Six core services, all run in-house from our Broadstone workshop here in Poole, from a single prototype to a full production batch. Whether it's a functional marine bracket for a boatyard on Poole Harbour or a scale model of a Poole landmark like the Twin Sails Bridge, if it can be modelled, we can usually print it.
First mock-up to iteration to small batch. Next-day form-fit-function prototypes with DFM feedback before you pay for a failed print.
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1 to 1,000 units at consistent tolerance, a real alternative to injection moulding for runs under 1,000, with no tooling spend.
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No file, no problem. We model from a brief, sketch, calipers or the physical part itself in Fusion 360 or SolidWorks.
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Branded activations, exhibition pieces and launch giveaways, one hero piece or 400 matched units, delivered for your event date.
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Experiential builds and branded installations, 2m+ pieces engineered for structural integrity, with transport and on-site install.
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Discontinued or unavailable parts reverse-engineered and reproduced, measured, redrawn and reprinted from a single broken original.
Learn more →"James handled the 3D printing for a functional heat-resistant component we needed in batch production. He helped dial in the prototype first with their design service, then produced the final batch with really consistent results. Super fast 3D print turnaround and great quality across all the 3D printed parts. Will 100% be coming back."
"We needed a sit-in F1-car for an exhibition to showcase our new racing game. 3D Printing Express took our CAD, optimised it for strength and weight as we had no idea how it all worked! Turned out beautifully. They colour matched the finish and was looking like the real deal. On show day the cockpit ran non-stop, adults and kids jumped in."
"We ordered a batch of 100 PA-12 parts from 3D Printing Express and could not be happier. Every part arrived consistent, dimensionally accurate, and ready for use straight from the box. The PA-12 gave us the strength and stability we needed for functional testing, with minimal post-processing required."
"I needed parts 3D printed for mounting a 5G router to a pole. I used the online form to upload the STL files. James contacted me directly via email, helped optimise the geometry for printability and shipped fast. Brilliant communication."
"James was very helpful, discussed our project in detail. Supported us through the development. We had a few difficulties which were managed well. Would definitely use again and recommend."
Our workshop is at Broadstone Business Centre, Moor Road, Poole BH18 8AZ, Broadstone is a northern suburb of the Borough of Poole, about 12 minutes from the town centre. Most Poole orders can be collected the same day once they're made, or we'll ship them out on a tracked courier.
Monday – Friday · 09:00–17:30
Collection by arrangement · email before 10am for same-day.
Poole · ~12 min via A349/A35
Broadstone · ~5 min
Upton · ~10 min
Hamworthy · ~15 min
Canford Heath · ~8 min
Brief in. Quote in 6 hours. Print. Shipped UK-wide. Four steps from your file to a part on your bench.
Send the file
PDF, STEP, STL, sketch, or a photo of the part. Whatever you have, we will work with it.
Inside 6 hours
Reviewed by a real engineer. Pricing breakdown, lead time, and printability flags before you commit.
UK fleet, 3 days
multiple in-house FDM printers in our Dorset workshop. Hardened-steel nozzles on CF jobs. Photo proofs on request.
Next-day courier
Royal Mail Tracked or DPD Next Day, UK-wide · or collect from our Dorset workshop by arrangement.
Here's the whole process · idea to parts in your hands, in 4 simple steps. Send us a file, photo, sketch, or just a description of what you need, we'll work with whatever you've got. Quote back within 6 hours. Two-minute read, no jargon.
A snapshot of the colours and grades we run most often. We stock Polymaker and Fiberon filaments as standard, with engineering-grade composites on request. Poole jobs typically run in PLA, PETG, PA12-CF or ASA.
Not sure which material is right for you? We can help.
Email us your use case →A snapshot of the kind of work we handle for Poole, a marine or yacht fit-out firm on the harbour, a precision engineering business on the Nuffield or Fleets Corner estates, a product-design studio, or a workshop needing functional prototypes and replacement parts.
Poole wraps around one of Europe's largest natural harbours and builds some of its best-known boats, Sunseeker among them, so a fair share of what we print ends up somewhere unkind to plastic: fixed to a hull, clamped to a Sandbanks pontoon, or out on the water in salt and sun. The everyday PLA and PETG most print shops run go soft, brittle and faded in exactly those conditions, which is why we rarely reach for them on Poole work.
