Hello there visitor. You have come to the donations page. Please let me explain why this page is here.
TL;DR:
These projects are open source and cost a lot of money to make. While I love doing it, it is expensive. Please, if you can spare it (and only if you can spare it) consider going to the bottom of this page and donating when you download something from this site. Thanks :).
Now for the long version.
Ytec3D and all projects on it are my hobby. I started Ytec because I was dissatisfied with Thingiverse and needed a place to stash my models. This has grown to the tiny corner of the internet that is Ytec3D. My hobby, is hobbies, but the 2 things that are most notable for this site are 3D printers and 3D printed props. All files and models are created open source and are shared for free. This is great for development and I absolutely love seeing my designs being made around the world, but it is a financial disaster (like all hobbies).
While I will not give exact values, a prop usually costs in the triple digits. A 3D printer is actually quadruple digits. This is a lot of money if you add up all projects on this site. Also, to develop something is at least twice as expensive as simply making it. There is also a lot of time involved. A prop is a 40-80 hours of design, and usually double that to actually make. 3D printers are hundreds of hours of work. This is all next to my own 40 hour day-job as a mechanical engineer.
Now to the point. When Ytec3D started, I had a webshop planned, to help pay for my hobby. This shop is still not life, and probably will not be for a while. In the mean time, my projects keep slurping up a large amount of my money. Now I won’t force anyone to pay for any of my projects. My projects are, and will always be, free and open source. If you don’t have any money to spare, or simply don’t want to donate, please don’t.
But if you are making a project from this site, be it a prop, a printer, or something else, and you want to support the guy who made the files available, please consider donating a small amount, so I can keep doing this for as long as possible. Thanks in advance.