No minimum order: how one-off parts and small batches actually work

Ask most 3D printing services for a single part and you tend to get one of three answers: a minimum order value, a setup fee, or a pause while someone works out whether it is worth their while. It is worth checking before you upload anything, because the difference between one part and fifty is not something a small business wants to discover on the invoice.

We have no minimum order quantity. One part is a valid order, and so is five hundred. Here is what that means in practice, why the usual minimums exist, and where the honest limits are.

What "no minimum" actually means

The smallest order we take is one part. There is no minimum quantity, no batch you have to fill, and no per-part minimum charge that turns a cheap little bracket into an expensive one. The price is calculated from the sliced geometry: the material the part uses, the machine time it takes and any finishing it needs. A small, light part costs a small amount because it uses a small amount of both.

It does not mean a part is free to make, and we would rather say so plainly. Every job still gets a file check before it prints, and every order still ships. The point is that those costs are spread honestly across the job rather than padded out with a threshold designed to discourage small orders. Delivery is tracked 48-hour and free on every order, whatever the size.

Why other services set a minimum

Minimums exist because of overhead, not because printing one part is technically hard. A service that quotes by hand needs someone to read the file, work out a price and send it back, and that person's time costs the same whether the job is worth £15 or £1,500. A minimum order value is the cheapest way to make sure the small jobs still cover it. Injection moulding and CNC shops have setup costs that are entirely real: a mould or a fixture has to exist before the first part does.

FDM printing has neither problem. There is no tooling, so the tenth part costs about what the first did, less a little shared setup. And because the quote is instant and calculated from the geometry, the manual step that minimums exist to pay for simply isn't there. That is what makes a single-part order sensible for us rather than a loss-leader.

How one part becomes twelve

The common pattern is a prototype first and a batch second. You order one part to check fit, find the hole that is 0.4 mm too small, fix it and order again. With no minimum, that first order is not a penalty; it is just the first iteration of rapid prototyping. When the design settles, the same file becomes a run of ten or fifty through custom manufacturing, where the per-part cost comes down as the shared setup is spread over more parts.

Nothing about the file changes between the one-off and the run, which matters more than it sounds. You have already proved the geometry, the material and the orientation on the first part. Ordering more is the same upload with a bigger number in the quantity box.

A representative example

A small electronics firm needs a mounting bracket for a sensor housing. On Monday morning they upload a STEP file and order a single part in PETG. It prints that day, ships, and is on the bench on Wednesday. It fits, apart from a cable slot that is a millimetre too tight. They widen it and order twelve that afternoon; the run goes out on Friday. Representative figures: one part somewhere around £10–15, twelve around £55–80, with the per-part cost falling between the two. These are illustrative numbers, not a specific customer's job. The OpenSCAD DAC bracket case study is a real version of the same principle: small, precise parts where being able to iterate cheaply is the whole point.

What we can't do

No minimum has edges. If there is no file yet, the part needs CAD modelling first, and that is design time we quote separately as a written estimate before we start. Resin parts are quoted by enquiry rather than through the instant tool. We cannot quote any job without seeing the geometry, so a description alone gets you a steer on feasibility, not a price.

We do not print metal. We are also not the cheapest route once you are into the many hundreds of identical parts, where a mould starts to beat printing on unit cost; we would rather tell you that than take the order. And a no-minimum policy is not a rush lane: a single part still joins the queue, so tell us the deadline when you order and we will say honestly whether we can meet it.

How to start

Upload an STL or STEP file to the quote tool, pick a material, and leave the quantity at one. If it fits, change the number to ten and watch the per-part price move. If you are not sure what material the job wants, ask before ordering; it costs nothing, and it is cheaper than reprinting.