Working with plastic.

 

I've made mention of the poor little 3D printer pumping out parts all day without complaint, although the filament it's using doesn't like the humidity particularly either, and the ambient temperatures do create a challenge from time to time, so in that sense it almost seems to be a living thing.

When one of us is asked "what do you print", most often he lapses into that rarest of conditions; "lost for words" relying on the other to fill in.  She has a well-practiced speech which begins with the word "everything" and ends exactly where it began.  When there are no gaps in a one word sentence, there's no need to fill them.

We continue to be amazed at the opportunities the machine provides to make stuff that doesn't exist, to modify stuff that does, or simply to create a bracket or jig in less time than it would take to drive to the hardware shop to buy one and at far less cost.

There are hundreds of custom made parts in the van, perhaps the most obvious at present (if you don't count the dashboard parts) are the luggage racks which will comprise more than a hundred individual bits when full assembled, but they are the least of them, and what's visible in the photo accounts for a tiny fraction of the project components.   Over the next couple of days a quite large collection of drawer trims, vent grilles, plumbing parts and cover strips will miraculously appear to add the finishing touches, while the machine rattles away day and night without complaint.

Welcome to the 21st century people!