking to print?

 

If they had these in the 1990s, I might still be in business... they look like fun. how much can they be had for? I would have used it to make jewellery... 

 

 

[Yellowtail]

17 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Unfortunately that is not the case.

Until now I have no personal experience with them. But I read already lots of articles and watched lots of videos. There are big differences.

Obviously 50,000 B is money. But personally I prefer to pay one time 50k for a good hassle free product compared to 5k to start with and then upgrade and upgrade and still have problems. The thing should work like a high quality product - and I am willing to pay for that.

 

Unless it comes installed, there will be some issues with getting it assembles and going. 

 

I think a Baht 50K machine is going to be far from a high quality product. It will be a better quality hobby grade unit, but if it has dual vertical drives it will be much better than a 5-10K printer

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

24 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

Unless it comes installed, there will be some issues with getting it assembles and going. 

 

I think a Baht 50K machine is going to be far from a high quality product. It will be a better quality hobby grade unit, but if it has dual vertical drives it will be much better than a 5-10K printer

I guess there is a reason that they have many many good reviews.

It seems everybody agrees that if you want something better than the Prusa it will cost 2000 EUR and more.

 

 

from here: Prusa3D - Open-Source 3D printers by Josef Prusa

 

[OneMoreFarang]

41 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

What are you looking to print?

 

If they had these in the 1990s, I might still be in business... they look like fun. how much can they be had for? I would have used it to make jewellery... 

You can still make jewelry. 

Maybe have a look at some videos.

https://www.youtube.com/c/JosefPrusaRepRap

 

For the record: I am sure there are other good companies. I look at Prusa because it seems everybody agrees they have very good hardware and software and support. That is more important for me than spending less - at least initially less... 

[Yellowtail]

42 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I guess there is a reason that they have many many good reviews.

It seems everybody agrees that if you want something better than the Prusa it will cost 2000 EUR 

 

 

So are you looking at the i3 MK3S+? 

 

It looks much better than the Ender unit I have.  The Mini look like it would be worse than the Ender

 

Looks like per their site they ship to Thailand for ~B5,000 and another 5K for duty....

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

34 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

So are you looking at the i3 MK3S+? 

 

It looks much better than the Ender unit I have.  The Mini look like it would be worse than the Ender

 

Looks like per their site they ship to Thailand for ~B5,000 and another 5K for duty....

 

Yes, that is what I have currently in mind.

And in Europe the kit of the that thing cost 635,54 € + VAT. And likely I will be in Europe later this year.

That is why I asked the question above. Because let's assume I would buy that thing in Europe and I bring it with me on a plane then I guess the whole 3d-printer kit would possibly be confiscated by customs because, like I wrote above, as far as I know the import of 3d printers is illegal if the importer does not have a special license.

So how about if I would bring everything without print head and nozzle? Is it then still a 3d-printer? Because without the print head it could also become a CNC machine - which as far as I know is legal to import.

 

But exactly what I (want to) buy is not yet fixed and clear. This is why I asked above:

On 6/17/2021 at 9:35 AM, OneMoreFarang said:

Does anybody here have detailed information about this? And maybe a link to the law?

 

 

[Yellowtail]

8 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

 

Yes, that is what I have currently in mind.

And in Europe the kit of the that thing cost 635,54 € + VAT. And likely I will be in Europe later this year.

That is why I asked the question above. Because let's assume I would buy that thing in Europe and I bring it with me on a plane then I guess the whole 3d-printer kit would possibly be confiscated by customs because, like I wrote above, as far as I know the import of 3d printers is illegal if the importer does not have a special license.

So how about if I would bring everything without print head and nozzle? Is it then still a 3d-printer? Because without the print head it could also become a CNC machine - which as far as I know is legal to import.

 

But exactly what I (want to) buy is not yet fixed and clear. This is why I asked above:

 

 

 

As long as you can get it in a suit case, I would not worry about getting it in. The Ender kit would likely fit in a big suitcase, but you wouldn't get much more in.

 

Or you could bit the bullet and buy the kit local, get it going, and then bring back all the extra stuff you will want/need when you travel...