About Partsmith

What Partsmith is

Partsmith makes parts that do not exist yet. That covers replacements for things that broke and are no longer sold, custom parts modelled from a drawing or a sketch, jigs and fixtures for a specific job on a specific machine, gripper jaws and end-of-arm tooling for collaborative robots, and prototypes for products still being developed.

The work suits businesses and workshops best, because that is where a part usually has to function rather than simply exist. It is not a closed door — the jobs on this site include a university robotics project and people developing something on their own bench. What they have in common is a part that has to work, and a workshop that measures, models, prototypes and test-fits it before calling it finished.

Experience

Partsmith is built on over six years' experience in 3D modelling and printing, and more than a thousand prints. That experience is the reason the work is described the way it is on this site: the failure modes here are ones that have actually been seen, and the limits stated are ones that have actually been hit.

The trading name and this site are new. The experience behind them is not, and the two are kept distinct on purpose — there is no claim here about how long a business has existed, only about how long the work has been done.

How work arrives

There is no wrong way to send a job in, and no file is required to start.

• A ready file. An STL or a solid model that just needs printing. It gets checked before it goes on the machine, and you will hear about anything likely to fail.
• A drawing or a sketch. Dimensioned or not. It gets modelled, and the questions get asked before the plastic is committed.
• A broken original. The part gets measured by hand, modelled from those measurements, printed and test-fitted against whatever it has to mate with.
• Photographs and measurements. Where the part cannot be sent, clear photos from several angles plus the dimensions that control fit are usually enough.
• A description. If you can say what the thing has to do, that is a starting point. One of the jobs on this site began with nothing but a conversation.

Whichever way it arrives, the sequence is the same: measure, model, print one, fit it, adjust, then print the rest.

What we print, and why these three

Three materials, printed constantly, chosen per job for the duty the part has to take:

• PETG for most tough functional parts — brackets, housings, mounts, anything handled roughly or left outdoors. It takes knocks and daylight, which is why it is the default.
• PLA where a part has to hold its shape accurately under light load, and where crisp detail matters — gauges, guides, alignment fixtures, prototypes being checked for fit.
• Flexible TPU for anything that has to bend, grip, damp or seal — gaskets, soft jaws, grommets, bumpers, strain reliefs.

Three materials used every day means the settings are known and the behaviour is familiar, so the advice you get comes from parts that have been in service rather than from a datasheet.

You never have to pick. Describe what the part does, what it touches and where it lives, and the material, wall thickness and print orientation are chosen from that as part of the quote. Where a part would be better in metal or made by another process — sustained heat, heavy structural load, food or drinking water, fine threads or precision bearing faces — you get that recommendation at the quote, which is exactly when it is useful.

How parts are checked before they go out

Test fitting is the routine one and the most valuable. A prototype is printed and offered up to whatever it has to mate with, and the model is corrected against the result. It is the step that turns a model that looks right into a part that goes together, and it catches almost everything before the final part is made.

Simulation is available where it helps — comparing two ways of doing something, or checking an approach is sound before committing to it. It is used as an indication of direction. Because a printed part is layered, its real behaviour is confirmed on the real part rather than on the model, which is why test fitting stays the step that decides.

Destructive testing can be arranged for smaller parts — loading and impact at small scale. It is a controlled check that tells you something real about how a design behaves under the duty these parts actually see, and it is genuinely useful before committing to a batch.

What happens to your files

This is settled up front rather than left to be discovered later.

If you supply the file, it stays yours. It is used to make your parts and nothing else. It is not reused, adapted, republished or printed for anyone else.

If we model the part for you, you get the model. Where you have paid for design work, the STL is supplied with the job, and a solid model in a neutral format such as STEP can be provided on request. You are not renting your own part, and you are not tied to Partsmith to have it made again.

That is stated up front because it often is not. Under Australian copyright law the creator of a design owns it unless an agreement says otherwise, so it is worth asking any supplier the same question before they start work. Here the answer is settled before the job begins: the model is yours.

Where we are, and where we work

Partsmith is based in Geelong and works across Melbourne, Geelong and regional Victoria, with parts posted Australia-wide. Collection can be arranged in Geelong, and everything else goes by post. It is an efficient way to run this kind of work: quoting happens by email and photographs the same day, and a part in a satchel reaches Melbourne overnight.

What it costs to start

The minimum order is $75. It is published so you can judge the fit before you spend time on an enquiry, and it reflects what goes into a job here: a part measured, modelled, prototyped and test-fitted before it is called finished.

Beyond the minimum, price depends on the work — how much modelling a job needs, how long it takes to print, which material it wants, how many you need and how soon. A photo of the part or drawing with a rough size is usually enough for a same-day quote.