3D printing services

Send us your model. We’ll send you parts.

Production FDM printing for businesses — prototypes, jigs and fixtures, replacement parts, and short runs. Eight engineering-grade filaments — PLA, PETG, ASA, ABS, and polycarbonate among them — an enclosed machine, and soluble supports for geometry other shops turn away.

We work business-to-business. Sole traders and one-person shops are absolutely in scope — private individuals printing personal items are not.

You supply the model

This is the part worth being blunt about, because it saves everyone a wasted email: we print the model you give us. To quote a job we need a 3D model file. Without one there is nothing to price, schedule, or slice.

That means the good fit for us is a business that already has CAD — an engineer, a product designer, a parts catalogue with downloadable models, or a supplier who has sent you a STEP file. If that’s you, the process below is fast and the pricing is predictable.

What we don’t do — for now

We do not reverse-engineer parts. If you send us a broken component, a photograph, or a set of caliper measurements and ask us to produce a model from it, we will have to decline. Measuring an existing part and rebuilding it in CAD is a specialist job with its own tolerance risk, and we would rather turn the work away than do it badly.

We do not offer design-from-scratch. “Here’s my idea, please design it” is outside what we currently offer.

We are describing today’s capability, not a permanent policy — this may change. If you’re not sure whether what you have counts as a model, ask us and we’ll tell you straight away rather than leave you guessing.

Basic design work we can do

Once a model exists, we can make reasonable adjustments to it as part of the job:

  • Scaling, mirroring, and unit correction
  • Splitting an oversized model into printable sections with alignment features
  • Adding or adjusting clearances so mating parts actually fit after printing
  • Fillets, chamfers, and light wall-thickness changes for printability
  • Simple text, logos, part numbers, or serialisation embossed on a face
  • Orientation and support strategy — this one is included in every job

If a change is big enough to count as designing a new part, we’ll say so in the quote rather than quietly absorbing it.

File requirements

What to send

Any of these formats will quote. If your CAD package exports something else, ask — we can usually work with it.

Accepted model formats. Solid, watertight (“manifold”) geometry in all cases.
FormatExtensionNotes
STL.stlThe most common option and perfectly fine. Export at a fine tessellation — a coarse STL prints visible facets on curved faces.
3MF.3mfPreferred where you have it. Carries units, scale, and colour reliably, so there is less to misinterpret.
STEP.step, .stpIdeal for engineering parts. True solid geometry, so we can adjust clearances cleanly if the job needs it.
OBJ.objAccepted. Common from sculpting and scanning tools; check the scale before sending.

Send this with the file

  • Quantity — and whether it’s a one-off or likely to repeat
  • Material, or a description of the environment the part lives in and we’ll recommend one
  • The date you need it — a real date, so we can tell you yes or no honestly
  • Which faces or features matter — what must fit, seal, or stay cosmetic
  • Colour, if it matters

Files sent for quoting are used for that quote and the job it becomes. We don’t share your models or reuse your geometry for other customers.

Capability

What the shop can actually do

Two capabilities worth calling out, because they decide whether a job is possible at all.

Enclosed printing

  • The machine is enclosed, with a controlled chamber
  • ABS, ASA, and polycarbonate are genuine production options, not experiments
  • Large flat parts in high-shrinkage materials stay flat instead of warping off the plate
  • Layer adhesion in engineering materials is consistent enough for functional loads
  • Styrene odour and particulates stay contained — relevant if parts ship to an office

Multi-material with soluble supports

  • An automatic material system feeds multiple filaments in one print
  • PVA support material dissolves away in plain water
  • Enclosed internal channels, undercuts, and captive geometry become printable
  • No scarring or tool marks from prying supports off a cosmetic surface
  • Multi-colour parts in a single piece — no painting, no assembly

Why soluble supports matter commercially. Most FDM shops print your part with break-away supports in the same material. On a simple bracket that’s fine. On a manifold with an internal channel, a snap-fit with a deep undercut, or a housing with a captive void, break-away support is either impossible to remove or leaves damage where the part needed to be smooth. Dissolving the support instead means the geometry drives the design decision rather than the printer’s limitations. If you have a part that a previous supplier called unprintable, that’s the one we’d like to see.

Applications

What businesses send us

Functional prototypes

Iterations you can hand to a customer or put in a test rig, in a material close enough to production to mean something. Turn a design revision around in days, not weeks.

Jigs, fixtures, and tooling

Assembly aids, drill guides, alignment blocks, and soft jaws made to your bench rather than adapted from a catalogue. Usually the fastest payback on the shop floor.

Obsolete replacement parts

Housings, knobs, clips, brackets, and covers for equipment the manufacturer no longer supports — provided you can supply or obtain the model.

Short production runs

Tens to low hundreds of units where injection tooling can’t be justified. Consistent settings across the batch and per-unit pricing that improves with quantity.

Enclosures and housings

Cases for electronics, sensor mounts, and control-panel fascias — in ASA when they live outdoors, PETG or ABS when they don’t.

