Day 85: The Tevo tarantula

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 85: The Tevo tarantula

Dieter brought a tarantula into the house. Not a tarantula spider (I wouldn’t allow him to set foot in the house with that big hairy monster), no a Tevo tarantula.

Are you familiar with the Tevo tarantula? For the uninitiated, the Tevo tarantula is a 3D printer. If the name didn’t immediately ring a bell, don’t worry, you’re not the only one.

Dieter ordered it online, received it at work, and when he boarded the subway with the box quite a few people looked at it with more than a little suspicion. Some even moved a safe distance away.

When he came home with the box, bearing a giant spider on the lid, I looked at it with suspicion too. 

“Don’t worry, it’s not what you’re thinking,” Dieter said. Was I thinking that he had brought home a tarantula? Of course not, he’s just as horrified by spiders as I am. The question was though … what had he brought home?

“It’s a printer,” he said. “A 3D printer.”

“Ah.”

“I’m gonna build it.”

“Oh.”

What I really thought was ‘oh-oh’. Dieter building an electronic device … I feared the worst. When things go wrong, Dieter tends to resort to … shall we say colorful language.

When he got started, I saw things coming out of that box that I thought ‘what on earth is that?’ While I didn’t have a clue, Dieter seemed to know what to do though and with the help of a manual, the printer slowly but surely took shape.

When it was finished we faced the moment of truth … would it work? The machine was fed a length of PLA (polylactic acid) filament, the power was switched on and … it worked, the machine actually worked. The nozzle kept going back and forth and from side to side, and we were both intently staring at it like parents would gaze at their newborn baby.

No sooner was the machine built or Dieter started talking about upgrades. This could be better and that should be replaced and rather than buying parts, every modification was printed on the Tevo.

Today, about a week later, the soft hum of the Tevo tarantula has become a familiar sound. So far it produced various sizes of testing calibration cubes, a reel support, and brackets.

Once all the modifications are complete, Dieter will start printing other stuff, who knows what. Personally, I don’t care what he prints as long as it isn’t a tarantula.

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