Print a new crescent wrench in your RV

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September 2, 2012

By Bob Difley

In high school I took a date to see the 3-D movie House of Wax with Vincent Price, one of the scariest actors around then. Axes and other lethal devices hurled at us from the screen, so real we all ducked and screamed and my date clung to me like I was the hero that would save her. That’s the part I liked.

The 3-D movies have changed quite a bit since then, but it’s still all a visual and not real image that appears coming at you. But if you talk 3-D in financial circles, it’s about 3-D printers. This is the next big thing that will change how we design, build prototypes, and manufacture just about anything.

It sounds like science fiction, a printer sitting on your desk that will print out a fully operable crescent wrench while you surf the web or have lunch. But i’ts for real. Except for one tiny factor. The first 3-D printers cost in the 10s of thousands of dollars, a figure that your RVer budget might not cover. But that was last year.

As things happen in the technical sphere, the more popular or acceptable a new technology becomes, the lower and faster it’s price drops. And in the case of 3-D printers, the drop is precipitous. You can now find the low end printers for $1,000. But it’s still a lot less expensive to pop out to Ace Hardware and buy a new crescent wrench than print one.

But wait. Just like zippers, cell phones, smart phones, tablet computers, and a host of other things that are now commonplace, 3-D printing will someday be there too–it’s not just conceptual, it is for real. Take for instance the latest accomplishment by 3-D geeks, a group of Belgian students that printed out parts of a race car. From design through assembly it took only three weeks and they have now raced it in Germany.

So what does this have to do with RVing. Nothing right now, except to see what is to come. Soon every RV will carry a 3-D printer on board, download designs and software for just about anything from the internet, order the required materials from Amazon, and then make their own stuff as needed. Need a solenoid for your furnace, print it. Need a new TV antenna because you just knocked the other one off your roof, print it. Want to add a solar panel to your system, print it.

Fantasy? Many scientists say not. Wouldn’t that be cool to be sitting out in the middle of a forest boondocking by a stream and you print out a fishing rod and reel–and the frying pan too to cook up your catch. You can read more about 3-D printing at Make Use Of, the racing car at Energy and Capital, and from Public Knowledge. You can also read about it at Wikipedia.

For more RVing articles and tips take a look at my Healthy RV Lifestyle website, where you will also find my ebooks: BOONDOCKING: Finding the Perfect Campsite on America’s Public Lands (PDF or Kindle), 111 Ways to Get the Biggest Bang for your RV Lifestyle Buck and Snowbird Guide to Boondocking in the Southwestern Deserts and my newest, The RV Lifestyle: Reflections of Life on the Road. NOTE: Use the Kindle version to read on iPad and iPhone or any device that has the free Kindle reader app.