Six core services, all run in-house from our Dorset workshop, from a single prototype to a full production batch. Whether it's a functional marine bracket for a Solent boatyard or a scale model of a Southampton landmark like The Bargate, 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, about 50 minutes from Southampton via the M27 and A31. Most Southampton orders go out on a tracked next-day courier; local collection is by arrangement.
Monday – Friday · 09:00–17:30
Collection by arrangement · email before 10am for same-day.
Southampton · ~50 min via M27/A31
Eastleigh · ~55 min
Romsey · ~45 min
Winchester · ~55 min
Portsmouth · ~75 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. Southampton 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 Southampton, a Solent marine or yacht fit-out firm, a University of Southampton research group, a geospatial or product-design studio near the Ordnance Survey cluster, or an engineering workshop needing functional prototypes.
Southampton is the UK's number-one deep-sea port and a genuine ocean-technology cluster, from cruise terminals and yacht fit-out to the marine-robotics and survey outfits around the waterfront. Parts here ride on vessels, sit on the dockside or mount to survey kit, all places where salt, UV and vibration make short work of the PLA and PETG most print shops default to.
For Southampton's main sectors · marine and yacht fit-out, port and logistics engineering, university and geospatial R&D, product development · PA12-CF leads for load-bearing brackets and survey-kit mounts, with ASA for anything on the water or dockside, PETG-GF for stiff, dimensionally stable enclosures, and UL94 V-0 grades when a flame rating is required. Polymaker and Fiberon supply our filament.
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 · steady on the Solent and Southampton Water · dockside fittings, on-vessel enclosures and marina hardware.
Carbon-fibre composite · ~95 MPa tensile. Load-bearing brackets and survey-kit mounts · the grade that suits Southampton's marine-engineering and ocean-tech work.
Flame-retardant · self-extinguishing within 10s of flame removal. Regulated environments.
Southampton runs on the water, and the kind of work a city like this typically needs reflects that. The Port of Southampton is one of the UK's busiest, leading the country in cruise and vehicle trade, and the marine and ocean-technology cluster around it · the National Oceanography Centre, ocean-robotics outfits, the yacht fit-out and survey-equipment trade · is exactly the sort of operation that needs parts able to hold up to saltwater, UV and constant damp. That points to ASA, PETG-GF and PA12-CF rather than shelf-grade PLA, and we're well set up for all three. There's a deep engineering pedigree here too: the Supermarine Spitfire was first built at Woolston, and that maker culture still shows in the precision the city's workshops tend to expect.
Around the University of Southampton and the Ordnance Survey cluster the demand shifts · research groups, spin-outs and geospatial hardware firms here typically want rapid functional prototypes, sensor enclosures and survey-kit mounts, often with a flame rating attached, so we keep UL94 V-0 grades on hand for when a spec calls for one. Port and logistics operators, motorsport workshops and signage studios round out the kind of demand a town like this generates, usually obsolete replacement parts or bespoke tooling. We serve Southampton from our Broadstone workshop, about 50 minutes down the M27 and A31, with parts shipped on a tracked courier and collection by arrangement · close enough to talk a brief through properly and match the material grade to where the part actually lives.
Most Southampton orders are shipped, not collected for most jobs · once your quote is approved and the part is made, it goes out 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 dispatch within 24-48 hours. Collection from our Dorset workshop is by arrangement.
| Tier | Cut-off | Lead time | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collection (Dorset) | 10am | Same-day / next morning | Broadstone workshop · 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.
DPD Next Day or Royal Mail Tracked · fixed price by parcel weight. Southampton orders almost always go by tracked courier; workshop collection in Dorset 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, in Dorset, about 50 minutes from Southampton via the M27 and A31. We take on work right across the Solent and Hampshire: Southampton, Eastleigh, Hedge End, Romsey, Totton, Winchester and Portsmouth, alongside our home patch in Dorset.
Every order ships UK-wide on a tracked courier (Royal Mail Tracked or DPD Next Day) once it's made, for Southampton that usually means parts on your bench the working day after dispatch. Collection from the Dorset workshop is by arrangement.
We take on work from right across Southampton, from Shirley and Portswood to Bitterne, Woolston, Bassett and the Ocean Village waterfront, with the M27 and A31 linking the city straight to our Dorset workshop. From functional marine and engineering parts to display pieces and research models, 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, in Dorset, about 50 minutes from Southampton via the M27 and A31. 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 it ships to Southampton on a next-day tracked courier (DPD or Royal Mail Tracked). Urgent jobs with a fixed event date: tell us on the brief and we'll confirm within 24 hours whether we can hit it.
We ship UK-wide. Across the Solent and Hampshire we serve Southampton, Eastleigh, Hedge End, Romsey, Totton, Winchester and Portsmouth, alongside our home patch in Dorset · Poole, Christchurch and Wimborne. For larger or recurring orders we can arrange a regular courier slot.
Southampton's economy leans on the port and the Solent, so the work we're set up to take on there is mostly marine and engineering: brackets, fittings, jigs and weather-stable parts for yacht fit-out, boatyards and marine engineering firms. We're also a good fit for university research groups (the University of Southampton has a large research base), geospatial and hardware-tech firms around the Ordnance Survey cluster, and local product-design and manufacturing studios.
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.
Most Southampton orders ship UK-wide on a next-day courier, usually the fastest option, since we're about 50 minutes away in Dorset. If you'd rather collect, that's fine by arrangement from the Broadstone workshop. For genuinely urgent jobs, send the brief before noon and we'll tell you honestly what's achievable.
