Voodoo makes 3-D printing available to wider base

Voodoo Manufacturing Inc. is taking 3-D printing to people who cannot afford to buy their own machine, but still have a need to make something new.

The startup officially launched Oct. 6 after four months of working out the kinks.

Based in an 1,800-square-foot warehouse in New York's Bushwick, Brooklyn, neighborhood, Voodoo uses a lot of printers — and very few people. And the firm may have discovered a viable business model for all 3-D desktop printer makers.

Currently, Voodoo is made up of five people — four co-founders, all from Brooklyn-based 3-D-printer maker MakerBot, and one new hire. It will be adding sales staff this year, according to Voodoo co-founder and CEO Max Friefeld, who will turn 24 next week.

On Oct. 6, the company opened up its website for business. Anyone can now upload a file of something they want printed, get a price quote, have the products made from Voodoo's fleet of printers, then shipped the next business day.

Relying on networking software that the Voodoo founders developed at MakerBot, the company can keep 127 MakerBot Replicator 2 printers operating around the clock. The software both monitors and controls the printers — which can be prone to clogging or running out of plastic filament mid-production — so that only one full-time worker and one half-time employee are needed to keep them running.

The company has a service agreement with MakerBot that allows it to continue using the networking software.

Since its test run began in June, Voodoo has turned out promotional knickknacks like key chains for Nickelodeon and MTV, and a 92-piece dress designed by Intel and the fashion house Chromat. The printers were able to produce the dress out of flexible parts in 36 hours.

Additionally, production comes in at one-tenth the cost of a traditional 3-D printing factory like Shapeways, based in Long Island City, Queens, according to Friefeld. The company can do orders of 10 units, processed through its website, at a low enough cost to make sense. Or it can do a 10,000-unit run--and simply add printers to increase scale if it has to.

The launch holds promise for MakerBot, the pioneer of low-cost printers that has struggled since it was bought by 3-D printing giant Stratasys Ltd. in 2013. In April, MakerBot laid off more than 100 employees and shut down its retail stores.

"When we were at MakerBot we realized there was an opportunity to build a 3-D printing service similar to Shapeways, on top of the new technology coming out of the low end of the market," Friefeld said. "The big thing we've been doing, that I don't think anyone thought was possible, is just running these machines with so few people, and keeping our heads above water in terms of maintenance, practices and quality."

The 3-D printers used by Shapeways cost as much as $100,000 (vs. $2,000 for a MakerBot machine), and can produce intricate, high-end products in a variety of materials ready for consumers to buy. Voodoo is aimed at the B-to-B market, according to Friefeld, and focuses on early-stage production and prototypes that need only limited runs. Key chains, for instance, cost $3 or $4 apiece to make vs. $20 using traditional methods.

"We've driven the cost down so significantly, we've found new opportunities opening up," Friefeld said. "Desktop 3-D printing still has a place — on the engineer's desk and in schools. But we see what we're doing as a new way to use 3-D printing that's practical and useful and will be around for a long time."