For Poole's main sectors · marine and yacht fit-out, precision and light engineering on the Nuffield and Fleets Corner estates, logistics and product development · our shelf leans marine-first: ASA as the default for anything UV-exposed or saltwater-adjacent, PA12-CF for load-bearing brackets, jigs and equipment mounts, PETG-GF where a part needs to stay stiff and dimensionally stable, and UL94 V-0 grades whenever a flame rating is specified. We buy from Polymaker and Fiberon.
When you send a brief, describe the application context · the environment, the load, the regulation if any. We'll suggest the right material in the quote and ship a test sample first so you can verify before the full batch runs.
UV and saltwater resistant · our first choice for anything living on Poole Harbour or out at Sandbanks · hull fittings, pontoon hardware and marine signage.
Carbon-fibre composite · ~95 MPa tensile. Brackets, jigs and equipment mounts that carry real load · the grade we lean on for Poole's boatbuilding and Nuffield-estate precision work.
Flame-retardant · self-extinguishing within 10s of flame removal. Regulated environments.
Poole's economy isn't only the headline yacht builders · Sunseeker International builds luxury motor-yachts here and employs around 2,000 people · it's the supply chain feeding them. The light-industrial and precision-engineering firms clustered on the Nuffield estate and Fleets Corner machine, assemble and fabricate the brackets, mounts and helm consoles that end up on boats leaving Poole Harbour, so the kind of work a Poole engineering business typically needs is clamping jigs and assembly fixtures that hold tolerance shift after shift, plus small runs of housings where injection tooling would never pay off. We're well set up for the harsher end of it too · PA12-CF for load-bearing fixtures, ASA where a part faces UV and salt spray, and UL94 V-0 grades when a marine-electronics enclosure carries a flame-rating spec.
There's a logistics side to the town as well. The trade estates around BH17 and the ferry port · Brittany and Condor crossings run from here to France and the Channel Islands · mean the demand in a town like Poole tends to include warehouse and equipment-line work: guards, guides, and replacements for obsolete parts where no drawing survives. Plenty of those jobs start as a snapped original or a phone photo rather than a CAD file, which suits us · James reverse-engineers the geometry in-house before anything goes on the bed. Being a short run up the A349, most Poole jobs are easy to talk through in person and collect the same day once they're made.
3D printing Poole is genuinely local · our workshop is in Broadstone, a northern suburb of the Borough of Poole, about 12 minutes from the town centre. Once your quote is approved and the part is made, you can collect it the same day or we'll ship it UK-wide on DPD Next Day or Royal Mail Tracked. Email your file before noon and on simple geometries in stocked materials we can often turn it around within 24-48 hours.
| Tier | Cut-off | Lead time | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collection (Poole) | 10am | Same-day / next morning | Broadstone workshop · same day by arrangement |
| Express | 12pm | 24-48 hrs | DPD Next Day · UK-wide |
| Standard most popular | Any time | 2-5 working days | Royal Mail Tracked or DPD |
| Economy | Any time | 5-10 working days | Royal Mail Tracked |
Lead times depend on complexity, material and queue · all tiers reviewed and confirmed in your 6-hour quote. Volume runs of 50+ units get a fast turnaround quote with batch pricing · email for bulk-pricing tiers.
A snapshot of jobs we've shipped for businesses across the south coast. Full case studies cover the brief, build, and outcome.
Five things in your brief mean a faster, more accurate quote and a printable file first time. None of these are dealbreakers if missing · we'll ask · but the more you tell us upfront, the quicker you'll have a sample part on your bench.
One sentence on use case · "it's a bracket holding a 200g PCB inside a sealed sensor enclosure" beats "I need a bracket" every time. Tells us load, environment, tolerance.
STEP and STL are easiest. Sketch, scan, or a photo of a broken part also work · we reverse-engineer in-house if no CAD exists.
1 prototype, 10 iteration units, 100-unit batch, 1,000-unit production run · changes the print strategy and the unit price. Bracket batches over 50 get batch pricing.
Event date, demo day, regulatory deadline. If you tell us, we'll quote the lead time honestly · we'd rather decline than miss a date.
If you know you want PA12-CF, tell us. If not, describe the use case and we'll recommend the right material in the quote.
Every quote we send comes back with the same structure · no upsells, no hidden fees, no algorithmic "best guess". An engineer reviews the file, prices the work and shares any flags before you commit.
Total filament used in grams + total print hours. PA12-CF runs slower than PLA but uses less infill for the same strength. We show both so you can see the trade-off.
Support removal, sand, paint, assemble · only what you've asked for. Each finish has a separate line. No "premium finishing" mystery surcharge.
