Short-run production

When printing is the right way to make a batch

Injection moulding is far cheaper per part and enormously more expensive to start. The tool has to be made before the first part exists, and that cost has to be spread across everything it produces. Below a certain quantity the sums simply do not work, and above it printing stops making sense.

Printing wins when:

• The quantity is small. Tens of parts, ordered again when they run out.
• The design might still change. A tool is a commitment; a printed batch is not. A revision costs a reprint rather than a new tool.
• You need them now. No tooling lead time — the first batch is the same process as the tenth.
• Variants matter. Six versions of a fixture for six different parts is trivial to print and painful to mould.
• The part is a means, not a product. Jigs, fixtures, workholding, gripper jaws, production aids — things that make something else, where the part itself is never sold.

What repeat orders look like here

The model is kept and versioned, so a reorder is a print rather than a fresh job. Settings are kept constant between batches — same material, same orientation, same parameters — so that batch four behaves like batch one. Where something has to change, you are told rather than discovering it in a part.

Repeat work is the kind of work this workshop is set up for, and it is priced and scheduled as an ongoing arrangement rather than as a queue of unrelated orders.

The honest limit, stated plainly

This is one workshop with one printer. That is the constraint that governs this page, and pretending otherwise would waste your time and ours.

What that means in practice: batches in the tens are comfortable. Hundreds of a small part are possible with a realistic lead time agreed in advance. Thousands are not, and if that is what you need you should be talking to a print farm or a moulder — you will get better economics and a delivery date they can actually hold.

Print time is also the real currency, not part count. Fifty small parts can be a shorter job than three large ones. A useful enquiry therefore includes the quantity, the rough size, and when you need them, because those three together decide whether this is a job worth quoting.

Volume capacity may change. It has not yet, and this page will say so honestly when it does.

Consistency, and what it does not mean

Parts from a repeat batch are made the same way and behave the same way. What is deliberately not offered is a dimensional guarantee, on this page or any other. The process here is measure, model, prototype, test-fit and adjust — fit is confirmed against your hardware rather than promised against a number. For a batch, that means the first article matters: one part is made and checked before the rest are committed, which is a better guarantee than a figure in a specification.

The other limits

The materials are PLA, PETG and flexible TPU, and the standing constraints apply exactly as they do everywhere else on this site: nothing for sustained heat, nothing for food contact or drinking water, nothing structural or safety-critical, and nothing watertight without designing around a bought seal. Fine threads and precision bearing faces are better machined.

Cosmetic consumer products are a poor fit too, and not because of capacity. Printed parts show layer lines, and a part that has to look moulded will not.

Who this suits

Businesses with a proven part they need again — fixtures for a production cell, jaws for a cobot, spares for equipment, components for a product made in small numbers. Ideally the design is already settled; if it is not, prototyping comes first and this follows.

Minimum order is $75, and a first article is normally printed and checked before a batch is run.

Frequently asked questions

How many parts can you actually make?

Batches in the tens are routine. Hundreds of a small part are possible with a lead time agreed up front. Thousands are not — this is one workshop with one printer, and you would be better served by a print farm or a moulder. That answer will not be dressed up.

Is the price per part cheaper for a larger batch?

Repeat parts avoid the design work, so a reorder costs less than the first order. Beyond that, printing does not have the steep volume curve moulding has: the tenth part takes about as long to print as the first. If per-part price is the deciding factor at volume, printing is probably the wrong process and you should be told so.

Will every part in a batch be the same?

They are made the same way — same material, orientation and settings — and a first article is printed and checked before the batch runs. What is not offered is a dimensional guarantee expressed as a number; fit is confirmed against your hardware instead.

Can you hold our model and print on demand?

Yes. The model is kept and versioned, so a reorder is a print rather than a new job. Your files are never used for anyone else.

What if we outgrow you?

Then you should move, and it is better for everybody if that is said early. Having the model in your hands makes moving straightforward, which is one reason the file policy is what it is.