Boat Scan to Replacement Part
A boat scan digitises a fitting that is broken, worn or no longer made, so it can be remade. We come to the boat, or you post the part in. From £120, quoted in 2 hours.
A UK boat scan service that turns a marine fitting into data you can use, and into a replacement part if that is what you actually want, dispatched from Poole.
This is where to get a broken boat part remade in the UK when the manufacturer has stopped making it, the model is long out of production, or the builder no longer exists. We capture the geometry of the original, rebuild what is missing, and produce the replacement. If you want the scan rebuilt into an editable model rather than a part, that is our reverse engineering service, which sits alongside the wider 3D scanning service. If the part is simply obsolete rather than marine-specific, see obsolete and discontinued parts.
9,500+ parts shipped from 3D Printing Express this year · boat scan, Poole
Obsolete boat parts, and the fittings nobody stocks
3D scanning boat parts for reproduction is the normal reason people come to us. Discontinued boat parts are the everyday version of this: bring the original, however tired it is, and we work from the object rather than a drawing that no longer exists.
Hatch, window and locker hardware
Catches, stops, vents and handles from a model the builder stopped supporting years ago.
Trim, mouldings and interior fittings
The plastic and trim pieces a yacht refit needs and no chandlery can source.
Helm panel and console parts
Bezels, blanks and mounts around a helm panel, captured from what is left of the original.
Upgrades and one-off adaptations
New parts modelled against the real boat, so they fit the hull you have rather than a generic drawing.
On site scanning: we come to the boat
Plenty of marine parts cannot be posted anywhere. They are bonded in, they are part of a moulding, or removing them is a bigger job than the repair. For those we bring the handheld scanner to the boat and capture the fitting where it sits, in the yard, on the hard or on the pontoon.
Small, removable parts are simpler and cheaper: post them to us in Poole and we scan them in the workshop. If you are not sure which yours is, send a photo through the quote form and an engineer will tell you before you take anything apart.
For the trade: boatyard, chandlery, marina workshop and refit
Where do boatyards get discontinued parts reproduced? Usually here, because the customer has already been told the fitting is unavailable and somebody still has to produce one. If your boatyard needs an obsolete part remade for a customer, we work as the UK supplier behind you: you hold the client relationship, we produce the part, and we can send it plain so it arrives as your work.
A yacht refit company sourcing obsolete interior fittings in the UK usually needs several of a thing rather than one, and a marina workshop needing custom plastic parts made in small batches has the same problem in a different shape. Small batches are ordinary work for us: see small batch production for how that runs. As a custom marine plastic parts manufacturer we would rather quote the batch and the repeat than sell you one part and disappear.
We come to your yard
Scanning on site means the customer's boat does not have to move and you do not have to strip a fitting out to find out if it is copyable.
One engineer, one thread
A real engineer reads the enquiry and quotes within 2 hours, so you can answer your customer the same day.
The model stays on file
Once a fitting is modelled, the second and tenth are quick. Useful when a fleet or a class of boat all fail the same way.
Work you can check
We are used to being the supplier behind a business, not just a one-off service.
Clients who have put their name next to our work: Whale Tankers, Bournemouth University, Beryl and Pebbl Innovations.
How a boat part gets remade
- 1
Send a photo
A clear photo through the quote form, with something for scale. Say whether the part comes off the boat or not.
- 2
We scan it, here or there
Post the part to Poole, or we bring the scanner to the boat. We capture the geometry and hand-measure the features that decide whether it fits.
- 3
We rebuild what is missing
Cracked, warped and half-perished originals are normal. We reconstruct the intended shape and confirm what we inferred with you before anything is made.
- 4
You get the part, the model, or both
Take the finished fitting, keep the model so you can re-order, or both. The geometry stays yours.
Three routes for a broken boat part, and which one yours needs
Not everything should be 3D printed, and saying so is cheaper than finding out later. A scan is useful in all three routes, because it is what turns your one surviving original into something anyone can work from. Marine 3D printing is the right answer for one of them and the wrong answer for another.
| Your part | Best route | Where the scan comes in |
|---|---|---|
| Trim, a catch, a vent, a bezel, an interior fitting | Scan and 3D print with us | The whole job, from original to finished part |
| Structural, load bearing or below the waterline | Machined or fabricated by a marine engineer | We scan it and hand over the model, so your fabricator works from real geometry |
| A common part still made or widely broken for spares | Buy the original or a used one | None needed. We will say so rather than sell you a scan |
| One fitting now, and probably ten more later | Scan once, produce in small batches | The model is kept on file so repeats are quick |
Are 3D printed parts ok for boats? The honest answer
Yes for a great deal of what fails on a boat, and no for some of it, and you should know which before you spend anything. We would rather turn a job down at the quote than have a part fail at sea.
What we will make
- Non structural fittings. Catches, stops, vents, bezels, blanks, trim, mouldings, interior and console parts.
- Parts where the original is the only drawing. We work from the object, including cracked and worn ones.
- Upgrades and adaptations modelled against the real boat rather than a generic dimension.
- Repeats. Once it is modelled, the next one is quick.
What we will not 3D print
- Structural parts. Anything load bearing, anything holding rigging, steering or a person. We will not print it, and we will say so at the quote.
- Below the waterline or safety critical. Same answer, for the same reason.
- What we will do instead: scan it anyway and hand the model to a marine engineer or fabricator to machine, so nobody is measuring a worn original by hand.
- Material choice is not guesswork. Our engineers specify the material for the job and the conditions the part lives in, and we confirm it with you before it is made.
A scan captures shape, not what a thing was made of. That is why the material is specified by an engineer for your part rather than picked off a chart.
Case study: scanning a jet ski so modifications fitted its real shape
A watercraft with no drawings, and parts that had to fit first time
The craft: a customer's jet ski, with nothing on paper for the bodywork. The problem: modifications that had to sit correctly on a real, curved, moulded surface. What we did: captured it on the EinScan Rigil and modelled the new parts against the scan rather than against measurements. The result: parts made to the shape the craft actually is. A hull moulding and a deck moulding present the same problem, which is why this is the job we point boat owners at.
A jet ski, not a boat. It is the closest scanning job we have on file and we would rather say that than imply otherwise. See the jet ski project and our classic car work.
Is it legal to have a discontinued fitting copied?
Reproducing a part for your own boat, where the original is obsolete and you are not passing it off as the manufacturer's, is ordinary repair work and it is the bulk of what we do. What we will not do is put someone else's branding on a part, reproduce a current catalogue item to undercut the maker, or supply anything described as an original equipment part when it is not. If you are trade and reselling, that distinction matters more to you than it does to us, so we will be straight about it on the quote.
Why send a boat scan to 3D Printing Express
On the water, not just in a workshop
Poole, Christchurch, Swanage, Weymouth, Lymington and the rest of the south coast. We come to the boat.
A part back, not just a file
Most scanning firms hand you data and stop. We can carry it through to the finished fitting.
An engineer reads it, not a form
Every enquiry is reviewed by a real engineer and quoted within 2 hours, including the ones we turn down.
The file stays yours
Ask for the mesh or the editable model and keep it, so you can re-order or modify the fitting later.
Got a fitting that is no longer made?
Send a photo of it, or tell us where the boat is. An engineer will review it and come back within 2 hours with what it needs, what it costs, and whether 3D printing is the right answer for that part at all.