Don’t you need metal for some tools?
You brought up a question I have about the rage about 3D printing. Only in a virtual world with metrosexuals that really don’t do any hard work, PLASTIC is only good for toys and fake flowers.
Oh heck this is probably as good as the Ruski or Chinese metal tools they have on-board.
You can do metal with 3-d printers. Sintering and curing.
Most of the time. In this case I'm guessing it was more of a hard to reach or awkward location than a high torque application.
But no one said the technology is complete or fully evolved. The point of this story is the concept. Consider that they sent him a plastic wrench via email, and then think of the typical tractor-feed, dot-matrix printer of 25 years ago compared to the quality/size/price today's full color laser jets.