Service 05 of 8
Small-Batch Production
One to five hundred, without buying a factory
When a design takes off, we take it from the bench to a real production run — tooling advice, QC, and a unit cost that survives retail.
This is the service nobody else offers hobbyists. A design goes viral and you are suddenly a manufacturer with a day job. We cost it three ways — keep printing, cast it, or tool it — and tell you honestly where the break-even sits.
- Three-way costing: additive vs. silicone casting vs. injection tooling
- Break-even analysis before you spend anything on tooling
- Sampling, first-article inspection and documented QC criteria
- Staged commitment — you approve each gate before we spend
How the job runs
Every step, and who carries the risk at each one
- 01
Free costing review
Send the design and the quantity you're imagining. You get three routes costed — keep printing, cast it, or tool it — with the break-even quantity for each. This gate costs nothing.
- 02
Design for manufacture
Draft angles, wall thickness, gate and parting line placement, tolerance stack. The changes needed to make a printed design mouldable, with every change explained.
- 03
Sampling
A small run off the chosen route. You hold the thing, test it, and approve it — or we iterate before anyone commits to a tool.
- 04
First-article inspection
Documented measurement against your written spec. This is the record you point at later when something drifts.
- 05
Production
The run happens against agreed QC criteria. Staged payment, so you approve each gate before the next spend.
On the floor
What actually does the work
- Additive at volume
- Best under ~300 units, no tooling cost
- Urethane casting
- Silicone tools · 25–200 units · ~2 week lead
- Soft tooling
- Aluminium inserts · 500–5,000 units
- Steel tooling
- Production tool · 5,000+ units · yours if you fund it
- QC
- AQL 2.5 default, or your written specification
Pricing
Published, not negotiated
Costing review
Three routes, break-even analysis
Free
Design for manufacture
Credited back if you proceed
$450
Silicone tool
Per cavity, ~25 shots per tool
from $380
Aluminium tool
Single cavity, quoted on geometry
from $2,800
Volume pricing applies above 50 units. Curated and Studio Partner tiers take 15% off every line.
Recent work
Jobs that came through this service
Generated placeholder imagery — replace with shop photography before launch.
FAQ
About small-batch production
Who owns the tooling?
Whoever paid for it. If you fund the tool it's yours and it leaves with you. If Creasum funds it under a Studio Partner agreement, we own the tool and you own the design — and you still get paid a royalty on every unit.
What if the costing says it isn't worth it?
Then we say so and nobody spends anything. A design that sells forty units a year should stay on a printer, and we'd rather tell you that than sell you a tool you'll never amortise.
How long does tooling take?
Silicone tools, about two weeks to first samples. Aluminium, four to six. Steel, eight to twelve. The costing review gives you a real date, not a range.
Can you handle certification or compliance?
We can run testing and documentation for common marks through partners, and we'll scope it during the costing review. We won't quietly skip it and leave you exposed.
Often booked together
Print Overflow
Send us the job your bench can't absorb. We run your files on a managed farm and ship finished parts, not excuses.
$0.18 / gFile Prep Studio
Mesh repair, wall-thickness fixes, nesting, and raster-to-vector cleanup by people who actually run the machines.
$45 / filePack & Ship Worldwide
We hold your stock, pick, pack and ship to 38 countries — with the customs paperwork filled in correctly.
$2.40 / order