Same-day collection in Poole, or DPD Next Day / Royal Mail Tracked · fixed price by parcel weight. Workshop collection in Broadstone is free by arrangement.
If the engineer spots a thin wall, a support-trap or a tolerance risk, we flag it in the quote · with a suggested fix. You decide whether to proceed or revise.
Batch runs of 50+ units automatically include a per-unit price breakdown so you can compare cost-at-scale before committing. No VAT to add, the price we quote is the price you pay.
Our Dorset workshopOur workshop is at Broadstone Business Centre, Poole BH18 8AZ, Broadstone is a northern suburb of the Borough of Poole, about 12 minutes from the town centre. Our coverage runs across the Borough of Poole and into wider Dorset: Poole, Broadstone, Upton and Canford Heath, alongside Wimborne, Christchurch and Bournemouth.
Because we're in Poole, most local orders can be collected the same day once they're made, or we'll ship UK-wide on a tracked courier (Royal Mail Tracked or DPD Next Day). For Poole that usually means parts in your hand within minutes of a quick drive, or on your bench the working day after dispatch.
We take on work from right across Poole, from Hamworthy and Parkstone to Branksome, Canford Cliffs, Lilliput and Poole Old Town, with the A35 and A349 linking the town straight to our Broadstone workshop. From functional marine and engineering parts to display pieces and prototypes, if a part lives near the water we'll usually steer you toward a UV- and saltwater-stable grade. We cover the rest of the south coast too, see the areas we serve.
Price is set by three things: material cost, print time, and any post-processing you need. A single small prototype in PLA costs substantially less than a 100-unit batch in PA12-CF. We give you an itemised breakdown in every quote, no black-box pricing.
PLA is the most cost-effective. PETG, ABS, and ASA sit in the mid range. Engineering composites like PA12-CF and PC cost more per gram but need less infill for equivalent strength, often comparable over the life of the part.
Small parts (under 100g) typically run 2–6 hours. Larger enclosures or batch runs scale proportionally. We run multiple in-house FDM printers so parallel printing keeps lead times short without premium surcharges.
Support removal and a basic finish are included. Sanding, painting, colour-matching, or assembly are priced separately. We'll list every finish step as a line item, you choose what you need.
Orders of 50+ units qualify for batch pricing, the unit price drops as we optimise print orientation and plate fills. Tell us your target quantity in the brief and we'll quote it alongside a 10-unit pilot option.
We quote every job individually, no online calculator gives accurate prices for engineering-grade FDM. Send your file and application context to get a line-itemised quote in 6 hours. No commitment to order.
Our workshop is at Broadstone Business Centre, Moor Road, Broadstone, Poole BH18 8AZ, Broadstone is a northern suburb of the Borough of Poole, about 12 minutes from the town centre. We also run a second workshop in Newbury, Berkshire. Every part is printed in-house, we don't outsource to third-party bureaus. James handles client briefs and design; Freddy runs production.
Quotes within 6 hours on business days. Typical production is 2-5 working days depending on complexity and material; once a part is made, Poole customers can collect it the same day from our Broadstone workshop, or we'll ship it on a next-day tracked courier (DPD or Royal Mail Tracked). Urgent jobs with a fixed date: tell us on the brief and we'll confirm within 24 hours whether we can hit it.
We ship UK-wide, and we're local to all of Poole. Around Poole we serve Broadstone, Upton, Hamworthy, Canford Heath and Lilliput, alongside Wimborne, Christchurch and Bournemouth. For larger or recurring orders we can arrange a regular courier slot or a standing collection time.
Poole's economy leans on its harbour and a strong engineering base, so much of the work we take on there is marine and engineering: brackets, fittings, jigs and weather-stable parts for yacht fit-out, boatyards and marine engineering firms around Poole Harbour. We also support precision and light-engineering businesses on the Nuffield Industrial Estate and Fleets Corner (enclosures, mounts and prototypes), plus local product-design studios, logistics operators and fabricators.
Yes. Send a broken part in the post or drop one in if you're local, send a photo, send a sketch, or just describe the part. We do reverse engineering and CAD in-house · James will build the file and quote you. Especially useful for obsolete or discontinued parts where no digital file exists.
Both, and because we're in Poole, collection is genuinely easy. Once your part is made you can collect it the same day from our Broadstone workshop, or we'll ship it UK-wide on a tracked courier if that's simpler. For genuinely urgent jobs, send the brief before noon and we'll tell you honestly what's achievable.
