RISK & ALLOWANCES

A reprint reserve is not a failure rate

What the reserve covers, how it is calculated and when to replace the assumption.

Updated 5 November 2026 · All numeric examples are illustrative.

What the reserve field means

The reserve field is an extra allowance on filament, electricity and machine costs. This calculator does not infer a probability of print failure. Setup, finishing, packaging, shipping and other costs are not multiplied by the reserve.

A transparent example

With 20 in material, power and machine costs, a 10% reserve adds 2. The print-related budget becomes 22. Labor and fulfilment are then added separately. Choose an allowance that makes sense for your records rather than treating the sample as a recommendation.

Why it differs from a failure model

Under a simplified model where every failed attempt consumes a full attempt’s cost and independent attempts succeed with probability 90%, expected attempts are 1 ÷ 0.9. That is about an 11.1% uplift, not 10%. Real failures may stop early, affect a whole plate, or need extra labor. This calculator deliberately uses the explicit allowance instead.

Review your own job history

Keep records of wasted material, lost machine time and recovery work. Update the allowance as you learn. Add any extra expected recovery labor to setup or other costs if it is not already budgeted.

Put your own time, material and business costs into the estimate.

Open the calculator ↗