&quot;But with plastics you can usually only repair broken plastic parts - maybe you shouldn&#x27;t have bought a cheap plastic thing that breaks down fast in the first place.&quot;<p>That&#x27;s what I believed when I started. But you can &quot;print&quot; a CNC machine and make pieces in aluminum, copper or bronze.<p>I do it routinely. The CNC uses very similar components to the 3d printer.<p>In fact, you are not printing lots of metal components, like the steel bars. But those things are commodities and incredibly inexpensive.<p>The best thing you can do is find a maker community so you don&#x27;t need to have all the tools yourself, but can share it. My CNC is not in my house, but in a maker space. I only use it for like 5% of the time. Giving it away I can use other&#x27;s people tools(and expertise) for free.