TN25 · Kent
3D printing in Sellindge
Sellindge orders arrive in the middle of a job: a feeder chute cracked, a guard missing, a bracket sheared on a machine the dealer no longer lists. The part is measured, printed in PETG and back on the farm inside the week.
Downtime is the whole story in Sellindge, so start with the turnaround. Standard is three to five working days from the file being agreed. Express puts the part on a plate inside 48 hours and next day is available depending on what is already running. Both are priced openly on the quote page rather than negotiated on the phone at seven in the morning.
The village is strung along the old A20 between the Downs and the Marsh, and its economy is farming plus the roadside trades farming supports: contractors, machinery dealers and repairers, haulage yards and the National Grid converter station on the edge of the village. Nothing is walkable, the nearest factor of any size is in Ashford, and a plastic bush the size of a thumb can stop a machine in a field for a week.
That is why jobs from Sellindge arrive with a deadline already attached, and why the specification conversation here is usually about making the replacement tougher than the original rather than identical to it.
Sellindge is strung along the old A20 between the Downs and the Marsh, and its economy is farming plus the roadside trades that farming supports: agricultural contractors, machinery dealers and repairers, haulage yards, and the National Grid converter station on the edge of the village. Downtime is the whole story here. Nothing is walkable, the nearest factor of any size is in Ashford, and a broken plastic bush usually means a machine is standing still in a field. Work from Sellindge arrives with a deadline already attached, which is why express turnaround is quoted openly rather than negotiated.
Getting it there when it is urgent
Post for small items, an arranged run for larger orders, or collection in Folkestone. Twenty minutes each way on the A20 is no barrier, but it does mean it is worth quoting everything at once rather than as three separate jobs.
If a machine is standing, tell us at the enquiry rather than after the quote. Knowing that changes how the job is scheduled, not just what it costs.
For anything you expect to break again (and wear parts are meant to) we hold the file and the settings so the second one is a reorder rather than a repeat of the whole exercise.
Farm and workshop, mostly
Bushes, spacers and bearing carriers
Machinery repairers
The sacrificial plastic parts inside machinery that are 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.
Guards, covers and shrouds
Contractors and farms
Belt guards, chain covers, terminal shrouds and the panels that go missing first and get replaced last. Larger ones are split across two prints and bonded, with the seam placed where it takes no load.
Handles, knobs and levers
Workshops and dealers
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.
Brackets and fixings for outbuildings
Farms and storage operators
Pipe saddles, sheet fixings, conduit clips and latch bodies for barns, stores and polytunnels. ASA where they sit outside, PETG where they are under cover.
Print it tougher than the part that broke
Farm and workshop parts fail for one of two reasons: they were made too thin, or they were made from the wrong plastic. A faithful copy in PLA solves neither. PETG is the sensible default: it bends before it snaps and it tolerates a shed roof in August.
Where a part is loaded constantly rather than occasionally, PETG-CF earns its higher price per kilogram. The chopped carbon fibre stiffens it considerably and reduces the slow creep that makes an unfilled plastic bush go loose over a season. It needs a hardened nozzle, which is fitted.
A printed part is strongest across the layers and weakest between them, so orientation is a real engineering decision rather than a detail. Tell us how the part is loaded and we will orient it correctly, or tell you to have it machined, if that is the honest answer.
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 Sellindge job needs, tell us where the part lives and what it has to survive.
Service area
Sellindge to the workshop, and back
Sellindge is 9 miles from the machines by road, west-north-west along the A20. 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.
- Hythe, CT21, 4 miles by road from the workshop, west-south-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.
- Ashford, TN23/TN24, 16 miles by road from the workshop, west-north-west of Folkestone.
Questions from Sellindge
Three things businesses here ask first
Within limits, and we will be straight about where they are. A printed part is strongest across the layers and weakest between them, so orientation matters enormously.
Tell us how the part is loaded and we will orient it correctly, choose a filled material, or tell you it should be machined.
Express is 48 hours; next day is possible depending on the queue.
Both carry a surcharge (25% and 50% respectively) shown on the quote before you commit rather than added to the invoice afterwards.
No. Send photographs with a steel rule in shot, or post us the broken part.
Modelling is charged at an hourly rate and we tell you what it adds before any work starts.
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 Sellindge
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 Sellindge
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.