Yes. Here is exactly how much.

What does a printed part actually look like?

Matt black, with fine horizontal lines about two tenths of a millimetre apart. Crisp edges, slightly soft on small details, and a faint ridged texture you feel before you see.

Nobody else seems willing to write this down, which is odd, because it is the question everyone asks before ordering and the one most likely to decide whether they do. So here it is without the marketing.

A printed part is built up in layers, and you can see them. Not as obvious ridges — at our standard setting they are fine and even — but as a texture that catches the light in bands. Hold it at arm’s length on a dull day and you may not notice. Hold it under a lamp and you will.

Where does this matter and where does it not?

It matters on a part you look at. It is irrelevant on a part inside a machine, behind a panel, under a seat or holding something up, which is most of what we print.

A fridge shelf support lives in the dark. A trim clip lives inside a door card. A bracket lives behind the thing it holds. For all of those, finish is a non-question and you should spend your attention on fit and strength instead.

The parts where it matters are the short list: a control knob, a visible bezel, a handle you hold, a cover plate on show. For those, say so when you order and we will do what can be done.

Which face comes out smoothest?

The top. Upward-facing surfaces are smoothest, vertical walls are tidy and evenly banded, and downward-facing overhangs are roughest where supports touched them.

That gives us a lever. If you tell us which face is on show, we orient the part so that face is the good one. It sometimes costs a little strength or print time, and it is usually the right trade on a visible part — but it has to be a decision, not an accident, which is why we ask.

Can you match my original colour?

Close, not exact. We print black as standard because it blends into more places than any other colour. A specific grey, cream or beige will be in the right family rather than identical.

Matching a twenty-year-old appliance is particularly hopeless, and not because of printing. The original has faded, yellowed and been cleaned a thousand times. Even a genuine new spare would not match it.

In practice black wins more often than people expect. A black part next to faded cream reads as a deliberate different component. A nearly-cream part next to faded cream reads as a bad match.

Is smoothing or painting worth paying for?

Usually not. Sanding and filling a visible face is slow, costs more than the part, and a well printed matt finish often looks better than a hand-smoothed one that is slightly uneven.

If the part genuinely has to look moulded, the honest answer is that printing is the wrong process and you want a moulded part. We would rather say that than take money for a cosmetic job we cannot guarantee.

Where finishing does pay off: a single flat visible face, sanded and given a satin spray. That can look genuinely good. A complex curved surface will not.

What about the printed part next to the original?

Side by side, the difference is obvious: the original is glossy and perfectly smooth, ours is matt and faintly textured. Fitted in place, with only one of them visible, almost nobody can tell.

That is the comparison that matters, and it is worth making deliberately. Judge the part where it is going to live, not on the kitchen table next to its predecessor.

Can I see real examples before ordering?

Yes. The portfolio shows parts straight off our own machines, photographed as they came out rather than restyled, so what you see is what arrives in the post.

Have a look at the portfolio and judge for yourself. If the finish there is not good enough for your part, we would much rather you decided that now.

Published 5 October 2026.