£42 per hour
3D design and CAD modelling for manufacture
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.
- Turnaround
- Estimate within one working day, most models in 2–5 working days
- Price
- £42 per hour
- Files
- Yours, and confidential
What this is
3D design & CAD: what you are actually buying
Most enquiries that go nowhere stall at the same point: there is no file. A photograph, a hand sketch on squared paper, a broken sample and a set of dimensions are all workable starting points, and turning them into a manufacturable model is a service in its own right.
We charge £42 per hour and estimate the hours before starting. Small parts (a bracket, a clip, a housing for a known board) are typically two to four hours. A parametric family of parts, or something that has to mate with an existing assembly you can only supply as a sample, takes longer, and you will know that before we begin.
The model is built for the process it will be made by. Wall thicknesses are set to whole multiples of the extrusion width, overhangs are kept inside 45° where they can be, holes are sized for the shrinkage the material actually shows, and text is set at a size the nozzle can resolve. A model that looks correct on screen and prints badly is a model that costs you a second run.
You own the output. Native files, a STEP export for whoever you use next, and an STL or 3MF ready to print are all handed over: including if you take the job elsewhere. We do not hold customers by holding their geometry.
The same service covers reverse engineering from a physical part, fixing a mesh that will not slice, converting a scan into clean solid geometry, and adjusting an existing model that was drawn for injection moulding rather than for printing.
Who it is for
Businesses with a product idea, a sample or a drawing and no CAD capability in house.
What you get
- £42 per hour, with an hour estimate agreed before any work starts
- Sketch, photograph, scan or sample part is enough to begin
- Modelled for the process: wall thicknesses, overhangs, hole sizes and text set to print
- You own the files: native, STEP and a print-ready STL or 3MF
- Reverse engineering, mesh repair and print-ready rework of existing models
What we need from you
- A sketch, a photograph, a scan or a sample part: anything that fixes the shape
- The dimensions that have to be exact, and which ones are yours to choose
- What it mates with, and whether you can send that component
- Where the part will live: indoors, outdoors, hot, loaded, handled
How it runs
The process for this specific service
In order, with what each stage actually decides. Lead time runs from the point the design is agreed, not from the point the enquiry lands.
You send what you have
Day 0A hand sketch with dimensions, photographs of a sample next to a steel rule, a scan, a drawing, or a description and a set of constraints. Any of those is a workable starting point, and none of them needs to be tidy.
We estimate the hours before starting
Within one working dayYou get an hour estimate and a description of what the deliverable will be before any work happens. If the scope changes mid-way: you add a mounting boss, the sample turns out to be a different revision: you hear about the revised estimate before we spend the time, not on the invoice.
Modelled for the process that will make it
2–5 working daysWall thicknesses are set to whole multiples of the extrusion width, overhangs kept inside 45° where the geometry allows, holes sized for the shrinkage the chosen material actually shows, and text set large enough for a 0.4 mm nozzle to resolve. A model that looks correct on screen and prints badly costs you a second run.
You approve the geometry before anything prints
Render or STEPYou see the model (as a render, or as a STEP file you can open in your own CAD) and sign it off before a machine is switched on. Changes at this stage cost minutes. Changes after a batch cost a batch.
You get the files, whatever happens next
DeliverableNative source, a STEP export for whoever you use next, and a print-ready STL or 3MF. That applies even if you take the job elsewhere. We do not hold customers by holding their geometry.
Typical hours
What £42 an hour buys
These are the ranges we quote from. You get an estimate against your own job before any work starts, and you hear about a revised estimate before we spend the time rather than on the invoice.
| Job | Typical | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Simple bracket, clip or spacer | 2–4 hours | One body, a handful of features, drawn from your dimensions or a sample. |
| Replacement part from a broken original | 3–6 hours | Callipering, modelling and correcting whatever made the original fail. |
| Enclosure around a supplied PCB | 8–16 hours | Board standoffs, port cut-outs, fixing bosses, lid and a fit check. |
| Parametric family of parts | 6–12 hours | One model driven by a table, so four sizes come from one build. |
| Scan or mesh rebuilt as solid geometry | 4–10 hours | Cleaning a mesh a slicer will not accept, and rebuilding it properly. |
What you receive
- A watertight, manifold solid model that a slicer will accept without repair
- The native source file, so the design can be edited later
- A STEP export for any other manufacturer, machinist or moulder you use
- A print-ready STL or 3MF at the agreed scale and units
- A render or STEP for approval before anything is printed
What we need to start
- A sketch with dimensions, however rough
- Photographs of a sample next to a steel rule
- The physical part, by post, if one exists
- The component it has to mate with, or accurate measurements of it
- Which dimensions are fixed by something else and which are ours to choose
Example jobs
Work of this kind we have taken on
- Enclosure modelled around a supplied PCB, with board standoffs and a port cut-out
- Discontinued handle reverse engineered from callipered measurements of the broken original
- Scanned mesh cleaned and rebuilt as solid geometry a slicer would accept
- Injection-moulded part rebuilt with printable wall thicknesses for a short bridge run
- Parametric shelf bracket drawn in four widths from one model
Materials
What we would normally print this in
PLA Basic
£14.00/kgProving the model. A first print in PLA confirms the geometry before any material decision is made.
PETG HF
£16.00/kgThe usual production material once the design is signed off and the part has to work.
PLA-CF
£30.00/kgDesigns that must hold a flat reference face: fixtures, gauges, mounting plates.
ASA
£19.00/kgDesigns intended for permanent outdoor service.
Not sure which applies to your part? Compare all nine materials or describe where the part will live and what it has to survive.
Estimate within one working day, most models in 2–5 working days
Express brings it down to 2–3 working days, for 35% more.
£42 per hour
per hour, estimated before work starts
£30 minimum, no VAT
Invoiced on completion, 14-day terms for account customers.
Questions
3D design & CAD: what buyers ask
At £42 per hour, with an estimate of the hours agreed before any work starts. You are told the likely figure first and told again if the scope changes, so the invoice never contains a surprise.
Printing is quoted separately. If you decide not to print with us, you still pay only for the design hours and you still receive every file.
You do, outright, including the native source files. You get a STEP export for any other manufacturer you use and a print-ready STL or 3MF as well.
That holds whether you print with us, print elsewhere, or shelve the project. Holding a customer's geometry hostage is a way of making sure they only come back once.
Less than most people assume. A dimensioned sketch on squared paper, photographs of a sample alongside a steel rule, a 3D scan, an old drawing, or the physical part in the post are all enough to begin.
The most useful thing you can add is context: what the part mates with, which dimensions are fixed by something else, and what it has to survive. A model drawn without that has to be redrawn once it meets reality.
Yes. Common jobs are repairing a mesh a slicer refuses to accept, converting a scan into clean solid geometry, and reworking a part that was drawn for injection moulding so it prints properly: draft angles removed, wall thicknesses corrected, unsupported overhangs designed out.
Send the file and describe what is wrong with it. You will get an hour estimate before anything is touched.
The rest of what we do
Other services
The four other things we do, and where each one is the better answer.
- 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 - 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 - 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 - 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
Next step
Send the sketch and get an hour estimate
Photographs, a sketch, a scan or the sample part: send whatever you have and you will get an estimate of the hours and a description of the deliverable within one working day.
Instant estimate. We confirm the price once we've sliced your file.