But for mass producing a solid design, 3D printing is the worst solution, because it is slow. Injection molding would be the fast (and cheap) way.
~10 years ago I was really into designing my own "drones" (but the kind that don't kill people) and I primarily used a CNC machine (Shapeoko 3).
Multirotor vehicles are a good match for designs that are a series of mostly flat plates connected via simple standoffs and you can knock those out really quick with a CNC machine.
Injection molding is certainly much better than 3D printing for scale, but CNC is a nice middle ground that allows for quick manufacture while still having a lot of the same flexibility for iterative design that you get with 3D printing.
Laser cutters and waterjets are CNC machines.
And yeah they are generally faster than using a drill, but cheaper is situation specific (can be, depending upon the scale).
You're still thinking like it's 1990
So yeah, if you have special needs, modifying a special ops drone, or simple part printing, they are great.
Or like I said, distributed manufactoring.
https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/ukraine-turns-3d-pr...
> Its printers are now used across Ukraine, with frontline print farms producing vital equipment and components where they are needed most.
This is your typical "ackchyually" meme, people facing adversity in real life don't care about your theoretical pros and cons, they just do their things
And then, the next step for deco/reco will be the metal frontier.
Unless you think you're only going to need a couple spools to get the job done before never using the thing again.