A part that prints cleanly isn't automatically a part that's correct. We run every job through the same checklist before it ships, regardless of whether it's one interior clip or a forty-piece production batch.
Before printing
- Model review. Wall thickness, overhangs and orientation checked against the material and process chosen, not just against whether the file will technically print.
- Tolerance check. Critical dimensions flagged in the model so they're verified specifically at the end, rather than trusted to come out right by default.
SHIPS 3–5 DAYS
The BMW Z3 door pull handles shown above are a matched left/right pair — a natural fit-test case, since both have to match each other as well as the original mounting points.
After printing, before finishing
- Dimensional spot-check. Calipers against the flagged critical dimensions, compared to the CAD model or, for a reproduction, the original sample.
- Visual inspection for print defects — layer separation, warping, incomplete infill on structural sections — that a purely dimensional check wouldn't catch.
After finishing
- Surface and colour check, where the part is painted or bead-blasted, against the agreed finish before it's called done.
- Fit test, wherever we have the ability to test it — against the original mounting point, a sample bracket, or in some cases the actual vehicle, as with the Golf MK2 restoration fit test.
Why the fit test matters more than the dimensional check
A part can measure correctly against the CAD file and still not seat, because the thing it mounts to has moved — a dash that's warped slightly over thirty years, a bracket that was never quite where the drawing said. The dimensional check confirms we printed what we designed; the fit test confirms what we designed is actually right. Both matter, and neither replaces the other.
For production runs
Batch orders get the same checklist applied to a sample from the run, plus a consistency check across the batch itself — same dimensions, same finish, part to part. For how we approach batch sizing and cost, see small-batch production: when 3D printing beats a mould.
Questions about how we'd check a specific part? Get in touch.
