CT18 · Kent
3D printing in Hawkinge
Hawkinge is where the electrical and mechanical contractors working the tunnel and the port keep their units, and where a run of enclosure brackets or cable cleats is wanted by the end of the week rather than the end of the month.
Hawkinge is where trades that serve Folkestone, the terminal and the port can actually afford a unit and a yard. The estates around the old airfield and the plots along the Canterbury Road hold vehicle repairers, electrical and mechanical contractors, groundworks and scaffolding firms, sign makers, fabricators and a large number of businesses run out of a van with a lock-up behind it.
That produces a particular kind of order: hardware for doing the job rather than hardware that is the job. Drill guides, alignment blocks, gland plates, template jigs, protective caps: parts that never leave the workshop and pay for themselves the first time a fiddly operation becomes a repeatable one.
The old airfield also supports a serious restoration and museum community, and that work has the opposite priorities: one part, made to match an original, finished so nobody notices it. Both sit ten minutes from the machines, which is close enough that a sample and a revision cost a morning rather than a week.
Hawkinge is where the light industry that serves the tunnel and the port has room to park. The units around the old airfield and the yards along the Canterbury Road hold vehicle repairers, electrical and mechanical contractors, groundworks and scaffolding firms, sign makers and a steady population of trades operating out of a van. It is also home to a serious restoration and museum community on the former RAF station. The two sides order differently: production and site hardware on one hand, display and instrument work on the other, but both are five minutes from the machines and both tend to want a sample before a batch.
Two job lists, one postcode
- Contractors and fabricators
Site and workshop jigs
Drill guides, alignment blocks, marking templates, hole-position jigs and cable-pulling aids. PETG or PETG-CF so they survive being dropped off a bench, and cheap enough to make a second one for the other van.
- Electrical and control installers
Enclosures and gland plates
Blank plates drilled to a specific gland pattern, DIN-rail brackets, sensor housings and cable-entry covers for panels where the off-the-shelf part is close but not right.
- Museum and restoration workshops
Display mounts and cabinet fittings
Cradles, stands, pegs and brackets that hold an artefact securely without clamping it, without adhesive and without becoming the thing anyone looks at. Printed matte in a neutral that recedes, shaped from measurements of that specific object.
- Vintage instrument restorers
Bezels, knobs and fascia trim
Replacement detail for equipment whose manufacturer disappeared decades ago, modelled from the surviving part or from a square-on photograph with a scale in frame.
- Sign makers and groundworks firms
Site signage fittings
Bracket ends, standoffs, post caps and fixing sets in ASA, printed in twenties, for signage that has to stand up outdoors for the length of a contract.
Ten minutes each way
Free delivery to Hawkinge on orders over £40, and collection from Folkestone otherwise. Standard turnaround is three to five working days, and small parts are frequently ready sooner because they can be slotted in alongside a longer job.
For jig and fixture work, budget for one revision. Getting a fixture right usually takes a first print, a trial on the actual assembly and one change. That is normal rather than a failure, and we price the revision as a small reprint rather than a new job.
Restoration work is the same pattern for a different reason: a display mount is shaped to one object, and the object is the specification. Allow a little more than the standard estimate.
What the machines can and cannot do
Every machine here runs a 0.4 mm nozzle in a 256 mm cube. That is generous for most of this work; where a piece is larger we split it and design the joint to land on an edge rather than across a visible face.
One honest limit: FDM lays down 0.4 mm-wide lines in stacked layers, and it always looks like it. On a workshop jig that is irrelevant. On a visible replacement part for a restored aircraft or radio it means sanding, filling and painting, which we can quote as a finishing option, or leave to you at a lower price.
For a part that has to stay dimensionally honest under repeated clamping, specify PETG-CF rather than unfilled PETG. It costs more per kilogram and holds its shape considerably better.
Every filament we stock, with the price per kilogram and what each one is actually for, is listed on the materials page. If you are not sure which one a Hawkinge job needs, tell us where the part lives and what it has to survive.
Service area
Hawkinge to the workshop, and back
Hawkinge is 3.5 miles from the machines by road, almost due north, up on the old airfield plateau. Everything is printed in Folkestone and travels out from there. There is no second site and no subcontracting, which is why a reorder six months later comes off the same machines with the same settings.
- Cheriton, CT19, 2 miles by road from the workshop, west-north-west of Folkestone.
- Hawkinge, CT18, 3.5 miles by road from the workshop, north of Folkestone.
- Elham, CT4, 9 miles by road from the workshop, north-north-west of Folkestone.
- Dover, CT16/CT17, 8 miles by road from the workshop, east-north-east of Folkestone.
Questions from Hawkinge
Three things businesses here ask first
Non-structural parts, yes: trim, bezels, knobs, covers, display fittings and patterns for casting.
Anything structural or flight-critical, no. Printed plastic is the wrong answer for a load path, whatever the material.
Sometimes. A sharp photograph taken square-on with a steel rule in frame is workable for simple, largely flat parts.
For anything with threads, compound curves or internal features we need the original or a full set of measurements: otherwise we are guessing, and you pay for the guess.
Yes, free on orders over £40. The run takes about ten minutes.
Under that it is collection from Folkestone or first-class post, whichever is more convenient.
There are more answers on the frequently asked questions page, the full pricing model is written out on the pricing page, and what we will and will not take on is set out on the capabilities page.
What we can print for a business in Hawkinge
Iterate in days
Rapid prototyping
Hold the revision before you commit to tooling, a supplier or a production run. First iteration on the plate within one working day of the file arriving.
From £30.00
10 to 200 units
Small-batch production
Repeat runs of ten to two hundred identical parts from one held file, with no tooling bill and a per-unit price that steps down at 5, 10, 25 and 50 units. Small-batch 3D printing for UK businesses, printed in Kent and posted anywhere.
From £30.00
Shop-floor tooling
Jigs, fixtures & tooling
Drill guides, assembly fixtures, alignment jigs, gauges and mounts, made to the dimensions of your bench rather than to a catalogue's.
From £30.00
Discontinued components
One-off & replacement parts
The component that failed on a machine the manufacturer stopped supporting. Measured with callipers, corrected where the original was weak, and reprinted.
From £30.00
£42 per hour
3D design & CAD
For businesses with an idea, a sketch or a sample but no model. £42 per hour, quoted against an estimate before work starts, and you own the files.
£42.00 per hour
Nearest areas to Hawkinge
Every area page covers a different local trade. The service area index lists all 14, with distances, postcodes and how parts reach each one.
Next step
Drop an STL or 3MF into the quote page and you get a price and a lead time straight away. The file is read in your own browser: it is not uploaded unless you send it with an order, which matters if the drawing is confidential.