3D Printers as preps...

[LowKey]

Quite a few months back I picked up an Ender 5 Plus 3D printer.

Now, I have absolutely not been making the most use of it.
I'm a monkey with a mouse, at this point.
But I have made some nifty stuff with it.
Adapters for Sawyer water filters to standard water bottles.
Gizmos for canning and vacuum sealing.
And replacement parts for stuff I had but could no longer find online.

Mind you, I don't know CAD.  None of the files I printed were made by myself, I downloaded them from sites where kind souls had posted them for others to make use of.

I've also looked into how one might make filament (to use in printing) at "home".
The equipment, either purchased or home brewed,  is within the $200-400 range, easily.  And you could "recycle"PETG and other plastics into filament that you could then use to print needed objects. Recycling, real recycling rather than shipping to China and have it dumped in a landfill.   AND you get a PAW viable resource (as long as you can make electrical current).

So, who else has a 3D printer, and what have you done with it?
How have you incorporated it into your preps?
And please be smarter than I and tell me what else we could do with it.
Maybe even start an .stl file repository here, somehow?

[EBuff75]

A friend of mine is the only person I know who has one and he mainly uses it to print trinkets / toys to amuse himself and his kids (articulated dragon, funny light switch covers, etc.).  He did use it to print a replacement screw once, but that was obviously for a non-stressed / non-load-bearing use.  Again, he mainly did it for his own amusement, and to avoid a trip to the hardware store for an actual replacement part.

And because he loves finding technological solutions, he also has a webcam aimed at the printer and the printer is plugged into an internet-enabled outlet.  That allows him to monitor print jobs when he's not home and kill them remotely if they go wrong.

[Mr. E. Monkey]

I'm a monkey with a mouse, at this point.

And just what in the hell is that supposed to mean?