Whether you have that option or not, aluminum extrusion beams provide the structure we need to go bigger and to do it quickly.
Those of us lucky enough to have nice workshops can turn to woodworking, welding, or metal machining for larger projects. But usually a larger project also places higher structural demands ill-suited to plastic. Depending on the nature of the project, it may be possible to divide into pieces then glue them together. Work long enough with 3D printers, and our ideas inevitably grow beyond our print volume. I have been developing a few simple tricks to make generic fasteners and printed connectors a perfect match for aluminum extrusion, via a novel twist or two on top of techniques you may already know. This becomes especially powerful when you combine 3D printing with existing materials. The real power of 3D printing is in infinite customization of parts.
