I set up Design 3D Services after around 20 years in the engineering industry, feeling experienced and established enough to confidently offer consultancy services back to the industry I have come to enjoy being part of so much.

My journey started as an apprentice toolmaker after leaving school. I quickly learnt manual machining, reading drawings and bench work assembling press and mould tools. This vocational training gave me a strong sense of direction: combining being hands on, technical and precise. Making tools that went on to produce hundreds or thousands of pressed or moulded components gave me insight into production and scale. 

I also started programming 3 axis CNC mills to machine mould and die tool components, which captured a sense of technology: using software to facilitate the precision machining process.

Many press and mould tools later, my apprenticeship was complete. Building on toolmaking, I moved into CNC machining for subcontract suppliers. I programmed and machined an array of components over the years; for industries including medical, automotive, defence, consumer goods and aerospace. I used various types of advanced multi axis CNC mills and a combination of conversational and CAM software. 

After making thousands of parts at high and low quantities and in various materials, I had become ever more interested in the design element of products. As a machinist it’s not always clear what the destiny of a part may be, or how some parts go together in a wider system. 

It was at this point I left my role and became a full time university undergraduate studying Engineering Product Design. It was here I learned the design process, CAD, additive manufacturing, prototyping, delivering project briefs and core mechanical engineering principles. 

Post university newly qualified with 1st class Honours BSc on top of manufacturing experience, I spent the next 10 years working from the design side of engineering for various companies small, medium and large. I honed technical design skills with manufacturing insight to create various parts and systems for industries such as logistics, automotive and robotics.

Using experience and perspective, always optimising design for manufacturing and assembly. As I progressed, I built and led teams and strategically supported companies always focusing on ensuring a product or system was dialled in for manufacturing at scale.