Point-of-sale and display

Branded stands, product cradles, and signage components in the colours you specify, produced in matched batches.

Process

From file to delivery

  1. Send the requirement

    Use the quote request form to tell us the model format, quantity, target date, and what the part has to survive. We will reply with secure file-transfer instructions.

  2. We review it for printability

    We check the geometry is watertight, confirm the scale, and flag anything that will cause a problem — thin walls, unsupported spans, tolerances that FDM can’t hold. You hear about it before you’re committed.

  3. You get one number and one date

    Material, machine time, support removal, and finishing quoted as a single per-unit price, with a firm lead time. Quotes hold for 30 days.

  4. First article, if the job warrants it

    On a run of any size we print one and confirm it’s right before committing the batch. Cheaper for everyone than discovering a fit problem at unit ninety.

  5. Production and finishing

    Supports removed or dissolved, parts checked against the agreed critical features, and packed for collection or shipping.

  6. Delivery and invoice

    Collection from Monrovia, MD, or shipped nationwide. Invoiced against your PO where you use one; net-30 available on approved accounts.

Specifications

Tolerances and limits

Honest numbers for FDM. If your part needs tighter than this, it needs machining, and we’d rather tell you now.

Typical achievable figures. Exact capability depends on material, geometry, and orientation — confirmed per job at quote.
ParameterTypicalNotes
Dimensional tolerance±0.3 mm or ±0.5%Whichever is greater. Larger parts and high-shrinkage materials sit at the looser end.
Layer height0.12–0.28 mmFiner layers for cosmetic surfaces, coarser for speed on bulk functional parts.
Minimum wall thickness1.2 mmThinner is possible but stops being structural. Design for 2 mm+ on load-bearing walls.
Minimum feature size0.8 mmEmbossed text needs roughly 1 mm stroke width to stay legible.
ThreadsM6 and aboveBelow that, design for a heat-set insert or a tapped hole — printed fine threads strip.
Oversized partsSplit and joinedParts beyond the build volume are sectioned with alignment features and bonded, agreed at quote.

Finishing options

  • Standard — supports removed, plate marks cleaned up, part inspected. Included in every quote.
  • Soluble support removal — PVA dissolved out, leaving internal surfaces unmarked.
  • Heat-set inserts — brass threaded inserts installed for assemblies that come apart repeatedly.
  • Sanding and smoothing — for cosmetic faces, priced by surface area.
  • Batch labelling — part numbers or sequential serials embossed or applied.
Questions

Before you send a model

I don’t have a model. Can you make one?

Not at the moment. We print from a model you supply, and we don’t currently offer design-from-scratch or reverse-engineering from a physical sample. We can adjust and prepare a model you already have — scaling, clearances, splitting, printability fixes — but the geometry has to start with you.

If you need a model created, a freelance CAD designer or your equipment supplier is usually the right next call. Come back to us once you have the file.

Do you print in resin?

No. We are a filament (FDM) shop only — there is no resin or SLA capability here. For very fine detail work like jewellery masters or miniatures, a resin bureau is the right choice and we’ll say so.

Which material should I choose?

Tell us what the part has to survive — sunlight, heat, chemicals, impact, load — and we’ll recommend one. The short version: PETG for general tough parts, ASA for anything outdoors, ABS for impact and heat, polycarbonate when it has to be as strong as FDM gets, PLA for cosmetic and fit-check work. The materials guide covers all eight in detail.

What does it cost?

Per-unit pricing based on material consumed, machine time, support removal, and any finishing — quoted as one number, not a stack of line items. Quantity brings the unit price down because setup is amortised across the batch. We don’t publish a rate card because a 20-gram clip and a 400-gram housing aren’t the same job; send the details and we’ll reply with secure file-transfer instructions so you can get a real number quickly.

How fast can you turn a job around?

Small jobs are often days rather than weeks, but it depends entirely on the part and the queue. Give us the date you actually need and we’ll tell you yes or no honestly — we would rather decline a deadline than miss one.

Can you match a specific colour?

We’ll match as closely as the available filament stock allows, and we’ll show you what we have before committing a batch. Exact brand-colour matching isn’t something FDM filament can promise. For a run where colour consistency matters, we buy enough of one batch to complete it — filament colour can shift slightly between manufacturing lots.

Will you sign an NDA?

Yes. Send yours over with the enquiry and we’ll review it. Either way, models you send are used for your job only — we don’t share geometry or reuse it for other customers.

What if the parts aren’t right?

If a part misses the spec we agreed in the quote, we reprint it at our cost. If the model itself had the problem, we’ll show you what we found and re-quote the corrected version — which is exactly why we review geometry before printing and offer a first article on runs.

Do you take on private individuals?

We’re a business-to-business shop. A sole trader or a one-person company is a business as far as we’re concerned and very welcome. Personal projects for private individuals aren’t something we take on.

Have a file? That’s all we need to quote.

Send the model, the quantity, and the date. You’ll get a per-unit price and a firm lead time back — or an honest explanation of why the part needs a change first.

Request a print quote