CT18 · Kent
3D printing in Lyminge
When a plastic component fails on a farm at the head of the Elham Valley, a machine has stopped and the weather is not waiting. Most Lyminge orders arrive as a photograph of a broken part and a question about how quickly.
Lyminge is a working village rather than a commuter one, and the enterprises around it are agricultural: arable and mixed farms, contractors, smallholdings run at a commercial scale, and the fencing, feed and machinery businesses that supply them.
The printing work follows the machinery. Bushes, spacers, guards, hopper fittings and handles for kit that has outlived its manufacturer's parts list, ordered because the alternative is either a whole assembly at four figures or a machine standing idle in a field. These are not decorative parts and nobody wants them pretty: they want them tougher than the one that broke.
There is a second, smaller thread of work here. Archaeologists have been excavating the Anglo-Saxon minster on and around Tayne Field for years, and the local history and heritage groups that grew up around that need handling copies and case mounts rather than machinery spares.
Lyminge is a working village at the head of the Elham Valley rather than a commuter one, and the enterprises around it are agricultural: arable and mixed farms, contractors, a few smallholdings running at a commercial scale, and the fencing, feed and machinery businesses that supply them. The printing work follows the machinery: bushes, spacers, guards, hopper fittings and handles for kit that has outlived its manufacturer's parts list. There is a second, smaller line of work from the archaeology and heritage groups who have been excavating the Anglo-Saxon minster here for years and need handling copies and case mounts.
Specify it tougher than the part that failed
Two considerations settle most Lyminge jobs. Anything outdoors goes in ASA, because parts here stay out all winter and the valley is exposed. Anything that takes load or abuse goes in PETG, or PETG-CF where stiffness matters more than surface finish.
PLA still has a place: handling replicas, indoor fittings and anything where the crispest possible detail matters and the part never sees sun. It is also about a third cheaper, which counts when you are printing a set of classroom copies rather than one.
Farm and workshop parts fail for one of two reasons: made too thin, or made from the wrong plastic. A faithful copy in PLA solves neither, which is why we will usually propose a change to the geometry as well as to the material.
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 Lyminge job needs, tell us where the part lives and what it has to survive.
Practical first, heritage second
Bushes, spacers and bearing carriers
Farms and contractors
The sacrificial plastic inside machinery that is meant to wear out. Printed in PETG-CF, which is stiff enough not to creep under a constant load and cheap enough to keep two spares on the shelf.
Feed, hopper and gate fittings
Livestock and mixed holdings
Flap catches, hopper spouts, latch bodies and guide rails, printed thick and in PETG. On a holding a part is treated as a tool, not an ornament, and it is specified accordingly.
Guards, covers and handles
Machinery repairers
Belt guards, terminal shrouds and the grip that snapped off a machine that is otherwise perfectly good. Modelled from the broken original, usually with a thicker root and a fillet where the crack started.
Handling replicas and case mounts
Heritage and history groups
Copies of finds that a whole classroom can pick up, and mounts that hold the real object safely in a case. A replica prints in a few hours; the original stays where it should be.
Twenty minutes, and how deliveries work
Lyminge sits outside the immediate free-delivery ring, so it is collection from Folkestone, Royal Mail for small parts, or a delivery run arranged when something is heading that way. None of that changes the price. There is no distance surcharge anywhere on this list.
Because the round trip is more than a token, it pays to batch. If three things need printing, quote them together: one job's worth of setup, one delivery, and the batch tiers start at five identical parts.
When a machine is down, say so. Express at 48 hours and next-day printing exist and are priced on the quote before you commit, rather than added to the invoice afterwards.
Service area
Lyminge to the workshop, and back
Lyminge is 7 miles from the machines by road, north-west, over the Downs. 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.
- Hawkinge, CT18, 3.5 miles by road from the workshop, north of Folkestone.
- Saltwood, CT21, 3.5 miles by road from the workshop, west of Folkestone.
- Lyminge, CT18, 7 miles by road from the workshop, north-west of Folkestone.
- Elham, CT4, 9 miles by road from the workshop, north-north-west of Folkestone.
- Sellindge, TN25, 9 miles by road from the workshop, west-north-west of Folkestone.
Questions from Lyminge
Three things businesses here ask first
If you can supply a 3D scan or an accurate set of measurements, yes.
We do not have scanning equipment, so we cannot digitise an object from photographs alone. Many excavation and museum groups already hold scan data, and that prints straight from the file.
No. The price is the same wherever on this list you are.
What changes is only how the part reaches you: post, an arranged delivery, or collection from Folkestone.
Standard is three to five working days from the file being agreed.
If a machine is standing because of it, say so at the enquiry. Express is 48 hours and next day is possible depending on the queue, with the surcharge shown on the quote up front.
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 Lyminge
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 Lyminge
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.