I have some excellent news I would like to share.  When I started this blog my intent was to share my 3D printer and printing experiences and I am happy to announce that the sharing of the printer has started.  I saw an article on http://www.3ders.org/ for http://www.makexyz.com/ which is a service where you can list your printer so that people can search their local area for people with a 3D printer that is willing to print objects for a marginal fee. So I listed my printer:

http://www.makexyz.com/printer/michael_mcco

This past weekend I got and completed my first job from this site.  It was quite easy to use and only required minimal effort.  Here is how it works.  The user goes to the http://www.makexyz.com/ site and searches their area for a 3D printer.  They then upload a STL file to the site and select the color print and quality.  The invoice is then sent to the printer (me) to accept the order.  The order is charged by the cubic cm (I have my Makerbot 2 listed at $.25/cm³) and I can accept it as is or modify the invoice and send it back.  In this case the print needed support material so I had to slightly modify the price to account for this.  I send back the invoice; the user accepts it and I print it.  The user has the choice to have it shipped or they can ask for a pickup.

Hopefully this will make sharing my printer with people around me even easier.  Here is the first job as it was printing: