STEVEN Dey’s friend recently came to him with a problem: he had a beloved old lamp, held together by two thumb screws and one of them had broken.

He searched far and wide but the screws were not made any more. So what to do?

Mr Dey had the solution: he took the remaining thumb screw and scanned it with a computer to make a 3D image, then used a 3D printer to make an exact replica.

When he handed back the old screw and its identical replica, the lamp owner was so shocked he dropped the old screw on the floor and it broke.

It did not matter – he could have broken both: Mr Dey had the scan on his computer and he could 3D print a hundred more at his office in Eynsham.

Steven Dey, his wife Nav and Italian-born Stefano Pratesi make up ThinkSee3D – essentially the Oxfordshire headquarters for the 3D printing industry.

They believe they are the only company in the county selling 3D printers but they also offer 3D scanning services and print objects in plaster, resin and plastic to order.

But Mr Dey is keen to impress they are also selling an idea.

The 49-year-old, who lives with his wife in Cassington, says: “We’re very excited by all the 3D technologies around.

“We love looking for solutions and we are the experts. We are here to help people get involved and make sense of 3D printing.”

Mr Dey only founded his company in March last year.

He built his first 3D printer out of wood for about £1,000; these days you can download the instructions and build yourself a printer for a few hundred pounds.

He pursued his hobby quietly at home but everything changed in January last year: some friends who were getting married asked him to 3D print them as miniatures to go on top of their own wedding cake. The media – Oxford Mail included – went into a frenzy.

National newspapers started calling him up to run the story, businesses phoned up to find out more and friends started taking the zany hobby a little more seriously.

But the most important phone call came from a firm in South Carolina called 3D Systems.

ThinkSee3D now makes 80 per cent of its profits selling printers made by 3D Systems to engineering firms, universities and private individuals.

It recently sold a printer to a Cambridgeshire company called Electron Beam engineering, which up to now has been exclusive dedicated to welding but decided to set up a completely separate “3D printing bureau”, making models to demand.

Mr Dey is confident that “eventually every town will have a 3D print shop”.

He envisions a time when someone will break the oven door, and take it down the 3D print shop to get a new one made while they wait.

He enthuses: “Eventually you will go into the optician, they will scan your head and they will make you spectacles fitted to your head to your design.”

Witney Gazette:

  • Likeness: Emily and Carl Osgathorp with models of themselves used on their wedding cake last year

The company’s second arm is in 3D scanning.

The list has so far included people (including, inevitably, its own employees), works of art, dinosaur bones and coral reefs.

It helped print missing bones for a prehistoric Icthyosaur skull for Birmingham’s Thinktank museum using a ceramic material.

It also worked with the British Museum, scanning some of its Bronze Age and Roman artefacts then printing replicas so children could handle 2,000-year-old objects without the fear a priceless antique could be broken.

So at present, ThinkSee3D is covering all fields: Mr Dey even talks about working with Oxford University’s 3D printing society and local businesses to build a centre of excellence for 3D printing.

He concludes the meeting by saying: “At the moment, we’re just having great fun: one day we’re making jewellery, then we’re working with an architect, then we’re meeting an academic at Oxford. The possibilities are endless.”