Scrap Labs is building a $9,600 laser metal 3D printer for the bench

A metal printer you could actually fit in a home shop

For years, real metal 3D printing has lived behind a wall of cost. A working selective laser melting or LPBF machine from a name brand runs well into six figures, and that is before you pay for inert gas, powder handling, and the training to run it safely. Scrap Labs, a small hardware startup, thinks that wall can come down. Its pitch is a benchtop LPBF system that prints 316L stainless steel directly, with no binders and no sintering step, for a founder price of $9,600.

The company showed the project on 3D Printing Nerd and in a recent shop tour from Canuck Creator, and the numbers it publishes are striking. It claims parts at over 99 percent density, a compact footprint that sits on a normal workbench, and a roadmap that runs from a December 2025 proof of concept through alpha testers in mid 2026 to a production launch in June 2027, shipping first in the US.

What makes the claim interesting

Most affordable metal printing on the market today is actually bound metal. You print a part full of polymer binder, then burn that binder out and sinter the piece in a furnace. That second step shrinks the part and can warp it. Scrap Labs says it is skipping that route entirely. Powder goes in, a laser fuses it, and a finished metal part comes out. No binder, no furnace, no tumbling.

That is the same basic process used by machines that cost ten times as much. The hard part is doing it reliably at a price a maker or a small lab can pay. The startup says 124 people have put down deposits as founder or priority backers, which is a real signal of demand even if a shipped product is a long way off.

Why the skepticism is fair

Read the fine print and this is still early. The company lists its specs as targets, not promises. It is in the alpha phase, onboarding testers, and the production launch is nearly a year out. Building one good demo cube is very different from shipping a safe, repeatable metal printer that a hobbyist can run in a garage. Metal powder and high power lasers are not forgiving, and certification, fume extraction, and powder safety are real hurdles that cheap hardware often underestimates.

Still, the direction is worth watching. If Scrap Labs or someone like it actually lands a sub $10,000 LPBF box that works, the effect on prototyping and small batch metal parts would be large. Machine shops, dental labs, and hardware startups could print end use stainless parts without a six figure capital expense.

The bottom line

This is a wait and see story, not a buy today one. Scrap Labs has a clear vision, a believable process, and early traction. It does not yet have a shipping product. For now it is one of the more interesting bets in desktop metal printing, and we will be watching the beta phase in late 2026 to see if the $9,600 promise holds up.