I have a friend who works for staples in the US. They are putting 3D printers in the print service areas of their stores. They have a few setup now.

I built one. I also joined a hacker space that has 3 of them now. I also looked locally and didn't have a lot of luck finding a good printer willing to print much. The cheapest short term solution is a maker\hacker space. The cheapest long term solution is to build a 3rd printer. The most expensive solution by far is a service.

Realize that these parts will not be as strong as injection molded parts but with some post processing, you can make them pretty strong. It's defiantly not as simple as printing out a part and it is perfect. I think that because of this, many people are reluctant to print for others.

Just some thoughts...

3D Systems is probably the best quality prints you will find from a print service. I have never used them, but they have been 3D printing for a very long time.

xlrobot.com has 3d print service. they are also members here.

Honestly unless your ready for the woes of machine upkeep buying a 3d printer may not really be the cheapest. By that I mean you can have a few dozen items printed for 1/4 the price of a average printer. These things have to be tended to , cleaned , lubed , calibrated and even watched remotely from a camera if you aren't home so you can stop them in case of a clog , piece comes off a build plate or in the rare but possible occurance of fire. There are just so many things that can go wrong. Don't get me wrong it's a great tool but it is also a great undertaking and commitment financially. If you don't have the spare $ then having someone else print for you is a big thumbs up.

I have to agree with d.cochran. I can't offer to provide 3D prints using my FlashForge 3D printer because I don't want to provide poor quality prints which is basically all that come out of my machine whether I use PLA or ABS. Maybe in another generation or two printer quality as well as better extruder material will give better prints.

3d systems has industrial grade stratus rapid prototyping machines that are awesome , but you pay for what you get too. Shapeways is great as well. Me or Ant can print for other members too between our own projects but we will take a couple weeks in most cases

@robodoc , you have a solidoodle 3 right? You should have the techs at solidoodle help you calibrate it as they come with room for much improvement!

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. For reference trying to have the shell for jimmy printed.