I might have been too negative, but only by a hair. FDM printers do have their uses, but it&#x27;s a very niche technology that is difficult and time-consuming to learn. Lots of really cheap and easy fabrication methods are almost totally ignored by the maker community, while 3D printing is put forward as the glimmering future of manufacturing.<p>Your story is very positive, but it falls a long way short of justifying the purchase of an expensive machine and the investment of many days of effort in learning how to use it. How many people have a burning need to produce hundreds of dollars worth of spare parts for toys?<p>&gt;the materials science is an obstacle made of tissue paper- as in, we&#x27;re already blowing through it handily. I don&#x27;t know what you&#x27;re printing with<p>I&#x27;ve seen test results from the absolute best case scenario - professionally designed parts printed on a $200k Stratasys machine using ULTEM 1010. The material properties just about match injection molded ABS. Parts made on consumer machines using ABS or PLA filament are generally an order of magnitude worse.