There are ways you can raise capital from other hobbyists to support your development/habit. Of course, you need a certain amount of charisma. I can share with you a couple of stories.
The second 3D plane I printed, called the GASB one... it has a pretty big following. This guy spent hours designing, testing, and printing (material and money) so that we could have an easy to print PLA wing that is pretty cheap. I used $5 of PLA printing it, that is pretty close to foam board price points. Anyways, he has a "buy me a coffee" option and if you buy him a coffee, you get some well written build instructions, and if you want him to, he can make customized winglets with your initials in it. Kind of neat. While I cared little about the winglets, I thought instructions might be nice (not that I couldn't have figured it out myself, it was like 7 pieces) and I appreciated the fact that he had put all of that work into something and put it out for free, so I gave him the $3 for coffee or whatever.
I also printed a spool holder for my 3D printer, and after figuring out it wasn't a piece of crap, I donated the guy $1.00 over paypal because I liked it, and he obviously took time to design it and ensure it works.
Now both of these people had something in common, they seemed like nice, congenial folks that really just did it for the hobby, probably didn't care a whole lot about the money, and I am relatively certain that my money will be put to good use.
Infact I am far more certain that they will put the money to better use than the criminals running Bexar County will who had the nerve to assess my house $80,000 more than it was last year, and are holding their hand out for money in the form of a bond "for the schools" after having received a boatload of "covid support" money from the federal government and having their buildings shuttered for the better part of two years.
They also had a following and a good online personality which they worked for. They never once came across as needy or entitled, just in general "if you want to support my habit, and maybe I'll make more cool stuff for you to use, I won't say no to that." Kind of like if someone wanted to drop a couple of pieces of foamboard by my house, or a spare motor, or something like that to thank me for a design I made. Gee, thanks, I'll go make something else cool. If Jack had a way to donate to 13th squadron, I would probably donate to him to. I really enjoy the F6F. I tried to give back by making a build thread for it.
Beta testing is another way to acquire goods for little to no money. I beta tested an intercooler for my car. The guys were pretty new on the block, looked at the documented progress on my car, liked my personality, and I had been in contact with them for a while and previously bought another product from them. Out of the blue they told me they would send me a $500 intercooler for my car if I installed it, documented the process, and gave an honest review and feedback to improve it. Mind you, my youtube channel is crap, and I never post on facebook, this was all based on my activity on the forum.
So there are ways to get stuff. People will just mail you stuff if they like you. Heck, I will. If I saw someone had built something really cool, but they were struggling gathering the electronics or something and they were stateside, I would undoubtedly send them whatever extra I have. But if some new person were to log on and say "I want to get started with the hobby, and you say you want more people in the hobby, so give me free stuff" I wouldn't.
All that to say there is a difference between saying
and
. @Taildragger , the category is "Charities and Funds" under the shameless self promotion section. I may be wrong but pretty sure it wasn't intended for anything like that. Browse through the other threads and find something even remotely close, kind of takes away from people who really need as opposed to those who just want. And according to @Bo123 we should expect that we are going to get hit up for money now and then just because thats the way it is because the rest of us are sitting on piles of cash. Bullying? Come on guys, wake up. @Scotto summed it up pretty good. Nuff said. No harm intended, much offense taken.
