2026: Why Precision Demands Focus (and Why I’m Ditching the Hourly Rate)

 

The Shift from "Available" to "Dedicated"

Welcome to 2026.

For the last few years, Axis and Datums has operated as a high-functioning parallel track to my other work—a "side operation" delivering professional results. But in the world of precision engineering and manufacturing, split focus is a risk I am no longer willing to take.

This year marks a fundamental shift. Axis and Datums is transitioning into a dedicated, full-time design consultancy. This is not just a change in my daily schedule; it is a change in the product I offer. It allows for deeper dives into Design for Manufacture (DFM), faster turnaround times on complex assemblies, and a level of attention to detail that "after-hours" drafting simply cannot match.

With this new focus comes a new business model, and more importantly, a new rigorous standard for how I evaluate my own skills.

The Problem with the Hourly Rate

One of the first changes for 2026 is the retirement of the hourly billing model.

In the design world, hourly rates create a conflict of interest. If a designer is slow, they get paid more. If they are efficient, they get paid less. Furthermore, it leaves you—the client—staring at a blank cheque, wondering if a "quick job" will spiral into a week of billing.

I am moving to Outcome-Based Pricing.

When you hire Axis and Datums, you are not buying my time; you are buying a solution. Whether that solution is a reverse-engineered housing for a vintage motorcycle, a modernized assembly for a start-up, or a set of ISO-standard manufacturing drawings, you will receive a fixed price for the delivered result.

This shifts the risk from you to me. It incentivizes me to use the most efficient workflows and advanced software tools available, and it gives you total budget certainty before a single mouse click occurs.

Walking the Walk: The Dakar Project

It is easy to claim expertise. It is harder to demonstrate it.

In an industry full of polished renders that would fall apart in a real workshop, I believe in "stress-testing" my workflows. To kick off 2026, I have begun a "Mount Everest" personal project: A ground-up Dakar Rally Raid Concept.

I am not building this because I expect to race in the desert next month. I am building it because a Rally Raid vehicle is the ultimate engineering paradox: it must be incredibly complex yet robust enough to be fixed with a hammer in the middle of nowhere. It is a nightmare of packaging, suspension kinematics, and fitment constraints.

If I can cleanly manage the data architecture for a vehicle this complex, I can certainly manage the fitment of your consumer product or industrial assembly.

The "Skeleton" Workflow

For the technical minds reading this, I am not just modelling parts in a void. I am utilizing a Master Model / Skeleton workflow within Onshape.

Before a single solid body was created, I spent days defining the "DNA" of the vehicle:

• Datums & Axes: Establishing the non-negotiable hard points.
• Key Parameters: Wheelbase, track width, ride height, and suspension travel limits.
• Component Selection: Integrating stock bearings and standard lug patterns before designing the custom hubs.

This "Skeleton" drives the entire assembly. If I change the wheelbase dimension in the master sketch, the chassis, body panels, and drive shafts update automatically. This is the difference between "drawing" and "engineering design." It is the same parametric power I bring to client projects to ensure that if you change a dimension later, the model adapts rather than breaks.

The "Self-Taught" Advantage

I am often asked about my background. I am self-taught, and I wear that as a badge of honour.

In a university setting, you learn a syllabus that was written five years ago. In the self-taught world, the syllabus is written by the problems you face today.

My "education" has not come from a lecture hall; it has come from the shop floor, from broken prototypes, and from the relentless pursuit of "why doesn't this fit?" When you teach yourself, you do not just learn how to use the software; you learn how to troubleshoot it.

This curiosity is what drives Axis and Datums. I do not wait for a certification board to tell me I need to learn about new tolerance standards or cloud-based version control. I go out, I build a Dakar truck in CAD, I fail, I fix it, and I master it.

The Axis and Datums Promise

So, what does this mean for you?

It means that in 2026, you are partnering with a consultancy that is fully focused, commercially transparent, and technically rigorous.

• For the Start-ups: We will bridge the gap between your prototype idea and a factory-ready file.
• For the Restorers: We will take your broken, obsolete parts and reverse-engineer them into clean, machinable data.
• For the Workshops: We will provide the documentation you need to keep your spindles turning.

We are not just drawing lines. We are defining the datums that your business is built on.

Here is to a precise and productive 2026.

Please fill out my quick form if you have your own project